Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Capp reports on son's mission field activities

Being the parent of a missionary is not the easiest role in life to play but when the parent and offspring serve the same main interest in life, the story is an upbeat one.

This is the case with Gurdons Austin Capps and his son, William Billy Roy Capps, 63.

The younger Capps has been a Christian missionary in Honduras since November 1998.

Austin Capps, the father, and Billys son, Jon Capps, also of Gurdon, reflected this past week on how supportive family reactions to a call to serve God can make all the difference.

Austin said, This is what Billy wanted for the longest time. Still, when he retired from a dentistry practice and announced he and his wife would go into the mission field full-time, it was hard to see him go.

Capps said he tries not to think of the possible dangers his son may be in and how far away from home his missionary work has taken him. Austin Capps continues to pray for his missionary son and the work he does to spread the Christian gospel.

Billy Capps is the son of Austin and Mary Lou Capps. Mary Lou played the organ in the Gurdon Presbyterian Church for 50 years. She also taught the youth flannel graph stories about Jesus Christ nearly every Sunday during that time.

Billy grew up in a home open to missionaries as they came through. His father said Billy was always asking a lot of questions of those staying the night.

I think his interest in the mission field was developed at a very early age. We knew even then that is what he wanted, Capps said. Billy was only about six-years-old when he started asking questions of the traveling missionaries.

Billy Capps grew up in Gurdon, and then served in the Navy. He trained as a dentist in Memphis, Tenn. and met Betty, a registered nurse, who became his wife.

The couple moved to the Naval Base in Chicago, Ill. to practice dentistry. Then they moved to Hope. Billy worked for another dentist for a time and then spent 27 years in his own dental office there.

In Honduras, Betty is the dental assistant for her husband. State Representative Tommy Roebuck sold out his dental practice. He gave Billy Capps his dental chair and equipment for the mission work. Then Arkansas bought the missionaries a school bus.

Billy and Betty Capps have three children; Charlie Capps of Hot Springs, Jon Capps of Gurdon and Leslie Ann Whalen of Hot Springs.

They have seven grandchildren, all in the states.

Austin Capps said, I did pray for Billy to go into missionary work. In fact I thought I would be one, but then I had kids and responsibilities at home and could not go.

Growing up, Billy was a good boy. We carried him to church on a blanket every Sunday from the time he was about two-weeks-old. He never really caused me a lot of worry. Billy was just a well behaved boy.

The Arkansas couple left in 1996 to go to seminary through the Lakeside Baptist Church in Hot Springs. In 1997, they went to training in Virginia for the mission field.

They started out in Costa Rica and went a year to language school. They moved to Costa Rica in November of 1997 and then started their missionary work in November of 1998 in Honduras.

Jon Capps said, They plan to serve a total of 10 years before they retire back to Hot Springs. My parents have there own house there.

Normally he comes home one month out of the year, but Dad will be here for two months in November.

His plan is to return home for good in September 2006, but God may have other ideas.

Austin Capps said a team from the states comes to Honduras to improve conditions, bringing doctors, people to build sidewalks to schools, to construct motels and more.

The missionary Capps have a house, owned by the Baptists, in Central Americas Honduras that is guarded 24-hours-a-day for protection.

They show a film called Jesus, and have had as many as 30 people accept Christ at one time, Austin Capps said.

Jon said there have probably been hundreds saved in his fathers ministry since they have been there.

It is the discipleship afterwards that is the challenge, he said. They have a lot of problems among those new to the faith with alcohol.

Jon Capps said his parents have started five or six churches and kept them established long enough for others to take over and keep them going.

Jon said he went to visit his father and mother in Honduras in 1999. He said his brother and sister have also been to visit.

Billys brother, James Austin Capps, is a medical doctor at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He goes to Honduras to give shots or pull teeth once a year with a team of three to five, also from the states.

As to what Billy faces in his ministry, the religion in Honduras is a mixture of Catholic and voo doo.

When the Capps leave Little Rock, it takes an airplane five to six hours to land in Honduras.

The reward of going there and living with these folks is seeing things like the 30 who accepted Christ after one meeting, Austin Capps said.

They keep in touch with the new converts and meet once a week with them  just like our church over here. There is opposition and danger, but we dont dwell on that.

Jon Capps said there are mountains and dirt roads like Arkansas. In fact, the country is about the same size as Arkansas, with trees and hills.

You see pig trails off in the woods and people living everywhere, he said. They drive like wild folks. There seem to be no tough cops around. They have a custom I dont understand where they will not use their headlights at night for fear of wasting electricity. It makes driving dangerous.

When the Capps first arrived, they lived in tents until the Baptists could get them a home. Now they have a fence and watchdogs.

Theft is common. Jon Capps said if something is not behind the fence at night, it will walk away by morning.

They have banana trees in the yard, and people pick the bananas when they want. Temperatures up in the Honduras mountains range from the 70s in the day to the 50s at night.

Austin Capps said, They have their big cities, like our Little Rock, but Billy and Betty are out in the primitive areas.