Introduction Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Welcome to Exploring Missions, connecting mission needs with those equipped by God to meet those needs across the world or across town. And now, the host of Exploring Missions. Bert Harper,
Bert Harper thank you for joining Exploring Missions on this weekend. And as we continue studying what God has done in His Word and what God is doing today, it's amazing that God works in these ways the way he did in the NewSong Testament and how he does it in the 21st century. This is Bert Harper along with Nathan Harper. And Nathan when we read the Book of Acts and we see two of the most prominent men that we have in the Book of Acts would be Paul and Barnabas. And their connection and how God brought them together is an amazing story. And it reminds me of the interview that you will hear in just a, few minutes concerning how God uses connections to get people to do the work of God. It's an amazing thing how God works, isn't it?
Nathan Harper Yeah, it really is. And when you speak of connections in general, you're speaking of relationships. And that's what Disciple making discipleship, really missions hinges on relationships. So yeah, Paul and Barnabas had a special relationship, for sure.
Bert Harper They really did. And the ones I want to is you find it in the book of Acts. Paul has the experience there on the road to Damascus, and he again goes straight to Ananias and God says, I'm going to show this man how much he must suffer for my name's sake. So he preaches, but then he goes to Jerusalem and Nathan, everybody's scared of him except one guy. And that one guy God would use in a significant way. His name was Barnabas. And we've already been introduced to Barnabas in Acts the first part, where he gave money to the church at Jerusalem. So God uses these people throughout the book of Acts, Barnabas is one of the main players, isn't he?
Nathan Harper Yeah, it seems like Barnabas was always bringing something, whether money or here in this case in, Acts chapter nine, he was bringing Paul or Saul, but he was bringing things to the apostles, kind of laying them at their feet and saying, here, this is useful to the Lord. Barnabas was good at noticing those things. But, here he noticed Saul or Paul, verse 27 says took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. And so that really seems like it's all it took was for Barnabas to kind of stand in the gap, to speak up for Paul here made that connection
Bert Harper and that connection would continue because what's going to happen? And we find this also in the book of Acts when we find out the ministry of the Antioch Church, they started persecuting the Christians in Jerusalem. But God's Word, again, using difficulty, one of those people. And those people went to Antioch and there they would preach the word. And. And the apostles decided they need to know more about what's going on. So they sent Barnabas up there and he found they had great grace and great power, didn't he?
Nathan Harper Yeah, that's right. At this point, obviously, the apostles trusted Barnabas greatly and so they sent him up to Antioch to report back what God was doing and what was going on. And so guess what he did when he was up there. He encouraged them all. You know, Barnabas gets his nickname, the, Son of Encouragement. He well earned that. It says he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. But as soon as Barnabas got to Antioch and did ministry there, he turned, around and Left at some point. And it says he went to Tarsus to look for guess who? Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. And so then for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. And that's where the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. So again, Barnabas making that connection with Saul or Paul.
Bert Harper And why would we bring this up? Not only to introduce you to the guests that we have today, but also let you know those connections are valuable in your life. You may be a teacher, but you might need to invite someone to come alongside you. You, you may be going on a short term mission trip and you've been on one before and you know how it affects someone, but you see someone out there that God is using, you say, you know, I believe I could connect with them and bring them along. So this is what Barnabas did, and look what the result was. And so here we're asking you, that are, listening today to consider how God operates. And, Nathan, God's connections with individuals and individuals with others, they're vital. And it's filled in the NewSong Testament and even in the Old Testament, isn't it?
Nathan Harper Yeah, it really is. That's how the gospel spreads, first of all, is through networks of relationships, social networks. And really that idea of a network or the verb form networking, that's really what we're talking about here is whoever you know that does not yet know Jesus, well, guess what? It's your responsibility to introduce them to Jesus or at least give them the opportunity to hear about Jesus and what he's done in your life and inviting them to allow him to be the Lord in their lives so he can change their lives as well. But that's how opportunities for mission and ministry kind of open up. It's getting connected into new networks. And if you're faithful to A, take your existing relationships and connect them into God's work, or B, someone who is already connected into God's work and they want to include you in that, then just be responsive to what the Holy Spirit leads you to do. And it's as simple as that in a lot of ways.
Bert Harper Today on our interview, you're going to hear this connection that God made through individuals and brought them to the mission field, but again, through those same connections brought this individual back, back. And then he encourages others to go with that connection he made before that. So be on the lookout for those that God wants you to build that relationship with. Connect, network, use that phrase, and let God lead you we hope you'll enjoy this interview as we see how God operated in an individual's life and he might be operating in yours. Today on Exploring Missions, we have a special guest, and I'm, anxious to introduce him. He's a fellow pastor. It is Bill Bradford. He is pastor of the Lawndale Presbyterian Church. And, Bill, thank you for joining us on Exploring Missions.
Bill Bradford That's a pleasure, Bert. Glad to be on. And thanks for inviting me.
Bert Harper And pastors and missions, they should go together. Should they?
Bill Bradford Should
Bert Harper I know some that, Oh, no, that's not my calling. But if we'd been called of God. We're on mission for God or should be.
Bill Bradford Absolutely. Whether in our own community or around the world. Ideally both.
Bert Harper That's exactly right. Well, there's another reason that I wanted to share with you, and we'll get to that in a moment. But tell us a little bit about Lawndale and how long you've been there and how things are going there. We love to hear about what God's doing in local churches.
