learned from Marjorie and Dora in their mountain adobe home. And it meant something to her. She re membered well the time when, after several years o f listening to the gos pel as the missionaries explained it, she had thrown herself on her knees and prayed, “ Dear Lord, You know I love You a-plenty!” They rode nineteen long hours through the tropical heat on a train whose engineer had never heard of air-conditioning. There were nineteen hours o f snail-like progress over bridges and through tunnels. Some body’s live chicken flapped its wings under the seats; a woman across the aisle caressed a parrot on her lap; a drunken man at the front of the car strummed a guitar, to which he sang a happy, but crazy, accompaniment. But Pina’s song rose above all the other noises: “ Salvado soy; salvado soy!’’ . The next day found the travelers in the big broadcasting studio. “ This,” sighed Marjorie, “ is actually it. A fter all our efforts in writing the script of gospel stories, messages, and songs; after all the trying weeks o f teaching these four to read them fluently, here we really are— ready to have the Indians speak into the microphone to make the Victrola records which some day will take the gospel to ten thousands o f our Cuica- teco Indians!” Dora sat down at the grand piano and ran over a few o f the choruses to be sung on the records. “ Salvado soy” she played; and Pina edged up to the big unfamiliar instrument, her round, brown eyes intent on every thing. Hours flew by as Joy Ridder- hof o f Gospel Recordings worked at the mechanics o f getting the impor tant messages on discs. In an inter lude, thinking that no one was notic ing, Pina climbed up on the piano bench. Gingerly she placed her hands on the keys, and recoiled at the discord she produced. Then, with tear-filled eyes, looking at her faith ful friend, the missionary, she voiced her dismay, “ Dora, no salio ‘ Salvado soy !” ’ ( “ It didn’t come out ‘I’m saved!’ ” ). Dear little Pina, you were dis appointed ; you didn’t understand why “ it didn’t come out” right at the first attempt. How like many Christians who think that by one short word of testimony, by one little prayer, by one single effort on their part, a soul can be won to the Lord Jesus, a heathen tribe brought out o f dark ness into light! Jesus said, “ Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” (Matt. 17:21). Page Thirteen
T HE train came smoking and puffing down the little narrow- gauge track that ran between the rugged mountains and stopped at “ Market Town.” The little Indian girl, Pina (short fo r Agripina), terri fied by its noise and power, hid be hind the skirts o f Dora, the mis sionary, as though some wild animal were after her. You would be frightened too if you never before had seen such a thing in all o f your eleven years! Aunt Margarita and cousin E fra and the young man, Gabriel, boarded this “ monster” like the experienced travelers they were. A fter all, had they not ridden four hours in the other direction on this same train on .their way to the fiesta at Oaxaca City? But for the first ten minutes, sitting warily on the edge o f the hard wooden bench, Pina clutched Dora’s arm in terror. Dora looked at the other mission ary, Marjorie, and they laughed. “ These next ten days in Mexico City are going to be something new and different all righ t!” she exclaimed. It didn’t matter how much the girls S E P T E M B E R I 9 5 0
talked right out loud about their native traveling companions, fo r the Indians didn’t understand one word o f English. Margarita looked down at the new tennis shoes the girls had bought her for the “ city where every body wears shoes” and smiled con tentedly. Efra and Gabriel were bumping each other’s heads with their big sombreros, pointing out of the window. At the first stop, windows were shoved up, while the passengers near ly fell out, shouting to the “ sellers,” who ran up and down gracefully balancing on their heads huge bas kets o f corncakes, enchiladas, hot tamales, and mangoes. Centavos were tossed out on the cobblestones to these vendors. Pina’s fear soon turned to ecstatic excitement. Between big bites of corncake filled with black beans and garlic, she began to swing her foot and sing, “ Salvado soy; salvado soy; aleluya, salvado soy” ( “ I’m saved; I’m saved; hallelujah, I’m saved!” ). This was Pina’s favorite o f the many hymns and choruses she’d
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