About Us
Hello there! We are the Goshorn family- Daniel, Audrey, Caleb, and Charlie. We are currently living in Ashland, Kentucky, but soon we plan to relocate our family and (some of) our possessions to the city of Huancayo, Peru. We have been married since 2015, and, as I'm sure you've figured out already, we have two kids, Caleb and Charlotte. We have been Christians for quite some time, and we love Jesus with all that we have.
Just a bit about our backgrounds: Daniel is a Registered Nurse (RN) and is currently serving as intern minister at the Flatwoods church of Christ. He also serves as the deacon over missions there. Audrey has a background in education (BA) and is currently pursuing her ESL certification. We are both also enrolled in an online biblical studies program, and both Daniel and Audrey have spent many years serving the Lord in the local church through teaching children's and adult Bible classes and preaching in several local congregations. In addition to serving Christ locally and being active members of our home congregation, both of us have some experience in foreign mission work. Audrey has spent time doing short-term missionary work at the Baxter Institute in Honduras, and also serving short-term through several trips to Peru. Daniel has spent time long-term in both Costa Rica and Peru. Additionally, before we met Daniel underwent missionary training with his family. He has undergone a three-week cross-cultural training program in Brazil, five weeks of missions training at Missions Training International in Colorado, and he has taken the 15-week missions course Perspectives. Our love for Christ and our past experiences in Latin America have given us a love and a passion for the lost and lonely of Peru, and we intend to follow Christ's great commission to bring the Gospel to those who do not know Him.
As Bible believing Christians we believe it is our responsibility to follow Christ's call on our lives to leave the comfort and security of our home in Kentucky and minister to the people of Peru. While it would be easy for us to continue to live our lives in the United States, we believe God has uniquely prepared us as a family to enter into this full-time cross-cultural ministry. This will be a long and difficult journey, but we believe God's will shall be accomplished and His kingdom will advance. We hope and pray that you will help us on this journey to reach Peru and minster to the people there, and we look forward to what God has planned for us and our lives if we will only submit to Him in all that we do.
About Huancayo
We plan to begin our work in the city of Huancayo, Peru. With a population of almost four-hundred thousand, this is one of the largest cities in the country. It is situated high in the Andes Mountains, centrally located between the Pacific coast and the Amazon Jungle. Geographically, this is a strategic point in the country as it is a central hub of trade and travel. This location provides us an advantage and opportunity to have access to numerous other cities within a day’s travel. Huancayo has grown a lot in recent years with the arrival of many North American comforts. There are abundant resources that will be at our disposal, including an airport, and access to most modern amenities we might require living as a missionary family in a third-world country. To our knowledge there is no congregation of the Lord’s church in Huancayo, nor the surrounding towns. In fact, we are not aware of a single congregation of the church within the entire province (state) of Junín where Huancayo is located. Our goal is to preach the Word to make disciples within Huancayo and the surrounding area so that lost souls might be won for the glory of the Lord.
Discipleship Strategy
The term “make disciples” may sound somewhat vague, so we have compiled a list of possible mission strategies we may employ to help facilitate the preaching of God’s word to the Peruvian people. This list is not exhaustive, nor are the ideas on this list things that we will choose to employ with out question. These are simply ministry ideas we have compiled based on testimony and feedback from other global missionaries, as well as past personal research and experiences working in various places in Latin America, including Peru.
Upon arrival our priority must be to learn and adjust. We must learn language and culture before any real meaningful discipleship may take place. A mistake made out of ignorance of customs can build walls to the Gospel that may lead to years of work to regain trust among the people. Although we have some Spanish language knowledge already, we will have to become reacquainted with much of the language to be able to adequately communicate the truths found in God’s word. Furthermore, Spanish is not the only language in the region. In Huancayo there is a large percentage of the population that speaks Quechua, which is the indigenous language of the Incas. We do not know if we will learn Quechua, but it is a factor to consider when forming our ministry plan.
