We walked up the dusty foothills of the Andes mountains in single file. Children and adults alike peered out of windows, wondering what the foreigners were doing. In fact, many of us didn’t know exactly what we were getting ourselves into. We had been asked to come up to a little wooden home on the hill and pray for a woman who had little hope of living. Some of the children ventured out and began to walk with us, curious as to who we were and if we could speak Spanish. They accompanied us all the way to the top and then said their goodbyes.

When we entered into the home, I was shocked to see that the entire home was about the size of my bedroom. The floor was dirt, but swept clean. I remember noticing the stove, because it seemed miniature, like the ones you would see in a playhouse. A woman was lying on a mattress on the floor in the back of the house, sick to the point of death and unable to sit up. She looked at us shakily. “Thank you,” she managed to whisper. I couldn’t imagine what she was thanking us for. I’m sure that we all felt inadequate and unsure of what to do next for the woman who could only whisper her thanks.

“Thank you for coming,” she said, adding, “in the name of Jesus”.

It was then that I realized the power of love. It is love that sends you on a mission trip instead of a summer vacation. It is love that leads you to do the uncomfortable, to walk up steep, rocky hills, and to enter into a stranger’s home. It is love that led us all to kneel, to lay hands, and to pray for our sister. It was the love of Jesus that she recognized when we walked in the door.

It was love that she felt when strangers entered into her home after she had spent weeks unable to leave, bedridden. It was love that she felt in our prayers and in the conversation that ensued. It was love that she received when our team was able to buy her a new bed and bring it to her home for her and her family. That day, being the hands and feet of Jesus meant going to His beloved daughter and reminding her that she was not alone. She had not been forgotten.

Our mission statement is to Empower, Disciple, and Spread The Love of Jesus to the nations. We believe that it is every believer’s duty and privilege to carry out the gospel and spread the love of Jesus as He commanded in Matthew 28:18-20: “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We spread the love of Jesus because His love never fails.