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At a Glance
| Organisation | LAMA Ministry (Latin American Mission Association) |
| Location | Ica, Peru & US office: San Diego, CA |
| Project Type | Impact Project (subsidised partnership, BWD Impact Projects Initiative) |
| Platform | WordPress |
| Timeline | August 2025 to January 2026 (launch); ongoing post-launch support |
| Team | Noel (Project Lead, Design and Content), Cez (Backend, Security and Launch), Jehz (Technical SEO, Animations and Post-Launch) |
A Story That Starts on the Ground
William and Lily Silverthorn did not plan to stay in Peru. They came after the 2007 earthquake, felt a calling to serve the communities around Ica, and simply never left. Almost two decades later, they are still there. In 2009 they officially founded LAMA, the Latin American Mission Association, and have been building something real and rooted ever since.
Today, LAMA operates out of La Misión, a permanent campus based in El Carmen, Ica. They serve seven or more villages every week through children and youth programmes, adult discipleship, church planting in Ica and Pisco, community development, and a Discipleship Training School (DTS) run in partnership with YWAM. Since 2019, DTS graduates have gone on outreach across Latin America and beyond.
This is not a one-time relief effort. It is a long-term, deeply embedded presence, built up year after year by a small team committed to the communities they serve.
Our connection to LAMA did not start as a client relationship. Lydia, Big Wall’s co-founder, reached out to William after coming across LAMA’s Couple Discipleship course under YWAM in Peru. What began as a personal enquiry became a conversation, and through that conversation, William got to know more about Lydia, Cez, and what Big Wall Digital does. Over time, William candidly shared some of the gaps he was facing and the plans he had for the year ahead. We offered some advice informally at first, but as the relationship grew, it became clear there was an opportunity to do something more structured and lasting. That is how this project came to be.
Real Change in Action
The work LAMA does every week is tangible. Children across the surrounding villages have a safe space to learn, play, and grow. Families have access to discipleship and community support. Volunteers from around the world come to serve through structured mission trips and the DTS programme, and many leave with lasting connections to the people and the place.
For many of the children who pass through La Misión, it is described as a second home. Not just a programme they attend, but a place where they are known and cared for consistently over the years.
LAMA is also a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit. It reports that 100% of undirected donations go directly to mission operations rather than salaries or overhead – the missionaries raise their own support separately – and their financials are publicly listed on GuideStar. For an organisation that depends entirely on the generosity of donors and volunteers from around the world, that kind of transparency is how trust gets built.
The Challenge Behind the Work
As we got to know the work more closely, one thing became clear. The website was not keeping up with what LAMA was actually doing on the ground. William had already sensed this himself, and as we talked through their plans and the gaps they were navigating, the website kept coming up. It was an area where we could genuinely help, and where the need was real.
The site had been built years ago and had grown in a way that made sense at the time. But over the years, it became hard to navigate and cluttered with content that needed updating. For a first time visitor, it was not easy to figure out who LAMA actually was, whether they could be trusted, or what the next step should be. That is a real problem for an organisation that relies on people taking a leap of faith, whether that means sending money or flying to Peru.
A few issues stood out when we examined more closely:
- Navigation with no clear hierarchy, visitors did not know where to start
- The mission, leadership, programmes, and financial accountability were not presented in a way that helped build confidence quickly
- No prominent calls to action for donating or volunteering
- Some content was out of date and no longer reflected the current work
- Broken links that led nowhere
- Years of newsletters that William had personally written and sent out over the years, full of real stories from the field. However, none of them were on the website and visitors had no way to access them, apart from old blogs that were filled mostly with images that acted as galleries from mission trips, ongoing projects, and some blogs that were story rich but hard to read through.
The site was not doing justice to the credibility LAMA had genuinely earned. An organisation with 17 years of consistent, documented work deserved a digital presence that actually communicated that.
Where Optimising Digitally Can Help
A well-built website does something simple but important for these non-profits. It removes the friction between an organisation and the people who want to support it.
For an organisation like LAMA, most of the people who might donate, volunteer, or partner with them will encounter the website first. Whether it is a potential donor in the United States, a mission team from Europe, or a young graduate considering a DTS, they all arrive through a screen. What they experience in those first moments determines whether they stay, explore, and eventually act.
When a website clearly presents who an organisation is, what they do, how they operate, and how someone can get involved, it builds the kind of credibility that leads to action. The redesign focused not only on usability but also on credibility. By presenting LAMA’s mission, leadership, programmes, and financial information more clearly, visitors can quickly understand who the organisation is and feel confident about taking the next step.
How We Supported
Noel led the project through to handover, covering site architecture, content, and design. Cez handled the backend, security, and the final launch. Jehz joined during the final phase of the project to deliver technical enhancements, implement animations, address post-launch issues, and provide William with the training needed to manage the website independently going forward.
Restructuring the site
The biggest change was structural. We consolidated everything into five clear pillars: Give, Go, Pray, Our Work, and About Us. Each one has a defined purpose and a clear audience.
The About Us section was particularly important for trust. It brought together LAMA’s origin story, their team and leadership, their YWAM partnership, their statement of faith, and a dedicated financial transparency page showing exactly how donations are used, alongside their GuideStar verification.
We also built a Stories section specifically to house the newsletters William had been writing and sending out manually by email for years. Each one is listed with a title and date, so a visitor can scroll through and trace the mission’s journey over time. It was something William specifically wanted, and it made a lot of sense. These were not just updates. They were his voice from the field, and they deserved a proper home on the site.
