A Spiritual Revival Underway in Peru

Lima, Peru, is home to eight million people and a third of them live in extreme poverty.

But despite its problems, there is reason for hope. Peru is on the brink of a Christian revival.

I met a group of recovering drug addicts. Some of them arrived in Lima only days ago. They were given a bath, new clothes, and a head-shave to get rid of lice, but changing the outside is the easy part.

Changing their behavior after years of abusing drugs, stealing and living on the streets is the real challenge.

The change process really begins on the street, when these men decided to ask for help, and now, as they begin to reprogram their minds with Bible principles.

Cesar Matta and his co-workers run a drug rehabilitation center and they know the program works. They've been through it themselves.

"I was about to enter the insane asylum," said Matta director of the Victory Center. "They told me I was beyond hope. Then I desperately began looking for a solution. Someone preached the gospel to me and I received Christ. But the power of seeing an addict changed is what I've witnessed here in victory center."

The effectiveness of this rehab program has drawn the support of Operation Blessing International, whose founder, Pat Robertson, visited the center last week.

But beyond the problem of drug addiction, Peru faces other major challenges.

Among the problems keeping so many Peruvians in poverty is the lack of energy and the illness produced by intestinal parasites. Some studies report that over 60 percent of the population of Peru is infected.

That's why the government is encouraging an evangelical initiative that treats the nation's children with Albendezole, a powerful anti-parasite medication. This weekend, two million children are getting their medicine thanks in part to Operation Blessing and an alliance of thousands of churches.

"What's happening here is happening simultaneously in 25 states of Peru," said Robert Barringer of Camino del Vida Church. "From the Amazon jungles to the high Andes mountains across the nation, this is happening all over the place. Two-thousand churches are gathering thousands of people and each church is hearing The Gospel. They have doctors there sharing health issues and the kids are getting treated."

While distributing medication and supporting the efforts of Peruvian Christians to eliminate the causes of poverty, Robertson was surprised by another series of hopeful developments.

"I had no conception of how they're on the brink of spiritual revival," said Robertson. "I didn't realize that the president had accepted Jesus. I didn't realize that the President of the Congress is an evangelical. I didn't realize how many people here are following the Lord. Last night we had a huge crowd in the soccer stadium and there were thousands and thousands who gave their hearts to Jesus."

The one-night evangelistic rally filled Lima's national stadium.

Robertson is no stranger to Peru. Last year his ministry recorded nearly two million conversions to Christ through a nation-wide media campaign.

"Peru is one of the fastest-growing churches in all of Latin America," said Barringer. "When we first arrived here it was less than one percent born-again Christians. Today we're over 17, 17.5 percent born-again Christians. And it's evident in all levels of society. It's evident in Congress where we're seeing representatives, mayors elected that are now Christian. So we believe the future of this country is better than the past."

As Peru's evangelicals respond to both the physical and spiritual needs of the country's neediest people, they're convinced they are building a better tomorrow for this South American nation.