Sitting at a table at DeBruhl’s Caf? in Camden, Jimmy Hanf launches into a spirited discussion of Kershaw Baptist Association’s Peru Mission Adoption Partnership.

A 24-page partnership booklet, a brochure and a CD of photographs serve as testimony to the excitement over God’s work among the unreached Urarina people. The partnership extends through 2014.

“Our first team went down in August 2011 to understand the ministry potential and report back to the association,” said Hanf, director of missions for Kershaw Association. “It was a unanimous decision by our association to enter this partnership.”

The story began when Gloria Shull, ministry assistant in the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s missions mobilization group, called Hanf.

“Gloria asked me to pray about going to Peru,” said Hanf, who had been to Brazil as pastor of St. George Baptist Church in Orangeburg. “I had been to Chile,” Hanf added. “I had experience going into the jungle.”

Hanf agreed to go on the trip and found five other ministers willing to go with him. Among them was Steve Lee, pastor of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Camden. Lee also had missions experience, having served five years in New Guinea. Pastors Terry and John Corder, Roy Broughman and Craig Blankenship rounded out the exploratory team.

It is not easy getting to a part of the world where the Amazon River diverges into the Maranon River, which then diverges into the Airico, Chambira, and Rio Tigrillo rivers. Missionaries from Florida and Texas have adopted Urarina villages along the Airico and Chambira. Kershaw Association has adopted villages along the Rio Tigrillo. The larger village of San Juan, strategically located on the Chabria, serves as the base for missional expeditions down the rivers.

“On that [first] trip,” Hanf said, “we were able to connect with Jeremy Nelson, who at the time was a Southern Baptist missionary in the area. We were just building relationships with people, and Jeremy wanted us to meet the village leaders. We also taught Bible classes and had about 30 believers attend those classes.”

In March 2012, Hanf and Lee returned for the association’s second trip. By this time, missionary Nelson was no longer on the field, but Luis Rios had joined the team as its interpreter. With Luis’ aid, Hanf and Lee were able to visit the village of Curuhinsi on the Airico River and visit five villages along Rio Tigrillo. Pastor Julian of Nuevo Union along the Espejo River went with the team.

“This area is very similar to a Native American reservation,” Lee said. “The area is self-governed and self-protected. To enter safely, you must have a known person, and that was what Luis provided for us. As we approached a village, Luis was the first one off the boat to interact with the people. Some of the villages can be hostile, especially deep along the river.”

Once they were allowed in the villages, Hanf said, the men were welcomed.

“We went in with the statement, ‘We are here to help,’ and the question, ‘What do you need?’ ” Hanf said. “Many of these people have never seen a white person, and some refer to white people as face stealers. The women, especially, [wouldn’t] look at us because they thought we would steal their faces.”

Hanf and Lee spent nights in some of the villages and ate meals – mostly fish and rice – with villagers. That involvement, and Pastor Rafael’s assistance, helped the team introduce 10 people to Jesus and see two other rededications during the trip.

Teams in September 2012 and January 2013 will return with medical supplies, fishing hooks and lines, and clothes, and each of the villages has been promised fishing nets. Terry Corder, pastor of Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, Jefferson, and Craigan Blankenship, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, Westville, will lead the September trip. John Corder, youth and children’s pastor at Hillcrest Baptist Church, Elgin, will lead the trip in January 2013.

“We will have some women going as part of the September team,” Hanf said. “Village women won’t approach the men in our teams.” Among the women going in September will be a nurse and a nurse technician. They will be “vital, almost crucial” to the success of the trip, Hanf said.

To save costs over the length of the partnership, the association is purchasing a river boat from Oklahoma Baptists, who have concluded their ministry in the region, at a cost of $12,000. Currently, the team is leasing a boat at a cost of about $2,400 per week, including daily rental and gasoline.

To ease travel to the area, the association is storing equipment and non-perishable supplies in San Juan, minimizing the need to pack and repack tents, stoves, and other camping gear.

Tim Rice, interim director of the SCBC’s missions mobilization group, said it’s not unusual for associations to have mission partnerships, but Kershaw is unique in that it has adopted an unreached people group. (The International Mission Board defines an unreached people group as a population where less than 2 percent of the people are evangelized.)

“When more than 2 percent of a population knows Jesus, studies show that people can begin to evangelize their own people,” Rice said. “We want to share the gospel in places where it’s not heard and help start reproducing churches.”

Rice credits Hanf’s vision with kindling enthusiasm among the churches in Kershaw Association.

“Jimmy led a team there and wanted to go back, doing whatever it takes to reach the Urarina people,” Rice said. “We don’t have many churches talking about adopting unreached people groups. This has come together around the power of a visionary leader who cast a vision to his churches, and they enthusiastically support it.

“It’s a great story of taking Jesus to the edge of the world. I hope others will follow their lead, seeing that missions like this are possible.”

Hanf said the trips are open to any believer interested in joining the association’s work. Volunteers must be in good health, provide their own funding, be approved through the association and its team leadership, and be at least 18 years of age. – SCBC