Cruzada Evangelística

The long-awaited evangelism campaign was upon us! It was almost a year since Dad had shared with the young people at camp his vision for an evangelistic literature crusade.

    That year several bulletins were distributed stating the purpose of the program, the proposed area to be covered, the dates for the four ten-day sessions, the deadline for application, and the sum of money to raise for prepartion materials and participation. The latter requirement was meant to be an exercise of faith, to pray and trust God for specific answers before moving into enemy territory.

    A third bulletin went out after the first campaign--a long list of praises, followed by an invitation to join one of the remaining sessions.

Gracias, Señor por . . .Thank you, Lord for . . .

• the team members: 
• Erica, in charge of the kitchen
• Rita, in charge of the literature
• Jose, leader and treasurer
• Hugo, driver in charge of the truck
• Peter, in charge of loud speaker equipment
• Aldo, guitarrist
• the choice of the first town--Camilo Aldao
• and an excellent site with shade, water and a bathroom
• the good will of
• the two believers in town
• the neighbors
• the town officials
• the priest who encouraged his parishioners to read our literature
• the $20.000 [pesos] worth of literature sold in five days 

    A two-page very detailed report of that first week went out as well to further encourage more participants.
    
    I read and reread the long-fogotten account, amazed at how God answered prayer, opened doors and worked in that area.

    The smattering of photos that I found, after these more than 60 years, are not labeled as to which team or week or location. They are interesting, nevertheless. I catch glimpses of my younger brother who joined in eagerly with the work.

 

     An article I wrote for The Brethren Missionary Herald reflects on the entire two-month summer crusade.

    

    I remembered how very different our relationship with the Catholics when my parents first arrived in Argentina. Now, in more than one instance, the priests sought us out, encouraged our work and even asked for prayer. God was at work on many fronts during those intervening decades.

    Then there's the map I sent Mike showing the area surrounding Corral de Bustos and the towns we visited. Recpgnizing that God is always at work, I asked, "Lord, what have You been doing there since then?"  

        In eternity we will learn the rest of the story.

Year End 1967

Bible Institute workshop and truck

It was mid November when I rejoined my family in Almafuerte. 

The weather was very hot. Serious summer storms hit the area. For a day or so we had no electricity or water. 

    Alan, my four-year-old brother, was finally beginning to warm to this stranger, his big sister, nineteen-years-older. "At first he seemed rather embarrassed when she looked at him," Mother wrote. And later, "Alan is finally beginning to talk to her."  The baby, as she called him, became very sick for a couple days. "About all I've gotten done the last few days is care for Alan."  wrote Mother. "The worst problem right now is that we are out of water. We had a terrible storm and since then we have been out of electricity." 

    It could not have been a busier or more difficult time. The school year was wrapping up for the two brothers in primary and secondary school. The Bible Institute students and professors felt the pressure of course loads, final exams, and the workshop projects still to be completed. A tour group from the US, sponsored by The Herald, was due to arrive for a brief visit on the 15th. The planned entertainment included a tour of the workshop to show them all the items the students were making and a meal at the Bible Institute.

    The last week before graduation, the students helped out with a four-day evangelistic campaign in another town. December 2 was a day of celebration for the five graduates and the same day, in the afternoon, was the dedication of  the two apartments for the elderly. One of them was already occupied by a blind gentleman from one of our churches. Oscar, the student from Peru, could not go home that summer so was hired to care for Mr. Galán. He also helped Dad with printing projects. In fact, it was on one of those occasions that his hand got caught in the printer.

    December 4, Dad, as president of the Field Council, was required to be in Rio Cuarto when a ceremonial flag was presented to the Christian Day School. That evening we traveled as a family to the Escuela Cristiana Evangélica. This became significant to my future a few months later.

   My mother, ever the hardworking exemplary homemaker, industrious and skilled in every area, was the one who had made most of my clothes from when I was a baby. Now again she was trying her hand at sewing for me. She wrote, "Rita doesn't have many clothes left. so I'm trying to make her over a jersey dress that will be very practical for the summer campaigns. It doesn't seem to bother her much though if she doesn't have much to wear. It's nice she can be that way."  

    Summertime was when Mother preserved the abundance of fruit available. She was making jelly and canning apricots and peaches. 

