BMS World Mission

Peru

Stats
Region: Americas
Capital: Lima
Area: 1,285,220 sq km
Population: 28,674,757 (est July 2007)
Languages: Spanish, Quechua, Aymara, other Amazonian languages
Religions: Roman Catholicism, Protestantism
Life expectancy: 70.14 (est 2007)
Population below poverty line: 54% (est 2003)

Peru

Info
Peru is a country of contrasts from the tropical Amazonian through the snow-covered Andean mountains to dry desert. It is in the urban areas that the Baptist Church is most limited. About half the population of Peru is of Quechua Indian origin. This large indigenous presence has preserved not only the Quechua and Aymara languages, but also a strong animistic strand within the traditional Roman Catholic spirituality of the country.

BMS World Mission is partnering with the Peruvian Baptist Convention in the areas of holistic mission to deprived urban communities and in lay mission leader training, to strengthen the mission witness of their 160 churches. Margaret Swires, a BMS long-term worker, is involved in this work in Lima.