Missionary to Brazil dies in car wreck

FLORIANOPOLIS, Brazil (BP)--Wendell "Boots" Blackwell, Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board missionary to Brazil, died Sunday, April 20, in a traffic accident in Brazil.

Blackwell, 52, served as director of the evangelism and missions department of the Baptist state board in Santa Catarina, Brazil. He was returning from a preaching engagement when a vehicle reportedly crossed the highway center line and struck his car.

A former construction engineer and a native of Baton Rouge, La., Blackwell and his wife, Sherry, were appointed in 1981 by the Foreign Mission Board. He was a graduate of Louisiana College in Pineville, La., and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Blackwell served as associate pastor and minister of education at Lanier Baptist Church in Baton Rouge prior to missionary appointment.

"This was a great, kind, hard-working servant of our Lord. He will be missed by many," said Ann Fallaw, associate director of the board's work in Brazil. "Our prayers are for his dear wife and their five children."

He is survived by his wife, the former Sherry Weeks of Mansfield, La.; two sons, Jonathan, 17, and Joshua, 14; three daughters, Jennifer, 19, Jodi, 15, and Jill, 12.

A memorial service was held April 21 in Florianopolis, Brazil. United States funeral plans are incomplete.

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