Bill Bradford Lawndale is a great local church. We've been there since January 1, 2010. Lawndale was one of our supporting churches, one of our major supporting churches when we were on mission field. And so we had a strong relationship with them during that time. We came back for a, home missionary assignment, and things changed, and we accepted a call to be the senior pastor there. We've been there going on 17 years now. We're growing in grace. We're a bunch of sinners. We love studying the Word. We try to love each other. We value regular discipleship. A lot of men's groups, women groups during the week, Lord's Day worship. We're involved in mission efforts here in Tupelo and around our state and other parts of the world. So I'm really thankful for London. They've treated me well. They've been real patient with me. It's been a good place to raise my family.
Bert Harper It's good when a pastor and the church match. That's right. The vision is real close to the same. And they have a heart for community. I've seen it when it wasn't like that. And that can be true in any denomination. When it doesn't match, it's kind of a difficulty. It can even lead to turmoil. I've seen that as well.
Bill Bradford Right, right. Well, it's definitely been a great match for us, and I feel very thankful to the Lord for these years I've been able to serve and pastor there.
Bert Harper Well, tell me about your journey with the Lord your start and preparation and everything like that.
Bill Bradford I was raised in a Christian home. My parents were involved in the Navigator ministry.
Bert Harper Oh, wow. Yes.
Bill Bradford And so they were on staff for about 15 years and it took us to various places when I was a child. We lived in Virginia, Rhode island, and we also did two and a half years in NewSong Zealand. It was really in NewSong Zealand when I was about three years old that I think God saved me. My older brother was at a spiritual emphasis week back then you could do that. He came home and sat me down and shared the gospel with me. And at three years old, I remember that I simply knew I was a sinner and needed Jesus. I also remember my mother watching from the doorway. So, you know, the Navigators are really into scripture memory. So dad and mom had us memorizing those 60 verses they do and reading missionary biographies as a child. And so I had that, you know, in my ups and downs of the Christian life since then, but always had that memorizing the word and reading Christian biographies and talking about missions. And they were really good about having the missionaries over to the house. My dad ended up leaving the Navigators and becoming a tax accountant. But they were very involved in their church and had missionaries over for lunch at the house. So I was exposed about what God was doing around the world young. Then I had a few mission experiences through my local church in Jackson, Mississippi. And in college I was involved in Campus Crusade for Christ. And so we tried to do evangelism on the college campus. I went to Ole Miss and I started feeling the tug at that point, being involved in that way, but I wanted to make good on my education. So I graduated accounting and worked in accounting for a couple years, but knew I was going to end up doing something vocational ministry. So after a couple years, I went to seminary. I met my wife in seminary, Allen, and we both went to a Reformed seminary in Jackson. And we were praying about how to be involved in some kind of cross cultural missions. It just so happened that our mission board and our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, called us and said, well, are y' all interested in missions or what? We hadn't, you know, heard from you in a while and we said we were. So they offered us two opportunities and one of those was to go to Peru. And so we went to a city where Wycliffe was finishing up a NewSong Testament and really enjoyed it. And our vision was always we wanted to go with a national. We wanted our home church to be behind us. So we came home and I called up our mission director in my local church. And they said, you wouldn't believe it. We just got back from Peru. I said, well, I just got back from Peru. And then I went back to seminary in the fall, and the mission professor came up to me and says, I hear you're interested in Peru. We have our first Peruvian pastor ever preaching at chapel today. You need to go. And so I went to chapel, and then I had a meeting with the preacher after chapel service, and we hit it off really well. And so he invited me and my family to come down and help plant a church. And so it just worked out that obviously that God was opening that door, and within two or three years, we were down in the north of Peru working with him.
Bert Harper I want to just tell you, three years old and you pray. You are the second person I know at that age. You know who the other one was? No. Dr. James Dobson.
Bill Bradford Wow,
Bert Harper that's a
Bill Bradford good company.
Bert Harper It is. And I heard that. And I remember I said I didn't have. I barely learned to talk. And I love that journey, as God would grow you and the contacts and all that.
Bill Bradford Right.
Bert Harper I'm no one taking a sidetrack here, but the contacts that you made during your journey, as I heard that, yeah. At the right time, at the right place.
Bill Bradford Yes. Every year we would meet with our mission committee to talk about it. And then we were living with another family and kind of off the grid, and they found our number, called us up, invited us to go on that trip, and then to find out my local church was already involved in that country. And then to meet Alonso Ramirez, who was the pastor that was preaching that day at chapel. It just all came together beautifully. You know, we had been praying that God would open the right doors, and he just obviously did it for us.
Bert Harper Okay. Peru, isn't it mainly Spanish, is their heart language,
Bill Bradford the main language. They also have Aymaira in the south, and Quechuan. Various dialects of Quechuan.
Bert Harper Okay, tell me about your journey into the language issue. As always, I loved missions, but I had a hard time with English, much less a foreign language. I
Bill Bradford sympathize.
Bert Harper Yeah. So tell us about that journey, because that is amazing how God does that. Wycliffe had finished up getting their heart language, and at that time, you come along.
Bill Bradford so we don't end up going to that city. We go to another one, because we met Alonzo and invited us to go with him. But the city where we went also had some Wycliffe missionaries that were finishing up their Bibles and We got to know them. Just wonderful. But I went down there. We didn't get down there till we were about 30. I had only had Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
Bert Harper Okay,
Bill Bradford so you don't actually speak, you know, in seminary context, you don't actually speak those,
Bert Harper you just have it on paper.