    So how did I fit into this chaotic situation? They wanted me to help Dad with secretarial tasks. No doubt I also helped Mother with household chores. In one letter she says, "Rita is mending some socks for me that I never get time to do. On another occasion around Christmastime, a workshop order needed to be filled for 100 imanógrafos for the Ministry of Education. I was among the all-available-hands-on-deck.

    I was surprised to read that my 11-year-old brother Ivan and I had made time to go out two days in a row to sell Bibles and hand out tracts. "Yesterday they only sold one book but today they had more success."  Perhaps we were practicing for the upcoming evangelistic campaigns.

    Had there been any time for holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year?

    December 5, 1967, family letter to Grandma and Lynn:

We celebrated Thanksgiving on the 30th because that's what our calendar had marked as Thanksgiving Day. I believe you celebrated the week before. We invited Mr. Fay and Sylvia [missionary who stayed behind when 8-month pregnant wife returned earlier to the US, so that daughter Sylvia could finish up the school year]. When Peter Peer [Bible Institute student from the USA] heard that the Fays were coming he remarked about how lucky they were so we invited him too. He really ate with "gusto". We had roast beef, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, buns, olives, sliced tomatoes, jello salad and pumpkin pie. I tried to get some chickens but couldn't. We also went out in the country to get some strawberries but the hail ruined them all. I guess we don't get to taste strawberries this year. 

     January 4, 1968, letter to Grandma and Lynn (Rita writing): "Christmas we spent here at home and invited Oscar and Peter and Mr. Galán to eat with us, and also on New Year's Day." 

    A day later, in the same letter, there was mention of two family birthday celebrations--Lynn's 20th in absentia, and Ivan's 12th:

 Lynn, your birthday cake was very good. We really enjoyed it, so did Dino Camandona who came to visit us that afternoon, and also Peter and Oscar. Today is Ivan's birthday so I guess we'll have another one.

    What about summer vacation? Was there ever an opportunity to get away as a family? 

    In early December, Dad started to add a handwritten note to the family letter, "Had to go to Cordoba yesterday to deliver some hand bills we printed and make a number of purchases."  Mother added in her beautiful penmanship, "We ate our lunch (picnic) in a park near the Cordoba zoo. Afterwards we came home on the road that passes by Alta Gracia [a scenic, tourist area]. It is a winding hilly road, but nice for a change." 

    December 17, 1967, Mother wrote:

Last night we got away for a few hours at least. We took Alberto to Santa Rosa and then on the way home we stopped at a favorite spot along the river Santa Rosa and went swimming. It was such a relief after the terrible heat. 

 Tomorrow we were planning to go to the camp to get our tent so they'll have it for the campaigns. . . We want to camp out in Santa Isabel near the lake. It is to be a vacation, trial for the truck as to what will be needed on the campaigns, a time to have the Vacation Bible School in Santa Isabel and work on finishing the temple there. What a vacation! That's the way we always do things. I think we're crazy but there doesn't seem to be any other way to get things done. 

      I wrote to my new pen pal, Mike Koch, about the next big event looming on my calendar.

December 15, 1967

The youth activities in January and February used to be camps. This year there will be none, but evangelistic and literature campaigns instead. Perhaps I told you that my parents wanted me to come to Argentina to help with these. When I came they had already decided to have 4-12 day campaigns preceeded by a three-day training and prayer conference, January 5,6, & 7.  All the rest has and is being worked out by the Lord in answer to prayer. He is teaching me to "Be still and know that He is God." The God that worketh wonders. Today He helped me make out the program for the training conference. We're going to listen to nine orientation tapes. The Lord has been raising up some tremendous young people who really love Him and believe Him. I am praying for more girls. There are only four so far and about ten fellows.

    This whole time, a black cloud hovered over the congregations, another storm was brewing. Dad visited a few churches. Mr. Zielasko, the Secretary of the Foreign Missionary Society arrived in Buenos Aires. Big decisions lay ahead.

    I close with a quote at the end of Mike's letter: "'He is faithful, He who has called you.' and He will answer us. He has promised." 

Reentry

 

The house in Almafuerte as it looks today

Friday November 10 was a rainy day when the cruise ship Eugenio C arrived in the Buenos Aires harbor. Was this a portent of what awaited me?

