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Missionaries Living Out the
Great Commission: Ecuador Marie Short
On November 26, 1946, after two
years of helping in a Spanish
language assembly in San Antonio,
Texas, my husband, Dee and I, with
our ten month old son, left for
Ecuador, South America. Our first six
years were spent in a small village,
the nearest point of contact with a
colorful and peaceful tribe of Indians.
The whole area was tropical farm
land and jungle, with one main road
leading up to the capital city of Quito.
The rest of the area was reached by
foot or horseback on narrow, often
muddy trails.
Our first home was a small thatched
roof house with split bamboo walls,
elevated on posts. Unfortunately,
the elevation was not enough to
prevent roaming pigs from going
under to scratch their backs on the
floor boards. It resulted in frequent
7.5 earthquakes! The door and
window openings were hung with
wire screening to keep out vampire
bats and large insects. The kitchen
was a narrow “L” without walls, and
the “stove” was a wooden box filled
with dirt on which a fire was built.
Being the rainy season, dry wood was
scarce, but I noticed that the floor
boards extended about a foot from
the walls. I took a saw and evened
the floor with the walls, making a
nice pile of dry, hot burning wood.
What a blessing!
Our water came from the river at the
foot of the hill. For drinking, all water
had to be boiled. I learned a lesson
by watching the village women. It
was much smarter to carry the
laundry to the river to wash than to
carry all the water to the house.
Friendship with those women broke
down barriers and opened doors to
share God’s love with them. Our
children enjoyed playing in the water,
trying to catch little fish, and chasing
iguanas. There were no toys.
My husband had learned good
carpentry skills here in California
working with his Uncle George. In
the village, there wasn’t a single
Western Assemblies Home
Courier Summer 2014
Providing a Loving Home for God’s Precious Seniors
Albin Szulc
President
Lynn Hughes
Administrator
Rod Chance
Executive Director/CFO Volunteer
Western Assemblies Home
350 Berkeley Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711
Phone 909-626-3711
Fax 909-626-4493
Visit us on the web at:
www.westernassemblieshome.org
Facility No. 191502342
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the
gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
bathroom. I will not describe how
the people coped. On arrival, his
first work was teaching the men
how to build an out house. What an
improvement in sanitation, though
some diehards stuck to their old
ways.
The Indians loved us and provided us
with food before our own land
produced crops. The men knew
some Spanish, but the women did
not, and they did not want their
children to learn to read. They were
only interested in learning math so
that they would not be cheated by
the Spanish speaking people.
Witchcraft was a guiding way of life
for them, though the witchdoctors
were our friends also. It was a long
time before they had God’s Word in
their language. They do now thanks
to Wycliffe Translators.
By December of the first year, the
upper story of our mission house
was ready to be occupied. It had real
board floors, double bamboo walls
and a large kitchen. Our second son
was born there with the assistance
of an English trained midwife who
had joined us in the work. Three
years later, another son arrived, and
it was time for furlough.
In six years, there was an active
assembly, a clinic, a school, and the
beginnings of proper roads to other
areas. God had blessed! My parents
waited to greet three grandsons who
spoke Spanish, Tsafigui, and a bit of
English!
Ecuador (continued)
Attention Men: We are looking for
4 to 5 men to volunteer
for devotions once
a week at WAH.
Contact Lynn or Rod at WAH
for more information.
Volunteers
Western Assemblies Home, as
a faith-based organization, has
been reliant on the Lord’s provision and the goodwill of
interested individuals, churches, and businesses to help us remain
sustainable. We welcome donations, in any amount, and as a
501(c)3 corporation, all donations are tax deductible. For more
information, please contact Lynn Hughes at 909-626-3711.
Donations Massage Therapist Lila Le
volunteers her time
Don Argleben planting a large tree at WAH
Volunteers are always welcome!
• Do you have experience in construction or painting?
• Do you enjoy gardening, weeding or trimming?
• Do you have “handy-man” or maintenance skills?
• Are you available to wash windows?
• Do you enjoy teaching crafts?
• Do you have another skill or service to share with our
residents?
Friday Bible Study with Rick Markley
Gary Arends Painting
Our Start in Africa
The mattress I slept on that night felt
like it was stuffed with walnut
shells. This was the prelude to
several “uncomforts” we were to
endure. We soon became
acquainted with army ants, insects,
lizards, snakes, and the Anopheles
mosquito, which kills more people in
Africa than animals do. These were
our fellow residents in our mud
house under a thatched roof.