Bill Bradford Right. And I loved them. I loved my languages, but I never had a language. I would actually go up and speak with someone. So I knew nothing. Like my wife Allen. She had Spanish at Mississippi State, but she didn't do very well. She didn't have a whole lot of motivation. So we had a lot to do. Our strategy for language acquisition was we moved to Cajamarca in the north of Peru, and we immediately began working on relationship building and planting the church. And so we would have tutors come to our house in the morning and we would study our grammars and our flashcards and our rules and all that. And then we'd have church members or becoming church members come over in the afternoons and they would read with us and visit with us. And then we would go out to the market and meet people. And the church really took ownership of us. And they were kind of proud that we were trying hard and that they were helping us. And so it was a wonderful arrangement for
Bert Harper us. Investment,
Bill Bradford investment in us. You know, we were obviously needy. We had to have them invest in us for us to learn Spanish. And they really took us on.
Bert Harper Amen. Tell us about the church you were at there in Peru.
Bill Bradford Yeah, so our situation was just wonderful. Back in the early 20th century, 1920s, the Free Church of Scotland had sent missionaries to the north of Peru. A man named Jon Calvin Mackay, pretty Presbyterian name. He from Scotland, From Scotland. And, they plant a church. They saw the nationals coming in and selling their goods on the Lord's day. And Jon Kevan Mackay says, we have to have a church on the square. So they plant a church. And the Free Church was heavily involved, did wonderful work in the north of Peru. Then they ended up shifting their efforts. Some of those churches ended up going into a, stagnant, declining phase. Dutch missionaries came after them and they did some good work too. Not only church planting, but also a holistic church planting effort. They were doing a lot of humanitarian, like digging wells and improving the standard of living, agriculture, things like that. And even a Korean missionary came. And so we were like the fourth group that came up there after several years. And they had already had a plot of land ready for a new church plant, but nobody there to plant it. So they had bought it in the 80s and it just sat there. So Alonzo and Esther Ramirez, our leaders in our new mission we called Peru Mission, they wanted to plant that church. So we got there, we had a plot of land, we had no building, we had a little core group and we just walked around the neighborhood and met people and invited them to church and started having little Bible studies. And today we have a wonderful building there. We have a group of elders, a group of deacons. It's a pretty self supporting church and they do mission out into the outlying areas of Cajamarca
Bert Harper starting a church plant. that is where it starts.
Bill Bradford That's right.
Bert Harper When you look at the Book of Acts, that's what Paul would do on his missionary journeys. And he would ordain elders and every one of those and set them up except Philippi, because they didn't have a synagogue. So he called them deacons.
Bill Bradford Well, there you go.
Bert Harper You know, people get so engrossed in, okay, the church, how it works, right. Well, God's got sort of like psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. There's not just one thing you do. When you see the congregational voting on it in Acts 15 and you see the elders here, you see Paul acting like a bishop, sending everybody anywhere God can operate within those places. There's
Bill Bradford some flexibility there.
Bert Harper There is, but isn't it great when you see it happen, that church, having the land there and now we got to have something on it?
Bill Bradford Well, you take little risks and you do your part and then God raises up somebody else and adds onto it. So we felt it was a privilege to stand on the shoulders of all the prior missionaries that had been up there and the local churches that were already doing the work.
Bert Harper I want to ask you something, and I do this quite often with, different denominations here in America, sometimes with people like me who work here at afr and we were talking earlier about how I get to work with all different denominations and it's awesome. But on the mission field and you're on mission there and you find a brother or sister, it might be a different denomination, but they love Jesus. There's not near as many boundaries keeping you apart down there as the.
Bill Bradford There's not.
Bert Harper I wish we could operate that way here more
Bill Bradford often. Right. You just know, you know, when you find a real believer who loves Jesus, is trusting in his finished work and desires to speak of the blood and righteousness of Christ with others, just know, you know, it's like Paul in 2 Corinthians 2. You get that aroma of Christ and you sense It.
Bert Harper Yeah. Okay. You were down there, and you, got, the church building, elders and everything. How long were y'? All did you serve there?
Bill Bradford Yeah, we were there about 10 years. We were five years in the mountains of Cahmarca, then about five years down the coast in Trujillo. We spent a little time in Lima, too. You know, our role was, pastor, you know, being a pastor of a local church. But our goal was always not to be the lead pastor, but to be mentoring, training at National M. To be the lead pastor. And so, by God's grace, we found a wonderful man, Juan de Dios Santa Cruz Padilla from Cajamarca, and he became the lead pastor. And he's going to be retiring soon. He's just done a great job. And then we also did university ministry. So Alonso is an educator also. And that was a way to raise up new leaders as well. We taught English as a second language. We did a mercy ministry around Cajamarca. And then down in the coast of Trujillo, we made it more formal. So we actually have a clinic that we were able to start and a local elementary school, and now moving into high school, too.
Bert Harper Let's talk a little bit about Peru. If you. The nation itself, the government. No restrictions on the church.
Bill Bradford No. There's freedom of religion in Peru. It used to not be the case. When the Scottish arrived, there was some persecution pressure because it was an officially Catholic country, and so they had to deal with a lot. But by the time we were there, there was no restrictions.
Bert Harper So the freedom to operate there really strengthens. So freedom really makes sense.
Bill Bradford Absolutely, absolutely.
Bert Harper I see it all the time. People say, oh, America. I said, yeah, freed is a very important part of mission work, and it makes it possible. And so that is so important. Tell us a little bit about your family while you were there. I know you and your wife went. And children. I know you said earlier Lawndale was a great place for your children. That's right. Did you have any children while you were in Peru?
