Problems and Perils of the Missionary

A short time after purchasing El Hogar, at Los Pinos—before the present main building was built—warnings were sent out that there were high winds at sea and that surely a cyclone was forming and moving inland. As the angry clouds hung in the heavens, men were sent out into the city to warn everybody, and also help them put up storm shutters or nail up the windows against the onslaught of the strong winds that were sweeping inland.

Dark clouds banked in the sky and raced swiftly with the fast-moving winds, pouring out torrents of water, which added much to the great destruction in general. The strong winds swept through the land, and the great palms bent their proud heads. Stronger blew the blast, and they were thrown over and their roots exposed. A frame building in the rear of the Homes went down, and was completely wrecked. The storm had begun between seven and eight in the evening, and even then falling trees and other obstructions caused all lights to be turned off in the city, and the water mains were shut off. Through the long sleepless hours of the night, howling winds raged and torrents fell. Then daylight came, and the faithful men of the Red Cross, risking their lives, came out several times over the city, each group chosen to look after a certain field. The one that visited El Hogar was the group that was chosen to see after institutions with children.

They came that day, faithfully as before, through the awful drenching rain, the piercing winds, tired out and weary with the task at hand.

“You must move all the children downstairs,” they said.

“But we have moved down to these back rooms, and the water has poured in until the children are having to stay on the beds to keep out of the streams of water running in from the windows and door.”

“But you will have to move out of these rooms to the space under the side of the house.”

“There is no floor; the rooms have never been dug out. Only a natural bank is there with a dirt floor and a lattice protecting the space. It is not a very good place for little children.”

“True, but if these winds hold out much longer, part of this house may go. It is safer for the children under the roof on the bank of dirt than out where some wall may cave in at any time or some part go down. It is better for the children to take a slight cold from a damp place over a day or two and be nursed back to health when this is over than to risk their lives.”

So with the help of the Red Cross men and the soldiers, the children were brought down. A good fire was built in the basement kitchen of the building and water kept hot on the stove. No one could say when some part of the structure might give way under the heavy pounding and merciless lashing of the winds and injure a number or all of them.

So, when the Red Cross men came in—cold, wet, and weary—these missionaries, in mercy and appreciation of their kindness in time of stress, took some of the hot water, coffee, and condensed milk and made large tin-cups of coffee and cocoa. They left refreshed and strengthened for the dangerous and heavy tasks at hand. Also, they were deeply impressed with the calm they found. Everywhere else in the city in the other institutions they visited, they found workers and attendants frightened by the raging winds and the awful noises of the breaking trees and the houses breaking apart. Roofs were tearing loose and flying into the mad whirlpool of winds, and the workers became hysterical. Then the children, seeing their fear, added their own tears and cries to that of the elders.

But at El Hogar, the men found the children sitting in order, singing the songs of the Sunday School, and at another time, the men found them all kneeling in prayer. Suffice it to say, this fact made an impression on at least one of the men. He afterward sought out the Home, and becoming interested, was converted. He was for several years at the head of the Boys’ Home, and later served as pastor and as secretary for the mission. This was Horacio Morales.

All that day the winds came and swept over the Island. The house next door to the mission was badly wrecked in the awful storm. The house across the street from the Home had the roof and one side blown away. But at El Hogar, a loving Heavenly Father watched over where so many of His little ones were sheltered, and it was not harmed in more than minor ways.

The second awful night of the wild storm, the children and workers stayed all together under the floor of the second story. There the bank of dirt floor was so high and the top so low that the taller ones had to sit down with only a dirt floor beneath them and an open lattice at each end. The fearful elements shrieked and howled as the night wore on, and water poured through the basement rooms. Workers took brooms and kept sweeping in a desperate effort to sweep the water in the direction of the rear door.

The Rod Cross workers who so kindly had come had opened a place in the rear, so that the water could be swept out and not back up to where the little children were housed. The men waded about, working in cheerful cooperation, until every broom in the place was broken with the efforts, and darkness fell and little could be done. All through the night, the patient little ones were cared for as the long, weary hours wore on. At last the night came to an end, and about six o’clock the next morning, the sun suddenly broke out bright and shining. Some brave workers put out their heads to see if the worst was over, but a soldier standing on watch called out, “Shut the door. Do not risk your life. The storm may not be over yet.”

