Student volunteer dies in Peru bus accident

ABANCAY, Peru — Gregory Gomez IV, 22, a student missions worker serving in Peru for the summer through the International Mission Board (IMB), was killed in a bus accident July 5. Gomez was traveling with Carley Wyatt, another IMB student missions worker, and Claudia Puente, a national translator, when the accident occurred near the town of Abancay. Wyatt, of Crawford, Ga., and Puente received only minor injuries.

Gomez arrived in Lima, Peru, in late May with 60 other student missions workers to serve on the REAPSouth (Rapid Entry Advance Plan) Team. He had been traveling around southern Peru researching unreached people groups. Originally from Natchez, Miss., Gomez was living just outside St. Louis prior to his service in Peru. A recent graduate of the University of Mississippi, Gomez received a mechanical engineering degree.

He was campus chapter president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, vice president of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity and a member of the Engineering Student Body Executive Council. He had been employed by the Nestle Purina PetCare Product Technology Center as an engineering intern.

EDITOR'S NOTE — Names changed for security reasons.