Sheridan and Anita Stanton have served the Lord in Peru for 28 years. Their main ministry is church planting and they have helped establish churches all over the country. Sheridan also works to train pastors and Anita works with the ladies' ministry and developing children's material.

June 23, 2012

Dear friends,

THE MONTH OF JUNE IS A MONTH OF REMEMBRANCE.

One year ago today my father, Ralph Stanton, went to his homecoming in heaven.  I’m sure he is singing in the choir and probably has a quartet going by now!  He loved to sing! We miss him, but would not want him to leave where he is now.  I will see him again one day, and what a great day that will be.  I can still hear my dad singing, “what a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see, and I look upon His face, the One who saved me by His grace…”   Your prayers for my Mom today would be appreciated.   She is doing well, but today has been a little tough.

Ralph & Virginia Stanton

June is also Founder’s Month for Baptist Faith Missions.  This year celebrates seventy years of BFM since it officially began.  Many of our supporting churches have given some very generous special offerings during the month.  If your church has not given this special offering in June you can still do so!  I was with the Storms Creek Missionary Baptist Church of Ironton, Ohio on Sunday the 17^th and they gave a substantial offering (over five figures).  It has been suggested that every family of each church consider giving $70 dollars in honor of seventy years of missionary service of BFM.  Baptist Faith Missions is blessed with a great legacy of faithful churches and Godly men and women dedicated to the cause of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ and organizing New Testament Baptist Churches for the glory of our Lord.

SPEAKING OF GREAT LEGACIES – Marguerite Hallum, passed away in June; she was 94 years old.  Marguerite was the daughter of Richard and Mary Hallum, the first missionaries to Peru for Baptist Faith Missions.  Brother Hallum was fifty-two years of age when he went to Peru.  He was cleared to go with the Amazon Valley Baptist Faith Mission (the original mission organization that became Baptist Faith Mission).  However, in 1929 the Hallums lost all they had in the economic collapse of that year.  After a few years Brother Hallum sold their small house and put the money in the bank in preparation once again for traveling to Peru.   But in 1932, the banks collapsed again and once again they lost all they had.  He was not daunted because he knew that God had called him to Peru to preach the gospel to the lost.  Three years later in 1935 they finally arrived in Peru to live a life of service and left a legacy of what it means to live by faith in the promises of God.  Today, there are over one hundred and sixty churches and mission works affiliated with Baptist Faith Missions in Peru.

He started the very first Baptist Church in all of Peru; the First Baptist Church of Iquitos, organized in 1937.  Marguerite was sixteen years old when her father and mother arrived for the first time in Peru in 1935.  She labored with them for twenty years on the mission field until 1955.  They labored tirelessly as great soldiers of the Cross all during the difficult years of World War II.  The United States was hard pressed with the war effort and churches did not have a lot to send to the missionaries in the foreign fields but the Hallums carried on by faith.  Faith is the middle name of BFM and like Richard Hallum, all missionaries know that nothing is guaranteed except the promises of God.

Anita and I attended Marguerite Hallum’s funeral in Hammond, Louisiana on Monday the 11^th of June.  I was honored to speak on behalf of Baptist Faith Missions.  Most of the folks that attended her funeral were not aware of the Hallum’s long years of service in Peru and we did not know much about her after they left Peru.  We discovered that after Marguerite returned to Louisiana at age thirty-six; she joined the Woodland Park Baptist Church along with her parents.  She never married but she loved children and gave her life to teaching Sunday School; she taught for fifty-two years.  She never drove an automobile and she never owned a home. She had a keen mind, wonderful since of humor and was loved by all that knew her.  Most of the crowd that attended her funeral was folks that had been in her Sunday School classes.  I can imagine that thousands of Peruvians were lined up in heaven to meet her when she crossed the threshold of Glory to say, “Thank-you, Marguerite!”  I hope she has had a chance to meet my Dad by now; how I would have enjoyed observing that encounter!  June has been a month of remembrance.  Until next month.

In HIM by HIS grace,

Sheridan and Anita Stanton
Furlough Address:
1012 Balsam Drive
Lexington, KY 40504
(859) 277-3716 – mission house
(859) 490-5370 – cell in States
(614) 500-8823
sestantonperu[at]hotmail.com – Sheridan
arstantonperu[at]gmail.com – Anita

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