JOHN AND ALTA HATCHER'S THRILLING TESTIMONIES

I was born to Albert and Beautrix Hatcher on April 30, 1925, at Alexandria, Kentucky. Both of my parents were Christians, and members of the First Baptist Church of Alexandria. My mother was an only child, and she always regretted not having brothers and sisters. When she married, her desire was to have a large family. When her first child, Charles, was born the doctor told her she could not have any more.

Mother told me this one day as we were picking beans together. I was seventeen. She said, "I told the Lord that if He would give me another son I would give it back to Him. And you are that son." But God, also, gave mother and dad two more children, my sisters, Neree and Jessie. All of us were saved at an early age and baptized into the fellowship of the First Baptist Church at Alexandria.

During my childhood I was rather puny. I worked with my mother in the garden and lighter chores rather than the heavier farm work. We enjoyed each other's company. When we would be hoeing I usually fell behind because Mom was a fast worker. Then I would come to where all of my row was hoed. Mother would stretch her arms out and hoe my row of plants. Then we would be together side by side again to talk and enjoy one another.

There is where I learned about my Heavenly Father's love who picks me up and carries me when it seems I can do no more nor go any farther.

One Sunday morning I was sitting in the church service as usual, somewhat close to the front, which was not so usual. I was nine years old. The pastor, Arley Jones, extended his arms and described the death of Jesus on the cross. A pain pierced my heart. I got up, ran to where my father was sitting, and laid my head on his knee. I realized I was lost and on the way to Hell. He thought my rupture was hurting. When I got home I told Mom that I wanted to be baptized. She was very careful to explain, right then, that baptism does not save but that Jesus saves. She had come from a baptismal regeneration background. The next service I went forward and confessed Jesus in Whom I had believed. The assurance and joy of being saved have been mine ever since.

I believed the Lord was calling me for His service while I was in high school. I graduated in 1943, in the midst of the Second World War. I really did not feel inclined to accept the Lord's invitation. As soon as I graduated I joined the Merchant Marines. Several months later I participated in the invasion of France. Ours was the first of a Merchant ship convoy to enter the beachhead area. Of the five ships, one was bombed and one hit mines. Floating bodies and destroyed ships protruding out of the water is not a beautiful sight. God was gracious and protected me. When the war was over I knew I had another job to do. I had served almost three years.

Two weeks after leaving the Merchant Marines I entered Georgetown Baptist College in 1946. In the spring of 1947, Dr. W.W. Enete, veteran missionary to Brazil, spoke at the Georgetown Baptist Church and that night I publicly dedicated my life as a missionary to Brazil. Exciting days were ahead. I was elected president of the Mission Club. there were Vacation Bible Schools, revivals and the opening of Missions. But the greatest thing that happened during this time was when we were planning for the return of old students and the coming of new ones. We got their names and wrote to each and told them we would meet them at the train or bus stations and provide transportation for them and their baggage.

As the names were being distributed I commented that I would like to write a girl who was interested in being a missionary's wife. Someone spoke up and said, "Alta McKeen is a missionary volunteer and she stayed out of college this year to teach." I wrote Alta and told her that I was going to be a missionary to Brazil.

When we met, I liked her, but I had to know if she really knew it was the Lord's will for her to give her life on the mission field of Brazil. She assured me she had already dedicated her life for this calling; six months later, on December 20, 1947, we were married. In December 2000 we have had 67 wonderful years together, forty-five of them in Brazil. What a privilege! 

God gave us nine years of training and preparation. While in college I pastored a Mission of the First Baptist Church in Shelbyville. It was organized in 1948 as the Second Street Baptist Church with forty-nine members. Today it is named Highland Baptist Church. In August 1950, I was called to pastor the Beattyville Baptist Church. God burdened our heart to evangelize in towns and villages around this mountain town. I and two other mission pastors worked in five missions. We built or remodeled three buildings. A bus ministry was started that proved very successful.

After two years God called me to pastor the newly organized People's Baptist Church in Alton, Illinois. I worked there with a friend, Bill Beeny. In three years, five churches were organized and a Bible School for preachers was started. Many men were called in the ministry. Some of those men were Del Mayfield, Walter Lauerman, Jim Hicks, Bill Roberts, John Keltie and Buel Martin.

"What happened to your call to Brazil?", was the question many asked during those nine years. The reply was always the same, "Not a thing." On Sunday morning, January 2nd, a missionary from the Philippines preached at our church. They were doing deputation work to raise support. On that same morning Alta was in the hospital giving birth to our son, David. It was at this time our hearts knew the time had come to go to Brazil.

