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BU professor follows father's mission legacy

Oct. 13, 2009

By Matt Larson
Reporter

Think of four canyons larger than the Grand Canyon and tall, straight pines that blanket the slopes of this mountainous region.

"You can stand on this canyon and the wind almost blows you up. You are right up there with the birds," said Spanish lecturer Joan Barrett about the Chihuahua region buried in Mexico's heart to which she returns twice a year.

Yet Barrett does not think of vacation when she thinks of this region.

Far from an exotic getaway, the caves that dot the slopes of the canyons provide homes for the local Tarahumaran people, and it is for their sake that Barrett makes the 20-hour drive along steep, rocky, single-lane roads.

Daughter of Baptist minister William R. Parmer, Barrett has been making the trip since a young age. In 1964, her father founded the ministry called Gloria al Padre (GAP) that provides medical, construction and agricultural help and also ministers to the Tarahumaran people. Barrett took on the responsibility of running the nonprofit organization as its executive director after her father's sudden death in 2004.

Barrett oversees three ministry sites and one missionary home spread throughout the region. The current focus has been in the Cienega Prieta site, where Barrett and other GAP staff built the William R. Parmer Medical Clinic, her father's last promise two weeks before he died.

Parmer believed God called him to "stand in the gap" similar to the call found in Ezekiel 22:29-30, which states, "The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice. I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none."

Possibly the most prominent way in which GAP helps the poor and needy of the area is to provide medical services through medicine, glasses and hair treatments.

Chesterfield, Mo. senior Justin Kralemann had the opportunity to join Barrett on a trip over spring break in March 2008.

"I was the first student to go with Professor Barrett and it was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had at Baylor," Kralemann said.

Although he greatly benefitted from watching diagnoses, his favorite moment of the trip came while worshipping around a fire with the GAP work crew and several of the Tarahumaran people from the region.

"I got to stand up and read a Spanish verse about something on my heart," Kralemann said. "They responded about how it had touched them. It was great to bridge the gap between languages because God speaks through all languages."

Although medical help provides a great means to serve the Tarahumarans, it is not the chief goal of GAP.

Above medical, construction and agriculture goals, GAP makes it very clear that its primary goal is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost.

When asked if her team evangelizes to the locals, Barrett could not suppress a smile.

"Oh yes we do," Barrett said.

While the doctors see patients who walk for hours to receive assistance, Barrett and her team run vacation Bible school activities for the children and build relationships with the local adults.

Barrett met Sonia, a teacher at a local bilingual boarding school, this way as well as Luis, Maria-Isabel and their daughter Pamela. The latter three were among the first converts to Christianity on the Cienega Prieta site and now maintain the agriculture there.

It is for people like those four that Barrett's heart goes out to as the view from the canyon rim not only bodes the beautiful side of the Tarahumara region but also the darkest.

"You can also stand on top of the canyon and see the drug dealers," Barrett said. "[The GAP compounds] are smack dab in the middle of the drug trade."

Marijuana production makes up 85 percent of the population's work in the area and contributes to the high levels of poverty.

"The fathers sell the daughters into marriage for bushels of corn," Barrett said. "I met a girl, 19 years old, (who) had eight children, started at 11. We took the 9-year-old to Chihuahua and he marveled at the automatic doors at Wal-Mart."

Barrett sees herself as fulfilling the great commission found in Matthew 28 as well as her father's legacy and feels blessed to see the community opening up to them. Barrett noted that over time the medicine showed the Tarahumaran people that the GAP ministries truly wanted to serve them.

Barrett's impact did not just stay with the Tarahumaran but returned with her to Baylor in the form of her students. Kralemann applauded professors like Barrett who involve students with their personal work and encouraged fellow students to seek out similar opportunities.

"Professors are demonstrating leadership necessary to go out and serve the world," Kralemann said. "And we should take the opportunity we have at Baylor to follow that lead."

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