CHELAN — After 20 years as pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Chelan, Scott Hargrove found a new mission in his life. Literally.

He and his wife, Leslie, and their youngest children are selling their house and most of their possessions and moving to a poverty-stricken city in Peru to spend their days working with abused and abandoned girls in a missionary home called Torre Fuerte.

They’re ready to go as soon as the house sells, and plan to stay as long as it feels right. They ask people who are willing to make small, monthly contributions to help pay their living expenses while they’re there.

Hargrove, 48, is the first to admit this would be a scary decision, if he wasn’t absolutely sure it is right for him and his family.

“I’m going from a paid ministry to an uncompensated position. From a First World country to a Third World country. From a place where I know the language — and that’s what I work with, is language — to a place where I’m scrambling to learn the language,” he said. “There’s not a lot of reasons to do this. But we’re as certain as we could possibly be that this is what we’re supposed to do next.”

The decision is so radical that some people have asked them whether something happened at his church, or with his ministry.

Hargrove explained that, for the past year, he and his wife have been discussing moving on, and had prayed about where to go, but weren’t getting any answers. “Things were going really well. But we just had sense that we were wrapping up our time here. It’s what we felt, between us and God.”

Then this summer, he took a group of teenagers from the church — including his son, Micah, 18 — to Arequipa, Peru, for 10 days to help enlarge a building at Torre Fuerte, a girls’ home for about 50 Peruvian girls who were abused or neglected, or whose families were so poor, they couldn’t properly care for them. The home is operated by Restoring Hope International, which is based in Leavenworth.

It was a busy 10 days, but one day, with a few minutes to himself, he went for a walk and found himself sitting on a sidewalk, thinking. “In those moments it just all of the sudden dawned on me. This is what we’ve been asking for,” he said.

He got immediate confirmation from his wife, when he went online that evening to chat with her, and mentioned wanting to come back.

Assuming he meant with this youth group, she at first expressed shock, he said, because they had talked about finding a new ministry. “I just sat back and waited for her response. Then 10 or 15 minutes later she wrote back and said, ‘Maybe this is it?’ ”

The decision was made.

Leslie Hargrove has never been to Arequipa, which is the second-largest city in Peru. Neither have their 14-year-old daughter, Katie, or 8-year-old son, Luke, who will come with them. Their two oldest children are off on their own, and their middle son, Micah, hasn’t decided whether to come or stay in the United States to pursue a career.

Hargrove said he enjoyed working with his youth group to expand an overcrowded dormitory. But hearing the tragic stories of each girl who lives at the home convinced him that there was more work for him there.

Rick Daviscourt, founder of Torre Fuerte and president of Restoring Hope International, told him many of the stories as they ate lunch together, or when one of the girls would come sit on his lap.

“He’s run this for 15 years, and he gets choked up on every story,” Hargrove said.

“These aren’t just kids that are poor. These are kids that are desperately poor, and abandoned, or abused,” he added. “One of the biggest single psychological issues is attachment disorder. That’s what happens, essentially, from abuse, neglect or abandonment. The best way to fix that is lots of attention and love,” he said.

“They are doing an amazing job at helping these kids live a pretty normal life, in spite of their past,” Hargrove said, and added, “I feel pretty overwhelmed that I get to be a part of this.”

K.C. Mehaffey: 997-2512

mehaffey@wenatcheeworld.com