So they withdrew obediently for two more hours, fearing that the winds might turn again in fury and wreak more destruction to life and property. And then, when they opened their doors, they marveled. For they came forth from a building where there was no solid wall of protection, where only the open lattice stood between them and the driving rain. But the rain, swept by the winds, was miraculously diverted from the unprotected space where the children were by a great and unseen Hand and driven in a stream downward into the vacant room beyond. God had been protecting them all through the long, stormy hours of the night. And as they counseled together and realized the direct hand of a loving Father, their hearts were lifted up in gratitude as they counted their blessings.

“I saw what I think no one else saw during the storm.” This came from a new member of the staff of workers at the mission who was not at that time a Christian.

“What did you see?”

“I saw at each end of the building, where it was open to the rain and storm, a Hand which seemed to be resting there to turn back the storm from the children. I never saw anything like it before,” she said quietly.

Not long after this experience of seeing the providential hand of God working in behalf of His little ones, she became a Christian. Thus the temporal loss and the imposed inconvenience was made to yield two precious souls for God’s kingdom.

Like Noah coming out of the ark after the flood, they, too, emerged from their close quarters out onto the grounds of the Homes. There they saw the beautiful, tall Royal palms that bordered the grounds had been torn out by the roots and bent halfway to the ground. Everywhere wreckage was piled up here and there, buildings torn apart, streets broken up, and great cavities in roads and fields. All small animal life was almost entirely destroyed over the Island where the devastation had been rife, and the scene was one of general disorder, both in nature and where men had erected buildings.

They thanked God as they looked about them, that not only the lives had been spared of everyone, but that God had kept them in comparative comfort from the deluge and had, as well, protected the property from severe damage. They had only to look about them to realize that the mighty hands of God had truly been spread out in mercy to protect the buildings. And moreover, He had indeed fulfilled the promise, “I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust…. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee…. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”* (Psalm 91:2,5-7,11)

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One of the great problems of the mission work in Cuba, as has been stated before, was that of renting a place for worship. The country is preeminently Catholic, and the landlords were told by their spiritual advisors not to rent their property out to these Christians. In time, they sat together and figured out the amount that would be required to build a plain, simple mission building in each place where there was a congregation raised up. The amount indeed was staggering, even with the plainest building. Materials for building are very high in Cuba. They went in earnest prayer to God to somehow provide the means and so relieve the almost unbearable situation.

Later on, word came from a western state in the United States, that a friend, both of Faith Stewart and the work in Cuba, had willed a big portion of her estate to the mission in the name of Faith Stewart. This friend had now passed away. The amount that would be inherited was between 120 to 160 thousand dollars, according to the value of the property at the time of her death.

How good the Heavenly Father was to send this great sum that mission buildings might be erected. All were happy to learn that God had at last provided means to build these much needed places of worship. When the case came to court, Faith Stewart remained at home, as the property was so definitely willed to the work in Cuba, she did not doubt the outcome. Finally, a good friend of the work in Cuba, who lived in the city where the will was probated, wrote her to come, as it seemed things were not going well. She promptly prepared for the trip, and went by plane.

Just before she left home, word had been received that a certain group of professed Christian people, a religious movement that in all reason should have rejoiced above all others that God was providing for the spread of the truth by His Church, were getting interested in the inheritance also. They were opposing her clear right to inherit this estate, and by some intervention, had asked the court that she take a mental examination to prove her ability to properly handle affairs. To what length will those who are covetous go to rob the true children of God? Is there no shame, no compunction, no compassion, that they would, if they could by the laws of the land, rob even the work of God? All this to profit from others and gain what is not theirs!

