It was pleasant to find Zapotitlan, the field that Dad and Mother had been assigned to, at a time when the seed of God's Word had already been sown and beginning to bear fruit.
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| 1948 |
The nurses (Susan Bergen and Hazel Eby) had preceded them. It was 1947, sulfa drugs and penicillin had just been discovered around that time and this proved miraculous in the infections and saving many lives. They had helped hundreds with their physical needs while Wycliffe Bible Translators, Herman and Bessie Aschmann, had translated portions of Scripture in the Totonac Indian language.
The Mission also sent Ricardo Garcia, a traveling evangelist to help.
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| MARIO LUIS |
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| Mario & Estela & family |
The Totonac language was the only language that some of these Indians knew. An interpreter, Mario Luis, proved to be that perfect person. Saved out of a stormy life of deception, alcohol, and adultery he began enthusiastically bringing the Gospel to the Totonac Indians. He was also a family man with six children.
Soon what began as small Bible Studies, became larger meetings, singing in Totonac and Spanish and expanded into exposition of the Word.
They began using the accordion and an old pump organ sent from friends in McMinnville, Oregon. The carpenter began building benches as soon the services numbered a hundred or more. The services were held on Sunday, Market Day when other villages came to buy and sell.
Most of the Indians from these villages were illiterate. There was no desire to learn to read, and no material available, however, when shown and Scripture explained, they began to hunger for the Word and a desire to read.
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| THE CLINIC IN ZAPOTITLAN 1949-1953 |
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| NURSE HAZEL (far left, standing) 1949 Congregation in Zapotitlan |
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| NURSE SUSAN BERGEN & AIDE EPPIE |
So a side story:
Once when nurse Hazel, was visiting our Cuautempan village, 1956-1957, a man from some village came who had a large growth on his back. She used novocaine and removed it successfully. It was about five inches in diameter and one and a half inch raised in the center. Well that was the year that the school teacher came to live with us because of such few students and she let school out so we could watch that surgery..
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| AT A BAPTISM IN THE SEMPOALA RIVER, ZAPOTITLAN |
Nurse Hazel also became a dentist of sorts. As she encountered all the problems from poor dental hygiene she took the opportunity on one of her furloughs to study and intern under a dentist.
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| MARKET DAY |
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| DON RICARDO BAPTIZING IN ZAPOTITLAN |
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| THE ZAPOTITLAN CONGREGATION |
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