p. 17 | Peru by F. L. Perry

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 11, 1907

Peru

By F. L. Perry

LIMA.—Scattered and occasional efforts here will avail very little. We must settle down in a place until a church is established. I do not feel ready to move from Lima yet, but we must start work elsewhere. I want to send Brother Robison with Brother Espinoza to a new place south of here, and then help them start the work with literature and meetings.

In the midst of the deception and hypocrisy that surround us, it is a great pleasure to see the message develop some earnest, faithful characters. A remarkable case of this kind has just occurred. One of our brethren, an Indian, with his wife and fourteen-year-old son, left Lima about six weeks ago, on their burros, to go to Pacaran, where they own a small vineyard and garden. He took with him a quantity of tracts and Señales, and used them well. One of his relatives dying, he was brought into communication with the cura, or priest of the place. While permitting the cura to perform the “blessing” over the body, he stoutly maintained that he did not believe in such things. Soon after, the priest commanded that he be imprisoned. But he happened to be absent from home when the officers came, and in the cover of night he and his family escaped from the town. Barefooted and hungry, they tramped over the rugged rocky mountain roads for nearly a week. When Sabbath came, they stopped and rested. Their story sounds as if they were guided by angels of God. They are safe in Lima again. He faithfully pays his tithe. What they endured on that journey no one can tell. Had they been captured, they would in all probability have been destroyed; for Rome is here, outside of the coast towns, just as cruel and treacherous as in her bloodiest days. It repays us for all our sacrifice to see such people demonstrate their fidelity to this message.

Yesterday a young lady, about seventeen years of age, came to our house somewhat disguised. She is a friend of Sister Espinoza. Her parents are dead, and her aunt, with whom she was living, became incensed because she would not go to confession, and made arrangements to place her in a convent for life. There are many of these convents in Lima, and gloomy prisons they are, indeed. How many scores of women are shut up behind those massive walls and great iron bars, I suppose no one knows, neither the miseries which they endure. Only in the hour when her aunt had gone to make the final arrangements, did she find opportunity to flee. As we had been looking for a girl to help about the house, we told her she could stay. She seems to have a very pleasant and quiet disposition.

The little company in Lima enjoyed a great blessing during the week of prayer. There was a full attendance every evening, and much interest. The offering was double that of last year. Last Sunday all came to my house in Bella Vista for baptism. There were five candidates this time, making, in all, eleven that I have baptized since coming here. There were a number of well-dressed and intelligent-looking men, strangers to me, present, and the Lord gave me special freedom in presenting to them in Spanish the need of separating from the sins that have made the papacy, great Babylon. We then proceeded to the midst of the garden, where there is a large cement tank, used for irrigating. The garden is surrounded with trees and vines, and had been lined with flowers. With the usual service, these five souls were buried with their Lord, and arose to walk, we trust, in newness of life. A good impression was left upon the visitors. One of them wept, and all seemed to recognize the presence of God. Three of the candidates, after entering the water, asked the privilege of testifying to the people of their faith.

After a few minutes’ intermission, the people were called together, and there was organized the first Seventh-day Adventist church in Peru, consisting of seventeen members, all fully united in the same precious message that gives light and good cheer to so many in all parts of the world. F. L. PERRY.