How the Light of the Advent Message Came to South America by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · May 10, 1906

How the Light of the Advent Message Came to South America

By William Ambrose Spicer

TWENTY years ago, as we looked over the map of South America, we could point to no place where this message was represented, unless possibly a faint light was glowing in British Guiana. Now, thank God, jets of light are multiplying all about the continent.

At Camarero, where the Argentine school is located, I met the two brethren who were the agents to bring the truth into this part of the world. Eighteen years ago, in Kansas, Brethren Riffel and Frick received this message. They were Russian Germans, and Brother Riffel had previously lived for a time in South America. Just at the time he received the truth, the Testimonies were saying much about moving out into new places, and living the truth among those who had never heard it. Brother Riffel thought of the Russian German colonies in Argentina, and the conviction came that he ought to go and live among them. So fifteen years ago he and the other brother sold out in Kansas, and came to Argentina, scarcely knowing whither they went. They came to Crespo, near our present school location, and decided to settle there. The first Sabbath after they arrived, their first new Sabbath-keeper, Brother Hetze, was ready to join them in keeping the holy day. God still further blessed their labors, and the little company at Crespo were the means of calling us to South America to take up the work.

When Elder F. H. Westphal came in among these Russian-German communities to preach the message, he found the leaven of truth working in all the region round about.

It was a joy to meet these two brethren, simple farmers who heard the cry of souls in the darkness, and went out to answer the call. I asked Brother Riffel if he lost money by the effort. He replied that it cost him considerable loss for years, but the Lord had given him more now than he had in Kansas when he decided to move out as a missionary farmer into the regions beyond. And all through our meetings in Argentina, that Sabbath at Camarero and in the union conference meeting that followed at Parana, it did one good to see how these brethren rejoiced at the changes that had taken place since they landed in this country, the first representatives of the third angel's message. It was a grand investment that they made, when they decided to plant their all in unentered regions, and the outcome shows how grandly the Lord rewarded their faith in the messages of the spirit of prophecy which moved them to come out.

I must speak later of the Camarero school, where I first met these German-Russian believers. About a mile from the school Elder J. W. Westphal has his home. A near neighbor is Dr. Habenicht, and close by also lives a German brother. Brethren Fulton and Lude live at the school during the school year. Now, good many believers have homes within a radius of ten or fifteen miles. On this Sabbath many came in who ordinarily met in their own little companies. Brethren J. W. and F. H. Westphal and E. W. Thomann had just come in from Chile, and it was known that special meetings would be held, and that at the close Elder J. W. Westphal's daughter Flora, and Elder Thomann, one of our faithful Chilean workers, were to be united in marriage. It was a good Sabbath. There were also in the company a sprinkling of Spanish-speaking people, for whose benefit the services were translated into that tongue.

Here was a sample of the meetings among these farm colonists, who came from Russia seeking greater freedom and better industrial openings in this part of the New World, and who have also found the greater liberty of the third angel's message. They stand by this truth with all the love and loyalty to be found anywhere. For years most of the work was among the German-speaking people, but now the effort is turning more generally toward the Spanish-speaking people, who form the great body of the population. But surely the providence of the Lord planted these Protestant colonist communities from Russia and from Switzerland amid the dark places of South America in order that by those who received the truth among them there might be developed quickly the resources needed to extend the work among the Catholic peoples.

W. A. S.

Buenos Ayres.