Brother Clarence Walker had told me about Baptist Faith Mission, and at the Annual Bible Conference at Ashland Avenue I had met and heard Brother Hafford Overbey, the secretary of BFM. We were receiving the Mission Sheets and in June 1955, there was an appeal for a missionary to go to Manaus to help in a Seminary that Brother Royal Calley was planning. This gripped my heart. I called Brother Overbey and told him of our desire. To my surprise he said, "When you were pastor at Beattyville several years ago, I heard you preach at Ashland Avenue's Spring Conference, and God spoke to me and said, 'I have called this John Hatcher to Brazil' and I have been waiting for your phone call since that day."

We were accepted after meeting with the directors and three months later, September, 1955, we were on our way to Brazil.

ALTA'S TESTIMONY

I was born to Baptist parents, Ancil and Janie McKeehan, at Corbin, Kentucky, on September 14, 1925. My grandfather Carr was a Baptist Pastor for over forty years. All my relatives on both sides of the family were Baptists and their descendants continue to be. I praise God for my Christian heritage.

My father was a veteran of World War I. When I was six years old he bought a farm near Elizabethtown, Kentucky. My church home as I grew up was the Gilead Baptist Church at Glendale, Kentucky where two-thirds of the church membership was composed of the 220 children and workers of the Kentucky Baptist Children's Home. I was saved at the age of seven as my mother read and explained John 3:14-15. With the large number of children in our church I was blessed to be able to teach a class from the time I was eleven years old.

When I was nine years old, our car broke down on the way home from church. While my father was fixing it, I listened attently to what my mother was telling our neighbor, Mrs. Osborne, who rode to church with us. She was telling her about a missionary to Africa whom she had taught in Grade School; her family had not heard from her for months. Mail was very slow. As I listened, God spoke to my heart, "I want you to be a missionary when you grow up." A year later an evangelist came to our church and taught us about the importance of children praying for their partner from the time they could talk. Well, I began to pray that He would give me a missionary husband. I had my first date when I was 21 years old.

I studied at Georgetown College for two years and worked at the Children's Home during the summers. Teachers were scarce because of WWII. At the invitation of my former high school principal I decided to stay out of college and teach for a year. Just before I returned to college for Summer School I received a letter from mission volunteer John Hatcher. As I read the letter God seemed to assure me that this young man was to be my husband. We met, we agreed about the Lord's will for our lives, and in six months we married in the Lord. I completed my college work with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a teaching certificate in August, 1948. Then I worked on my PhTdegree (Put Hubby Through). John graduated in 1949.

In December 2000 we completed fifty-three wonderful years together. His blessings upon us and our five children have been countless. What a privilege to be a missionary's wife! Thank you for having had a part in our mission work in Brazil.

A SUMMARY OF 45 YEARS IN BRAZIL

I was called to be a missionary in the fall of 1946, while hearing Dr. W.W. Enete, a 40 year veteran Southern Baptist missionary to Brazil, tell of the spiritual need of that country. Alta and I married in December of 1947 knowing the will of God for us was to serve as missionaries there.

In June, 1955, God touched our hearts that it was time to go to Brazil, nine years after our surrender to His call. During nine years I had worked in ten mission churches and in a Bible School for training men and women for ministry in the States of Kentucky and Illinois. Those nine years of work and training were the most vital period for our years in Brazil. We had four children under the age of six.

When we went to get our physicals and required shots for traveling, the doctor assured Alta that she was crazy and lacked love to take four small children to a tropical climate where the death rate of children was extremely high. God does not make mistakes. All five of our children (Kathy was born in Brazil) are dedicated Christians serving the Lord. One child, a son, was born dead and was buried in a cardboard box in the back yard in the interior of the State of Para, on the banks of the Nhamunda River.

We were sent out from the People's Baptist Church of Alton, Illinois, where I was pastor, to Brazil through Baptist Faith Missions. In Manaus, we became members of the Tabernacle Baptist Church, organized through the work of Francisco Santiago and J. F. Brandon, the first missionary of BFM in Brazil. Brother Santiago was pastor of the church until he was about 82. The church called me as pastor in 1967 when Santiago resigned.

During our first term of three years we built the Tabernacle Baptist Church building that had a seating capacity for 350 persons. Many of you will remember this building as the dream of H. H. Overbey, who zealously raised funds through the Mission Sheets. Many of you will remember having given for that construction.

Our attraction to Manaus came from an article in the Mission Sheets stating that the directors were praying for a missionary who was prepared and felt called to help in the establishing of a Bible School for pastors. After four months on the field it was a joy and privilege to begin, in a very simple and humble setting, The Baptist Theological Seminary of Manaus.

At the end of our first year we started the Chapada Baptist Mission. Services were held in a small slab building with a palm leaf thatched roof. Chapada was on the outside of town and inaccessible by car most of the time.

