During the year 1939 I had the privilege of conducting two efforts simultaneously in the great Argentine Babylon, the capital city of Buenos Aires, which, including its suburbs, has 3,500,000 inhabitants. I had as direct helpers, in addition to the church members, choir, and orchestra of the Palmero church, a full-time music leader and two half-time Bible workers. We carried on the two efforts at the same time, the large one in the large central church at Palermo, and the small one in Villa Urquiza, a densely populated district rather distant from the center of the city. In addition to these main efforts, Brother Cammarata, my assistant, and I held small efforts on Sabbaths and Mondays, which the Lord richly blessed.
As a result of the two main efforts, I had the joy of baptizing fifty believers in Palermo and fifteen in Villa Urquiza. Twelve more were won in San Fernando, Bolivar, Mosconi, and Zarate, the places in which we labored in addition to the two principal efforts. Altogether the Lord blessed us with seventy-seven precious souls in 1939. These are rejoicing in the truth today, full of fervor and enthusiasm. From the very beginning we were favored with a good attendance that was maintained to the very end of the efforts.
I follow the plan of using the six o'clock hour in the evening as the time for my meetings. However, this did not originate with me. Several years ago some of our workers in Chile decided to try out the plan of holding public meetings before the supper hour, and had good success. It is the custom in the Argentine to have supper late at night, generally between eight and ten, or even later. Therefore, it was a problem to decide at what hour to hold our evangelistic meetings. For years we held them at eight or nine o'clock, but there were many objections to this hour. Not only was it the supper hour, but because of holding the meetings so late, the people presented as an excuse for not coming the fact that they had to rise early the next morning.
Many secular lecturers, and even religious orators, give their discourses in the morning or at ten in the evening, ending in the latter case at midnight. But we Adventists found
it difficult to obtain hearers among those who attend at these extreme hours. So we chose six o'clock for our Sunday meetings. The success that has attended the efforts of all the workers who have adopted this hour is proof that we chose well. The other churches stick to the old hour for their evangelistic meetings, but their attendance cannot be compared to ours at the six o'clock hour.
Among those won by our efforts, there is a fine young man who worked in the movie studios of this country, aspiring to become a movie star. Now he is engaged in the colporteur work, with good success, and hopes, God willing, to become a "star" in the kingdom of God that will shine through all eternity. Another fine young man, very much down-- hearted by the unexpected death of one of his dear ones, and desiring to die rather than to continue living, attended our meetings, and is today a member of our church. During one Big Week, even before his baptism, he sold eighty small books and many copies of El Atalaya. In the Harvest Ingathering he collected the goodly sum of $120 Argentine currency. He has left his business of farming and bee culture, and today is canvassing with good success.
An Italian woman of some culture heard of our truths in the city of Torino, Italy. Later she attended our meetings here in Buenos Aires, and was baptized, together with her only daughter, a promising young woman who is now in attendance at our college in Puiggari. This sister, before her baptism, handed in $18o in tithe. Her husband and some other relatives are at present interested in the truth.
One young woman, the proprietress of a good fruit business, was anxious to sell it, because it did not bring her sufficient profits. She accepted the truth, and her business has since seen a great revival. She is now an enthusiastic member of our church. Another of the newly baptized members is a woman who was enjoying the fresh air in a public square one afternoon. Some boys were playing ball nearby, and suddenly the muddy ball struck her, soiling her white dress. Angrily she appealed to a policeman on duty there, but meanwhile the boys had fled. The policeman tried in a kindly way to calm her, and then asked her the following questions: "Do you know that there is a heaven? Do you know where God is? Do you know that Christ is coming soon?"
The woman gazed with wonder at the policeman, who went on: "If you want to know the answers to these questions, go to Uriarte 2435" (the address of our central church). She began to attend the meetings and today is a member of the church. A short time afterward the policeman gave up his post, sacrificing his pension, and was likewise baptized. He owns a house in the suburbs, and established a meeting place in his parlor, furnished entirely at his own expense, even to the purchase of a good organ.
Argentina is a cosmopolitan country. In our meetings we have noted people present from many different countries. Among the seventy-seven new members whom the Lord gave us in 1939, there were representatives of nine distinct nationalities. For 1940 we have even greater plans.