Drum family off on a five-year mission to Peru

By LAURIE DRUM Special to the Examiner

If you had asked Billy and Laurie Drum 10 years ago if they ever thought they might be missionaries to Peru, you would have gotten a resounding, full-bellied laugh! Not only had they not ever considered missionary service, but they didn't even have a church home at that time!

"In 1997, we were visiting local churches in hopes of finding a good place to raise our boys," says Laurie Drum. "We visited a church in Navasota on what happened to be their Mission Celebration Sunday. During the service, they showed a slide show of their mission trips to Mexico. We were so moved by the images on the screen that we were sitting in the pew with tears streaming down our faces. We knew that we wanted to be a part of the next available mission."

That was the beginning of a long road that leads to Peru. The Drum family went on many trips to serve the people of Mexico. At first, it was for short, 2-4 day trips. Then they became volunteer sponsors on youth mission trips. "Soon, our addiction to missions was completely out of hand!" says Billy Drum, 43-year-old father of 3. "We found that a week or two in the summer just wasn't enough." The Drums began serving with a mission organization for a month at a time, which turned into entire summers in Mexico. Word spread that they were "mission-aholics" and groups began asking them to lead trips for them. The Drums found themselves taking 60-80 people across the border at a time. Over the years, hundreds have served with the Drum family in Mexico.

Last year, after attending a Global Focus mission conference in College Station, they began hearing God calling them to a new ministry field. They applied to The Mission Society in the Spring of 2006 and were formally accepted after Missionary Candidate Training in July. Their full-time mission service assignment will be in Peru.

The Drum family (Laurie and Billy Drum, Ryan (19), Miles (16), and Sarah (3)) will soon be leaving Navasota and moving to the Andes mountains to begin their service. They will be serving many people groups in Peru. In the Andean city of Huancayo, they will be serving a mostly Quechua population. There are an estimated 3,000 homeless children on the streets of Huancayo. One of the largest ministries that The Drums will be working with is Kid's Club bible study groups, working to teach children about Christ. They will also be working in the Amazon jungle areas with villages that are largely untouched by the gospel. On a recent medical mission to the jungle village of Shiringamazu, 2,300 people received medical treatment and 1,000 of those accepted Jesus Christ after hearing the gospel.

Laurie, a veteran teacher with 14 years of experience in Navasota ISD schools, will continue teaching. She spent time in December visiting her new teaching assignment in Huancayo, Peru. "I'm really looking forward to being able to use my teaching skills and work in another culture," says Drum. Because of visa constraints, Laurie cannot earn a salary in Peru. Her teaching will be a gift to the local school and a ministry in itself. She will teach full-time, in Spanish and English.

Billy, also an NISD teacher, will be doing work with agricultural missions. Drum holds a degree in agriculture / horticulture from Texas A&M and spent 12 years in horticulture and forestry before earning his teaching certification for science. "We are working to build an agricultural center in a village in Peru. There is a great need to improve the growing conditions and teach appropriate techniques and technology to the people of the area," says Drum. Many of the farmers of the region are first-generation farmers or farmers who simply have no means of improving their yield. "All of these people still farm by hand - with an ox pulling a plow or by using a hand-plow and hoe to work their entire field. These are hard-working people who are doing the absolute best that they can with what they have. We just want to help them in any way that we can."

The Drums are in their last two months on American soil. They are selling their house in Navasota and all of their possessions and preparing to leave the Brazos Valley. "It's rough," says Laurie. "We are leaving our friends and family and all that is familiar behind. This is 'home'. It's hard when I think about what I'm leaving behind. I just keep focusing on the people in Peru and the needs there. When I think about them, I can't think about turning back. I want to be there for them. They are really in need."

In late June, the Drum family will head for South America to train with Brazilian and Cuban missionaries at a mission training conference. After some Spanish language training in the fall, they will be off to Peru for a 5-year commitment to serve the Peruvian people.

Visit www. drumsforchrist.org for more information or give them a call at 979-324-8002.