Bill Bradford Yeah. So we had one child, our oldest, a girl. She was two years old. We moved. And actually, my wife, Allen, was seven months pregnant. We moved. She took a bigger step of faith than I did. We had our second. Our first son in Cajamarca. She had him in a little clinic there in the city. And it's a wonderful place. But at that time, the clinic, we didn't realize it, but the only medical appliance or, electric appliance in the delivery room was a desk lamp. However, God really Blessed her whole pregnancy and delivery. By the time she went into labor she was probably. There wasn't even enough time for her to have an epidural. So of our four children, he's the only one that she didn't have an epidural for. He was born in about two, three hours. Everything was great. We were home within six or eight hours because there was no reason to be up there. So we had our second there and then we had our third in Lima. We decided we needed to go to more equipped hospital. Our third was breach. So we were traveling a bus down the mountains about a 16 hour drive to Lima. And somewhere along the way the baby shifted to where she was able to have a regular delivery across from the American Embassy in this beautiful hospital. So our third was born also in Peru. Then our fourth was born on a home missionary assignment in Tupelo.
Bert Harper Okay. Wow. When I hear that in your family, missionary kids. So you were there six years, is that
Bill Bradford about 10 years? 10
Bert Harper years when they came home, especially you two year old at that age, did it have any. And I want this because I want people to know about missionary families. We know about pastors Kids and Missionary MKs. Missionary Kids. Was there adjustment for him quite a bit from one culture to the American culture?
Bill Bradford Yeah, all of our children had an adjustment coming back to the States. I mean they really did regard when we told them we were coming back to the States, moving home, it didn't feel like moving home to them. And so although they loved coming home to visit, they couldn't imagine not being in Pru to live. So they all had a little grieving period of time and then they had an adjustment entering into a new social network where they had no history, not much of a deep history with people. And in terms of my son, he was going into sixth grade, he didn't know the athletic teams and the things sixth graders were talking about. So he had more of an adjustment than I realized he was going through. And looking back on it, there are ways I should have been more attentive to him doing that. I kind of got immersed in my pastoral ministry and I think that was a shortcoming of helping him ramp up to USA culture. But it was an adjustment for all of them. And so all of them set loose to their Spanish for a number of years and they just didn't want to talk Spanish or they wanted to get full into where they were currently. But it was later when they were, when all of them hit about 10th or 11th grade, they started saying you know, I want to recover my Spanish and so all of them had been working on it.
Bert Harper Okay. To be bilingual, like that is awesome. It's good no matter what. two other things for sure I wanted to cover was keeping up with what's going on in Peru now. And I was joking, but I'm going to go ahead and use it. When we were doing our pre show survey and everything, there's old song I Left my heart in San Francisco. It's part of your heart there in Peru.
Bill Bradford Absolutely, absolutely. We just kind of feel like, you know, in the Christian life, God puts you different places. He raised you up, put you somewhere for a period of time. You just leave your heart places. So we have our heart up in Cajamarca and down in Trujillo as well. So we stay involved. So our little mission that we formed, it's called Peru Mission. I continue to serve as president of the board and so I get to meet, you know, as the board three or four times a year. But we're always in contact with each other and then we try to go down at least once a year. So I was there. We led, a Lawndale team M down to Peru for a week this past August. It was a great trip.
Bert Harper You came back and you're as a pastor, how has that combining the mission experience and pastoring, when you preach and you challenge and you vision, does the mission work that you did, the service that you did, is it an asset for you to say to Lundell, let's be on mission for
Bill Bradford God? I think so, absolutely. And they want that too. And so Lawndale has a pretty strong foreign mission component and support ministry. And so we're in touch with a lot of mission partners around the world. And you know, it gives us an added level of enthusiasm with what Jesus is doing in different countries. And to think that we can be in the north of Mississippi and have a part to play in that. We regularly have missionaries coming in and sharing about what they're doing. You know, we also try to do that local, not just foreign.
Bert Harper You do missions, that's
Bill Bradford what you do. We do missions. Huh? The church is on mission.
Bert Harper It's on mission.
Bill Bradford The kingdom of God is a wonderful thing. It's a beautiful thing to be a believer and see Jesus kingdom of grace extend locally and around the world.
Bert Harper That's why AFR and afa, the combination of us, our mission statement ends with aiding the church and carrying the Great Commission at here and around the world. Because of the Internet, we're able to do things in reality, in a different way. Well, Bill, thank you for being with us today. Well,
Bill Bradford thanks for having
Bert Harper me. Any last word you would like to say to the pastors out there that say, hey, I just got one place here? Bill Bradford has been in Peru and in America. It's possible that, you were called from Peru to hear possibility of calling a pastor from us to somewhere else in the world.
Bill Bradford It's always a possibility. God's moving us around as he sees fit, and we get to sink our roots down where he's placed us and wonder, well, maybe he's preparing me to do something else as well. But being a local pastor in Tupelo is a wonderful thing and the way we can encourage the church in other places.
Bert Harper It is good to be a part of a city that has strong, churches that are missional. That's exciting. Bill, thank you for being with us. And we want to say thank you for listening to Exploring Missions and whether it's in Peru or here in your hometown, wherever you're listening from, be on Mission for God. Again, thank you for listening to Exploring Missions on AFR and Be on Mission for God.
Introduction Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Welcome to Exploring Missions, connecting mission needs with those equipped by God to meet those needs across the world or across town. And now, the host of Exploring Missions. Bert Harper,
Bert Harper thank you for joining Exploring Missions on this weekend. And as we continue studying what God has done in His Word and what God is doing today, it's amazing that God works in these ways the way he did in the NewSong Testament and how he does it in the 21st century. This is Bert Harper along with Nathan Harper. And Nathan when we read the Book of Acts and we see two of the most prominent men that we have in the Book of Acts would be Paul and Barnabas. And their connection and how God brought them together is an amazing story. And it reminds me of the interview that you will hear in just a, few minutes concerning how God uses connections to get people to do the work of God. It's an amazing thing how God works, isn't it?