    The last letter from my parents, written October 10, opened with an ominous statement. "Last week was one of the hardest weeks we've had in our lives." The missionaries met and discussed the "neo-pentecostal" movement and agreed to firmly stick to the doctrines held by the Brethren church no matter what the cost. They presented the position concerning the gifts of the Spirit to the Consejo (the joint council of missionaries and national workers). Alberto Sotola, Council president, took the matter to the Administrative Committee of the Church. A letter went out to the churches with an ultimatum. Pastors who did not agree were dismissed. Congregations who went along with their teaching were cut off from the denomination and could lose their buildings.

    I did not know what to expect. Where would I fit in this painful scenario?

    Before my arrival in November, my father traveled to the churches in Buenos Aires to meet with the believers and explain the denominational position in question. Even those who did not agree were grateful for his plea for reconciliation and peace. He was their beloved pastor.

    Four national pastors and two lady workers were dismissed. I had dear friends on both sides. How would I bridge the widening chasm?

    

    Meanwhile, the long-awaited reunion with my family was a joyous one. I reread Mother's family letter dated November 12 and tried to imagine the details leading up to the much anticipated event.

Thursday the 9th about 7:30 we started out for Bs. As. We had a very pleasant trip down with not much traffic and not hot and dirty. At noon we stopped along the road and ate our lunch in a grove of eucaliptus trees. We had borrowed an ice chest . . . and it kept everything nice and fresh. We even could take jello.

When we got to B.A. we ate supper at a place in Castelar then went over to the Maconaghy's [missionary friends and colleagues]. Until we talked over all the things we had to find out and got to bed it was almost 12 o'clock. The next morning we got up at 5 to be able to be get down to the port at 7. It rained off and on through the night and in the morning it rained the whole way in town and all morning while we were waiting in the port. When we got there the boat was already in and there was such a multitude of people that we couldn't see anyone but umbrellas and people. It wasn't until about 11 A.M. that we knew for sure that she was on the boat. A girl who traveled with her came out of the customs and looked around at the people who were behind the fence then walked over to me and asked for whom I was waiting. I guess my red hair serves for something. She went back in then and told Rita (staying with the bags). Before long Rita came out to greet us. Aldo and I were the only ones of our family there as Daddy was in a resaurant nearby trying to keep the boys dry. We had been taking turns watching and he just happened not to be there. There were over a 1,000 passengers so by the time she got out of customs it was almost 12. We ate our lunch out at Maconaghy's and then started home. It was a long hard trip and we kept falling asleep, first I then Daddy. We got home Saturday morning at about 6 o'clock. We had been 24 hours without sleeping so we just piled into bed. 

    Before long, the day's demanding interruptions cut our nap short. We were soon caught up in a variety of activities. Dad and some men were involved in landscaping around the recent construction site. I went along with Aldo and the Bible Institute students to do evangelism in a neighboring town. We returned with glowing reports. One example of God at work was when an 85-year-old Hungarian woman came out of the house where we parked the truck and was overjoyed to meet real Christians. 

    The truck in question was being readied for the summer campaigns. The vision for such an evangelistic effort began early in the year when Dad felt compelled, during the camp bonfire finale, to challenge the youth to join the summer crusades the following year.

     In March, the mission acquired a ten-ton V8 truck as the easiest solution for a debt payment. The idea was to sell it. However, in time it was understood as a provision for the Operation Mobilization-style summer evangelistic campaigns.

    In September, Mother reported,

Daddy, Aldo, and Ivan have spent most of the day working on the truck for the summer campaigns. They are enclosing it all with "pino spruce" and it is going to be real pretty varnished. If they have no other sleeping quarters for the girls in the different towns they plan to have them sleep in the truck and the boys in our tent. There are a lot of things to be worked out but gradually they will be solved.

 

    Although I was now in South America, important letters were still traversing three continents. 

    My brother Lynn remained in the US in college, often working more than one job, struggling and homesick for Argentina. He longed to return there for the summer but was advised to get a job instead. A letter from the Department of State regarding his dual citizenship, confirmed the decision to remain in the US. 

. . . your status as an Argentine national would require you to comply with the same laws which apply to other nationals of that country, including those governing military service . . . should you place yourself within the jurisdiction of Argentina which also has a claim to your allegiance, . . . you must comply with the law of Argentina just as any other national of that country is required to do.

