In August, a team from Six Mile Baptist Church traveled to Peru for a missions experience that encompassed preaching and teaching as well as ministry through a dental clinic.
Ken Dobson treats a patient in Tarma while Ann Dobson assists.The team arrived in Lima, Peru, late on the evening of Aug. 2 and awoke the next morning to the sounds and sights of a city of more than 8 million people. Some four hours later, after crossing a high mountain peak at T?clio, the team descended to Tarma, the City of Flowers, population 130,000.
For the next two and half days, the team led a leadership development conference for pastors, laymen and children. Members of 12 Peruvian Baptist churches, plus pastors from Ecuador and Bolivia, attended. Team member Ken Dobson, a dentist, set up a free temporary dental clinic.
Larry Rice, pastor at Six Mile Church, taught the men and youth from 2 Timothy. Kay Rice taught the women and led a crafts class. Tim Rice, of the South Carolina Baptist Convention staff, taught prayerwalking and storying. Marcos Elizondo, also of the SCBC staff, served as evangelist and counselor for the dental clinic. Karen Dobson, Rebekah Rice and Bethany Barrett taught the children. More than 70 men, women and youth attended the conferences, and 48 children heard the gospel by means of stories, work sheets, games, puzzles and songs.
On Aug. 6 and 7, Larry Rice taught in Jauja, the first capital of Peru. While there, he presented a local pastor with an audio Bible in Spanish, designed for oral learners who live in areas where there is no electricity.
The team traveled among 16,000-foot-high mountains, “awed by dazzling snow-capped peaks, incredibly beautiful high plains and valleys, as well as rivers gushing down the mountains,” said Larry Rice.
Larry Rice presents an audio Bible to Mois?s, a pastor in Jauja, Peru.The team repeated the same leadership development conference in Canta for two days. Five hotel staff members received Christ as Savior, and several others made spiritual decisions. At the conclusion of nine days in Peru, more than 110 adults and children had been taught, 101 dental patients had been seen, and 50 people had received Christ.
During the trip, one of the team members made a commitment to missions. “God really spoke to me while I was there, and I feel him calling me to be a missionary,” the team member said in an e-mail to Rice. “I know that God has given me the desire to see people come to Christ. He has given me the desire to travel and to know and love people everywhere and of different cultures.”