Josué and Rachel Ahuite have been working in the missionary field since they were merely children themselves. The two were married in February 2009 and have since become a formidable pair in improving the lives and spreading God’s Word to children and families in Iquitos, Peru, through their fledgling organization, Seeds of Love.

Iquitos is a city, in the middle of the Peruvian rainforest, with a population approaching 400,000. The Ahuite’s have a huge battle ahead of them; one-third of the children of Iquitos suffer from hunger, one-quarter from malnutrition, and only one in five children are literate. Here are the tools the Ahuite’s bring to the table and how they are and plan to use them with Seeds of Love.

Rachel, a native of Kentucky, began her mission work at age 12, teaching children’s clubs with Child Evangelism Fellowship and working with at-risk youth alongside her father. After graduating from college with a degree in education, she completed Youth With a Mission’s (YWAM) Discipleship Training School in Leticia, Colombia in 2005 (where she met Josué). She then worked with YWAM Iquitos for a year. She received a master’s degree in English as a second language in the US. After completion of her master’s degree in English as a Second Language, she returned to Iquitos to work with Josué.

Josué, from Iquitos started working in missions at age 17, traveling to river villages with his father, a local pastor. Upon completing YWAM’s Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Cartagena, Colombia in 2003, Josué worked for 3 ½ years with YWAM in Leticia, Colombia, teaching children in river villages, doing maintenance and accounting for the base, and helping with evangelistic events, especially in the logistics and children’s events. He returned to Iquitos to study accounting and graduated in 2007. At that time, he joined with a fellow missionary, who has a local ministry, where he began several children’s clubs, planning the logistics for mission trips both to Iquitos and outlying villages, and acts as the ministry’s accountant.

After their marriage, the couple bought property in May 2009 and have started construction of a children’s home on the site. The home, called Seeds of Love, will be a place where children can spend their after-school hours doing homework, taking classes (cooking, construction, English, etc), playing, and learning about God; some will be live in the home. It will be a safe environment - offering food, health resources, education, and love and encouraging the children to know God, to grow spiritually, and to become ministers of the Gospel.

Although they are actively building the home and bringing God to the children now, the plans the Ahuite’s have for their ministry are grand. Here are just a few of their goals:

• Open a children’s center “Seeds of Love” in Upper Belen

• In the back yard, have a soccer field, jungle gym, fruit trees, and a vegetable garden

• Invite more neighborhood children into the Children’s Club; share the Good News and invite them to have a personal relationship with God

• Have weekly Bible studies, prayer and worship meetings, and discipleship programs for boys and girls, including poetry for inner healing, interpersonal relationships, and moral values

• Take river trips to minister to children in the villages

• Take our ministry children to the river villages to evangelize through dramatizations of Bible stories

• Evangelize in the marketplace in Lower Belen (a very poor neighborhood on the River); open a Club for regular ministry

• Organize children’s events several times a year on a large-scale to evangelize throughout the city

• Have mission trips from the US to help with construction, house needs (painting, cooking), and VBS, workshops, etc.

• Visit the children at their homes and invite the parents to come to church

• Partner with the local church to involve the parents, to raise money to pay for electricity and water, and to organize events (soccer games, cookouts)

• Open a dining hall to offer lunch every day, for a small donation

• Open a clothes and food closet, for a small donation

• Have a study hall; tutor Spanish literacy, English, mathematics and logic, and arts and crafts; offer workshops, games (ping-pong, board games), computers, and books

• Offer job training workshops and job opportunities; encourage high school and college graduation

• For parents, offer parental classes/ Bible study, also workshops in sewing, beautician training, hand crafts, First Aid, health, technology, etc.

• Have weekly church sessions specifically for children

• Prayerfully select children to live in the home long-term

• Match a sponsor with a child, to provide clothes, food, medicine, and education

• Open an elementary school for low-income/ at-risk children

• Open more children’s centers in other parts of Iquitos led by Iquitos staff

Mission trips from Kentucky and the United States have already been taking place, as have sponsorships of children. According to Rachel, the cost of the goods, services and materials needed to sponsor one child for one year is relatively minor, $250. That amount will feed, clothe, provide medical care and education for a child.

God is working in these two young people and in their young organization. If you would like to learn more about the Ahuite’s and Seeds of Love, visit their website or contact them at the following address: PO Box 331, Iquitos, Peru.

This post was sponsored by Creative Memories, Renee Wolfe-Smith, Independent Representative.