   Regular correspondence with Michael Koch continued though crossing the ocean took ten days or more. I was grateful to be able to share with someone who had experienced the O.M. life and training.

    My December 15th response to his letter from a month earlier, was a summary of my last days in England (after he returned to his military station), the trek back to Spain, the experiences of the 10-day ocean cruise, the situation I currently faced, and an outline of the upcoming evangelistic program.

    I related the encounter with Gracia, in answer to my prayer that I would meet another believer on the cruise ship. She belonged to a Catholic lay movement called Focolare. Their aim is to love as Jesus loved. "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another (John 13:34). As she explained, it was to "to set on fire with love the city where they are but with a vision for the whole world!"  They have a very strong message of unity based on Jesus' prayer "that they may all be one (John 17:21)."  Their communities included different denominations and religious beliefs. In O.M. unity was also a priority. We were urged not to push our various denominational differences, but to focus on the core message of the Gospel. The friendship and bond formed with Gracia served to reinforce my desire to "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3)."     

    I did not know how that would play out but I knew I could trust the God who is faithful. 

"The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;

your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.

Do not forsake the work of your hands."

Psalm 138:8 ESV   

1967--Best and Worst

Construction of Santa Isabel church

 

It was the best of years. It was the worst of years.

    My year in Spain was a mountain-top experience. Letters I wrote to my family in Argentina, and carbon copied to my brother and grandmother in the US, abounded with exhuberant thanksgiving and praise for all that God was doing. 

    However, the news from Argentina was increasingly troublesome. What was I being thrown into?

    1967 was a stress-filled year for Dad and Mother. Both carried heavy workloads and demanding responsabilities.

    Dad became the president of the Field Council and registered as such in the Ministerio de Cultos (Ministry of Religious Affairs) in Buenos Aires. This leadership role came at a very difficult time for the Grace Brethren Mission in Argentina.

     Dad taught in the Bible Institute. At one time there were eighteen students in the Greek class, ranging in ages from 17 to 45. He enjoyed the classroom and the insights gained from a deeper study of Holy Scripture, but sometimes felt they should have covered more. Mother helped out with paperwork for each student; applications, medical certification, grades and report cards.

    Dad was involved directly or overseeing several construction projects. These included: additions to the Bible Institute kitchen and dining facilities; apartments intended for married students or the elderly; Hoyt's house roof and patio repairs; renovations, improvements to the workshop, like adding a second floor for the frame shop. Meanwhile, Mother and Dad, were responsible for supervising the students' ongoing projects in the workshop and maintenance of the machines and tools. The monthly denominational magazine, El Heraldo, was printed there, as well as any other leaflets, brochures, tracts, informational material.

    In addition, a new little church building was going up in a nearby town. Everywhere he went, Dad was a church-builder not only of the spiritual body of Christ but also of physical structures.

    Mother was an immaculate housekeeper. I am in awe of her management skills, considering the challenging demands of her circumstances. The three boys still at home were far apart in age: Aldo, a very busy high school student; Ivan, a struggling third-grader; and Alan, a pre-schooler she still referred to as the "baby." For several weeks at the beginning of the school year, Ivan attended third grade in the morning and second in the afternoon. After a test in April, he was released from the PM session. Then the brotherly squabbles increased and Mother was known to quote her mother: "Why have I been punished with fighting children?" Whenever laid-back creative little Ivan, fell behind in school, he was threatened with returning to afternoon session. Then his grades improved. The brothers who were in school, both experienced degrees of bullying. In one episode, Aldo was pursued and pelted with mud. Mother mentioned that his new guardapolvo had cost 30 pesos (almost the equivalent in dollars)! The white school uniform, meant to guard or keep clothes from dust and dirt, had to be bleached, starched and ironed--a mother's nightmare.

    Aldo remembers the spitwads and persecution he endured. However, he recalls that there came a time of reckoning for the entire class. He went to the principal to intercede for them as it was not fair that the whole class should pay for the malicious instigations of one classmate. Aldo refused to give a name and the case was dropped.

     Hospitality was a normal part of life. Mother frequently cooked meals for the construction workers and a constant flow of guests throughout the year. These were, for the most part, joyful and precious times of fellowship, such as the farewell visit of Jim and Margaret Marshall, some of our earliest and dearest missionary friends. However, when I read that the washer went out in March and could not be repaired for months, I wondered how Mother coped or even survived. As I imagine her washing everything by hand, my admiration soars. After several attempts by Aldo and Dad, finally sometime in September, Dad spent an entire day and successfully repaired the old washing machine.

