The BBC has an article about the suffering citizens went through during the struggle between the Peruvian government and the Maoist rebel group Shining Path.

The article talks about a particular valley outside of Ayacucho, Peru where bodies of civilians were dumped by soldiers who were supposed to be protecting them. Ayacucho is where I went for three weeks during the summer of 2007. While traveling around the mountains it was not uncommon to have someone point to one of the passing valleys and say, “There were bodies dumped there.” Some by the Shining Path, others by government forces.

The bloodiest periods of violence are long over now but the memory remains a deep wound for the people. All the more troubling was the rise of new Maoist groups that want to return to the ways of the Shining Path. It seems unlikely that they would ever rise to that level of power but it is not impossible.

Pray for the believers in Peru who continue to minister to those displaced by the violence. While in Ayacucho I stayed in a home on the edge of a large shanty town. The shanty area formed by people who fled to Ayacucho seeking safety in numbers. Many of them left everything while seeking safety. Pray that they and all others in Peru would hear and respond to the gospel.

Below is a video I put together after my trip. I’ve posted it before, but that post is no longer around.