To The Heights

Our family returned to Peru in the middle of February, and we hit the ground running as soon as we arrived. Last year, we began a beautiful mission, sharing our family’s love of board games with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Over time, as word spread in the community, our Peruvian friends started showing up at our house to play games.

Within a few months, the group of five young people had grown to 15–20 young people coming to our house to play games and share in fellowship. We quickly realized that our small house was no longer big enough to host these events.

We prayed for God’s guidance, and within a matter of days, a business location around the corner from our house became available for lease. Taking a giant leap of faith, we decided to rent the place and turn it into a ministry center and board game cafe. We opened the location in February, and God continues to bless us by sending new people to our cafe on a daily basis. It is amazing how God will bless your “yes” when you step out in faith and trust Him.

This new ministry center, Las Alturas, has been such a gift for our ministries and for our family. It is nice to have a place separate from our house to host all of the ministries, as well as a place for our community to gather. 

The name Las Alturas was inspired by Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati’s motto “to the heights.” When I explain the name to the Peruvians, I always ask them, “What’s the highest place you can hope to go?” 

The answer is heaven! We hope that through God’s great goodness and our little ministries, we are able to lead His people closer to heaven, our final home!

The Chosen series has become part of our Friday gatherings. We begin with prayer, then after each episode, we have a discussion. We typically close the night with board games or karaoke. 

A young woman named Katia came to our group for the first time about two months ago. After watching an episode of The Chosen, she began to share a part of her testimony, though she soon became too ashamed to talk and just began to cry. But she has continued to come back week after week and is growing in her relationship with Jesus.

In season two, episode six of The Chosen, Jesus is speaking to Mary Magdalene, who is completely ashamed of herself after partaking in a night of sin. Jesus says to Mary, “I just want your heart…. Look up. Look at me…. I forgive you. It’s over.”

Jesus repeatedly tells her to “look up,” to encounter His loving and merciful face, and He immediately forgives her and embraces her.

After watching this episode, Katia shared that she related so much to Mary Magdalene, especially in the line quoted above. Katia said she is so grateful to God for his mercy and for giving her another chance at happiness and healing.

We are so humbled by Katia’s testimony and all the ways that God continues to use our family to bring his love, mercy, and healing to the people of Peru.