    The refrigerator failed for a time. The unusually cold winter caused problems, frozen pipes, failing heaters. Aldo, called on to fix the Bible Institute girls' stoves, complained about their careless maintenance. There were problems with the sinks in the workshop. And regular correspondence was complicated by a faulty typewriter.

    It is no wonder that all these stresses affected my parents' health. In January Mother was ordered to rest two weeks for a ruptured disc. Dad and Aldo took charge of meals. On one occaion Aldo made pizza and Dad the applesauce. (That note tells me it was a typical family meal and explains why I favor that combination to this day!)

    Off and on Dad suffered from rheumatism in his neck. 

    Accidents happened. Mother suddenly passed out one afternoon and learned she was allergic to the sting of tiny red ants. The doctor across the street rushed over and saved the day. Ivan had a bike accident and probably broke his nose. There were bouts of sickness in the family and among the students. Oscar Zapata, the student from Peru, got his hand caught and smashed in the printer.

    However, the darkest cloud that hung over them that year was a spiritual one. An impending storm, a schism was brewing.

    Shortly before the opening of the Bible Institute school year, April 8, Dad wrote that he was "in desperate need of study and prayer." He had high hopes that the Bible Institute be a center for missionary training. He referred to Grandpa Hirschy's prayer when both he and Lynn Schrock were ordained. He had prayed for "a great revival for South America, a continent that never had that blessing."

    Throughout the year, there were rumours, rumblings, sightings of a move of God--a growing interest in the ministry of the Holy Spirit who administered unexpected, undeniable miraculous gifts. A new wind blew that resulted in confusion and turmoil. The question that troubled my father in his leadership role, "Was this of God?"  

    This quandary awaited me when I arrived November 10. 

    For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts (Isaish 55:9 NKJV).

The Voyage

T/n EUGENIO C

One of my crazy adventures in life was to cross the Atlantic on a cruise ship alone! What led up to such bravery?

    Inspired by my glowing letters recounting what God was doing through our Operation Mobilization teams n Europe, my parents began to dream of my return to Argentina to help lead a summer evangelistic campaign. In January, at young people's camp, Dad felt a strong urge, during the closing campfire meeting, to challenge the youth to join a Cruzada Evangelística the following summer.

    Meanwhile in Spain, my life on the O.M. team in Madrid continued with a full schedule of activities: office work, translation, visitation, Bible studies, prayer meetings, teaching Sunday School, music lessons for a young girl on the team, chores and ministry to friends and people living with us. The question remained, where to go and what to do after my year with O.M.: stay in Europe, return to Argentina or the US, or even go to India at one leader's urging (Frank Dietz). The latter was far from my mind as I continued to follow Psalm 105:4 "Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!"

     May was my birthday month. At that time Argentina topped the list of my considerations for the future.

    I knew my family would want to hear about how my birthday was celebrated, so I summarized briefly:

On the 18th I had a very happy day because everybody was too good to me. They didn't say anything until noon, then they sang and brought me one thing after another: a bouquet of roses from our garden, soap, a book marker, two ball point pens I had asked for, a delicious and beautiful chocolate cake with white icing and cherries and 4 candles, and a very funny card signed by everyone (a birthday tradition here because we happen to have a box of funny cards left from what used to be Librería Victoria): then also that night Lois gave me a very nice poem!

    Recently, I found that very poem in an old album. 

     When the annual fall training conference approached, I went along with the team, as God had not yet  clarified when and how I would travel to Argentina. In London, I worked intently as interpreter for the Spanish-speaking group. Once again I encountered Mike Koch who was involved in the running of the conference and specifically the sound equipment. He went so far as to prepare a special booth where I could listen to messages offered only to the English speakers, then interpret and record them in Spanish.

    After the conference, I joined a group in Liverpool. There was talk of meeting some Argentines who worked for Aerolíneas Argentinas there.  But when no air tickets were available, I traveled back to Spain with the team to continue my search from there. I was also told that fares to South America were cheaper from Spain.