Once language is proficient and our family has begun to adjust to life in a third-world country, we will continue to learn culture and customs as we dive into ministry. We anticipate dedicating at least the first six months to purely language and cultural adjustment. After this stage, we intend to begin Gospel work. Paul admonished Timothy to “Preach the word,” (2 Timothy 4:2) and that is exactly what we intend to do. We intend to minister to the people of Peru just as Jesus ministered to those around Him when He walked this Earth. He was “mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,” (Luke 24:29), and that is what we will strive to embody as Christ followers. In deed, we will strive to meet the physical needs of those around us. Peru is filled with immensely poor people, and just as Christ said in Matthew 25:40 when speaking about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked Jesus says, “‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’” Jesus’ ministry involved helping the needy, and as James 2 says we will show our faith to others by our works. In word we will preach and teach to whomever we are able. Just as Christ did, we also intend to use the avenue of meeting people’s physical needs as a way to ultimately reach their spiritual needs.
Weekly Bible studies and Sunday lessons will be a continuous work that we intend to engage in. There are several orphanages, schools, and both men’s and women’s prisons that are possible opportunities for Bible study. One way this may be accomplished is via English lessons. Most people desire to learn English, and Audrey is a teacher and formal tutor, and she is also pursuing her ESL certification. This positions her perfectly to step into the roll of English teacher combined with Bible teacher among the school children and women of Huancayo. The government of Peru may not allow a non-Catholic to conduct Bible studies in certain places, but they will certainly allow a certified ESL instructor to conduct English lessons, even if those lessons involve learning scripture in addition to the English language.
Another avenue to preach the word through the provision of physical needs is via medicine. Daniel is a Registered Nurse, and there is abundant need for medical care among the Peruvians. While we will not be working in a full-time clinic, we can do regularly scheduled medical visits to the same schools, orphanages, and prisons where Audrey might teach English. These regular medical visits not only help meet a physical need of the people, but they allow the people to see the love of Christ in our benevolence, and we believe they will provide an abundance of opportunities to study God’s word with the people.
A third avenue we intend to explore in order to bring the Gospel to Huancayo and the surrounding areas is through feeding the hungry. There have always been many malnourished and starving people, both young and old. However, since the crisis in Venezuela has driven thousands of refugees to Peru, and since COVID has decimated the economy of Peru, there are exponentially more people starving now more than ever before. In the short-term, we can provide weekly or bi-weekly meal packages to specific families or communities in need. This is only a temporary measure to provide a form of benevolent aid following two large scale disasters that have impacted the people. Long-term we wish to develop a sponsorship style program to aid in furthering the education of children in need so that they may in turn grow to be the providers of their families. Long-term sustainment is the only real solution to the extreme poverty that the majority of Peruvians face. Throughout the course of these short-term feeding campaigns and long-term education efforts we will continuously be showing the love of Jesus through our actions by providing food and education, as well as through our words in the study and preaching of scripture.
A fourth strategy we intend to employ is the use of short-term mission teams. This will not be something we can take on at first, but once we are well established in the community we will consider the needs of those around us and seek the aid of churches in the US to conduct medical campaigns, construction projects, and evangelism campaigns. We have seen the positive impact short-term missions can have if done properly, so this is certainly a viable strategy to consider.
Regardless of the specific method or model we may choose to employ, at the end of the day our goal is to make disciples. We may choose to use all of the above mission strategies, or we may choose to abandon all of them in favor of another option. Cross-cultural ministry begins with forming relationships with the people, and this can be done in the simplest of ways. Just as Paul, we may simply meet people in the markets and other gathering places and begin to speak with them about our Lord. Above all, we will declare the Gospel to the best of our ability with our words and our actions, and we pray that God will use our lives to bring many to Christ. Please pray for the people of Peru that their hearts may be receptive to the Gospel of Jesus, and please pray for our family as we embark on this journey for Christ.