7
Villages Served
1,400+
Children & Teens
2015
Census Year
What is “LAMA la Misión” All About?
We get a lot of questions about what we do here at the mission. This overview gives you a dynamic snapshot of our day-to-day work—ever changing, but grounded in service.
Quick Resources:
Our Mission Work
To speak specifically about “la Misión” (simply Spanish for “the Mission”), let us give you some idea of what we do here.
We encourage working with outside churches to bring missionaries to these villages. We have had churches come down for a week or two, individuals and families come for weeks or 1 to 3 months, and some for a year or more.
We encourage working with outside churches to bring missionaries to these villages. We have had churches come down for a week or two, individuals and families come for weeks or 1 to 3 months, and some for a year or more.
We strongly encourage people who wish to do mission work to commit to this area for 1-5 years. Our mission is equipped for both short and long-term mission visits.
Find Us in Ica, Peru
Serving the southern coastal region communities.
Travel Logistics
25 Minutes to La Misión
We are located in the village of El Carmen, San Juan Bautista, about 25 minutes (11.6 km) from downtown Ica.
Option 1: Taxi from Ica
Easiest Option
Of course, like most people that come down from Lima by bus, you would be using this first set of directions after you get to the bus terminal in Ica, and in discussion with a local taxi for your short ride north.
Cost: ~15-25 Soles ($4.50-$7 USD)
Time: 20-26 Minutes
Note: Rates vary by time/holiday
Option 1b: Shuttle (Colectivo)
Budget / Adventure
If you’re on a budget and happy to save on taxi fares, this is a simple option, especially for solo travelers or backpackers with light luggage.
Ica has inexpensive shared shuttles called collectivos that run point-to-point from the city center. To use them, you need to get to the correct pickup point.
From the bus terminal, walk or take a short ride about 10 minutes to the Plaza de Armas (Ica’s central plaza, just a few blocks away). From the Plaza, take the right-most northbound road, Calle Callao.
Walk north for about 2 blocks. On the west side of the road, you’ll find collectivo pickup points. This route goes to El Olivos, with El Carmen as the stop just before it.
Ica has inexpensive shared shuttles called collectivos that run point-to-point from the city center. To use them, you need to get to the correct pickup point.
From the bus terminal, walk or take a short ride about 10 minutes to the Plaza de Armas (Ica’s central plaza, just a few blocks away). From the Plaza, take the right-most northbound road, Calle Callao.
Walk north for about 2 blocks. On the west side of the road, you’ll find collectivo pickup points. This route goes to El Olivos, with El Carmen as the stop just before it.
Listen for caller phrase:
“Carmen Olivos, Carmen Olivos!”
“Carmen Olivos, Carmen Olivos!”
Cost: S./4 – S./5 (~$1.15 USD)
Stop: El Carmen (one stop before Olivos)
Option 2: Driving from North
From Lima/Pisco
Of course if you are coming from the north (Lima, Pisco, Paracus) in your own transportation, you may want to find your way to the Mission without having to go to the city center in Ica first.
Take the Pan American Highway south and exit at Guadalupe. This route runs by the Mission area to the west.
Take the Pan American Highway south and exit at Guadalupe. This route runs by the Mission area to the west.
| LOCATION (* ESTIMATED) |
AGES 2–12 |
AGES 13–18* |
TOTAL* |
|---|---|---|---|
|
El Carmen, San Pedro, Invacion, Altura |
450 | 200 | 650 |
| El Olivos * | 350 | 150 | 500 |
| Quilloay * | 100 | 50 | 150 |
| San Juan Bautista * | 550 | 300 | 850 |
| Total * | 1,450 | 700 | 2,150 |
Of the above mentioned 7 villages that we visit:
- Of the above mentioned 7 villages that we visit:
- El Carmen (where “la Misión“ is located)
- Invacion (which is immediately next door, where we have had on and off home bible studies)
- San Pedro (only village that is a gravel road walk away but closest to “Cristo Blanco“)
- El Olivo (to our north, a large very active with children village)
- Altura (closest to our north and where the clinic is located)
- Quilloay, our newest location to our south about 4 kilometers
- San Juan Bautista, a large village, by request of the mayor, that is 7 kilometers south of the mission. (we need to take a car ride to get to both of the last two sites).