It was at this little church that our children got their Bible training from their mother who taught their Sunday School Class. Today, on the same spot, there is a three story building, with a six lane street which goes from the center of the city to the International Airport. Since I resigned in 1967 this church has always had native pastors. The church, because of growth, has built two brick buildings without any offerings outside of their church. The Chapada church has also built four other buildings in places.

When Wanderley de Melo became the pastor of this church he supported himself with a small wholesale business. He had a rented building about 20 by 30 feet where he sold only essential items: rice, coffee, flour, toilet paper, etc. He turned everything over to the Lord and God showered the blessings. Wanderley said: "When most people make money they forget God, but it was then that I remembered Him and wanted to give it all to Him." Two years ago the Chapada Church called our son, David, to be co-pastor with Wanderley. David had worked with Paul at the Tabernacle Church for about sixteen years.

After three years we returned home for our furlough. When we returned Brother Harold and Sister Marie Bratcher came to Brazil on the same plane with us. At that time they had one child, Asa Mark. Those were great days: washing clothes with no electric and taking baths with almost no water. Not to mention the problem of toilet flushing.

Two building projects kept us busy the second term: A two story school building and a large church. The two story building would serve for Seminary, Sunday School, and, also, to house the Christian School, The Baptist Educational Center of the Americas. After forty years students who have studied there are scattered all over Brazil as well as in other parts of the world. The construction of the large launch with living accommodations that traveled on the Amazonas and Black Rivers was also the dream of H. H. Overbey. After it was finished our weekends and school vacations were spent in the interiors. We held Vacation Bible Schools, built buildings, held revivals, and helped pastors.

When we came to Brazil my desire was to plant a church in every State, but the only way out of Manaus was by plane or boat. Also, I could not just go off and leave the schools and church. After 20 years our children were grown and most of them had married. God called our son, Paul and his wife, Wanda, to come back to where he had been reared. The years were passing and I needed to move to a part of Brazil that would be more accessible to the whole country. I resigned as pastor of the Tabernacle Church and Paul was called as pastor. He also assumed the direction of the Seminary and School.

On February 10, 1976, we loaded our furniture and other belongings on a truck and moved 3,000 miles to the State of San Paulo. We opened two works simultaneously in the cities of Garca and Galia. A few weeks later the mission in Duartina was begun. All of our works have been started without any saved people. Kathy was with us when we moved to Garca but soon went to the States for College. It usually takes from three to five years to develop a work with some stable Christians. Then it takes time to train someone to lead the new church. All of this takes an average of five years. So we always started more than one work at a time.

The first time the Mission gave us money to update a car we asked permission to use it to buy buses for carrying people to church. With the allotted car money and our personal funds as well as part of a salary for monthly payments, we were able to buy four large buses. Three were used to bring people to services. One was remodeled into a traveling Chapel and was used in several cities for services each week and for Vacation Bible Schools. Later in these same cities, buildings were bought or constructed.

With twelve years of the Lord's blessings, there was work in twelve cities and almost all with permanent buildings, and young pastors who had been saved and trained with us. I felt it was time to move on to another State. In June I resigned and we moved to the State of Parana for the purpose of establishing another center of outreach. In August of 1986 our son-in-law, Odali, and Kathy, our daughter, came to work with us in Garca. The Central Baptist Church in Garca called Odali Barros, our son-in-law, as pastor.

After our children were grown and did not need the year of schooling in the States, we dispensed with the year furlough for fourteen years. In August, 1988, we took a year off for furlough and upon returning in 1989 we began working with our mission church in Cornelio Procopio. We have completed twelve years and here are some of the things God has done: Works in seven different cities; four ordained preachers, saved and trained here; one large building and one small one purchased; four new buildings constructed; two small buildings being purchased; one mission is in a rented building and a Bible Training program for pastors.

On April 30, 2000, I resigned as pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Cornelio with its nine missions. I continue as pastor of the Mission in Urai, where we live, conduct services at a home for old people in the city of Jataizinho (20 miles away) and teach in the Seminary. The last three years have been very busy and tiring with the construction of four buildings. This was possible through the help of Dr. Mark Miller and a group of doctors, the professional expertise of A. J. Hensley, John Newland from Emmanuel Baptist in Evansville, Sergio Balbo from Garca, the four preachers from Cornelio and one professional bricklayer, John Dias.

We are now committed to help financially in the building of a new building in the city of Fernan Dias, a mission of the Galia Baptist Church. No significant work is possible without the help of God's people. You who have prayed and given financial support for these 45 years are the reason for God's blessing and success of reaching many places. Praise God, He has given the increase.

Alta and I enjoy great health. By God's grace we still hope to plant the Gospel in other States where BFM does not have work. We ask your prayers and continued help for the days or years we have to serve our Lord in Brazil. Thanks to each of you for your kindess, love and encouragement.