Pioneers, Peru

The Wiests are in Peru with a mission called Pioneers to partner with local tribal leaders to reach the Ashéninka people in the Amazon jungle of Peru.  Their strategy is to empower and equip mature tribal Christians to make disciples and establish churches among the approximately 100 unreached villages and homesteads of the Asheninka people.

They seek to use local resources and reproducible practices to help the believers to rise up and carry on the ministry in a sustainable way and effectively reach their own people.  One example of this is to use audio bibles, as the people are functionally illiterate and oral learners.  Their heart is to train trainers – that every leader who is trained may be able to go on and train others in community transformation.

The Wiests are also strategically networking with churches and leaders in Peru and throughout Central and South America, using sports ministry strategies such as KidsGames and others.  Janet is currently serving on the global strategy team of the sports  movement, working on teams with people from every continent to train and mentor new leaders, to form new teams in areas where the movement has not gone, to help start new sports ministry multiply schools, to write new curriculum for the movement, and to develop new strategies.