Manita, [little sister] is something special happening to you that I have such a desire to see you or are these just my "feelings"? . . . You know, I feel such a need to pray for you.
Comforted and encouraged, I responded:
The Lord is so wonderful! To think that He told you that I needed your prayers, that something serious was happening to me . . . I felt that I was drowning in a hole of desperation, discouragement, and sadness. . . I was failing in everything. I was not doing well in school, practice teaching, and other subjects. I felt useless.
A dear friend nearby, also felt the need to pray much for me.
Not long after, I experienced a different attitude, a new outlook on life. My joy returned, even though the demands of life did not lessen.
It was my last year of high school; the load was very heavy. I explained to my friend how terrible the academic pressures were with new trimester exams, and professors expected to cover more material.
. . . you know, so many times this year I wanted to quit school completely, throw away my books to never see them again.
However, Mirtha, I assure you that the Lord gives me so much strength physically and spiritually and helps me so much. If it were not so, I don't know what would happen.
At that time in Argentina, Normal school was a five-year program that prepared us to become elementary teachers. The last two years focused on education courses including practice teaching. I found lesson planning especially challenging and spent an inordinate amount of time in preparation. Eventually, to my surprise and that of my professors, when I was teaching in the classroom, I thrived.
The schedule was so tight, so little leisure time, not much sleep, I longed for breaks or holidays. When Pope John XXIII died (June 3, 1963), as an immature teen, instead of mourning "The Good Pope" (Il Papa Buono), I rejoiced to have a day off.
Again, in November we had a national day of mourning, surprisingly it was for the death of President J. F. Kennedy. His assassination shocked the world. It is one of those events that became etched in the memory. I remember when Mr. Gammel, our next-door neighbor called over the fence to give us the news.
This is an aside, but there is another interesting anecdote involving the Gammels, our elderly German neighbors. They had lost a young daughter many long years ago. When they were ready to part with her beautiful doll, they gifted it to me in a generous and ceremonious way. It was large and beautiful. Sadly, I was beyond the age of playing with dolls and did not grasp the significance of what they had bestowed. I never knew much about their great loss. (I wonder what became of the doll.)
Meanwhile, family life was very full.
I wrote to my friend about Baby Alan:
. . . the most beautiful boy in the world, is so chubby. He has blue eyes, hair like my mother's . . . he laughs so much; this morning in Sunday School we could not keep him quiet.
Ivan is so happy with his little brother . . . not at all jealous. The only thing is that he's a little bit rough or not as gentle as he should be and usually has dirty hands, so we don't let him touch Alan.
I could so easily get distracted enjoying my little brothers.
I got back at 5 p.m. from practice teaching. I looked after Alan for a while, then I spent some time with Ivan teaching him some letters.
Later in the letter, I chided myself for ¨wasting time.¨ I'd tried to prepare a lesson plan that evening but had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to finish it.
More family details appear in Dad's letter to my grandparents.
April 27—This night is a lovely time to be home. It is raining and has been gray all afternoon and part of the morning. We just finished supper: Kathryn and Rita are doing the dishes, Lynn is studying, Aldo is entertaining himself near Lynn, and Ivan is bothering both of them. Alan just finished taking his bottle and was doing some superb smiling for Rita. He is truly the prize of the household. He has been so good and is so nice and fat. We wish you all could see him. Well, it won't be too long. The months are rolling around so fast that I wonder if we'll finish all we should before our time of departure.
This past week we finished uniting the roofs of the streetcars we have in Quilmes. We must finish one wall, repair the floor a bit, and set up the rest of the benches and then we will at least be temporarily done with those two streetcars. Then we must go to the second annex and join the two we have there in Villa Domínico. After that I should finish the prsonage we started back in February. The Happy Hours we have in the two locations have been going very well up to now.
I recounted for Mirtha a humorous experience when my Bible Club group had an unusual visitor before we had begun using the streetcars.
. . .we had 24 children and a drunk. Poor guy! He behaved quite well considering his condition. He sat on the grass in the back like a kid. He arrived about the time I was to teach the verse. I had not noticed that he was drunk. I began saying something about the text and with a nasal twang, he said "The first text that came into Argentina was the textile with a double 's'." I was so surprised that I stopped and looked at him but Julio motioned me to keep going. So I paid no more attention to him and he behaved quite well. Sometimes he would say something crazy and the kids would turn around and laugh; he laughed along with them.
The verse was John 15:13 and every time we said John 15:13, he laughed. He said "lay down your life for your friends. . . is okay. . . but. . . John 15:13 Ha! Ha!!!"
Throughout the lesson, he listened like a child and repeated many words that Mabel was using, but really was not very disruptive. When the kids turned around, he would say: "Pay attention . . . this is good . . . to hear it . . . and aristrocratic to feel it." And sometimes he would call on one kid especially: "Pelopincho ¡Pelopincho! Pay attention!"
