Hi! I'm Fern Pannell, a Marlborough girl and single missionary now living in South America.Here's my story in a nutshell....

 

At a young age I came to understand my personal need for Christ and asked Him to forgive me for all the times I had disobeyed Him and to give me eternal life. Later, when I was twelve, my family joined Marlborough Bible  Baptist Church. I started learning more about the Bible and soon I realised I should obey God's word by being baptised, to show publicly that I am a follower of Him and was willing to obey Him. 

 

As I grew, God gave me a strong desire to become involved in overseas missionary work. When I was a teenager, our church youth group went to a national youth camp  each year and while at my first camp, God seemed to confirm to me through the preaching that week, His will for me to work in foreign missions.

 

After studying in the Blenheim Bible Institute, I set off a few years later for Peru to work and learn alongside a missionary family in the capital city of Lima. After two years of language and cultural learning, I returned to New Zealand and began to pray about where to go next. Finally, in 2010, He lead me back to Peru - this time to the Andes Mountains, where, by God's grace, I have been living and helping in the various ministries of Iglesia Bautista Vida Abundante (Abundant Life Baptist Church) ever since. 

I have been blessed beyond measure by God's goodness and faithfulness in my life. He has provided me with wonderful teachers, pastors and friends along the way and has taken care of every need in this big adventure we call “life”! To God be the glory.