Focus on Children & Villages
Our primary focus is evangelizing with the children, and also their family needs. We teach them God’s love via drama, exercise, music, dance, sports, arts & crafts, and more. We have a tremendous number of children that we work with in the surrounding villages.
- The local government helped us do a census in 2015 and we initially came up with about 450 children between the ages of 2 to 12 in 4 of the villages. The census did not cover Olivos, the large village to our north, where we estimated another 350+.
- The local government has been encouraging us (with facilities and contacts) to also work in San Juan Bautista (a short car ride south of us, about 7 kilometers) and we have been doing so since 2017.
- We also added Quilloay, a small occupation area just before we get to San Juan. These two areas add easily another 650 children (ages 2-12) to our total.
- We estimate that we also have 5 to 700 teenagers in same geographic distance to mission.
Samaritan’s Purse & AWANA
We had 160 children in 2017, and 200 children in 2018. From that program, where you are required to give the shoebox out at the beginning, we had great follow-through with the 12 weeks of ‘Gran Aventura” training which followed, with graduates of 40 & 60 respectively.
In 2019, our 3rd year, we had a lot of teaching material left but no shoeboxes since Samaritan Purse wasn’t in our area. So, we put together our own shoeboxes of gifts. God was with us since he had one missionary bring us a dozen soccer balls, two other young missionaries from opposite sides of Canada, brought us a lot of school supplies. A church group from Illinois brought us a suitcase full of stuffed animals. God provided. We also, being in full control, changed the program to give the shoebox at the end of the training and we had a far better graduate percentage with 40 of our 50 students. God was really blessing us.
In 2019, our 3rd year, we had a lot of teaching material left but no shoeboxes since Samaritan Purse wasn’t in our area. So, we put together our own shoeboxes of gifts. God was with us since he had one missionary bring us a dozen soccer balls, two other young missionaries from opposite sides of Canada, brought us a lot of school supplies. A church group from Illinois brought us a suitcase full of stuffed animals. God provided. We also, being in full control, changed the program to give the shoebox at the end of the training and we had a far better graduate percentage with 40 of our 50 students. God was really blessing us.
- In 2022, we had our 4th year, starting with 60 children, and are already signed up for 2023 (our 5th year!).
- We ran AWANA (OANSA in spanish) programs for ages 2 to 12 for two years, and followed with a year of a home grown Bible School similarly modeled, all before we adopted the Samaritans Purse training. We have just received training for an OANSA teen program to teach. We hope to start a teen center on the 3rd floor very soon (bought a foosball table! looking for air hockey next).
- We have other Vacation Bible School teaching material that we are also working with.
Education and Sports Opportunities
In language, music, school studies, prep school work, reading, computer skills, sports and more. Most of these children get a basic schooling in a government school nearby and few have any more opportunities in front of them other than to default into labor work on farms near by. If you have teaching skills, we have the children that you can work with.
Kids love to play soccer, basketball or volleyball with visiting missionaries. With a new Venezuelan resident pastor, and a 2019 gift from a USA church, we are introducing baseball to the youth. (Didn’t know that baseball was popular in Venezuela and basically unknown in the rest of South America!) The children are really enjoying it but again we are ‘staff challenged’ in working with the hundreds of children that we have interest in what we can do.
Most of these children grow up with a wrongful image of life, since both parents usually work and a large number of children are home alone most of the time. Mothers nurture but are home one day per week, fathers are gone and home once a week but often out drinking with other fathers. We seek to provide the children a second home, a safe environment.
Most of these children grow up with a wrongful image of life, since both parents usually work and a large number of children are home alone most of the time. Mothers nurture but are home one day per week, fathers are gone and home once a week but often out drinking with other fathers. We seek to provide the children a second home, a safe environment.
Theatre Room
We have a completed theatre room (with surround sound audio), so they can enjoy movie night once a week. We put this audio/video equipment to use mostly for worship and teaching as well. If using videos is a key tool for your ministry efforts, we have two projector rooms and a portable projector to take on the road.
