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).