Returning to Argentina

     

    The night before sailing from New York, Mother wrote a note to the home office, titled: 

BUT GOD!

    It's raining! It's our last night in the homeland! Thoughts come and go. Will we ever see our loved ones again on this earth? What will happen in the five years we are gone? Homesickness, loneliness--yes, plenty, but God!

    Cars are coming and going, people are rushing here and there in the streets below our window here in the Sudan Interior Mission home (New York). It makes me think of the city to which we are called--Buenos Aires--filled with people rushing to and fro without a knowledge of our Saviour. Will they receive the message we have to offer?

    When the Lord passed through Samaria and gave the water of life to the woman at the well, He said: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." that is our desire tonight as we look forward to our next term on the field. 

(Brethren Missionary Herald, August 2, 1952)

 

    In the same publication, Dad wrote a note about the new term of service they were about to begin.

A NEW TERM OF SERVICE

    As we look back over our year of furlough, we praise God for it. Above all other blessings, it has given us opportunity to appraise our first term and see where we have failed and how our service can be improved.

    We anticipate this new term of service with even greater joy than the first. Now we know more or less what to expect, but we do not expect an easy term. Beginning a Brethren testimony in Buenos Aires will mean tireless effort. . . It will demand a daily supply of divine wisdom.This will be a new undertaking and a very important one with many decisions to be made. . .  

    Grandma Hirschy wrote about our return trip to Argentina.

August 11, 1952

    We got a letter from Kathryn last week telling that they arrived in Buenos Aires on the 31st of July, I think. At least she says, "We anchored in the Río de la Plata about 7 a.m. and were unable to get a dock until about 3 p.m. Because of the mourning for the first lady, ships evidently had lined up in the channel waiting to unload, etc. For three or four days no one had worked at the docks so you can imagine what kind of a mess it is down there with baggage everywhere. Just before we got off the boat we had to stand still for 15 min. doing homage to the deceased." 

    I remember that moment of silence as we stood in line waiting to be able to get off the ship. Eva Perón, wife of the Argentine President, was only thirty three years old when she died of cervical cancer on the 26th of July. A few weeks earlier she had participated in her husband's second term inauguration, June 9, 1952.

    Eva Duarte de Perón, lovingly called Evita, may have lived a short life, but her story lives on to this day shrouded in mysteries. Many books were written about her life, as well as the famous musical "Evita" by Andrew Lloyd Weber and the film version starring Madonna.  

 

    Just as Argentina was going through major historic events, our family was about to experience major changes. Lynn explained these shifts, to the best of his understanding, in a section of his handwritten memories subtitled "The 50's"

    About the time Dad and Mother arrived on the mission field, several changes came about that transformed the whole playing field.

    As far as Brethren Foreign Missions is concerned, the biggest and most important reason for change was the industrialization movement, which caused many Brethren people from the Southern half of Córdoba to move to the province of Buenos Aires to take advantage of the jobs available in Argentina's industrial centers along the Río de la Plata.

    Our churches were seeing their members move away for better (or available) jobs, and, because Buenos Aires was not in our territory (by comity agreement [acuerdo de cortesía]) they were joining Methodist, Baptist or Plymouth Brethren churches in that province.

    The second change that was very influential was the departure of some of the denominational groups from their strong positions on the Inerrancy of Scriptures to follow the teachings of men like Harry Emerson Fosdick, Reinhold Niehbur, Karl Barth, and more recently Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuler.

     These two main reasons, coupled with the requirement of the Argentine Government for every church and/or Missionary organization to have an official headquarters in the city of Buenos Aires, and the desire brought about by relationships they had formed over the years with dear Brethren who had left their area to move to Buenos Aires, prompted the missionary team in Argentina to decide that they must begin church planting there.

    This proposal, presented to the Missionary Society, was not received well at first, but after much consideration, it was decided that the Hoyt family would move from the interior to B.A. to plant a church there when they returned from furlough.

    After they arrived back in Argentina, the Hoyts were assigned temporarily to Huinca Renancó in the southernmost part of the province of Córdoba. 

    When I read this last paragraph, I began to question the accuracy of Lynn's memories. I could not recall a time in Huinca Renancó and only had vague and hazy remembrances of a chaotic time, including a family train trip. I was so embarrassed because my assigned task was to carry the "potty" neatly hidden in a draw-string bag. I was convinced it was obvious, that everyone could see what it was.

    Lacking the treasured resource of family letters for this period, I resorted to searching the archives of the Brethren Missionary Herald. I came across an overlooked article written from Huinca Renancó during the last months before furlough. 