Adults
We have many cell sites for bible study (Cabildo, Altura, etc) in homes that we run during the week. Adult counseling opportunities are of great importance for the mission as well. We have had regular weekly meetings with women who have a passion for knitting and crocheting now for 4+ years. We are our first men’s retreat in 2022, and want to expand that ministry as it is greatly needed. We have had many events and unscheduled individual opportunities for couples, un-wed mothers, pregnant teens, marriage, families, etc. We are focused on bringing Christ to each and every family in the area and representing Him in all that we do.
Evangelism
In the mission or on the street is always well received. We have specific tracts printed for the Mission, and are giving them out often in the villages or in Ica as well. We have many gospels of John available, as well as new testaments and complete bibles. We desire to get a bible in every home and help them understand or implement a good study or discipleship program. Prayer walks, evangelism, getting out and meeting and inviting, teaching one on one bible, gifting bibles to hungry households who are interested. We can never do enough in these multiple ministries that are focused strongly on making disciples, and outreaching to the needy as disciples.
Homes of Hope
We have many homes that need repairs, a new wall, window, bathroom, ceiling, etc but getting into construction needs requires advanced knowledge if that is what a team desires. Here is a link on our website of our current and past projects. Here’s also a photo album of our recently completed (2019) project in Altura for a local widow. Here is a video of our earlier 2016 completed project for a single mom and two children.
We are very much in need of construction leadership and teams in this area. This is one of our three primary goals with the placement of this mission where it is. We are finding some new partners in this area and if you would like to know more, have ideas in this area, please email or call us as we would love your assistance.
We are very much in need of construction leadership and teams in this area. This is one of our three primary goals with the placement of this mission where it is. We are finding some new partners in this area and if you would like to know more, have ideas in this area, please email or call us as we would love your assistance.
Music
Music is a passion that we would love to press forward on, just recently getting a few local volunteers to help us. We have a synthesizer-keyboard (KORG), two guitars, drums, speakers, mixer, microphones, two portable PA systems and we often have different attempts at youth choir work. We have many different church friends in Ica we can use as an incentive for the children to perform after they learn and practice a song or choreography presentation. We only need a consistent leader to help. We are recently blessed with two fantastic local volunteers in this area and we pray for this ministry to grow.
Dental Hygiene & Dentistry
Is a new area for us. Monica Dunn, a blessed hygienist, came down in 2019 for 8-10 days and spent 6 of them, with a staff of two and a translator, cleaning 150 mouths. What a blessing! The local clinic who we are now having a great relationship with, was most enthusiastic and we now plan to expand on the program annually.
With the Covid crisis behind us, we are currently planning to bring multiple hygienist AND multiple dentists. We have a strong need here in these villages, and clinics who need the help to fulfill it. We are currently looking for someone to direct this ministry.
We are working to also bring equipment, working on the grant applications to acquire it. We would then keep the equipment at the mission and continue with annual visits if not two or three times per year, moving around to different clinics around the geography. This ministry has just started.
With the Covid crisis behind us, we are currently planning to bring multiple hygienist AND multiple dentists. We have a strong need here in these villages, and clinics who need the help to fulfill it. We are currently looking for someone to direct this ministry.
We are working to also bring equipment, working on the grant applications to acquire it. We would then keep the equipment at the mission and continue with annual visits if not two or three times per year, moving around to different clinics around the geography. This ministry has just started.
Medical
We just started discussions with a missionary doctors group and have had preliminary meetings in our village with both the school principles and local clinic, exploring a parasite reduction program as well as full medical team visitations.
This is still in the early stages and we were delaying due to the Corona virus pandemic but the need is great. We also would be working with local schools to help set up a parasite control program, starting hopefully soon.
This is still in the early stages and we were delaying due to the Corona virus pandemic but the need is great. We also would be working with local schools to help set up a parasite control program, starting hopefully soon.
Farming!
