Recently I was invited to join a short-term missions trip to Peru. Traveling as the keyboard player for the Latin Pop Band, La Puerta Azul, we will be touring the Lima region, playing multiple concerts every day for about two weeks. La Puerta Azul is more than a band; it’s a ministry sponsored by Proclaim! International in support of dozens of Christian churches in that part of the world. We will be doing outreach concerts in outdoor plazas, concert venues, schools, and churches throughout that time. There will be a dozen of us, including horn section, rhythm section, background vocalists, percussion, and a support team making the trip from June 18 to July 2.

According to organizer and lead vocalist Kim Peterson, the name La Puerta Azul is ripe with meaning. “La Puerta (door) reminds us of what our life’s purpose is here and in Peru, to invite listeners to accept Jesus’ invitation to come to the Father through Him, the Door. As he said, ‘I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture, John 10:9.’  I love the simplicity of Jesus’ words here. How can life in abundance be so accessible? It’s simply a matter of dying; Jesus death as a ransom to provide the way and our death to ourselves and our ways.”

Kim continues, “Azul (blue) is a color that might make us think of heaven; our hope and source of who and what we are. As we sing and play for people and share with them after concerts, remembering the color Azul can help us keep our eyes focused on where they need to be as we continually look “up” for strength, inspiration and guidance, (Colossians 3:2).”

I love what Kim shares, which is completely from his heart. Peru is heavily Catholicized, but one steeped in the cultural (and somewhat superstitious) aspects of religion—not necessarily in personal or life-changing ways. Our job will be to draw in the curious and the lost, and personally and musically share the Good news of the Kingdom with them. Hopefully and with God’s Spirit, we will show them the blue door.

Would you like to help support this ministry? Please prayerfully consider giving a tax-deductible gift to pay for airfare and lodging. Hit the link to give. I would appreciate this VERY much. And if you want to hear some of this fun and lively original music, bang it here.

[Photos by Aarom Ore on Unsplash and Eduardo Garcia on Unsplash.]