I’m writing to you this time from Midland, Michigan.  We arrived here two weeks ago on May 21st.  My youngest brother and sister, David and Karen, are both getting married this month in South Carolina.

The month of May was very full for us.  I spent the first week in Paita (a city on the northern coast of Peru) with Pastor Elfer Ato and Bethel Baptist Church.  It was a real privilege to spend a week with a man who knows the Lord, and has learned genuine leadership.  There were over 600 folks in attendance on Sunday morning as they celebrated the church’s anniversary.

I came back to Lima on Monday, and beginning Wednesday, May 7th, I preached a family conference for a church in Lima.  Cheryl and the children came with me on Friday night of that week and we took advantage of having Cheryl there to do some special music.  Since our children are so young the family rarely travels with me outside of Lima.  Neither Cheryl nor I like the fact that I travel a lot while the family stays home.  I want Cheryl (and the children as they get a little older) to be heavily involved in what we do in Peru, but with many of the churches not being very conducive to handling young children we’ve not been sure how to do that.  After talking it through with Cheryl, we’ve decided that I should seek as much preaching in Lima as I can so that I don’t have to be away from the family as much. Also, this will allow Cheryl to be more involved in the meetings with me. Please pray that God will continue to guide us concerning how to keep both family and ministry priority without sacrificing one or the other.

These last two weeks in Midland have been a chance for us to slow down and relax with Cheryl’s family.  This weekend we head to South Carolina where we’ll be until the end of June.  Besides the two weddings, we’ll visit several churches, including Oak Ridge Baptist Church, in Tennessee, where we’ll be involved in their missions conference.   In July, we’ll come back to Midland until August 6th when we fly back to Lima.  I’ll be working on some leadership training material and sermon preparation during the month of July taking advantage of a month without as much preaching.

Our plans for beginning a pastoral training center in Nauta are still in place.  I’ll share more about that in a few weeks.

In Christ,
Tim Chapman

Estimating the number of fundamental churches in Peru is actually very difficult. There are two main reasons why it is so difficult. The first is that it's not always easy to determine the difference between a church and a work. Hundreds of villages have a group of believers that meet regularly but are not necessarily an organized local church. The second reason is that there are many churches and works up and down the rivers of the jungle and all throughout the mountains villages, a lot of those being in very inaccessible places. My understanding is that when the great missions' movement began in the last century many of the missionaries (and not exclusively Americans) evangelized much of the jungle and mountain areas. Also, Peruvians from these rural areas would come to the coast, receive the gospel, return to their villages, and would win numbers of family and friends to the Lord.

In other words, the initial wave of church planting in Peru has taken place. That doesn't mean we don't need more churches in Peru. What it does mean is that now we have a very different concern to deal with; that of training pastors and leaders for these churches. Most of the pastors/leaders are not pastorally trained. Most have never been to a Bible college or institute, and will not be able to go. They live from one day to the next, knowing their family won't eat if they don't work. The possibility of them going somewhere for a few years to receive training is not feasible.

What Segundo Rodriguez and I want to do is to organize training centers for these men. The basic format we plan to use is the following: we can provide a one-week modular class three times a year. We will go (or send other teachers) and teach all day for six days. We have available a 10 volume curriculum that works well for teaching these men the basics of Bible understanding, doctrine, hermeneutics, spiritual growth, etc.

Tuesday of last week, Segundo and I flew to Iquitos and then drove two hours to the city of Nauta. Our goal was to pursue contacts there for the purpose of establishing a training center in Nauta or somewhere nearby. We talked with two of the pastors from two of the four Baptist churches in Nauta. We met with a group of believers in one of the villages we visited and met with the pastor in another village. We left very content with our initial contacts. We need to take a longer trip sometime later this year and make more contacts as well as pursue the details of where and when we will begin the modular classes. Our goal is to see this type of training center established in various points throughout the jungle and mountain regions in Peru.

On Friday night, I begin preaching an evangelistic campaign for a church here in Lima. Pray that there will be unsaved folks in attendance and that God will use the preaching of the gospel to save souls!

In Christ,
Tim Chapman