The $10 Church: Calapuja

Does the thought of going to your church terrify you?

Have you ever sat in your church wondering if the walls are going to fall down on you? Or maybe the sanctuary is so tight that you get a sense of claustrophobia?

This is the exact experience for the Calapuja Seventh-day Adventist congregation, located about 40 minutes outside of Juliaca, Peru. This church was started more than a decade ago as a result of an evangelism meeting in town. The few young people who chose to be baptized started a group and invited people to meet on the first floor of their apartment. Since then, the group has grown to 30 people–but their meeting space has stayed the same.

The room that they use for worship is about 20 by 10 feet. The ceilings are low. There is little natural light. They can barely fit the pews in there, let alone 30 people.

The building itself is made of sun-dried mud bricks, called “adobe,” and old timber. From the outside, you can see the cracks and crumbling plaster on the exterior walls. The members are actually fearful that the entire building might one day collapse on them, especially given that this region is vulnerable to earthquakes!

The membership is mostly made up of indigenous people of Quechua descent. Most people in this tiny, rural town work in agriculture to make a humble living. They give generously to the church in whatever way they can, but it’s unlikely they could spare even $10 a month to go toward the construction of a proper church.

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