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Adventism On The Move9: South America
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Nov. 13 - Adventism On The Move9: South America

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As my Father bath sent me, even so send I you. John 20:21.

Many of Adventism's pioneering missionaries did not have the support of any "organization." Rather, the Spirit impelled them to go on a self-supporting basis. So it was for South America.

Interestingly enough, even though the principal languages of that continent are Spanish and Portuguese, the first converts to the church were from German-and Frenchspeaking immigrants to Argentina, Chili, and Brazil. To a large extent that was due to the fact that the denomination lacked both material in and speakers of Spanish and Portuguese.

The first Seventh-day Adventists to reach South America were Claudio and Antonieta de Dessignet, who had accepted Adventism in France through D. T. Bourdeau and immigrated to Chili in 1885.

About that same time two families in different regions of Argentina discovered Adventism through periodicals received from Europe. In northern Argentina an Italian couple, the Peverinis, read an article making fun of Les Signes des Temps' (The Signs of the Times) claims that the end of the world was near. Mrs. Peverini obtained a copy of the Adventist magazine from her brother in Italy, and they began to read themselves into the Seventhday Adventist faith. Farther to the south, Julio and Ida Dupertuis, residing in a Swiss-French Baptist colony, had a similar experience.

The Dupertuis family not only accepted the new beliefs, but they also convinced several other families in the colony of the truth of what they were discovering. Around 1889 they contacted the Seventh-day Adventists in Battle Creek. Their inquiries stimulated the leaders of the denomination to consider initiating a mission to South America. But where to get the money? That was the perennial problem. The perennial solution eventually came to be the Sabbath School Association. The Association gladly took on the task, devoting its collections during the last half of 1890 to the South American Mission.

God works in ways that we often don't expect. He takes humble people who have no training for ministry and uses them to spread His truth in low-keyed ways. That happened in the past and it continues on in our day as people open their hearts and lives to His Spirit.

 

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Personal effort for others should be preceded by much secret prayer; for it requires great wisdom to understand the science of saving souls. Before communicating with men, commune with Christ. At the throne of heavenly grace obtain a preparation for ministering to the people(COL 149).
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