Simplifying the content and design
Most of the core content was kept but rewritten for clarity and reformatted with card layouts, clean section headings, and a visual flow that guides people through the page. The design was refreshed with updated typography, a layout that breathes, and colours that match LAMA’s brand identity. The goal throughout was a site that felt as organised and trustworthy as the work it was representing.
Getting the technical foundations right
We also strengthened the technical foundations so the site is easier to find and more reliable to use: consistent meta titles and descriptions on every page, compressed and sharpened images, faster performance through caching, an XML sitemap, HTTPS security, schema markup for the organisation’s details, and a full audit that fixed every internal link.
Before and after
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Hard to navigate, no clear structure | Reorganised into five clear pillars |
| Mission and credibility not communicated clearly | Dedicated “About Us” page with story, team, faith, and financial transparency |
| Donation and volunteer pathways easy to miss | Focused “Give” page and “Go” page with mission trip application form |
| Newsletter content not on the website at all | Newsletters surfaced as “Stories”, browsable by title and date |
| Some outdated content across the site | Content reviewed, updated, and simplified throughout |
| Weak meta content, missing technical basics | Improved meta content, sitemap, schema, and site performance |
| Broken internal links | Comprehensive link audit completed, all internal links verified and corrected |
| No clear calls to action | Consistent “Donate” and “Apply for Mission Trip” CTAs across the website |
The Difference It Makes
The site launched in January 2026, and every person who arrives now has a significantly better experience, and leaves with a clearer sense of who LAMA is and how they can get involved.
Here are some tangible results in a snapshot 6 months after we partnered together:
- 7 new reference submissions received
- 5 missionary applications received since the new website was launched
- 3,470 website impressions and 55 website clicks in 6 months
Other benefits:
- Online visitors can instantly understand the mission, meet the people behind it, and see how the organisation operates before they have to make any kind of decision.
- William’s newsletters now have a proper home on the site, browsable by title and date, giving any visitor a window into years of real stories from the field.
- Financial transparency and GuideStar verification are clearly presented, which matters especially for first-time donors.
- Action steps such as Donate, Volunteer, and Pray each have their own dedicated page with a clear path forward.
- The site now reflects the commitment and longevity of what William and Lily have actually built.
- Stronger digital foundations mean more people can find LAMA through search, and when they do, the site is ready to earn their trust.
- Key brand and program searches such as “lama church”, “ywam peru”, and “discipleship training school peru” are regularly appearing in results, helping the right people find LAMA.
- The site is beginning to rank for broader mission-related terms (e.g. “Latin American missions”, “missionary work in Peru”), expanding organic reach beyond direct brand searches.
As of November 1, 2026, we’ve officially handed the website over to LAMA. With every organisation we work with, our goal is to help them become more independent and able to run things on their own, and this handover is the next step on that journey for LAMA’s team.
What We Took Away
For our Project Lead, Noel, it was one of the more meaningful pieces of work he has been part of. Applying design and digital skills in service of a mission like this, especially in the Christian missionary space, gave the day-to-day work a deeper sense of purpose.
At Big Wall Digital, we have always believed our work is more than growing businesses only. Cez and Lydia built their deep connection to mission work from their time in Cambodia, and that now shapes how the team thinks about the agency and the work we take on. We see our skills as something to steward well. Helping an organisation like LAMA present itself with the credibility it has genuinely earned is worth doing in its own right. LAMA invested in the project at a fraction of the usual cost, and that was deliberate. Shaped by the principles of the book When Helping Hurts, we believe genuine partnership serves people better than a handout: their investment gives them real ownership of the result, and the difference – the tools and team hours we covered well beyond the fee – is one of the ways we contribute to their cause.
There are missions and non-profits all over the world doing real, lasting work in communities that most people will never hear about. Many of them have a digital presence that does not do justice to what they have built. That is exactly the gap Big Wall’s Impact Projects exists to help close.
Looking Ahead
LAMA is still growing. New church plants, a working farm, additional properties, and a youth centre planned for the third floor of La Misión. The new site is better positioned to support all of that, help the right people find LAMA, trust what they see, and take the next step.
For Big Wall Digital, LAMA is one of several impact-driven partnerships we built alongside organisations in Cambodia, Thailand, and Peru. We are open to more, and we are committed to continuing to use our skills for work that matters beyond the commercial brief.
Learn More and Get Involved
LAMA Ministry is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit (EIN 30-0591702). 100% of undirected donations go directly to mission operations.
Visit lamaministry.org to learn more, give, or get involved.
- Give: Tax-deductible gifts go directly to outreach and operations in Ica.
- Go: Short and long-term mission trips and volunteer opportunities (apply on the site).
- Pray: Regular prayer requests and field updates are shared on the “Stories” page.
If you have a skill to offer, whether in construction, medicine, education, or anything else relevant, there may be a place for you too. Reach out to the LAMA team and ask.
Is your organisation doing meaningful, mission-driven work?
Big Wall Digital’s Impact Projects initiative offers pro-bono and discounted digital support to non-profits, missions, and community organisations that are creating real-world change. If your digital presence is not keeping up with the work you are actually doing, we would love to hear from you.
This is not charity in the hand-out sense. It is a real partnership, and it is us putting our best skills to work for something bigger than ourselves.
Learn more and apply at bigwalldigital.com/impact-projects.
