Our strategy contains a period of time devoted to felt-needs research, in order to let Arequipeños tell us what would best serve them. Based on this data, we plan to formulate an initial developmental program that attempts to meet one of those needs in a sustainable way. This means that we have to learn how to do legitimate urban research, which has its own learning curve. All in all, we have a very slow ramp up to a large-scale, labor-intensive project before we ever get to the actual first developmental project, which we will also have to learn to do as we go.
"Divine Contacts" Revisited
After our team’s first research trip to Arequipa I wrote an article about ‘Divine Contacts’ that had been made. So much has happened that I think this concept needs revisiting. Entering the “mission field” of Arequipa we felt very confident that we were supposed to be here. We had signs point to a ripening field for harvest in the city and we experienced God’s love and provision through our supporters in the states. Even still I think there has always been a few questions about how things would get started. We have our five year plan mapped out with reachable goals (with God’s help), so you can say we came prepared. A few signs of affirmation never hurt though.