When this suggestion was made to her about the examination, she at once stated that she had no fear and was perfectly willing to have a mental examination, as she knew her mind was sound. A young Jamaican doctor had heard about the case, and he said, “Never consent to such a thing. As this case progresses and inquiry is made of you and you are not there, think: if you surrender to a mental examination, you must enter a hospital and be under observation for three months. All these people need to do is to know that the heir is in such a place, and your prospects to receive the money will be ruined. This, no doubt, they know, and have laid a trap for you. Do not, under any circumstances, yield to this request.”

So she went over to the United States, and to the city, and there she resided in the home of a friend. But these people could not bear but that some effort more be made to keep her from getting the sum willed her. So she was compelled to go before a group of lawyers and a judge and with her, also, the lawyer who had consented to represent her at court. This man was not a Christian, but came from a Christian home, and hearing of the case and the great injustice of the opposers, he said that he would represent her and go through the case and do what he could.

As they sat there before the judge and the lawyers, asking difficult questions even for a young person to remember, she remembered the promise of God that when we are brought before such occasions, God will help us (Matthew 10:19-20). She leaned heavily on Him in that hour and successfully answered all their many questions. The case, however, was clear, and the judge remarked that if he, at her age, could have half the good memory that she had that day, he would be satisfied. Moreover, he considered her a real missionary.

But the case, because of being a big one, was dragged through court so long, that only about thirty thousand dollars was realized, which was sufficient to build only about six mission buildings of the small size and very plain. The rest was paid out in the court for the expense of the case. (Those who opposed her justly received none.) If only the kind friend, who wanted so much to supply, could have been wise and turned the property over during her lifetime, how simple it would have been. Not only did the amount become smaller, but friends in the North, hearing of a large sum being given, quit sending to the mission. But when money is designated for a certain purpose, it must be kept for that purpose. For awhile, there was great suffering at the mission and needs that could not be met. But in His time, God came to her rescue and things went back to normal. The little missions were all built as soon as possible.

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A drought came over the Island, and there was a great shortage of water. At any time in Havana, the water may be turned off for hours at a time, and unless the housewife has been foresighted and stored some extra water, there will be none for any purpose whatsoever. Day by day, this is the lot of the people, and nothing is thought about the condition, as it does not seem to grow better. But a definite drought was something altogether different. Wells were going dry, and people were suffering. Some of the neighbors were coming to borrow water from the Home.

When the property at Los Pinos was purchased, a good well was driven, and there was a generous supply of well water for both of the Homes. The children had good water to drink, which was as healthy as could be found in the city. But alas, the water in the well grew slack, and finally there was but a muddy stream when the pump was going. They would have to hunt for water. But where? An institution with over eighty children and workers could not exist long without water. There were too many of them to supply.

In Cuba there are no rugs and carpets or floor coverings. So every day, the housewife mops the entire house through from the front to the rear, and this takes lots of water. Also, the hot climate calls for numerous baths. At a certain hour in the mission, a bell rings, and the children report for their bath. All this in addition to drinking, cooking, washing clothes, and the many other uses we have for water.

Men were employed to look for a new site for a well, but after a thorough survey of all the ground, the men stated that, without a doubt, there was no place where water could be found even if a well were dug or drilled. These men were Government well inspectors and knew their business.

The burden at once fell heavily on the hearts of all concerned, and workers and even the children began to cry out to God to provide. They held on in continued prayer. A special day was set, and all were earnestly engaged in prayer when suddenly came a cry from the yard where the children were playing: “Water, water—pure, cold water!”

They arose from their knees and went out. God had answered prayer, and clear, sparkling water was gushing from the well. There was plenty. Enough for all the needs of the Homes, and for their needy neighbors.

The news went out of the miracle that God had performed, and people began to inquire about it and found it to be true. The postman in the town who delivered the daily mail, and knew of a certainty that there was no water, heard the news when he was in the city and hurried out to verify the rumor. God had really and truly performed a miracle in answer to prayer.

