Swartzendruber, Virginia

Virginia Swartzendruber served with South America Mission in Bolivia from 1979-2012, teaching at the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center.

For a project with South America Mission, she recently completed the art piece pictured above to recount her story of preparation for the mission field. Below are some of her reflections:

When I was thinking of how to represent PREPARATION for MISSIONS, I couldn’t say one exclusive thing prepared me for the ministry God had for me. My whole life experience was preparing me. So, here is my life in vignettes.

I was born, the youngest of seven, in a Christian family where family devotions and church attendance were integral in my formative years and led to my acceptance of Jesus as my savior as a preteen. Missionary presentations opened my eyes to the world in need of a savior. Farm life and mom’s gardens were an exercise in hard work and love of beauty as well as providing for the family.

My early education was in a one room school where I learned my love of teaching. (Overloaded teachers often had students help with younger grades). Yes, that is an outhouse and a water pump. We were quite primitive.

Bible Memory Camp, not only required memorizing hundreds of Bible Verses to qualify, but, was the setting where I first felt God calling me to missions and laid South America on my heart. I remember singing in a mixed quartet, “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go, Dear Lord.”

Bible School at Prairie Bible Institute was the next step. Austere dorms and good Bible teaching were excellent preparation.

Following that, I taught at a small Christian school for 2 years and realized I needed more teacher training, so back to university for a BA in education.

Still feeling the call to missions, but no direction, I taught several years in a middle school. My sister sent me information of SAM Summer Teams, and I applied for the 1977 team, but my application was too late, so I requested to be on the 1978 team to Bolivia.

Here is where God’s perfect timing was revealed. The Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center was founded in 1977. When I arrived in Santa Cruz in 1978 the need for teachers of MK’s and my lifetime preparation and call to missions were a perfect fit. I completed my contract at the middle school, raised support and returned to Santa Cruz in 1979 where I served with SAM until 2012.

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