    In the end we found that a cruise ship cost $100 less than airfare. However, Ron Anderson, one of our leaders, wisely suggested that even if the price were the same, the twelve days at sea would be a good time to rest, reflect, catch up with correspondence and prepare for what awaited me in Argentina.

    Thursday I called the cruise line. Tickets were availabe, so I picked up mine on Friday. Saturday night I traveled by train with a girl who was transfering from Madrid to Barcelona. We spent Sunday with the O.M. team. And Monday at 9:30 AM I boarded the ship. Everything came together so quickly with the gracious help of my O.M. friends, and I was embarked on another life adventure!

    I found interesting facts about the cruise ship on this website: Cruise Ship Oddysey. 

In the early sixties Costa Armatori SpA (Linea C) from Genoa, Italy needed a new ship for their South American liner service. She needed to be larger and faster than her predecessors to boost capacity. Cantieri Riuniti Dell Adriatico (CRDA) in Monfalcone, Italy built her. The keel laying ceremony took place on January 4, 1964 and the new liner, named Eugenio C was launched on November 21 1964.

After having been  delivered to Linea C on August 22, 1966,  Eugenio C departed for her maiden Trans-Atlantic voyage from Genoa to Buenos Aires. Being powered by two CRDA De Laval turbines producing 60,000 hp she reached a top speed of 28.5 knots during sea trials. With her average service speed of 27 knots on the South Atlantic run she shortened the crossing time considerably. It was never surpassed by any passenger vessel.

The magnificent new 230 meter long, 30,000 GRT liner had capacity for 214 first class passengers and 1445 tourist class. 

    So there I was on a new luxury cruise ship, alone. The next day I wrote to my family :

I have a room with three older ladies - one Italian, two Brazilian (one speaks English). I've been assigned to a table with three men - two Argentine students and one Argentine man living in Spain in Valencia who is studying the correspondence course. Have met several already including a couple from Río Tercero. Have had excellent opportunities up until now.

    I remember praying that I would meet any other believers on board and God answered in interesting ways. 

    My most distinct memory, however, has to do with the King Neptune line-crossing ceremony. One of the young men from my assigned dining room table, picked me up and threw me into the pool fully clothed. Apparently he was involved in planning the fiesta and wanted to make sure I experienced the initiation of a first-timer. He failed to recognize that I had already been across the Equator several times!

    When I didn't appear for dinner that night, he worried. No big deal, I simply couldn't get myself together and my hair in place after that dunking!

    Was that a metaphor of what was to come, the situation in Argentina in which I would soon be submerged?

    

Finding My Way Back

 

Alan

The baby brother I left behind when I began college was now four-years-old. I was still in Spain working with Operation Mobilization. When would I see my family again?

    During the summer of 1967, my team, from the O.M. headquarters in Madrid, joined all the new recruits for the training and prayer conference in Belgium before dispersing throughout Europe for the evangelism crusade. 

    As interpreter for the Spanish-speaking group, I stood behind them, facing the speaker, and relayed the English messages simultaneously in their language. I was young then and could hold out for hours. However, I do remember a few times when I was falling asleep as I continued to interpret almost automatically, until my listeners told me to rest for awhile.

    Another memory included for the first time a certain Michael Koch. He was in charge of the conference facilities and clean-up after the conference in his role as assistant to the O.M. Belgium team leader, Jonathan McRostie. My summer team was the last to leave the premises, so Mike put us to work while we waited. My task was to clean the toilets. He made mental note of my joyfull attitude as I worked; I tend to hum a lot.

   I was assigned to the Carcagente team under Ron Anderson's leadership. In addition to his wife, Shirley, and their three children, there were twelve of us from different countries. Throughout the seven weeks, the numbers varied as new members were added and others left. 

   The six-page report, hidden away in an old album, stirred up blurry images. As I studied the treasured old document, long-forgotten names, faces, places, and events began to come into focus. 

   I searched the map of the autonomous community of Valencia and learned that Carcagente is a town in that province. I was not able to locate or even recognize the more than twenty other cities, villages, towns mentioned in the report.

   I did, however, learn an interesting piece of trivia: Valencia claims to be the birthplace of the orange fruit. From there it spread throughout the world. In Greek mythology there is reference to "golden apples," oranges perhaps? According to Wikipedia:

When Arabs brought orange farming to the Iberian Peninsula, they called the fruits naranjah. The Region of Valencia maintained the orange-farming tradition after the Arabic period, with references to orange trees in the city of Valencia dating back to the 14th century. In fact, there is an Orange Courtyard inside Valencia’s 15th-century Silk Exchange market (La Llotja de la Seda), a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first references to commercial orange plantations date back to the 18th century.

