In the Fall of 2004, our DTS spent their 4 weeks of overseas outreach in Peru where they established many connections and friendships. That November, 8,000 people made decisions to follow Jesus. The following summer, being so moved by all that God was doing in Peru, our Joshua Generation returned and saw over 9,000 people make the same decision. That summer God spoke to Doug Tunney Sr. to fill a great need the Peruvian young people had: training and practice. He announced we were coming back and this time, for the young people.

At that time, there were no widely known “summer outreaches” for the youth. The local church youth group didn’t have these kinds of trips available like ours normally do. No one was going to Mexico. No one was going to Colombia. No one was going. Who will train these youth to share their faith? Who will take them out? God spoke and we answered, “We will Lord.”

So began “Generacion Josue” (that’s “Joshua Generation” in Spanish). The next year in January, the start of the summer break for the southern hemisphere, the first GJ was run. Partnering with YWAM Iquitos and other local church members in the capitol city of Lima, we trained the 32 youth for 8 days and took two teams throughout Lima and another 8 hours by bus to the mountainous regions of Huaraz.

That summer, the Peruvian youth led 4,761 of their own people to the Lord.

They were equipped with a bright new passion to see souls won to the Kingdom of Heaven. When GJ ended, they started creating dances and training new actors for the dramas they’d learned. They started doing outreaches together and seeing results. 

Since 2006, we have run 4 Generacion Josues and seen over 150 Peruvian students and staff lead 18,953 people to the Lord. Many GJers have gone on to do DTSes and a handful have come to Pittsburgh to do so. 

Two of those Peruvians are sister and brother Ana & Cesar Ausejo. After working with us for some time, they returned to Peru and are starting a great work in Lima, their hometown. This past January the reins were handed off to the Ausejos and they ran the program (now renamed “Materia Prima”) with the help of their Peruvian friends. It was the fulfillment of our dream. To see people trained to lead and to continue the work God so carefully placed in our hearts. They plan on continuing this program each summer.

Visit Ana’s blog to read about Materia Prima’s January outreach.

While YWAM in Peru continues run the summer program, we continue to take American teams down to Peru for outreach around the year and continue to see a great harvest. A couple of our staff even took 14 Peruvian youth to Colombia for outreach last year. If you are interested in joining us for any of our upcoming trips (dates TBA), please contact us. May the Lord burden your heart alike for the Peruvian people.