Nathan Harper Yeah, it really is. And when you speak of connections in general, you're speaking of relationships. And that's what Disciple making discipleship, really missions hinges on relationships. So yeah, Paul and Barnabas had a special relationship, for sure.
Bert Harper They really did. And the ones I want to is you find it in the book of Acts. Paul has the experience there on the road to Damascus, and he again goes straight to Ananias and God says, I'm going to show this man how much he must suffer for my name's sake. So he preaches, but then he goes to Jerusalem and Nathan, everybody's scared of him except one guy. And that one guy God would use in a significant way. His name was Barnabas. And we've already been introduced to Barnabas in Acts the first part, where he gave money to the church at Jerusalem. So God uses these people throughout the book of Acts, Barnabas is one of the main players, isn't he?
Nathan Harper Yeah, it seems like Barnabas was always bringing something, whether money or here in this case in, Acts chapter nine, he was bringing Paul or Saul, but he was bringing things to the apostles, kind of laying them at their feet and saying, here, this is useful to the Lord. Barnabas was good at noticing those things. But, here he noticed Saul or Paul, verse 27 says took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. And so that really seems like it's all it took was for Barnabas to kind of stand in the gap, to speak up for Paul here made that connection
Bert Harper and that connection would continue because what's going to happen? And we find this also in the book of Acts when we find out the ministry of the Antioch Church, they started persecuting the Christians in Jerusalem. But God's Word, again, using difficulty, one of those people. And those people went to Antioch and there they would preach the word. And. And the apostles decided they need to know more about what's going on. So they sent Barnabas up there and he found they had great grace and great power, didn't he?
Nathan Harper Yeah, that's right. At this point, obviously, the apostles trusted Barnabas greatly and so they sent him up to Antioch to report back what God was doing and what was going on. And so guess what he did when he was up there. He encouraged them all. You know, Barnabas gets his nickname, the, Son of Encouragement. He well earned that. It says he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. But as soon as Barnabas got to Antioch and did ministry there, he turned, around and Left at some point. And it says he went to Tarsus to look for guess who? Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. And so then for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. And that's where the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. So again, Barnabas making that connection with Saul or Paul.
Bert Harper And why would we bring this up? Not only to introduce you to the guests that we have today, but also let you know those connections are valuable in your life. You may be a teacher, but you might need to invite someone to come alongside you. You, you may be going on a short term mission trip and you've been on one before and you know how it affects someone, but you see someone out there that God is using, you say, you know, I believe I could connect with them and bring them along. So this is what Barnabas did, and look what the result was. And so here we're asking you, that are, listening today to consider how God operates. And, Nathan, God's connections with individuals and individuals with others, they're vital. And it's filled in the NewSong Testament and even in the Old Testament, isn't it?
Nathan Harper Yeah, it really is. That's how the gospel spreads, first of all, is through networks of relationships, social networks. And really that idea of a network or the verb form networking, that's really what we're talking about here is whoever you know that does not yet know Jesus, well, guess what? It's your responsibility to introduce them to Jesus or at least give them the opportunity to hear about Jesus and what he's done in your life and inviting them to allow him to be the Lord in their lives so he can change their lives as well. But that's how opportunities for mission and ministry kind of open up. It's getting connected into new networks. And if you're faithful to A, take your existing relationships and connect them into God's work, or B, someone who is already connected into God's work and they want to include you in that, then just be responsive to what the Holy Spirit leads you to do. And it's as simple as that in a lot of ways.
Bert Harper Today on our interview, you're going to hear this connection that God made through individuals and brought them to the mission field, but again, through those same connections brought this individual back, back. And then he encourages others to go with that connection he made before that. So be on the lookout for those that God wants you to build that relationship with. Connect, network, use that phrase, and let God lead you we hope you'll enjoy this interview as we see how God operated in an individual's life and he might be operating in yours. Today on Exploring Missions, we have a special guest, and I'm, anxious to introduce him. He's a fellow pastor. It is Bill Bradford. He is pastor of the Lawndale Presbyterian Church. And, Bill, thank you for joining us on Exploring Missions.
Bill Bradford That's a pleasure, Bert. Glad to be on. And thanks for inviting me.
Bert Harper And pastors and missions, they should go together. Should they?
Bill Bradford Should
Bert Harper I know some that, Oh, no, that's not my calling. But if we'd been called of God. We're on mission for God or should be.
Bill Bradford Absolutely. Whether in our own community or around the world. Ideally both.
Bert Harper That's exactly right. Well, there's another reason that I wanted to share with you, and we'll get to that in a moment. But tell us a little bit about Lawndale and how long you've been there and how things are going there. We love to hear about what God's doing in local churches.
Bill Bradford Lawndale is a great local church. We've been there since January 1, 2010. Lawndale was one of our supporting churches, one of our major supporting churches when we were on mission field. And so we had a strong relationship with them during that time. We came back for a, home missionary assignment, and things changed, and we accepted a call to be the senior pastor there. We've been there going on 17 years now. We're growing in grace. We're a bunch of sinners. We love studying the Word. We try to love each other. We value regular discipleship. A lot of men's groups, women groups during the week, Lord's Day worship. We're involved in mission efforts here in Tupelo and around our state and other parts of the world. So I'm really thankful for London. They've treated me well. They've been real patient with me. It's been a good place to raise my family.
