Bertha Ccoicca
Fun Fact
Bertha and her family are master silversmiths. She uses this talent to help support her family and ministry.
Bertha Ccoicca came to know Christ as a young girl, and has wanted to serve God ever since. She thought that God couldn’t use her because she spoke only Quechua. She says, “My heart was burning within me to share God’s Word with my Quechua People. How marvelous it is that he chose me”.
Bertha heard of the Runa Simi Mission in 1983 and began to help out. She was the cook for the Runa Simi Translation team while it translated the Bible into Quechua. Soon after she began teaching Quechua women how to read the Bible in Quechua. God increased her burden and her ability to teach the Quechua women. She studied and became a literacy trainer, and later helped develop the Runa Simi Literacy curriculum for the Ayacucho Quechua language.
Bertha now travels throughout the Southern Andes Mountains. She trains teachers who, in turn, teach their own churches and communities how to read. She has started Bible reading programs in over 1000 Quechua churches and communities. Her husband Placido, now a believer, accompanies her and supports her ministry.
Bertha also has a burden for the mistreated and abandoned youth of the mountains. Her youth group has discipled many children and teens who were once abandoned but now have made the youth group their home. Many of the youth have grown into leaders themselves.