The first six months were spent living in one room in a local “hotel”.  It was there that we lived, bathed, cooked, slept, washed, played with the children, and tried to learn the Spanish language.  Unlike today, there were no schools where one could study for a year to learn the language. Unable to proceed to Otuzco, an Andean Mountain village, as originally planned, and unable to continue in our one room hotel “house”, we were given an ultimatum to either go to Otuzco or strike out on our own.  We opted for the latter.  The Lord was gracious and helped us to find a small second floor apartment that served us for the remaining five and a half years of our first term in Peru.

 At about this same time another missionary, desirous to go on furlough, asked us to care for his little work during his absence.  This we did, attending to his three little mission halls that he had in different parts of the city.  Upon his return he just turned the work over to us.  At about this time we started having Bible studies with believers and others in our little kitchen in our home.  Meanwhile, we looked for some better place to hold services and we found a small place not far from our home.  From the very beginning of our missionary life we sensed the need for national pastors and for a seminary where we could train them for the Lord’s work.  We started to pray for a piece of property, for young people, and for a seminary.  The work grew slowly and people were saved.  In 1948 we sent the first of a number of young people to Bible school.  The first to go were two young ladies who we sent by plane across the Andes to a very fine Bible institute located in the mountains of Peru.  Three years later they returned to help us in the Lord’s work.  In answer to our prayers, the Lord gave us not one, but two properties!  And so it was that after six years on the field we returned home in 1950 leaving behind an organized Baptist church with its own property and building.   A fellow missionary cared for this work until such time as we could return to Peru. 

Our first furlough was somewhat extended, but we did return to Peru at the beginning of 1952.  In 1954 we went through the heartache of separation from the first of our children.  We sent Karin home to enter junior high school.  It was during this term, in 1955, that we sent Octavio Polo, the first of many young men, across the Andes to Iquitos where he began his studies in a very fine Bible institute run by the ABWE (Association of Baptists for World Evangelism).  Although he only had two years of grammar school, he graduated first in his class and returned to the coast where he later pastored his first church.  Later he married one of our missionaries and to them were born three sons, one of whom also graduated from our seminary many years later.  During this term we also sold one of our two properties so as to have enough funds to build what became knowns as the Union Baptist Church.  This term also saw us caring for a mission church located in the port of Salaverry.  The Lord also sent out two women missionaries to help us.  They were Miss Jennie Adams and Miss Grace Wood.  The Union Baptist Church really prospered spiritually. Many were saved, there was wonderful fellowship, annual association meetings were started, summer camps were initiated for boys and girls and young people.  Other young men were sent to Bible school.  Joyce returned home in late 1956 in order to place the children in school.  I remained on the field until April of 1957, during which time I saw the complete of the construction of the Union Baptist Church. 

We returned to the field again in 1958, this time leaving Eddie at home to continue his high school.  Near the end of 1961, in September, we sent Rosalie home so that she could begin her high school studies.  Now of the four children only Fred remained with us.  Fred, Joyce, and I followed Rosalie somewhat later for furlough.  I might add that during all of these years, Joyce had the additional task of home schooling all of the children.  In those days there were no schools for missionary children. 

In January of 1964, we returned for our fourth term.  During the next five years we were occupied establishing the Esperanza Baptist Church.  The church began to function in a one room adobe structure with a dirt floor and a grass mat roof.  Located on a sand dune at the foot of a high mountain, we spent countless afternoons walking through the sand, visiting people in their homes, gaining their confidence, sharing their problems, loving them, telling them of a Saviour who loved them.  As the result, today there is a strong, well-attended Baptist Church with its own national pastor, its own church building, a home for the pastor and his family, and it is self-supporting.  Working with the children, we started a club for the boys and girls, similar to AWANA here in America.  It proved to be a great blessing to the church.   

After furlough we returned to Peru again in 1971.  This time we were invited to help one of the very fine national pastors start a work in a different section of the city in what we call in Peru a “young town”.  Young towns have been described as “great shanty towns that ring the coastal cities”.  Like the church in the Esperanza, this church also began in a tiny structure made completely of 6x8 woven grass mats.  From the very beginning the work overflowed into the home of a neighbor.  We even sang a Christmas cantata by the light of kerosene lamps.  It soon was time to look for property on which to build a church structure.  The Lord gave us two lots at a very good price.  As time passed, we were able to build a church and a small home for the pastor and his family.  The church became known as Bethel Baptist Church of Vista Alegre.   We stayed with the church for two years, working with the national pastor and then we felt it best to let him have full charge of the work.  BUT, what were we going to do then?  We had worked ourselves out of a job! 

The same week that we made the decision to leave the church in Vista Alegre, the same couple with whom we started the church in the Esperanza paid us a visit.  This couple had started still another church in another “young town” and they needed help.  “Will you please help us?”  And so it was that we began going to Florencia de Mora.  The building they had was in terrible shape and located on a lot that was wide enough in front but tapered to half its width in the back.  But the work progressed.  We visited from house to house.  People came.  The Sunday School grew to nearly two hundred people!  Really too many people for the little building.  Daily vacation Bible school was the same story.  We finally had to renovate the building.  A new roof was put on, the front wall was fixed to give the church a respectable look.  Later, we were able to buy another house just half a block away and it became the house for the pastor and his family.  Furlough time came again, and we left the Shalom Baptist Church in the hands of a very capable national pastor. 

After somewhat less than a year at home we returned for our sixth term.  One of our supporting churches had given us a new Dodge van for the Lord’s work in Peru.  We made the decision to drive it all the way to Peru.  We set out one day in January 1977, driving south through Mexico, Central and South America.  But that is another story in and of itself (story available below).  25 days and almost 8,000 miles later we finally arrived in Peru.  Such a trip!  The van was a tremendous help to us and we finally could not have done without it. 

During our last and successive terms, Joyce and I have worked very closely with the seminary while also starting another church.  By the time we left in Decemeber of 1985, a number of churches were planted, and many derivative works emerged as well.  When we departed Peru we donated our home to the seminary to house female students.