(Brethren Missionary Herald, August 4, 1951)

            I read what was the perfect message for the many church presentations in the year to come. 

    In the first paragraph, Dad reflects on how the "5 1/2 years of happiness while serving the Lord" also changed their conclusions as to methods and procedures as they gained experience and new insights.

    What he then outlines are his firm and sure convictions. The following is a summary.

  I.   THIS FIELD HAS BEEN GREATLY BLESSED OF THE LORD 

    God has honored and blessed the faithful ministry of former missionaries and pastors as evidenced by . . . 

1. New Interest - The increased attendance to national conference each year was cause for wonder and praise, evidence of blessing, and necessitated changes and additions to the accommodations. 
2. Two More Permanent Testimonies - From 18 different preaching centers when we first arrived, today two more towns have regular meetings and each has a small group of believers. Besides these two permanent locations, four other towns have been visited from time to time.
3. A Bible Institute - no longer a dream, it is a reality! The need had been recognized for some years. It was our purpose to begin in April of 1947, but, there were not enough prospective students. However, night classes were held in three or four locations. That year people prayed in earnest for the youth camp. As I went to camp in January of 1948, it was with the conviction that we were going to see a special manifestation of God's blessing.Twelve to fifteen young people responded to the call to prepare to serve the Lord. With only two months to prepare, the Bible Institute began with ten or eleven students. This marks the third year with numerous blessings, a token of what the future holds.
4. The Argentine Council - composed of the missionaries, the national pastors and seven laymen elected by delegates from the congregations. This group is responsible for the general running of the Mission, which not only leads to greater cooperation, but also prepares them for the time when they take full responsibility.
5. A New Camp - for two years now we've had a children's camp, questionable at first as potentially risky and dangerous. But the Lord has showered blessings on this undertaking.
6. Fund for Paying National Helpers - to help Bible Institute students during their summer service to the various mission points and boost the allowances of the national pastors during the year when the students are in school.

 II.   THE FIELD IS VAST

    During these five years we have constantly heard of towns and cities without one ray of the Gospel.

III.   THE FIELD IS PATHETICALLY UNDERMANNED 

    Here we are with  20 towns and a Bible Institute as our responsibility before God. But we are only eight couples and two single ladies. One couple has five towns to care for, three others have three towns each as well as teaching responsibilities. For the past two years it has been necessary for each pastor and missionary to take his turn caring for the services in Huinca Renancó, the town in which we now live. This has been a great burden--the long trip, the exhaustion, leaving home base often poorly cared for. But can we abandon this group of believers? When we leave on furlough next month, the same schedule will be carried out again. 

    So, Lynn was right, we did live there for a short time before furlough and could also have returned there when we arrived back in Argentina. I read on, and understood why he had a special place in his heart for Huinca Renancó. 

    Moving to Buenos Aires was an experience I do not remember at all. The only event I can remember from those days was that mother tells me that she was glad to get out of Huinca Renancó because, being in the "pampa seca" (dry pampa, semidesert prairie) it was nothing to sweep up at least a bucket of dust a day. 

    But Huinca was neither dry nor dusty for the boy who heard the message of salvation there. Vacation Bible School time came around, and the seed planted by my parents and Sunday School teachers sprouted when the VBS teacher gave us the opportunity to trust Jesus.  

    However, before moving to Buenos Aires, our family went through a turbulent time. I do remember the atmosphere of heaviness during the conflict. Lynn explains it thus:

    When the next Field Council came up, the missionaries were faced with what, to them, was a hard decision. Laboulaye needed a pastor, and the Hoyts were now back from the U.S. Why not send them there and put B.A. on the back burner? This they decided to do. When Dad came home and told Mother of that decision, her reaction was one of dismay. What followed was grief and many tears. Dad, who seemed up front to be a solidly unemotional (though friendly and kind ) man was not able to withstand that demonstration of disappointment. I imagine that it had taken Mother some time to get used to the idea of moving to B.A., because she had made friends in the interior and leaving them seemed hard. Now all of a sudden, the idea she had been dealing with for most of their furlough year was being taken away from her and she felt like a person who had just had the rug pulled out from under her--unstable, insecure. Now Dad was the one hit with insecurities. He reported this to the Field Council, and the decision was made to go back to the original plan--Buenos Aires.

             Recently, a friend remembered something my father told him once, "Redheads can be difficult."

   This conflict and ultimate outcome could be debated and questioned. Throughout centuries, so much has been said and written about knowing the will of God. In the end, we know that God is sovereign and his purpose prevails.

 

 Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand           
(Prov.19:21).