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July 9, 2009
Hello, Back From Perú,
This is our follow-up update
to our five weeks in Perú. Sorry it is a little
longer than usual but so much went on that it is
hard not to keep going.
We arrived back from Perú a
little earlier than anticipated due to a threatening
transportation strike in Perú. We left on Sunday
afternoon, 7-5-09, to go to the city, Cusco, where
we would fly out of--the strike was scheduled for
Tuesday. We were going to wait until our scheduled
flight out on Friday 7-10 but decided to leave on
Monday. The Lord granted us safe travel with a 12
hour wait in Lima and 8 hours in Houston. We arrived
home on Tuesday around 6:00 PM. It was special to
have our youngest daughter, Tiffany, and two of our
grandsons pick us up at the airport. On Wednesday,
we headed up to Minneapolis to see our oldest
daughter, April, before she heads to Costa Rica for
mission work. On the return trip we will stop and
see middle daughter, Amber Downs, and her family in
Ankeny.
Our time in Perú was another
important learning experience. God continues to open
our eyes on how He would have us serve Him in Perú.
We taught at the seminary, Wendy teaching Visuals
and Pedagogy and I taught the Bible book Revelation.
Classes went very well.
Pastor Dan Dark and Dr. Ernie
Schmidt, both of Faith Baptist Bible and Theological
Seminary traveled to Perú with us and they also
taught at the seminary. Pastor Dan taught Pastoral
Ministries and Dr. Schmidt taught Pastoral Theology.
They were a blessing to the seminary and I know the
students impacted them likewise. Besides that they
were great roommates for two weeks. Both men are
very gracious guys. We are so thankful for out
translators during classes, Tim Whatley, Roberto
Whatley, Ken Loveall, and Rachel Tarvin. They were
truly a blessing.
The next two weeks we visited
churches in the Urubamba River Valley and spent time
with a group from Valley View Baptist Church, our
sending church. On the VVBC team was Brittni
Donahue, Michelle Birdsall, Rhonda Myers, Chad
Selander, Kurt Olson, and the Tibbles family, Larry,
Cindy and Larissa. Stephen Jay was also part of the
group and he is from Westwood Heights Baptist Church
in Omaha. This group was active in many areas. We
visited five churches where they sang special
numbers, did puppet shows, and shared their
testimonies. We put on an open air
meeting/evangelistic outreach in the plaza located
in the middle of the city of Urubamba. Urubamba is a
city of about 25,000 people and it is where the
seminary is located that Wendy and I taught. Kurt,
Larry, and Chad did numerous handy man type repair
projects that were very much appreciated. Brittni
and Michelle helped a lot with the homeschooling of
two of the Whatley children Briana and Caleb. Cindy
also helped to take care of Joseph, the baby of a
missionary couple, Buddy and Loren Fitzgerald, in
the mornings as they taught a class. Rhonda was a
big help at the Visual class outreach as were all
the others. The main project was the pouring of the
cement floor of the 70' X 70' chapel building
located on the new seminary property. It was a
tremendous joint effort by the gringos from Valley
View and Perúvian students and they that got the job
done on a long Saturday of work. It was especially
long for Chad, Kurt, and Larry as they were still
doing finishing work until 9:30 PM or so. Barbara
Whatley and Rachel Tarvin worked so hard to meet all
of our needs. God is so good.
Pat was privileged to preach
in several different churches. We know of two people
saved at services and one saved at the open-air
meeting. Several children asked good questions at
the outreaches and were followed up on.
God is doing a great work at
the seminary in Urubamba with about 45 students
attending the four year program. We are seeing
graduates going out and starting solid Baptist
churches in the Urubamba River Valley and
surrounding Andes mountains. It has been a joy
visiting and encouraging these churches, That is an
area we very much look forward to in the
future--assisting in the planting of churches
started by the graduates of the seminary.
Another ministry that we are
very excited about is the chance to get into schools
by presenting puppet shows, teaching English, and
teaching religion. Sounds a little strange maybe,
but we have opportunities to teach religion in the
schools as it is a required class. They do not have
enough people qualified to teach religion so they
have asked missionaries and pastors from the area
Baptist churches to help with the teaching. We see
this as an awesome opportunity to present God's
Word.
Wendy worked with Barb Whatley to coordinate
outreaches to three schools and at the seminary that
reached 525 students with games, arts and crafts,
puppets, music, and most importantly the Gospel
message. In each case students from the seminary
played an active role and many many seeds were
planted due to the teaching and preaching of the
Gospel message.
There are challenges that lie
ahead for Wendy and me but we are very encouraged
about what God has revealed to us already about our
roles at the seminary and at surrounding churches.
Please continue to pray for our time at language
school and for the raising of our support. We are at
40%. The upcoming weeks and months will include a
great deal of letter writing and contacting people
about their possible role in supporting our ministry
to Perú. We are praying that enough churches and
individuals come on board to be fully supported by
August of 2010.
If you would want to partner
with us financially please contact us at
pwcampbell.Peru@gmail.com,
712-435-9194 [Pat], or
712-435-9027 [Wendy]. We are with the mission board
of Baptist Mid-Missions and they can be found at
bmm.org/bmm/.
Thank you for reading and for
your interest in our ministry to Perú.
Please pray for us--
In His service,
Pat and Wendy Campbell
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