Bert Harper It's good when a pastor and the church match. That's right. The vision is real close to the same. And they have a heart for community. I've seen it when it wasn't like that. And that can be true in any denomination. When it doesn't match, it's kind of a difficulty. It can even lead to turmoil. I've seen that as well.
Bill Bradford Right, right. Well, it's definitely been a great match for us, and I feel very thankful to the Lord for these years I've been able to serve and pastor there.
Bert Harper Well, tell me about your journey with the Lord your start and preparation and everything like that.
Bill Bradford I was raised in a Christian home. My parents were involved in the Navigator ministry.
Bert Harper Oh, wow. Yes.
Bill Bradford And so they were on staff for about 15 years and it took us to various places when I was a child. We lived in Virginia, Rhode island, and we also did two and a half years in NewSong Zealand. It was really in NewSong Zealand when I was about three years old that I think God saved me. My older brother was at a spiritual emphasis week back then you could do that. He came home and sat me down and shared the gospel with me. And at three years old, I remember that I simply knew I was a sinner and needed Jesus. I also remember my mother watching from the doorway. So, you know, the Navigators are really into scripture memory. So dad and mom had us memorizing those 60 verses they do and reading missionary biographies as a child. And so I had that, you know, in my ups and downs of the Christian life since then, but always had that memorizing the word and reading Christian biographies and talking about missions. And they were really good about having the missionaries over to the house. My dad ended up leaving the Navigators and becoming a tax accountant. But they were very involved in their church and had missionaries over for lunch at the house. So I was exposed about what God was doing around the world young. Then I had a few mission experiences through my local church in Jackson, Mississippi. And in college I was involved in Campus Crusade for Christ. And so we tried to do evangelism on the college campus. I went to Ole Miss and I started feeling the tug at that point, being involved in that way, but I wanted to make good on my education. So I graduated accounting and worked in accounting for a couple years, but knew I was going to end up doing something vocational ministry. So after a couple years, I went to seminary. I met my wife in seminary, Allen, and we both went to a Reformed seminary in Jackson. And we were praying about how to be involved in some kind of cross cultural missions. It just so happened that our mission board and our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, called us and said, well, are y' all interested in missions or what? We hadn't, you know, heard from you in a while and we said we were. So they offered us two opportunities and one of those was to go to Peru. And so we went to a city where Wycliffe was finishing up a NewSong Testament and really enjoyed it. And our vision was always we wanted to go with a national. We wanted our home church to be behind us. So we came home and I called up our mission director in my local church. And they said, you wouldn't believe it. We just got back from Peru. I said, well, I just got back from Peru. And then I went back to seminary in the fall, and the mission professor came up to me and says, I hear you're interested in Peru. We have our first Peruvian pastor ever preaching at chapel today. You need to go. And so I went to chapel, and then I had a meeting with the preacher after chapel service, and we hit it off really well. And so he invited me and my family to come down and help plant a church. And so it just worked out that obviously that God was opening that door, and within two or three years, we were down in the north of Peru working with him.
Bert Harper I want to just tell you, three years old and you pray. You are the second person I know at that age. You know who the other one was? No. Dr. James Dobson.
Bill Bradford Wow,
Bert Harper that's a
Bill Bradford good company.
Bert Harper It is. And I heard that. And I remember I said I didn't have. I barely learned to talk. And I love that journey, as God would grow you and the contacts and all that.
Bill Bradford Right.
Bert Harper I'm no one taking a sidetrack here, but the contacts that you made during your journey, as I heard that, yeah. At the right time, at the right place.
Bill Bradford Yes. Every year we would meet with our mission committee to talk about it. And then we were living with another family and kind of off the grid, and they found our number, called us up, invited us to go on that trip, and then to find out my local church was already involved in that country. And then to meet Alonso Ramirez, who was the pastor that was preaching that day at chapel. It just all came together beautifully. You know, we had been praying that God would open the right doors, and he just obviously did it for us.
Bert Harper Okay. Peru, isn't it mainly Spanish, is their heart language,
Bill Bradford the main language. They also have Aymaira in the south, and Quechuan. Various dialects of Quechuan.
Bert Harper Okay, tell me about your journey into the language issue. As always, I loved missions, but I had a hard time with English, much less a foreign language. I
Bill Bradford sympathize.
Bert Harper Yeah. So tell us about that journey, because that is amazing how God does that. Wycliffe had finished up getting their heart language, and at that time, you come along.
Bill Bradford so we don't end up going to that city. We go to another one, because we met Alonzo and invited us to go with him. But the city where we went also had some Wycliffe missionaries that were finishing up their Bibles and We got to know them. Just wonderful. But I went down there. We didn't get down there till we were about 30. I had only had Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
Bert Harper Okay,
Bill Bradford so you don't actually speak, you know, in seminary context, you don't actually speak those,
Bert Harper you just have it on paper.
Bill Bradford Right. And I loved them. I loved my languages, but I never had a language. I would actually go up and speak with someone. So I knew nothing. Like my wife Allen. She had Spanish at Mississippi State, but she didn't do very well. She didn't have a whole lot of motivation. So we had a lot to do. Our strategy for language acquisition was we moved to Cajamarca in the north of Peru, and we immediately began working on relationship building and planting the church. And so we would have tutors come to our house in the morning and we would study our grammars and our flashcards and our rules and all that. And then we'd have church members or becoming church members come over in the afternoons and they would read with us and visit with us. And then we would go out to the market and meet people. And the church really took ownership of us. And they were kind of proud that we were trying hard and that they were helping us. And so it was a wonderful arrangement for
Bert Harper us. Investment,
Bill Bradford investment in us. You know, we were obviously needy. We had to have them invest in us for us to learn Spanish. And they really took us on.