In 2020, during Covid, we had some time on our hands so we completed acquisition of some acres for doing some farming (that’s what they do around here) thinking that we can use this land for teaching, raising our own food, a retreat center and more. We put up a farm house, and planted some crops. It already has about 100 mango trees. We have a long way to go with this ministry as it is in its infancy but we are quite excited about where it might take us. We are strongly interested in having a couple or family reside there and make it a very active part of the overall ministry operations. Still an early work in progress, many pictures of that work.
YWAM / JuCUM
Seeing that we were doing locally, was very much in parallel with what was being done by others globally, in 2018, we joined with Youth With a Mission, having our first Discipleship Training School in 2019, followed by June 2021, 2023, 2024 & 2025. We have our hopeful 6th school scheduled for January 2026. Please check our YWAM website (YWAMica.org) for more information on this base
Different than a lot of YWAM bases, we are ALSO co-resident with a 12 month per year missionary operation, since first and foremost we are here to serve the people of the surrounding communities. By partnering with YWAM, we hope to build long term staff with the mission service as their primary purpose, but running an annual YWAM discipleship school as well. The school will help us source future staff. The children we service here love missionaries, and YWAM is a great source for many.
We are meeting and talking with a much smaller YWAM base in Pisco, up the road about an hour but closer to the ocean. They have been working with their ministry since the 2007 earthquake, and only recently had a major reduction in staff going home to Brazil, primarily due to the 2020 Covid outbreak. We are excited about the opportunities we have to combine efforts of our two sites to serve both areas, assisting each other where needed. Of course we are immediately challenged to help them build up new staff where we can, as well as build a stronger relationship with our Brazil peers who founded the Pisco base.
Different than a lot of YWAM bases, we are ALSO co-resident with a 12 month per year missionary operation, since first and foremost we are here to serve the people of the surrounding communities. By partnering with YWAM, we hope to build long term staff with the mission service as their primary purpose, but running an annual YWAM discipleship school as well. The school will help us source future staff. The children we service here love missionaries, and YWAM is a great source for many.
We are meeting and talking with a much smaller YWAM base in Pisco, up the road about an hour but closer to the ocean. They have been working with their ministry since the 2007 earthquake, and only recently had a major reduction in staff going home to Brazil, primarily due to the 2020 Covid outbreak. We are excited about the opportunities we have to combine efforts of our two sites to serve both areas, assisting each other where needed. Of course we are immediately challenged to help them build up new staff where we can, as well as build a stronger relationship with our Brazil peers who founded the Pisco base.
For more information on YWAM, use the above links. For specific info on the Discipleship Training School (DTS / EDE), please visit YWAMIca.org/DTS. This will take you to an understanding of what a DTS is and an application if you are interested in attending our next one.
Lodging
Volunteering at LaMision is no charge! We welcome all. To help with the lodging, we do have very affordable dormitories or private rooms. The Ica Mission is equipped with 2 dormitories which sleep about 14. We also have 3 futon queens, convertible classrooms into bedrooms, 12 private rooms created for longer term private staff that are available, as well as 2 new ‘mini-dorm’ bedrooms (sleeping 4 each) added in 2023. Internet is available base-wide. Short term and long term pay a modest lodging fee. Meals are also available for modest cost.
From Our Archives: Building the Vision
2014 Aug-Oct Progress
See the physical progress of the mission base during a critical growth phase in 2014. This video captures the heart and hard work that went into building the facilities we use today to serve the community.
See La Misión Come to Life
A picture is worth a thousand words. Follow us on social media for daily updates, photos of our children’s ministry, and stories from the field.
Ready to Visit or Learn More?
We welcome your inquiry and would love to answer any specific questions. Hopefully, the information above gives you a better overview of what we are all about on a daily, weekly, or current basis.
We can put you in touch with our host family if you would like to connect personally before your trip. Our US & Perú contact information is also listed.
Contact Information
WhatsApp:
English
Español
USA Phone (At Base)
Also available via:
Skype, Zoom, Facebook Messenger.
*Resident missionaries also have Peru cell phones available when in-country.
Support the mission
Ready to Make a Difference?
You can be a vital part of what God is doing in Peru. Whether through a gift or by serving with us, your support brings hope and transforms lives.