It was exactly
49 years ago today (May 26, 1965) that Frances and I, along with our three
little boys, Ronny 10, Timmy 8 and Mikey 6, arrived by ship at the port of Buenos Aires.
We had ministered in more than 200 churches raising support for our future missionary endeavor. And we were boosted by these 3 powerful little singers. Then we had spent a year studying Spanish in Costa Rica.
I remember
standing way up there on the deck of the ship and looking down at Dick and Sharen Ellis and
their 3 boys, Pansy Blossom and Ruth Couchman, and others who were waiting for us on the dock below.
Back in those days we took slides of
everything. So I am sure I have a picture of that event among my several thousand other slides.
Missionary Pansy
Blossom received us and drove us an hour across town to her home in Temperley which
she shared with Missionary Ruth Couchman. We were
terrified as she dodged huge busses and trucks coming at us from all
angles. We stayed with them for a few
weeks while the house they had rented for us was made ready.
We soon
learned how to walk the mile or so from Pansy and Ruth’s house to the River
Platte Bible Institute. However the
streets in Temperley and the adjoining city of Lomas de Zamora where IBRP is
located are very deceiving since there are many diagonals. One day we walked over to the IBRP with our
three boys.
We were probably occupied in sharing in a class or something, when
little Mikey decided he would walk back to Aunt Pansy’s house alone. We knew nothing about this. He took a wrong turn and ended up crying his heart
out standing on a street corner in downtown Lomas de Zamora.
A kind lady
realized that he was lost and asked him where he lived. All he knew was Pansy Blossom’s name. This lady looked up Pansy’s number and
address in the phone book and took him home.
This story
could have ended in major tragedy were it not for God’s miraculous care. In those days it was almost impossible to
place your name in a phone book. You had
to prove that you were the owner of the property and had to wait for up to 9
years to get a phone installed. Of all
our missionaries at that time, I think Pansy was the only one who was listed in
the phone book.
Hey Mike,
you could have ended up as Mikey Gonzalez, raised by some Argentine family!
And we might still be looking for you. And now, sitting here in Buenos Aires on May
26, 2014… that scary thought just plunged me into a shower of tears. What a cry-baby I am! I even cry over things that never happened! Ha!
But God was kind to us and kept us
together.
Your loving Daddy,
Ralph