Bert Harper Amen. Tell us about the church you were at there in Peru.
Bill Bradford Yeah, so our situation was just wonderful. Back in the early 20th century, 1920s, the Free Church of Scotland had sent missionaries to the north of Peru. A man named Jon Calvin Mackay, pretty Presbyterian name. He from Scotland, From Scotland. And, they plant a church. They saw the nationals coming in and selling their goods on the Lord's day. And Jon Kevan Mackay says, we have to have a church on the square. So they plant a church. And the Free Church was heavily involved, did wonderful work in the north of Peru. Then they ended up shifting their efforts. Some of those churches ended up going into a, stagnant, declining phase. Dutch missionaries came after them and they did some good work too. Not only church planting, but also a holistic church planting effort. They were doing a lot of humanitarian, like digging wells and improving the standard of living, agriculture, things like that. And even a Korean missionary came. And so we were like the fourth group that came up there after several years. And they had already had a plot of land ready for a new church plant, but nobody there to plant it. So they had bought it in the 80s and it just sat there. So Alonzo and Esther Ramirez, our leaders in our new mission we called Peru Mission, they wanted to plant that church. So we got there, we had a plot of land, we had no building, we had a little core group and we just walked around the neighborhood and met people and invited them to church and started having little Bible studies. And today we have a wonderful building there. We have a group of elders, a group of deacons. It's a pretty self supporting church and they do mission out into the outlying areas of Cajamarca
Bert Harper starting a church plant. that is where it starts.
Bill Bradford That's right.
Bert Harper When you look at the Book of Acts, that's what Paul would do on his missionary journeys. And he would ordain elders and every one of those and set them up except Philippi, because they didn't have a synagogue. So he called them deacons.
Bill Bradford Well, there you go.
Bert Harper You know, people get so engrossed in, okay, the church, how it works, right. Well, God's got sort of like psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. There's not just one thing you do. When you see the congregational voting on it in Acts 15 and you see the elders here, you see Paul acting like a bishop, sending everybody anywhere God can operate within those places. There's
Bill Bradford some flexibility there.
Bert Harper There is, but isn't it great when you see it happen, that church, having the land there and now we got to have something on it?
Bill Bradford Well, you take little risks and you do your part and then God raises up somebody else and adds onto it. So we felt it was a privilege to stand on the shoulders of all the prior missionaries that had been up there and the local churches that were already doing the work.
Bert Harper I want to ask you something, and I do this quite often with, different denominations here in America, sometimes with people like me who work here at afr and we were talking earlier about how I get to work with all different denominations and it's awesome. But on the mission field and you're on mission there and you find a brother or sister, it might be a different denomination, but they love Jesus. There's not near as many boundaries keeping you apart down there as the.
Bill Bradford There's not.
Bert Harper I wish we could operate that way here more
Bill Bradford often. Right. You just know, you know, when you find a real believer who loves Jesus, is trusting in his finished work and desires to speak of the blood and righteousness of Christ with others, just know, you know, it's like Paul in 2 Corinthians 2. You get that aroma of Christ and you sense It.
Bert Harper Yeah. Okay. You were down there, and you, got, the church building, elders and everything. How long were y'? All did you serve there?
Bill Bradford Yeah, we were there about 10 years. We were five years in the mountains of Cahmarca, then about five years down the coast in Trujillo. We spent a little time in Lima, too. You know, our role was, pastor, you know, being a pastor of a local church. But our goal was always not to be the lead pastor, but to be mentoring, training at National M. To be the lead pastor. And so, by God's grace, we found a wonderful man, Juan de Dios Santa Cruz Padilla from Cajamarca, and he became the lead pastor. And he's going to be retiring soon. He's just done a great job. And then we also did university ministry. So Alonso is an educator also. And that was a way to raise up new leaders as well. We taught English as a second language. We did a mercy ministry around Cajamarca. And then down in the coast of Trujillo, we made it more formal. So we actually have a clinic that we were able to start and a local elementary school, and now moving into high school, too.
Bert Harper Let's talk a little bit about Peru. If you. The nation itself, the government. No restrictions on the church.
Bill Bradford No. There's freedom of religion in Peru. It used to not be the case. When the Scottish arrived, there was some persecution pressure because it was an officially Catholic country, and so they had to deal with a lot. But by the time we were there, there was no restrictions.
Bert Harper So the freedom to operate there really strengthens. So freedom really makes sense.
Bill Bradford Absolutely, absolutely.
Bert Harper I see it all the time. People say, oh, America. I said, yeah, freed is a very important part of mission work, and it makes it possible. And so that is so important. Tell us a little bit about your family while you were there. I know you and your wife went. And children. I know you said earlier Lawndale was a great place for your children. That's right. Did you have any children while you were in Peru?
Bill Bradford Yeah. So we had one child, our oldest, a girl. She was two years old. We moved. And actually, my wife, Allen, was seven months pregnant. We moved. She took a bigger step of faith than I did. We had our second. Our first son in Cajamarca. She had him in a little clinic there in the city. And it's a wonderful place. But at that time, the clinic, we didn't realize it, but the only medical appliance or, electric appliance in the delivery room was a desk lamp. However, God really Blessed her whole pregnancy and delivery. By the time she went into labor she was probably. There wasn't even enough time for her to have an epidural. So of our four children, he's the only one that she didn't have an epidural for. He was born in about two, three hours. Everything was great. We were home within six or eight hours because there was no reason to be up there. So we had our second there and then we had our third in Lima. We decided we needed to go to more equipped hospital. Our third was breach. So we were traveling a bus down the mountains about a 16 hour drive to Lima. And somewhere along the way the baby shifted to where she was able to have a regular delivery across from the American Embassy in this beautiful hospital. So our third was born also in Peru. Then our fourth was born on a home missionary assignment in Tupelo.
