Melvin and Susan Purvis are both from Birmingham, Alabama. They met while Melvin was serving in the U.S. Navy and were married on August 15, 1970. They moved to Greenville, South Carolina, in the fall of 1975 in order for Melvin to attend Bob Jones University. They already had one child when they moved, and two more were born while Melvin was in school. He graduated in 1981, and the Purvises started deputation for the country of Chile a short time later. While on deputation, their fourth child was born. The family arrived in Chile on Thanksgiving Day, 1985, and planned to be there for the rest of their lives, or until old age made an effective ministry impossible.

Slightly over 20 years later, the Lord brought the Purvises back to the U.S.A. in answer to the tremendous need to reach America's approximately 43 million Hispanics. The Lord clearly led them to settle in the Ashville, Alabama, area and opened one door after another in order to make it possible.

Melvin and Susan are now living near Ashville, Alabama, and have a regularly scheduled Sunday evening preaching service in Spanish. Numbers are small at this point, but doors are opening. They and the Hispanic community in area are becoming better acquainted with each other. A local supporting church has opened its facilities for the Purvises' ministry to Hispanics, and a number of new contacts have been made in the area with some promising results.

A youth group from another supporting church came to help with a VBS, which the Lord greatly used. If any of you would like to expose your youth group and/or church to a real missionary experience including trying to function in another language and being exposed to elements of a different culture, then you might want to contact the Purvises. Melvin and Susan would be glad to assist you, and Alabama is accessible for most people!