We have said before that the prevailing religion of Cuba is the Catholic religion, and throughout history, they have claimed to have great and mysterious miracles performed. In all places of business—doctors, lawyers, teachers—they are in the majority. This news of an up-to-date miracle performed in another church than the Catholic was far from pleasant news to them. For three years the well had been used, and the children had thrived and been very well, and no complaint was made at any time; but shortly after the news got out that God had given water in answer to prayer, a representative in lieu of duties performed came to the Home and ordered the use of city water. They were positively forbidden to let the children drink from the well the good, cold, sparkling water, which was so much better for them than the city water. In time, the pump motor was sold, and the use of the well was then discontinued. But they could not change the fact that God had worked and had supplied at the crucial hour. He had honored faith.

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All did not go smoothly at all times, and often there were things that made the going especially hard. For instance, the time when all the children in the Girls’ Home took down with different illnesses, one after another, until the Girls’ Home became a veritable hospital. There was no special nurse, and the two who had charge in this case were almost distracted and wholly worn out.

Then Ruby, who had been in the Home for so long and was now in her teens, who was one of the outstanding girls in the Home, suddenly fell very ill and grew steadily worse and worse. There was a dread disease going at that time in the Island called “horse disease,” which was proving fatal to human beings who were unfortunate enough to take down with it. When her case was diagnosed as this disease, all were deeply concerned. In a short time, she became so delirious and unmanageable that they were compelled to put her in the hospital for proper care. Her case was a bad one. Her arms and limbs and body were strapped to the bed, as she could not control herself when in the agony of suffering, and would fall out of bed and be unable to get back in. Then, too, at such times, she would scream so loud in pain that she could be heard for a long distance.

It was a pitiful sight. In her lucid moments, she would assure the nurse that God was going to heal her, and the nurses became interested in her case and pitied the poor girl whose case seemed hopeless in spite of her constant assurance that she would be healed by God. But despite all the care that she received, she steadily grew worse until all hope, both of doctors and nurses, was given up. But still she protested that God would heal her.

One day, when there was no hope, the priest came to her bed to minister as they do for their own people. Strangely enough, her poor mind became clear and she resented and refused his offer and told him she was a Christian and did not need the help he offered. Then she would relapse again and be completely out of her head.

Ruby’s mother was permitted to visit her in the hospital, and when left alone with her for awhile by the doctors and nurses, she took advantage of the opportunity to knock Ruby’s head against the back of the bed, hoping to kill her. This was because Ruby had become a Christian, and the mother was a Spiritualist. They are cruel and do not hesitate to do wicked things under the direction of the evil spirits they worship. She threatened that if Ruby told who had so mistreated her, she would kill her.

When the nurse came in, she found Ruby much worse and made inquiry, and the poor girl was afraid to tell her. But they were able to find out, and the wicked woman was forbidden to see her daughter again.

Prayer—earnest, believing prayer—was going up day by day for victory in this sad case, and for others which were being cared for in the homes. Whenever possible, they went to the hospital to visit and encourage the sick girl, but always there seemed no hope except the definite testimony of Ruby herself that God would heal her. But even then, the awful seizures of pain would take hold on her body, and she would writhe so that her body would leap up in spite of the straps around it to hold her down.

One day a marked change came over her.

“I have been healed,” she said, “and I want my clothes to go home.”

In spite of protests, she maintained her stand and grew steadily better. At last she was released, and the nurses, who had shed tears and firmly believed the case lost, now began to show interest in it. That it was God who had healed, they did not doubt, but this was a new thing in their routine of service to their fellow man.

The case ended with a request for a copy of the Word of God, and several Bibles were distributed to doctors and nurses as a direct result of this outstanding case. Ruby returned home to Los Pinos and has been well and normal in mind and body ever since.

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The Mission in Los Pinos has a long history of the mighty working of God, both in general and in individual cases. These cases were not all physical, but were in all types of incidents common to life. Yet God worked and saved the case or the life or even both.

There was the case of Agusto. It was an officer of the law who brought the boy into the Home. The mother and father were both criminals. There was no place but the streets for the child. There was no future, but in all probability a place of detention or correction. If he was left to run loose long, he would, in all probability, be put there in short order because of his parents before him. In pity, they brought him to the Home in Los Pinos.

