Our Family
Mark and Bekah Perry are serving the Lord in the north of Chile with Gospel Mission of South America. They are part of a church planting team that God has brought them to in a display of his providence.
Mark grew up in a Christian family in Westerville, Ohio. From a young age he heard the gospel and was taught the Bible. At the age of four, he realized his need of salvation from his sin and put his faith in Jesus Christ. Throughout his life, God has given him opportunities to serve. He attended the Bible Institute of Ohio, Northland Baptist Bible College, and Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. Upon graduation, he returned to Westerville Bible Church as an assistant pastor where he has served since 2003, teaching, discipling, and serving.
Bekah was reared in a pastor’s home near Boston, Massachusetts. She heard the gospel and responded in faith in Jesus Christ as a young girl in her Christian school. She met Mark when they were attending Northland Baptist Bible College together. Leaving New England and moving to the Midwest, she came to Westerville Bible Church after she was married. She has ministered to teens, children, seniors, and even served as the church custodian.
Early on in their marriage, Mark and Bekah had a great burden for foreign missions—they even got engaged in Mexico. While they were gaining ministry experience at Westerville Bible Church, God redirected them to serve Jesus’ church in Ohio. They always had a special place in their heart for missions, visiting fields in Mexico, Uruguay, Chile, and Germany as well as many places in the United States.
After visiting the northern desert region of Chile in February 2015 and seeing the great spiritual need, they were encouraged by David and Kristi Flinck to pray that God would supply workers for His harvest field. Imagine their surprise when God began growing a burden in their own hearts to serve in this way! After seeking counsel from their elders and receiving the support of their church, they began deputation in the fall of 2015. They concluded deputation meetings in December of 2016, having raised the needed support. In January of 2017, they moved to south Texas to take up Spanish language study there. They moved to Chile in December of 2017.
Our Sending Church
Westerville Bible Church was our church home and family for fourteen years. We learned to love our brothers and sisters in Christ as we worshiped together and ministered to each other every week. God gave us incredibly varied opportunities to serve: children, teens, adults, seniors, teaching, discipling, and almost every possible kind of church ministry. We may not be good at everything, but we can quite literally say we’ve done everything! One of the things that encourages us about ministry in Chile is that the things we learned and loved to do each week in Westerville we are using to serve in some of the same ways in Chile.
Our Church Home Away from Home
We are thankful for God’s grace in providing us with a loving church family in Chile, the Iglesia Berea Centro Bíblico de Antofagasta. We relish the opportunity to be part of this loving family of faith, where we meet together in Jesus’ name on the Lord’s Day to read, sing, pray, and hear the Word of God.