Rev. Robert “Bob” Anderson experienced his joyful homegoing on March 31, 2015. Bob was in hospice and enjoying the presence of his children when he passed into glory. The family is consoled by the surety of Bob’s hope and the legacy of faith he has left.

Bob Anderson was the third (out of a total of only five) General Director of South America Mission (1983-1993). He and his wife Mary served in Peru before his tenure as General Director. Son Randall and granddaughter Carrie Lorenz Himes have served with SAM. Carrie and her husband Chris are currently in Recife, Brazil.

Bob leaves us with a great example and powerful testimony. Part of the way forward is to consider well the example of those who have led the way before us. We would be remiss if we lost this opportunity to give praise to God for his miracle of grace in and through Bob Anderson.

Bob’s full obituary is available here. You can also read about the Anderson’s sacrifices for and service to the Lord in Window magazine, pages 22-23. Link here.

Before his passing, Bob asked that in lieu of flowers, memorial gifts be sent to South America Mission to support the on-going ministry of Chris and Carrie Himes, Recife, Brazil. You can give online here.

On November 14, 2014, at The Mint Museum Uptown, Charlotte, NC, South America Mission marked 100 Years of ministry with a banquet celebration. More than 140 friends, family, and supporters of SAM, including SAM’s Board of Directors, gathered for what by all accounts was an unforgettable evening. Dr. Scott Redd, President of RTS Washington, DC, was the guest speaker. A 1914 Model T Ford was also on display, a window into the world that SAM’s founders navigated 100 years ago when they set sail for Paraguay.

Longevity is a strange prize for a mission agency.

You see, missionary societies are born at the intersection of several convictions: the desperate need of a sin-ruined creation, the unique and all-sufficient provision of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the keen awareness of our King’s impending return.

It’s that last conviction that makes longevity so strange. We don’t just expect Jesus’ return, we long for it. Oh, that glorious day! The certainty of His coming and the beauty of the fulfillment are too much for words. Our hope is built on nothing less.

Yet as missionaries—odd people whose love for the Lord has spilled into an unreasonable love for the world—we wait patiently for it. Every day Jesus tarries is another day to share the love of the Father and the hope of salvation with someone else. You see, Jesus’ coming means shalom. It also means a reckoning.

Bono and U2 understand this disconcerting tension. In their song “Forty,” based on Psalm 40, they celebrate God’s rescue and their new song. But their keen awareness of the world’s brokenness also leads them to ask, “How long to sing this song?”

My own heart resonates deeply with the concluding lyrics of Andrew Peterson’s “The Reckoning”.

How long until the burden is lifted?
How long is this the song that we sing?
How long until the reckoning?
And I know that I don’t know what I’m asking,
But I long to look you full in the face.
I am ready for the reckoning.

Missionaries with South America Mission have been yearning for Jesus’ return for 100 years. How much longer, Lord? Yet we celebrate the privilege of each day of waiting as we proclaim Christ to a world in need of a Savior.

How long to sing this song? I don’t know. But I pray God would continue to give us the grace to sing it loudly and faithfully until the day of reckoning. May many see and fear and trust in the Lord. And May he find us ready when he returns.

I can’t wait.

Kirk Ogden—Executive Director, South America Mission

South America Mission (SAM) was originally the Inland South America Missionary Union (ISAMU), tracing its roots back to 1914. We found this photo of Miss Eliasson in a July-August 1933 copy of an ISAMU newsletter. The caption for the photo in the newsletter read “We are glad to announce the sailing of Miss Dorothy Eliasson on June 24th, 1933, on the SS Southern Cross to Santos, Brazil.” Miss Eliasson would eventually make her way to serve with the Rev. and Mrs. George Haight in Santiago, Bolivia.

From the early days of sailing and taking months to reach the destination points of missionary endeavors, to today’s uber-connected, globalized world (5 hours by air from Miami to Recife, Brazil, seconds to “connect” through WhatsApp or Facetime:), does our sense of going to the ends of the earth still have it’s Great Commissioning-edge?

The call is no less potent now than it was in 1933 or 2014 years ago. We’re still “setting sail” today with equal forward winds at our backs. Grateful for the Dorothy Eliassons and George Haights who have gone before us. Grateful for the sacrifices they made in their going.

written by SAM missionary, Shelly Dobosy (Puerto Supe, Peru)

After a long search to find a teacher for the new sewing school, a friend connected Grace Cubas with Lucila. A seamstress by trade, she seemed the ideal candidate to be put in charge of teaching the students. We did not know that God was also working in her life, using her daughter’s illness and other external factors to turn her towards him. Once again God’s perfect timing met need with need in a miraculously choreographed dance of grace.

As the sewing class met during the year, Grace walked with them through the Gospel of John for a few minutes each night. Lucila loved to read and always volunteered answers to Grace’s questions. She began coming to church in January of last year, gave her life to Christ on Good Friday, and is now studying the Bible regularly with Grace outside of the sewing devotional times.

Lucila faces a struggle with her family; leaving the Catholic Church often leads to ridicule and rejection because Catholicism is as much culture as it is religion here in our community. Lucila has shared her decision with family and friends, and despite the lack of support she receives, she is hungry for more of God’s Word. She seeks to live out the things she is learning, and longs for her husband and children to know Christ. We are praying that Lucila’s testimony would soften the hearts of her family members.

Lucila has proven an answer to our prayers and our church is an answer to hers. What a remarkable God we serve who stitches together things beautiful and useful out of things broken and forgotten!