Covering the distance from Rio Grande do Sul back to Nova Esperança (New Hope in English) would have taken about six days of continuous driving, but we stopped over in Rio das Antas, holding church services there for several evenings.
From the pulpit I mentioned that, with God’s help, we can be thankful even during hard times; God took me at my word and sent me severe, long, and painful suffering as I fell ill with rheumatoid arthritis. My wife suffered a lot, too, because she had to take care of me day and night. As a result of this illness, Brother and Sister Eduard Wegner had to host me for three months, presenting them with great burden and cost. They have both already passed on to eternity, but I remain grateful for what they did for us back then.
When I had recovered a little, we were able to join a group making the trip from Rio das Antas to Nova Esperança. I was so weak that they had to help me climb onto the old truck. The journey was dangerous enough, even without considering how worn out the vehicle was already. The roads were so bad that the 30 kilometers from Rio das Antas to Caçador took us a whole night of continuous travel: from 10 PM until after sunrise the next morning. The second night, I slept in the vehicle since we all were camping out. The third night, I had a bed. On the morning of the fourth day, we drove down the steep slopes of the Subida Serra, fortunately arriving at the bottom before one of the wheels came off. What would have happened if the wheel had come loose before, while we were navigating one of the many dangerous corners?
In Subida, we were able to switch to another car in order to finally reach our home in Nova Esperança in the evening. This journey of 380 kilometers took us four days. By the end of the trip, I was very weak; I drank some water and thought that was my end.
When World War II began, I was so weak that I could hardly speak, sing, or preach. I was no longer able to do any work, so my wife and daughter worked the land to give us something to live on. We had no other support. It took four years for this heart disease to relax its grip sufficiently for me to resume my pastoral work. I thank God for helping me through this difficult time and for restoring my health so that I was able to take spiritual work up again, more intensely than ever before.
As previously mentioned, travel in South America was often uncomfortable and dangerous. Our lives were frequently at risk. One time, I had to hang onto a moving train by just my hands. It is only thanks to the grace of God that I escaped with my life; in fact, it was such a close call that someone informed my wife, who was also on the train, that I had actually been run over. What a horrible moment for her! Thankfully, it was not true, as some fellow travelers had helped me out.
In Brazil and Argentina, the roads in the areas where we worked were very primitive. These were mud roads that became dangerous and partly impassable in rainy weather. Even today, dirt roads predominate in and around the small city of Leandro N. Alem, where our work in Argentina is based. This means that rain brings nearly everything to a standstill. One year, after attending the big annual camp meeting, my wife and I had to stay there for another two weeks because traffic was paralyzed by the rain. The situation has now improved significantly, especially here in Brazil, with asphalt roads being built and traffic improving. Visitors or preachers coming from abroad today cannot imagine what things used to be like.
Our service required great self-denial, especially since we, as well as my son Heinrich and his family, rarely received support from abroad. In such a situation, it becomes apparent whether one serves out of love or out of a desire for profit. That is not to say that preachers should not be supported by their congregations as well as is possible; however, this support should only be a means to an end and not an end in itself.
Preachers should also live as examples in terms of donating and tithing. Although it is recommended, not commanded, to give a tenth to God, many children of God have given that much and more out of love for Him. John Wesley had a famous saying: “Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” He put this principle into practice in his own life as well.
To the glory of God, I can truthfully say that He never abandoned me in my long and busy life, however dark things sometimes seemed. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the brothers of the Christian Unity Press in York, Nebraska, USA, who supported us with a monthly sum of 2.50 dollars for some time, later raising this to 15 dollars, before ending the donations in 1956. May God bless them for helping us in our time of need.
The topic of travel is highly relevant because a large part of our work in the early years consisted of traveling to help the congregations, which were very few, small, and scattered at the time. For instance, if we wanted to go to Argentina, we had to travel six days from Nova Esperança to reach the border. Still on the Brazilian side, we would visit the small town of Porto Luzena, where we would have to stay in a hotel, sometimes for several days, before catching a river steamer down the Uruguay River to the customs outpost on the Argentine side. From there, it was not far to Leandro N. Alem.
From Leandro N. Alem, we once accompanied several sisters and brothers to a church service some 30 kilometers away. On the way back, we got caught in the rain, and the truck got stuck, forcing us to cover the remaining 15 to 20 kilometers on foot. During this long and wet trek, we were thrilled to come across a hut where we could seek shelter, light a fire, and dry our clothes. God had been watching over us again!
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