When the rainy season in Misiones came to an end, we returned to Leandro N. Alem, where the Church of God congregation was still in its infancy. Nonetheless, our work there was blessed by the Lord. During this time, other churches frequently asked me to bring sermons for them as well. In one instance, some 300 people had gathered for the closing service of a longer series of meetings. This service was taking place in a big tobacco warehouse owned by a businessman named Wieler. The heat was horrendous, but the Lord gave me so much inspiration that I spoke for three hours about the Kingdom of God to this diverse crowd of people from various religious communities.
These trips always involved great effort and cost. They were unfortunately not free of danger either, so we also experienced some accidents. However, the Lord was always with us and helped us wonderfully, protecting us and providing for us.
In the early years, not one trip in Brazil ended without something happening. Once, on a train ride from Jaraguá to Porto União, the locomotive derailed twice; another time, taking the train from Rio das Antas to Porto União, we encountered a few freight-train wagons blocking the tracks several stations past Caçador. On that trip, we were also carrying bags of flour, recently produced and generously given to us by our sisters and brothers in Rio das Antas, who knew that those of us in Neu-Hoffnung only had access to bread made from corn flour. Although we greatly appreciated the gift, it caused us some trouble, too, when we had to unload all our luggage and carry it past the stalled freight train.
The plan was then to load it onto a relief train that was expected to approach from the other side to take us onward to Porto União. As we were dragging our freight over, someone started a fire next to a stretch of open track so that we travelers could stay warm despite the cold night air—a real concern at an altitude of 1200 meters. We had just settled in to wait when we were suddenly instructed to take our original train back to Caçador, where we had all eaten dinner!
Not being able to speak the local language, we allowed ourselves to be persuaded to go back. That meant dragging all our luggage and our gifted flour back, past the accident site, to the train we had just left. We did so, only to retrace our steps yet another time towards morning in order to meet the relief train. It was hard work and almost overwhelming, but the Lord gave me grace and strength, both in body and soul, to overcome this adversity and maintain a victorious soul.
However, all this back and forth meant that we reached Porto União too late, missing the connecting train, which only ran once a day. That added another day to our trip and, crucially, another night’s accommodations, which represented a significant strain on our meager wallets. We finally reached Neu-Hoffnung after five days instead of four.
God’s protection
On another trip from Curitiba to Porto União, we were taking a bus through rainy weather on a narrow road. The bus driver kept up a high speed and at one point, while trying to overtake a car, went off the side of the road. Two somersaults later, the bus came to a rest, five meters deep in a ravine. Before the accident, my wife had just enough time to shout, “Now we’re done for!” And I had just enough time to reply, “Hold on tight!” The next thing I knew, we were awakening from unconsciousness in the ravine. Some passengers had already climbed out when we came to, so we grabbed our luggage and glasses before following them, and a helpful person helped us climb up the steep slope, back to the road. A passing truck driver was kind enough to give us a ride from the scene of the accident to Porto União.We felt fine until we went to bed that evening. Then, we began feeling the pain. Both of us had severely aching sides, suggesting either broken or bruised ribs; I also had a foot injury. The delayed response was probably due to the excitement and adrenaline finally wearing off. In the end, we recovered, although it took a few weeks.
We can only thank God for His preservation and protection on the many journeys and dangers we encountered during our missionary service here in South America. That accident made clear yet again that we cannot count on getting a last-minute chance to find peace with God. We need to be ready to meet Him at any time!
We experienced another instance of God’s wonderful help during a trip to the interior of the state of Sao Paulo, early on in our time in Brazil.
Our destination was the congregation in Lettonia. At that time, the trip from Rio das Antas to Lettonia took two-and-a-half days, in this case from Tuesday evening to Friday morning. Being new to the area, we did not yet know our way around and ended up taking the long way there. On this route, we had to change trains at a larger train station outside of the city of Sao Paulo, but since we did not speak the local language, we could not figure out when the connecting train would be leaving. Fortunately, we made the connection thanks to the Lord bringing us together with a man who was fluent in both German and Brazil’s official language, Portuguese. He was, in fact, from Germany, having been born in Baden. We were glad to have found someone to talk to, and he accompanied us on a large part of our journey.
We stayed in Lettonia for about four weeks and had a very blessed time there. The return journey went much the same way as the journey there, but this time, we did not find a German speaker to show us the way. However, I lived a life of faithful prayer, and a wonderful thing happened: right where we had to change trains, we saw the same man from before walking towards us!
He had gone to the Paraná River for a hunting trip, and we had not arranged to meet again, but here he was nonetheless. This hunter accompanied us for quite some distance on the return trip as well. We were so grateful to the Lord for helping us in this way!
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