Our Work in the South American West Coast Mission Field
By J. W. Westphal
J. W. WESTPHAL
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, QUITO
This field is composed of the following republics: Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. It is over four thousand miles long, reaching from two degrees north of the equator to the fifty-sixth parallel south — too long to be permanently operated as one field, or from one center. The population is about ten million. In Bolivia and Ecuador nothing has yet been done. Elder E. Balada went to Lima, Peru, to open up the work about four months ago. Reports come to the effect that several have now begun to keep the Sabbath, and are rejoicing in the new-found light.
Three colporteurs, sent to Chile by the Mission Board, have labored in this field in the past, but two have returned to the States, and the other is not working at present. Five years ago Elder G. H. Baber came to take charge of the work, laboring here until the arrival of Elders A. R. Ogden and H. F. Ketring, who were recommended to come to this field by the last General Conference. This has been the extent to which help has been provided for these ten million souls. However, the Lord has blessed the effort, and to-day there are over one hundred Sabbath keepers who have been baptized, and the total number of Sabbath keepers is not far from one hundred and seventy-five.
The canvassers have done excellent work, and it has indeed been the right arm of our strength in this field. Many pages of literature have been scattered throughout Chile, and excellent results have already been realized, a good share of the Sabbath keepers in that country having thus received a knowledge of the third angel’s message.
Many of the lay brethren are also active workers, and their labor is not in vain in the Lord. Several who were brought into the truth in this way have been baptized since the writer has been here.
Señales de los Tiempos, our Spanish paper for this field, is also doing good work. Up to the first of January last, two thousand copies were printed monthly. Then we began to print an edition of three thousand, but have now reached five thousand, and the list is still growing without increasing the expense to the Mission Board. It is being demonstrated that the paper will sell, and that subscriptions may readily be obtained. Free postage for periodicals in both Chile and Bolivia makes it a favorable time for work with our paper, and we hope by this means to open up our work in Bolivia.
There is not one canvasser in the field to-day, and the ministry is inefficient on account of the language. As the result of the canvassers’ work, there are Sabbath keepers in the field who greatly need instruction; but the ministers cannot do as much as they otherwise would, because they lack a knowledge of the language. It may not be amiss to say that more attention should be given in our schools in the States to the study of the Spanish and Portuguese languages. There are about eighty million people speaking these tongues, and it is time that definite plans were laid to reach them.
TWO LITTLE PERUVIANS
Our recent trip south will result, we think, in securing two or three persons for the canvassing work, and they are men who are capable of making a success of it. This will be a small effort for Chile, but it does not contemplate the other countries of this field at all. The experience in Chile and other South American countries has demonstrated that the work can best be opened up in new countries by the earnest, God-fearing canvasser; and we ought to have at least two for each of the other republics of this field, at once.
Those who come to this field should be such as can and will become one with the people. Otherwise, they cannot help them. Jesus became one with us and of us, in order to lift us up; and he never haughtily passed the poor and lowly.
We need a school in this field for the training of native help. Such a school is even more necessary in fields where the educational advantages are limited than it is in the States. It will not do to send our young people to the States for an education. Rather, those from the States might to advantage come to these fields to complete their education, in getting those things that will be of practical help in working for this people.
