By Dave Demarest

Cornelius’ Tom Watchorn doesn’t label himself a Baptist or Methodist.

“I’m a Christian,” the Lake Norman resident of 22 years says.

Watchorn is also a missionary and an evangelist, having recently returned from a month-long trip to the Amazon, where he spread the Gospel to the people of Bolivia in South America.

The retired bank president said most people are surprised when he tells them what he does now, but it wasn’t his choice. Watchorn said the Lord spoke to him and told him what he wanted him to do.

“The Lord just said are you available and willing? And I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ If you’re called to be an evangelist, then that’s what you do.”

Watchorn and friend Carlos, a pastor whom Watchorn met in Spain, traveled to the Amazon on a missionary trip in a remote area of northern Bolivia.

“I had never been to the jungle,” he said. “It’s not something I would’ve done on my own. I was quite excited.”

Preparing for the trip south of the equator was painstaking, Watchorn said. “I had to get every vaccination from malaria to diseases I can’t even pronounce,” he said.

When Watchorn and Pastor Carlos arrived in Bolivia they were welcomed with open arms, he said.

“We went to wherever we were invited to go,” he said. “A Bolivia pastor invited us to a part of the Amazon that hadn’t seen Western missionaries in about 50 years. The people were very receptive to us, very welcoming.“

They were, however, told to be very cautious. One of the areas Watchorn and Carlos spent time in was where they grow coca plants, used to make cocaine. “We were told ‘Don’t travel by yourself. Don’t be con-spicuous,’ ” Watchorn said. “We dressed how everyone else dressed. We didn’t try to stand out.”

Watchorn said many Bolivians would tell him they were Christian, but they didn’t completely under-stand the Gospel.

That’s where he and Carlos came in. The two taught and preached to the natives in makeshift churches and huts. They also baptized many Bolivians.

Watchorn and Carlos stayed with local families in small huts with no electricity, no appliances and sometimes went weeks without showering. Watchorn said the two saw wildlife everywhere, including 30-foot anacondas, tigers and “every type of bird and monkey you can imagine.”

“We became very attached to the people,” he said.

Watchorn and Carlos also spent quite a bit of time training Bolivian pastors, so after they left the pastors could carry their work.

“Looking back, you want to ask yourself, ‘Did I do what the Lord asked me to do?’ ” Watchorn said. “But, if you’re doing it because God has called you to do it … then you have to be successful.”

Watchorn is back in Cornelius now, but not for long. He only spends several months here in the United States. Much of his time is spent in Russia, teaching and preaching, something he wishes others would do more often.

“Everyone is called to share his or her faith,” he said. “Some people think sharing their faith is just a job for a pastor, but that’s just not the case.

“We tend to think that everyone around us is a Christian, so there is no need to evangelize. But most people who believe they’re Christians don’t know the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There may be more evangelizing opportunities than we think.”

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