North Georgia Family Going To The Mission Field

Petty Family To Be Missionaries In Bolivia

  • Wednesday, July 20, 2016
  • Dennis Norwood
Reverend Chris Petty and his family are preparing to become full-time missionaries to the Tacana Indians located in the jungles surrounding La Paz, Bolivia. Shown above are, left-to-right, Chris, his wife Joy, and children Anna, Caleb and Emily.
Reverend Chris Petty and his family are preparing to become full-time missionaries to the Tacana Indians located in the jungles surrounding La Paz, Bolivia. Shown above are, left-to-right, Chris, his wife Joy, and children Anna, Caleb and Emily.
According to the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Missions Board there are over 3,400 unreached and unengaged people groups across the globe. These are individuals who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ’s saving grace or even who He is.
 
In the scriptures, Romans 10:14-15 says, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
 
In Ringgold, Georgia, five pairs of feet are preparing to become beautiful.
 
Reverend Chris Petty, his wife Joy and kids Emily, Anna and Caleb are in the midst of preparations to become full-time missionaries to Bolivia.
Petty recently resigned as senior pastor at Poplar Springs Baptist Church as he and his family answered the call to take The Word to the Tacana Indians in the jungle area surrounding the city of La Paz.
 
Their goal is to be on the mission field by the end of the year.
 
The Petty’s will be going to the South American country under the auspices of SIM (Serving in Ministry) International, a missions organization that was founded in 1893. The vision statement of the organization states “Convinced that no one should live and die without hearing God’s good news, we believe that he has called us to make disciples of Jesus Christ in communities where he is least known.” The group currently has 60 members serving in Bolivia with four couples and their families in La Paz.  
 
Petty says, “My family will be responsible to be the “champion” of missions mobilization to the Tacana Indians.” As he explained, “The SIM missionaries in La Paz are “championing” three communities where Christ is least known and these are: shoe shiners and street workers; special-needs individuals and families; and, youth.”
 
He continued, “Outside the city of La Paz, there are 36 indigenous groups in rural Bolivia, many of them unreached. Bolivia has the highest concentration of Indian groups in the Americas. The La Paz team has adopted the Tacana Indians, who live deep in the jungle in the La Paz province, as the unreached people group on which we will focus.”
 
These are people who live in villages so remote that some may have never even seen a white man or travelled outside their own small village. Petty described it as “crossing a normally rain-swollen river when it is at a low point, taking a four-wheel drive vehicle to the end of a road, then a motorcycle as far as it can go and then possibly a day’s walk to get there.”
 
And then there is the language barrier. Though the national language of Bolivia is Spanish, the different Indian groups may each have their own language.  Petty said the entire family will undergo language training.
 
Asked if there was one particular scripture he could name that played in to the decision to go on the mission field, Petty said, “It’s interesting, but I preached a two-book series at the church on Luke and Acts, Luke wrote both of those and they’re twenty-five percent of the New Testament and it’s kind of a two volume work to a man named Theophilus.”
 
“ I think just preaching through that, ending up with Acts, after I guess four years, and I walked through Acts for a couple of years.  Just every week studying Acts, it’s not just one verse in particular as it is the whole book that really spoke us to do this. You see throughout that book the Apostles not only travelling, but the disciples taking the Word to these unreached people groups, but, you also see them going around strengthening the churches. The Book of Acts really compelled me to go. To study that every week and not feel that urge to go, well…”
 
With that in mind, Petty described his personal mission as two-fold, “Inside the city of La Paz I will do pastoral training with a goal to help pastors become missions-minded and for their churches to become missionary sending. In particular, we desire to help mobilize the La Paz church to adopt the Tacanas and other unreached people groups and to mobilize efforts to reach them with the Gospel.”
 
“Outside of La Paz, I will travel regularly to the jungle with other missionaries to disciple new believers with the goal of developing missionaries and church leaders among the Tacana people.”
 
Speaking as to how the Lord has worked since he and his family committed to go to the mission field, Petty told the story of how they were originally destined for work in the city of Cochabamba but during a trip to the country he and wife Joy met with the missions team in La Paz and as they had conversations it became apparent to everyone that God was preparing a mission for them in that location.
 
Even as they travelled on to Cochabamba, where the majority of the SIM team is located, it became even clearer that La Paz was where they were supposed to be.
 
This is not just a “me” thing for the former pastor. The entire Petty family will be involved in shining the light of Jesus Christ to all those with whom they come in contact. “From the time she was a young girl my wife Joy had thoughts of being a missionary, had a desire to do so,” said Petty.
 
“She will work in our new church to disciple community members, as well as a women’s ministry.” He related that, “Bolivia has the highest rate of femicide, the killing of women, in the world. Joy’s work will be important in relation to domestic abuse, which is rampant in the country, with many wives murdered. The women’s ministry is a great need there.”
 
As for the children, daughters Emily (13) and Anna (11) have already made several missions trips with their dad to Guatemala, for which they each earned and saved their own money. Petty recalled that even as a young child, when the girls played house, Emily was always a missionary. “Now,” he said, “She says she’s getting to be one earlier than she thought.”
 
Talking about son, Caleb (6), “At first he was just excited that he was going to get to ride on a plane, but now it has begun to sink in that he will be leaving family and friends behind and worrying about not getting to do certain things once he gets there. So, he has started to put together a bucket list, of sorts, of things to do before we leave,” said his dad.
 
He went on to say that while most people refer to the children of missionaries as “missionary kids” SIM calls them “kid missionaries” to emphasize their role as members of the mission team.
 
“Right now we’re all over the place with emotions, but we are confident in the fact that the Lord has called us,” he said, “We do believe we are supposed to go. We are excited about that.”
 
As the family begins to prepare, they have already attended training in North Carolina and in October will be headed to Portland, Oregon, for more training, the realities of this commitment has begun to set in.
 
When they leave for Bolivia they are limited to just two suitcases apiece. That means a huge down-sizing of material things – things that in many cases have sentimental meaning. It also means selling their house and vehicles. Petty says there is currently a contract on the house and that a family in their former church has offered them a guest house to live in until they depart. An estate sale will occur in the next few weeks.
 
As Petty said, “It’s much easier to do this now rather than be stressed out as they make final preparations to leave.”
 
Right now the family is heavily involved in fundraising. SIM requires that each missionary family raise a substantial initial amount of support as a launch account and then have a number of supporters who pledge  a monthly commitment. There is also the matter of funds for a four-wheel drive vehicle once they arrive in the field. According to Petty, even cars 15 years old go for around $15,000 due to automobiles not being manufactured in Bolivia.
 
They must also take care of the rent on their apartment, utilities, food, clothing and training materials, as well as insurance and a retirement fund.
 
There are three specific areas that the vibrant young minister mentions as current prayer requests: (1) The ability to reach their launch and monthly support financial needs. (2) That our family will glorify the Lord through this transition. (3) Prayer for their home church, Poplar Springs Baptist. In addition to gathering financial support, each missionary family must have at least four hundred individuals committed to be their partners in prayer.
 
For more information on their missionary journey or as to how you can become involved in the Petty’s ministry, either through financial support or as a prayer partner, contact Chris Petty at chris.petty@sim.org or go to simusa.org and use code number 045293.
 
Chris Petty will be preaching at Grace Church, 7623 Alabama Highway in Ringgold on July 24th in the 10 a.m. service. He will also be preaching at New Union Baptist Church, 4060 Double S Road in Dayton, Tenn., on July 31st in the 8:30 and 11 a.m. services.
 
Contact Dennis Norwood at sportsshooter614@gmail.com; follow him on Twitter at @DennisENorwood.
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