In the early 1990’s, the IEP (Iglesia Evangelica Peruana, Peruvian Evangelical Church) was having a hard time, having shrunk from 50 to less than 20 churches in the Andahuailas region in the country’s south. At the time, the Shining Path terrorist group killed many pastors and Christians, and many Peruvians lived in fear and uncertainty.
As the result of a mistake, 17-year-old Jacob Huaman was elected President of the IEP’s Synod. His first deed was to issue the following declaration: “Now that I am President, I can choose one of two paths. I can pretend that everything is fine, smile and make everyone happy, or I can name the problems and try to improve things. I choose the second path. My first official act is to declare that, effective immediately, no sin will be tolerated in the churches.”
He started by going to two of the church’s leaders who obviously led a bad life, and called on them to repent of their sin. They both just laughed. The following Sunday, he called on them to repent in front of the congregation. One became angry, the other took it seriously and repented. One week later, Jacob openly recognised the one man’s repentance, and subjected him to church discipline for a limited time; he gave the other over to Satan because of his refusal to repent, following Paul’s example. The people were then gripped by a fear of God, repented, and the denomination started to grow again. It now has over 400 churches in the region.
Jacob has since moved on, and works in Abancay, where he encourages young people to plant new churches in the mountain regions.
Source: David Quispirocca, Peru Para Cristo
[Peruvian Evangelical Church, Jacob Huaman, shrinking 50 > 20, turned around, 17 y o leader, now 400 churches]