West Coast (South America)
By A. R. Ogden
The statement, “The silent messengers of truth should be scattered like the autumn leaves,” was forcibly impressed on my mind by a letter recently received from a stranger living in a Southern city. He says, “While walking in the street, I found a piece of paper. Picking it up and reading it, I became interested, and desire to read more. Inclosed find one dollar [Chilian] for a year’s subscription.” This piece of paper was part of a copy of our Spanish paper Señales. Thus we see that a fragment of one leaf, though possibly trampled upon by many others, was seen and appreciated by one who was seeking truth. The Lord sometimes works in mysterious ways. A Spanish missionary in Peru, who has recently accepted the truth, had his attention first called to the light by reading a tract which fell into his hands. Since moving the office and publishing interests from Valparaiso to Iquique, we have abundant evidence that this move is for the better interests and advancement17of the work throughout our field of the four west-coast republics. Since we came here, which was less than three months ago, several hundred new subscriptions have been received for our Spanish paper, Señales, and several thousand copies have been sold. Our subscription list is now more than enough to pay the entire cost of printing five thousand copies each month. Thus we are enabled to send out a goodly number each month free. We hope soon to send at least two workers to Bolivia, to introduce our literature, our Spanish paper, Señales, especially. By means of our publications we feel confident that the truth may be carried more successfully in these countries than by any other one means. When people read themselves into the truth, they usually stand firm. In Bolivia there is now a man of some influence, a lawyer, keeping the Sabbath. He has never seen a Seventh-day Adventist minister. Others in Bolivia and Peru, as well as in different parts of Chile, are keeping the Sabbath, and awaiting baptism at the first opportunity. Brother Balada, our only worker in Peru, reports some now observing the Sabbath. He asks for one thousand copies of our paper to use in Lima and Callao, two cities of two hundred thousand people. Elder Ketring is now at Copiapo and Caldera, instructing and more fully establishing in the truth the ten or fifteen in those places who accepted the message through the work of Brother Davis, who canvassed in this field for several years. There are several young men whom we hope to enlist in the work. One of them has already begun canvassing for the paper, and is doing well.