History & Blessings

Tonight I found myself locked out of the main gate at ISAM.  We had just pulled in from the weekend in Posadas and it was pretty late.  I decided to climb the fence and was going to look for help to get the car through when a fellow behind us just walked up and opened it.  I just assumed it was locked!  I wish I thought things out better sometimes...

Anyway, we were able to get in, and in all that activity I met the night watchman, Hugo Ruiz Diaz.  What a story he had to tell.  As we spoke, I learned more about this place and a little history on our SVA Argentina Language Exchange Program. What is really cool is that there are still some blessings still flowing as a result of the mission trip SVA made here some years ago.

It seems that somewhere around 4 years ago or so, Arturo Finis was traveling the U.S. and stopped in to visit his friend, Edgardo Ullrich (ISAM graduate and former SVA Spanish teacher).  Edgardo showed him around our campus during which time they ran into former principal, Spencer Hannah.  Hannah invited them into his office and soon they were talking about doing a mission trip.  The mission trip for Hannah was kind of a trial run for today’s exchange program, so he and Tim Harley got a group to come down here and do a bunch of community service projects.  And that is where Hugo comes in.

At the time, Hugo was in tough shape.  He was nearly bankrupt and had stopped paying tithe.  One day he went to the school bank and asked them to put whatever he had left in his account toward tithe.  He had also lost his living arrangements and was without a house.  Soon Arturo came to him to ask what he would need in order to build his house.  Hugo was shocked at the question, thinking he was being ridiculed.  Arturo assured him that his question was legitimate because a group of students from the United States were coming to work on some projects here.

And that is exactly what happened.  Hugo’s house was built by SVA students on a mission trip here to Misiones, Argentina.  What a story.  Hugo especially remembers those who actually did the building – people like Jessy Muller, Matthew White, and Marcos Mark (sic).  The students all wanted to work on his house.  They wanted to eat there, too.  He told me that that group and their work proved to him that God will always provide, and that we simply worship Him when we return our tithe of that which he has given us and that belongs to him anyway. 

Isn’t that a beautiful example of how the good we do has a ripple effect for eternity.  So…

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."