According to the historical records, in 1781 parish priest Vicente Monzó and two acquaintances, notary and scribe Carlo Maseres and pharmacist Jacinto Bodí, planted the first fields of orange trees in the municipal area of Carcaixent known as Les Basses del Rey. The trees thrived in the land, favoured by the benign Mediterranean climate, and adapted perfectly to Valencian soil both on rain-fed farmland and irrigated land fed by the river Júcar, whose extensive irrigation channel distributed fertile water around the whole of the Ribera Alta. In the early 19th century, orange trees gradually started to replace other crops, such as rice, cereal and mulberries, taking over as the main local crop.

Carcaixent has developed the Orange route to introduce national and foreign visitors to this interesting and celebrated agricultural, commercial and cultural legacy. The project analyses the history of the fruit, providing information on its origins and on the municipality of Carcaixent’s standing as the birthplace of oranges.

    Oranges were not mentioned in the report, but rather of far greater value, the spiritual fruit was enumerated in detail. The varied results came from the Gospel seed planted July and August of 1967 in more than twenty towns through New Testament and Christian literature sales and distribution, personal encounters and conversations, and numerous meetings. More than thirty salvation stories were recorded in the report and ten baptisms took place in the last week.

    What impacted me most was the prayer preparation that went into producing such a harvest, modeled by the pastor of our host church. Juan Llopis was in the habit of retreating to a mountain spot he called "the Temple of God" to cry out for the city, hear from God and rehearse the Sunday sermon seven times as he knelt by a tear-stained stone or trod a worn path. He led us there the first day before we began any evangelistic activity. From then on we retreated once a week to a mountain spot wherever we were on our travels.

   Pastor Llopis had a different special "mountain top" experience when he attended his first O.M. conference in Belgium. In the Sunday evening service he related the experience to his congregation. He read Mark 9 and compared the conference to the Transfiguration experience. A church member who accompanied him said, "This is like heaven." The pastor explained that you could hear singing and praying continually; day and night there was always someone on bended knees. Traveling in the O.M. truck with 20 others had been like two days of "Purgatory," but well worth it! So much so that they now felt like saying with Peter, "Master, it is good for us to be here." However, the last day at 4 AM they had a free ride to visit churches in Holland. There they found situations of disunity and evil in the churches and again could relate to the disciples when they descended from the mountain. Prayer and fasting brought about a change.

    The congregation in Carcagente practiced the discipline of corporate prayer. Over a period of three weeks before the special meetings the last week of the summer campaign, the believers met for an hour of prayer and study every morning and continued during that final week.

    As an example of the move of the Spirit of God in those meetings, I remember that a woman stood up and cried out "I give myself to Jesus!" after the reading of Scripture prior to the sermon. Like in the Acts of the Apostles, the Lord added to the church daily.  

    The promise our team received during our first day on the mountain was from Exodus 34:10: "Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been wrought in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord."

    We did indeed see great things, not only in the lives of people we were sent to, but in our very own hearts and lives. I can attest personally to the truth of the following statement from the team report.

Almost every day of this summer we were exhorted to seek God, to search our own hearts, to hear His voice, and the heart cry of our leader has been that even if we don't sell many books or reach many towns that each one of us might experience a real living relationship with our Heavenly Father. We have seen our own lives being changed as one by one we have been broken and touched by His ever so loving Hands. 

    My parents in Argentina followed what God was doing through my letters and urged me to return "home" to Argentina and help start a similar summer crusade. Is that what God would have me do? 

    However, in their correspondence came recurring references to divisive winds stirring in the denomination, an impending schism. I was deeply troubled. Our leader, Ron, sensed this and allowed me to stay back one day for a time alone. Did God want me to go back and be involved at this difficult time?

    On one of the mountain retreats I was comforted by the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. And I also felt He wanted me to return to Argentina.

    The next question was, when and how.

    As I waited for the answer, I would continue singing our team song, Alabaré, alabaré, alabaré a mi Señor. (I will praise my Lord forever more)

   

Meanwhile in Argentina

Alan (4) and Ivan (9)

My parents and three younger brothers lived in Almafuerte and worked in the Brethren Bible Institute. 