Tasks at hand were to learn the
language and custom of the people
and to blend in with the Chavuma
way of doing things. My girls were
enrolled at Sakeji School about 500
miles north, which required a trip
twice a year. Hot tears graced the
cheeks of both father and daughters
when saying goodbye on these
occasions. It was cruel and hard and
produced an aching heart for
days. However, there is no better
school in the world! The teachers
are devoted Christians, interested
not only in scholastics, but in the
spiritual needs of the children of
missionaries. How blessed we were
for such a school! Little did I dream
at that time that I would be in Africa
for 40 years!
Mark 10:29
So Jesus answered and said,
“Assuredly, I say to you, there is
no one who has left house or
brothers or sisters or father or
mother or wife or children or
lands, for My sake and the
gospel’s, who shall not receive a
hundredfold now in this time—
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and
lands, with persecutions—and in
the age to come, eternal life.”
Western Assemblies Home is an
Assisted Living Facility for Christians.
Our purpose is to provide for elderly
saints and present Jesus Christ as Lord
and Savior, the Provider of our daily
needs, and the Hope of the world.
We Believe in one God, Almighty,
Creator of all things, infinitely perfect,
holy and eternally existing in three
persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, true God and true man, who was
conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of
the Virgin Mary in His incarnation. He
lived a sinless life, died on the cross as a
perfect sacrifice for our sins, was
buried, rose again on the third day, and
now intercedes as our High Priest and
Advocate.
We Believe in the Holy Spirit, co-
equal with the Father and the Son, who
glorifies the Lord Jesus, convicts people
of sin, regenerates believers, and
permanently indwells all Christians.
We Believe in the Scriptures, Old
and New Testaments, as the inspired
Word of God, which are entirely
trustworthy and without error in the
original writings. They are the
complete revelation of God’s will for
the salvation of people and the divine
and final authority for all Christian faith
and life.
We Believe that the death of
Christ was substitutionary and atoning,
and His death and resurrection provide
the only ground for a sinner’s
justification and acceptance by God.
Those who are “born again” are sealed
by the Spirit, have eternal life, are kept
by the power of God, and shall never
perish.
We Believe in the return of the
Lord Jesus to take all believers to be
with Himself forever.
Statement of Faith Ben Iler
When we departed for Africa, I was
both father and mother to my little
girls, ages eight and ten. Their
mother had graduated to glory. I
soon learned how to put hair up in
rags, among other things.
After driving an adventurous trip to
New York, we boarded the Queen
Mary to England and then took the
Pendennis Castle to Cape Town,
South Africa, where we boarded a
s lo w t ra in to No rthern
Rhodesia. There we received a
warm welcome by Wallace and
Ruth Logan who had come to
transport us to Chavuma Mission,
about 570 miles of dust and
potholes, goats, animals and
people. Wallace and Ruth were
pioneers who first came to Rhodesia
in 1924. In 1964, independence was
granted and Northern Rhodesia
became Zambia.
As we approached Chavuma, we
were greeted by a hundred or more
Africans lining the street, clapping
and shouting “Tambukenu
Mwane.” We were told that it was a
polite greeting and a welcome.
Our first meal, shima and fish, was
at Wallace Logan’s house. Shima is
made from the cassava root which is
dried and pounded into flour then
sifted into boiling water until about
the consistency of window putty. (It
tasted the same too!) The proper
way to eat shima is to twist off a
lump about the size of a jaw breaker,
lube it in gravy made from dried fish,
fried caterpillars or such, and
swallow it whole. If you try to chew
it, your teeth will hardly open
again. Eating required major
adjustments in mind and stomach,
and McDonald’s Big Macs became a
well-remembered fantasy!
Non-Profit Organization
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
CLAREMONT, CA 91711
Permit No. 525
Western Assemblies Home
350 Berkeley Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711
Phone 909-626-3711
Fax 909-626-4493
Email [email protected]
Web www.westernassemblieshome.org
Conferences & Camps
Pacific Bible Conference
Scotts Valley, CA
September 29 - October 3, 2014
Max Krieger
So Cal Assemblies
CMML Conference
Claremont Bible Chapel
October 11, 2014
Rick Markley
Upcoming Events
Every Monday Ice Cream Social for Residents
August 7 & 8 Bring your yard sale donations to WAH
August 9 Yard Sale at WAH - Volunteers needed!
August 12 Out to Lunch Bunch at La Paloma
September 7 Pie Social for Residents - Save the Date!
October 4 Special Event for Residents and their
Families! Mark your Calendar! Details
coming soon!
