Every Sunday morning, more than 200 people gather under tents on a rented school yard in the Sol de La Molina valley of Lima.
They come to worship, hear the word, and be together as a church.
Vida Nueva Church, pastored by ABWE missionary Steve Frerichs, has never had a building of its own. It has grown anyway. The church has been growing since 2011 and has planted two daughter congregations—the first in 2014 and the second in 2016—with another church plant planned for 2027. Since 2023 alone, 35 people have been baptized.
They call themselves “a family of families.” Their aim is simple: to reach more people and become more like Jesus.
Let me give you one picture of what that looks like.
Wilber and Elizabeth moved into the neighborhood in 2023. Elizabeth was looking for a church when, walking down a street near the church, she met a member of Vida Nueva who invited her to a service.
That invitation changed a family. Wilber, Elizabeth, and all four of their grown children came to faith in Christ. Today Wilber is preparing for pastoral ministry and growing toward future opportunities to serve and lead.
But Vida Nueva has outgrown the spaces it borrows. The church meets outdoors in two rented locations and gathers in homes for weekly Bible studies, counseling, and leadership training—each event running into the same problem: there is no space.
The church has been granted a two-year extension to keep using its Sunday morning location, though the agreement has not yet been signed. They want to use that window well to prepare for the future. The property the church first hoped to buy sold before the church could raise funds, and comparable land in the valley now runs close to $1 million.
So Vida Nueva is asking God to provide a permanent home in Sol de La Molina, a property the church can use for ministry all week long, not only on Sundays. Their vision is to launch a church planting movement in Lima—a city of 12 million people—that sustains a missions sending movement to the world.
The first phase will cost $1 million. That will purchase the land and cover the permits needed to make it ministry-ready. Once the land is secured, the church can move the 16 tents it sets up each week onto its own ground, stop paying rent, and begin raising funds to build.
The believers in Lima are leading the way. The congregation has already given more than $110,000 of its own money. Together with partners in the US and Canada, roughly $140,000 has been raised so far.
Give today to help Vida Nueva secure a permanent home—so a church that is reaching its community for Jesus never has to stop.