At the end, when Mabel was giving the plan of salvation, he interrupted to ask: "Who decides the evil of destiny? Who is the promoter?" Mabel did not understand and didn't know what to say, but went on: "We are all sinners and the only one who can save us is Jesus." The man said in a strange and low voice: "Thank you, Miss." Later, "Pardon me for interrumpting . . . with an indiscreet question . . . I wanted to know . . . I like this . . . I love God, and Jesus, and all."
When Ricardo greeted him he said: "Thank you very much. The greeting is yours cordial and always."
This last phrase we repeated so often among ourselves that it will surely go down in history.
We had such a nice letter from Lynn last week and I wish I could copy the whole letter but, time and space does not permit, we surely appreciated it. Some quotes: "Daddy was in bed sick two days because of his back. Mommy is very happy about Alan most of the time but sometimes she is not so happy because he spits up a lot. She misses you quite a bit. In fact we all do."
The truth was that Mother was very conflicted at this time. The news about Grandpa Hirschy's declining health troubled her deeply. Should she try to fly to the US to see him? But how could she leave the family during this intensely busy time, and with a baby? Would Grandpa get to see his namesake? Grandma had expressed her heartfelt wish that we would be able to travel back to the US before it was too late. However, that was not to be. The cancer, detected in the spring, continued to spread and he died August 25, three days after they celebrated their 50th anniversary.
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| Graduation ceremony |
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| My graduating class |
Friday, December 13, 1963
Here I am downtown Buenos Aires, in the car at a mechanic shop. Straight ahead I see the Ministry of Communications at the left and the Luna Park at its side on the right. . . If I look behind I see the Casa Rosada [government building] and I just saw Illía looking out the window (Ha! Ha!) [Now I know who won the election July 7!] I´m here alone with Ivan. Dad went to do things while they fix the car which stopped working suddently here in the Capital (luckily in front of the mechanic shop).
This is the fourth day we´ve come to the Capital. I´m so tired of buildings, buildings and more buildings.
Tuesday we came by car. It was raining, and raining, and raining. We went to the Police. Lynn, Aldo and Alan, Argentines, got their passports. Dad got his travel certificate. Mom had hers already. I needed to get one, but when I presented my identity card and they saw that it was issued in the province, they said it would not do, that I needed one issued in the Capital. And we found out that Ivan could not leave the country without an identity card. So both of us needed to obtain one. For that we needed: 1) Certificate of Entry into the Country, and 2) Certificate of Nationality.
To obtain the first we went to the Migration Office. For me there was hardly any problem because I was already registered and I had been there other times, except that it would be ready for the 18th and we were due to leave on the 20th. We had to talk to the chief and ask for a favor.
However, little Ivan had not been registered, I don't know how that happened, but, of course they could not give him an Entry Certificate if they did not even know he existed! They asked for a birth certificate, we did not have one (only something that was not the same and was not acceptable). They asked for another document . . . Well, we had done enough for one day so we left for home, but . . . it was raining, and raining, and raining!!! The streets were like rivers, sidewalks covered with water, many stores closed because the water reached their doors or even went inside. . . Mitre Ave. which we necessarily had to take to get home, was worse. Twice the car stalled as the water was too high and we had to pay 200 pesos each time for a horse to pull us out (its owner was very happy that day!)
The next day Dad, Ivan and I went into the city, but this time by train, subway, on foot, etc.. So for two days we were walking and walking, waiting, and waiting in one office or another and each time there was something new.
Yesterday, for example, we went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to legalize three documents we obtained from the American Consulate: certificates of nationality, one for me and two for Ivan (one for the Police and another for Migrations).
Amazingly, everything came together for our timely departure, December 20, 1963.
Angel Camandona, the new pastor, nicknamed Pachín, arrived one week earlier.
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| Pastor Pachín in front of the parsonage |
Dec. 20
Friday night we all went to the airport to see the Hoyts off. Their plane was supposed to leave at 7:30, and it was almost 10:30 when it finally left. . . There were several folks from our other churches there.
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| Some of the farewell crowd |
I always remember a church meeting we had over a year ago, there was heated discussion and it was truly historic. There we spoke of the need for a pastor after we left. Everyone was in agreement. Then we talked about the need to provide him with a place to live. There again everyone was agreed. After that we discussed the need for a meeting place in Villa Domínico, not only for the Bible Club but especially to begin working with the adults. On this matter there were differing opinions: some felt the need was urgent and others said we should first build the parsonage and then think about Villa Domínico . . . Julio was of this opinion . . . This led us to pray from that day on for a pastor, a parsonage and a place in Villa Domínico. And the Lord gave us all three, and as if that were not enough He opened one more annex.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,
according to the power at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,
forever and ever.
Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21
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