He was received and went in and out among the other boys. But, oh! what a commotion started. Never in his life having lived congenially among others, or having been taught to consider anyone, or having known the first principal of cooperation, the poor boy became a problem at once. After a few weeks of desperate effort on the part of Christian workers, they came to Miss Stewart.

“We have tried hard to do our best by this new boy, but he fights with others, is arrogant, and knows not the first thing about getting along with folks. We feel it would be better to send him away than to spoil all the children.”

“There are only two doors open for this poor boy,” she replied. “One is here at the Home, and the other is the door to the reform school. Will we say that we are willing to give him up and send him to the reform school with no future before him? Cannot God help and deliver this poor boy, who has never before had an even chance to learn to live right? What do you think we ought to do?”

So the discussion ended by the workers picking up the threads once more and starting all over with prayer and consecration to tackle the thing in hand.

But the weeks sped by, and again in desperation, they appeared before their leader. “We cannot control the boy. There seems to be nothing we can do. We have tried and done our best.”

“Then we will send for his father. And when he comes, send the boy in.”

The father arrived in due time, and she sent for the boy to come in. When he entered the room and saw his father, the boy fell to the floor, sobbing. Winding his arms firmly around her ankles, he cried out, “Do not send me away. I know I have been mean. Beat me, beat me hard, but let me stay here. I never had a home before. This is the only real home I know. Don’t send me away!”

Once more, in mercy, a trial was made. About two weeks later, one of the ministers out in the Island came and preached at the Home. This boy was one of the first to respond, and what a change came over him! The problem of the last weeks was solved in that series of meetings.

A few years passed, and Agusto was a big, healthy, nice-looking boy in his teens. At one time, there was a problem of getting a suitable cook for the Boys’ Home. The work of Agusto had been assistant to the cook in preparing the meals. One day he said to Miss Stewart, “Abuela [grandmother], I have come to offer myself as cook.”

“But I am afraid that you are too young,” she replied.

“I have watched the cook prepare the meals, and I hope someday to be a cook in a restaurant and maybe serve Americans when they come over. I would like very much to learn now and serve here in the Home.”

From that time, this boy began cooking for the Home, although but fifteen years of age, and not only cooking for the Home, but serving faithfully in the annual conventions. Those years in the training of a Christian home have helped him to develop into an upright and clean young man.

There came a time when he was offered a better place with more pay, but he refused at that time saying, “No, I cannot treat Abuela that way. She has no cook, and she needs me, and I must stay a little longer and help her.”

Thus the seed took root, and the bread cast on the waters returned after many days.

At the time that this offer occurred, he was engaged to marry a nice young girl and sorely needed the extra money. The young lady in question was a girl of another faith and dressed like the nominal Christian in the world today. He began to talk to her, explaining that God in His Word had expressly said that His children were not to adorn themselves in fine clothing, decorated hair, and so on, but with a Christ-like spirit.

The girl began to lay off her lipstick and needless jewelry, and finally went to the altar and repented, accepting Christ as her Savior. The grandparents objected and would not let her attend the church. But she has promised to serve God in the right way when the time comes for the marriage.

Agusto is a tall, dark, nice-looking Cuban, and is serving on the police force. His father before him was a breaker of the law, but he has chosen to be a protector of the same laws in the same city. “Reached and saved in time” might well be printed over his door, for God, through the outstretched hands of the Home, has done for this boy what the law could not do. The system of work that must needs be carried on in such a home, where each of necessity must have his share in the work, must have helped him get a broader view of the cooperation and fellowship not known in many private homes.

Who of us that rear two to four children in comparative comfort, or even in hardship, can catch a fleeting glimpse of the problems brought by children from sixty-five to eighty different homes, or streets, alleys, doorways, or park benches; many never having in their lives sat at a table, laid in a bed, or eaten with knife or fork, having had no loving care or counsel, and knowing only suffering and hardships at the hands of their fellowmen, thus becoming bitter and suspicious of all people in their tender years. Think then of the labor, the love, the understanding heart, the patience, the heartaches, the comfort, and the deep burden for them that covers the many lapses and failures. After you have these things well in mind, you have just touched one phase of the great responsibility of caring for a home for helpless children cast out in this world.