It’s 6:30 on a Friday morning. Julio Mamani and six "Acts 29"co-workers rub the sleep from their eyes, pack food and gear into their Toyota Jeep, and head up into the Andes mountains. After about three hours of climbing, they come to a “T” in the road, marked by a large wooden cross.

Here they could turn right, which would take them to the mountainside home where Julio spent the first eighteen years of his life. He grew up, like most mountain Quechuas, farming potatoes by hand on a steep 40 by 40 foot plot. His relatives are still there, but a family reunion is not in Julio’s plans for today. Instead they turn to the left.

Three more hours of high-risk driving take them to their destination, a village where there are several new Christian believers. Radio Mosoj Chaski has already notified them that Julio and his team are coming. The visitors rig a plastic tarpaulin as a lean-to against the outside wall of a small home; it will be bitterly cold by the time the evening service begins, and the plastic will at least shield the worshipers from the wind. A generator will make it possible to show the JESUS film in the Quechua language.

With their loudspeaker mounted on the roof of their vehicle, some of the team members drive through the community announcing that the first service of the weekend campaign will begin at sundown. Singing, Bible teaching, and Christian videos go on until after 2:00 a.m. Barefoot children run around excitedly—-even after the temperature drops below freezing.

Finally the guests head home, and the team gets a bit of rest before a busy Saturday of discipling the leaders of the church. Another service on Saturday evening brings the crowds back, and then on Sunday more than 250 come for a day of celebration, baptisms, teaching, and worship. By the end of the day, a dozen more believers have been added to the church.

Julio and his Acts 29 teammates drive carefully back down the mountain on Monday morning. Dark clouds overhead announce that the rainy season has arrived. It will be nearly a half year before that road is again passable. They can only ask the Holy Spirit to teach these new believers, to fill them with Christ’s love, and to guard them against being pulled back into the drunken habits of their culture.

Peter Gale, a “missionary kid” from Australia, started the Acts 29 ministry several years ago. Christians in SIM sending countries donated Jeeps and electrical equipment for the team. After Peter left it was my privilege to encourage and mentor Julio, and now Acts 29 is flourishing under his leadership. Quechuan Christians are serving as missionaries to the mountain Quechua who are still waiting to be reached with the gospel.