Baxter Graduates: Jacobo Chalco and Jorge Suarez

During the past few days, I had the opportunity to interview two graduates of Baxter Institute. Here are brief summaries of their stories.

Jacobo Chalco, from Lima, Peru, came to Baxter in the late 1960s when the school was still in Mexico. He graduated in 1971 and spent a short time working with Jerry Hill in southeast Mexico before returning to Peru. He began a church in the house of his parents. He married Marcela in August 1973. Although he was very active in ministry, he supported himself and his family with a small hardware store. He was instrumental in the beginning of the Panamericana Norte congregation, working with Evert Pickartz in obtaining the meeting place, and the church which was meeting in his parents’ house moved to Panamericana Norte.
Evert Pickartz was a pioneer in the mission effort of churches of Christ in Peru. He distributed tracts in Lima and other parts of Peru in the late 1950s and sent Oscar Aquilar to establish a church in Lima in the early 1960s. In 1962 Glenn and Janice Kramar became the first full-time missionaries from the North American Churches of Christ to work in Peru. They were followed by Bert Perry, Carrol Robertson, Hans Dederscheck and other full-time missionaries. When Jacobo returned to Peru after graduating from Baxter, he worked with the aforenamed missionaries. Jacobo told me that Pickartz was not keen on contact with others and that he was strong on the authority of the evangelist, not encouraging the rapid development of local church leaders such as elders and deacons.
In 2002, Jacobo and Marcela moved to the U.S. to work with the Crieve Hall church in Nashville to establish a Hispanic ministry where they continue to minister.

Jorge Suarez graduated from Baxter in 1984 and returned to his native Colombia where he worked to establish the church in the Cauca Valley north of Cali. He established two congregations in Tuluá and was instrumental in the conversion of some of the workers who continue to provide leadership in that city. After about a decade in Tuluá, he worked 10 years in the establishment of the church in Armenia. In 2004, he agreed to work with the church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee to establish a work among the Hispanics, beginning with no members and today having a congregation of 60-70 members.
Jorge told me that one of the great joys of his life has been the opportunity to share the gospel with and to baptize a number of the members of his physical family.