Bert Harper Okay. Wow. When I hear that in your family, missionary kids. So you were there six years, is that
Bill Bradford about 10 years? 10
Bert Harper years when they came home, especially you two year old at that age, did it have any. And I want this because I want people to know about missionary families. We know about pastors Kids and Missionary MKs. Missionary Kids. Was there adjustment for him quite a bit from one culture to the American culture?
Bill Bradford Yeah, all of our children had an adjustment coming back to the States. I mean they really did regard when we told them we were coming back to the States, moving home, it didn't feel like moving home to them. And so although they loved coming home to visit, they couldn't imagine not being in Pru to live. So they all had a little grieving period of time and then they had an adjustment entering into a new social network where they had no history, not much of a deep history with people. And in terms of my son, he was going into sixth grade, he didn't know the athletic teams and the things sixth graders were talking about. So he had more of an adjustment than I realized he was going through. And looking back on it, there are ways I should have been more attentive to him doing that. I kind of got immersed in my pastoral ministry and I think that was a shortcoming of helping him ramp up to USA culture. But it was an adjustment for all of them. And so all of them set loose to their Spanish for a number of years and they just didn't want to talk Spanish or they wanted to get full into where they were currently. But it was later when they were, when all of them hit about 10th or 11th grade, they started saying you know, I want to recover my Spanish and so all of them had been working on it.
Bert Harper Okay. To be bilingual, like that is awesome. It's good no matter what. two other things for sure I wanted to cover was keeping up with what's going on in Peru now. And I was joking, but I'm going to go ahead and use it. When we were doing our pre show survey and everything, there's old song I Left my heart in San Francisco. It's part of your heart there in Peru.
Bill Bradford Absolutely, absolutely. We just kind of feel like, you know, in the Christian life, God puts you different places. He raised you up, put you somewhere for a period of time. You just leave your heart places. So we have our heart up in Cajamarca and down in Trujillo as well. So we stay involved. So our little mission that we formed, it's called Peru Mission. I continue to serve as president of the board and so I get to meet, you know, as the board three or four times a year. But we're always in contact with each other and then we try to go down at least once a year. So I was there. We led, a Lawndale team M down to Peru for a week this past August. It was a great trip.
Bert Harper You came back and you're as a pastor, how has that combining the mission experience and pastoring, when you preach and you challenge and you vision, does the mission work that you did, the service that you did, is it an asset for you to say to Lundell, let's be on mission for
Bill Bradford God? I think so, absolutely. And they want that too. And so Lawndale has a pretty strong foreign mission component and support ministry. And so we're in touch with a lot of mission partners around the world. And you know, it gives us an added level of enthusiasm with what Jesus is doing in different countries. And to think that we can be in the north of Mississippi and have a part to play in that. We regularly have missionaries coming in and sharing about what they're doing. You know, we also try to do that local, not just foreign.
Bert Harper You do missions, that's
Bill Bradford what you do. We do missions. Huh? The church is on mission.
Bert Harper It's on mission.
Bill Bradford The kingdom of God is a wonderful thing. It's a beautiful thing to be a believer and see Jesus kingdom of grace extend locally and around the world.
Bert Harper That's why AFR and afa, the combination of us, our mission statement ends with aiding the church and carrying the Great Commission at here and around the world. Because of the Internet, we're able to do things in reality, in a different way. Well, Bill, thank you for being with us today. Well,
Bill Bradford thanks for having
Bert Harper me. Any last word you would like to say to the pastors out there that say, hey, I just got one place here? Bill Bradford has been in Peru and in America. It's possible that, you were called from Peru to hear possibility of calling a pastor from us to somewhere else in the world.
Bill Bradford It's always a possibility. God's moving us around as he sees fit, and we get to sink our roots down where he's placed us and wonder, well, maybe he's preparing me to do something else as well. But being a local pastor in Tupelo is a wonderful thing and the way we can encourage the church in other places.
Bert Harper It is good to be a part of a city that has strong, churches that are missional. That's exciting. Bill, thank you for being with us. And we want to say thank you for listening to Exploring Missions and whether it's in Peru or here in your hometown, wherever you're listening from, be on Mission for God. Again, thank you for listening to Exploring Missions on AFR and Be on Mission for God.
Bert and Nathan Harper reflect on how God uses relationships and connections to advance the gospel, drawing inspiration from Barnabas, Paul, and the early church. They consider how encouragement, introductions, and a willingness to join in someone else’s work can open doors for ministry.
Then Bert talks with Bill Bradford, pastor of Lawndale Presbyterian Church, about the winding path that led him and his family to serve as missionaries in Peru. Bill shares how Scripture, missionary biographies, church relationships, and a series of timely connections helped guide the family to Cajamarca and Trujillo. He describes learning Spanish through daily life and relationships, planting and strengthening churches, mentoring local leaders, and serving through education and a clinic.
The conversation also explores the joys and challenges of missionary family life, including the adjustment of returning to the United States, staying connected to Peru, and bringing a global mission perspective into local church ministry. Hear an encouraging reminder that God can use the relationships and opportunities already around you to help you serve—locally or across the world.
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