    The little brothers enjoyed life, and were good buddies. Ivan was in third grade, the equivalent of our fourth grade (first grade at that time was divided into two level: primero inferior, primero superior).

    Aldo, the 17-year-old, was a very busy teenager which is probably why I couldn't find a photo of him. He may also have been the photographer. In addition to his secondary school (high school) studies he was taking a Greek class in the Bible Institute. He was learning to play the guitar from an expert classical guitarist, Alberto Claro. He was also the go-to handyman and helped with projects in the workshop, located behind the house where my family lived, at the end of the driveway. 

    The workshop was a recently developed program to give the Bible Institute students an opportunity to work and pay part or all of their expenses. 

    Through an act of faith the students at the Institute had been promised jobs for the school year 1966. The existing picture frame shop and the carpenter shop could not supply enough work for all of them. Something had to be done!

    The ongoing need for printed materials led to an idea. What about adding a print shop? My father had worked in a print shop while in college. God answered prayer, provided the money and permission was granted to buy a printing press.

    

(Brethren Missionary Herald, 4.08.1967)

    

    My parents were ever on the lookout for new projects. In a year-end letter Mother asked family and prayer partners to save Christmas cards which were then creatively recycled into new ones. Aldo was helping Mother learn how to use a newly acquired knitting machine. And Dad came up with an innovative three-way teaching tool--blackboard, flannelgraph and magnetic board. The products were made available to the community and the churches. Even the Department of Education put in a large order for imanógrafos.

    "The shop program has been a real encouragement to prospective students," wrote missionary Robert Cover. However, he claimed that the teaching ministry of the Almafuerte Bible Institute was "a richly rewarding ministry as qualified graduates enter the various fields of Christian work." 

Missionaries Solon Hoyt and Nelson Fay are dedicated full time to this teaching ministry. Missionary Lynn Schrock drives down from Córdoba once a week to teach some of the classes. Eduardo Coria, graduate of the institute and former pastor, now serves as a professor. Other nationals help in the teaching and administration. ("Argentina,"Brethren Missionary Herald, 1.14.1967)

    In his article Mr. Cover asserts that the Bible Institute program was the most vital part of the missionary effort in Argentina. There were 15 full-time and seven part-time students that year. My parents were privileged to build into the lives of men and women who would then go out and impact others with the Gospel even globally. In 1967 a few new students came from other countries: Peter Peer from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Antonio and Georgina (mentioned in the last chapter) arrived from Chile; and Oscar Zapata from Peru, where Uncle Ed and Aunt Joyce were missionaries.

    A building program was in progress before the start of the school year in March, anticipating the demand for larger cooking and dining facilities, and additional housing. Construction continued throughout the year. I wonder if Dad, who had always been involved in building projects whereever he went, had any part in this one. I do know, however, from letters and photos that both Mother and Dad were working on a little church or meeting place for an outreach in Santa Isabel, a nearby town.

    Another educational endeavor, highlighted in the overview article "Argentina" about the work of the Grace Brethren, was the Christian Day School in Río Cuarto in its fourth year and with fifty five students in the primary grades, a lunch program and nine boarders. Though it was held on mission property, it was totally run by nationals.

    The Brethren Bookstore in Lomas de Zamora was also mentioned as very encouraging for its location in a busy shopping district of Buenos Aires, the wide variety of literature available, and the spiritual ministry opportunities.

    For me this mention held special interest because one of my dear friends worked in La Buena Lectura Good Reading) bookstore.

    She loved working there and people loved her. One of the missionary ladies wrote this:

The bookstore in Lomas continues to be a blessing to many Christians in the area and is a testimony to scores of unsaved persons. The young lady, Emilia Piaggio, who is working there now, is a member of our church in Don Bosco and has had some training in the Bible Institute. "Milly" is a good personal worker, and there are very few days that she does not have the opportunity to give a word of testimony or make clear the way of salvation to someone." (Brethren Missionary Herald, 11.04.1967)

    News came from my parents that Milly had become engaged to Carlos. Other close friends followed suit: Delia was engaged to Alberto, and Julio to Mirta. Mabel and Ricardo were married on June 16th of that same year! When would my time come? Were there any prospects on the horizon?