Missions
They Found a Mission Field by Joy P. Gage
K o most of the 10,000 residents of Agua Prieta, Sonora, June 6, 1955 was probably just an other Sunday in Mexico, but in the west end of town a tin roof glis tened in the sunlight and beneath it a group was gathering who had long awaited this day. For more than a year they had worked together to build a place of worship; they had depended upon the Lord to provide each necessity for the building and now they were assembling inside the simply con structed chapel to dedicate it to His glory. Bare adobe formed three of the outside walls, but inside the structure to be known as Iglesia Bautista Calvirio (Calvary Baptist Church) the walls were neatly plas tered and Venetian blinds covered plain glass windows. At the piano sat a fair-skinned, b londe-ha ired , 16-year-old girl. Somewhere in the room her par ents sat with her two younger brothers and three-year-old sister. As the Andrews family lifted their voices along with the Mexican group to sing “ Coronad A1 Rey De Reyes” (“ Crown Him King Of Kings” ) a dream of many years culminated. Perhaps the groundwork for the chapel was really laid when a young graduate of the Bible In stitute of Pennsylvania found her self in the category of rejected mis sionary volunteers. Enroute to Bo livia, she stopped in Arizona for the final medical checkup which prompted the board’s rejection. It was then that she began conducting Bible classes among the Spanish speaking people along the Mexican border in Douglas, Ariz. Shortly afterward she met a young man who had just graduated from the Bible Institute of Los An geles* and on July 17, 1937, Vera Kreider became Mrs. Bob Andrews. Ten years of part-time work among these Mexican people passed before the Lord actually thrust them into a full-time ministry on the border. When He did, it was without the aid of a mission board and without *Class of 1936. 30
supply all your need,” they knew he was speaking from his own ex perience as well as that of the Apostle Paul’s. As for the Ameri cano’s wife, there seemed to be no greater joy than for her to tell of the prayers which the Lord had answered in their behalf. Nor mally quiet, Vera’s eyes sparkle and she punctuates her sentences with laughter when she relates the stories of how the Lord has given them their home, or their car, or the stove and refrigerator. And to Vera, it seems just as thrilling to tell how in January, 1955 when there was still no floor in the chapel, friends in the First Baptist Church of Bisbee, Ariz. held a “ Bring a Sack of Cement” con test which yielded all the cement they needed. A contractor visiting in Douglas for the winter donated the money for plastering the inter ior. Sometimes Vera’s stories are in terrupted by a beautiful brown eyed little girl. And when Vera pauses to correct Dorothy, her face softens and she quietly tells of the greatest blessing of the Lord in their own family. Shortly before Dorothy’s birth Vera underwent surgery for a breast cancer and afterward had X-ray treatments; the doctors advised her that the unborn baby should be taken. Even if by some miracle there should be a live birth, the doctors feared the treatments would cause deforma tion. But they committed it to the Lord and sometime later, after Vera gave a normal birth, she opened her eyes to look upon a perfect baby. Recently the Andrews felt per haps the Lord would not have their work to remain an independent one and they applied to a board which could cover that area; again Vera’s health prevented their serving un der a mission board. Twice reject ed? Perhaps, but as they sat with the group in the dedication service they saw evidence in the chapel that the Lord has blessed their work, and they were glad that when He called they had found a mis sion field. e ND. THE KING'S BUSINESS
any promised support except for the promises they found in the Book they longed to teach to the people whom they had come to think of as their own. In the following years they learned to lean hard on those prom ises for more than their physical sustenance. For in their efforts to evangelize the Mexicans they faced some major barriers. A constant challenge to them was to see an evangelical witness established in the little town of Agua Prieta, So nora which lay just across the fence from their own home town. They had, through the years, made vari ous contacts with the people, but between the two towns was an international boundary and be tween the Andrews and this mis sion field was a constitution for bidding anyone to enter the coun try as a missionary. The same constitution which pre vented his establishing a church in Agua Prieta did allow Bob, at the invitation of a local resident, to hold home Bible classes or serve as a co operative worker. In 1951 under these very circumstances, a Bible class was started. As the group de veloped they appointed a leader, Senor Victor Ibarra, a Christian man and a resident of Agua Prieta who had at one time taught an adult Bible class for Bob in Douglas. When the class later took on the appearance of a worship service complete with folding organ and pulpit, the owner of the home feared she would lose her property for all Mexican churches must become state property. Bob and Senor Ibar ra presented the problem to the presidente (mayor), who granted temporary permission to continue meeting in the home; however, he urged them to erect a building as soon as possible. Because most of the group was of the low-paid working class it was a true step of faith when in May, 1954 they began to build the chapel. But the Lord had provided for them a living example of Philippians 4:19 and when the “Americano” taught them “ . . . my God shall
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