This flyer by the Regions Beyond Missionary Union’s Southern Sierra Team was printed in 1973 to advertise personnel requirements on the one side, and material requirements on the other. The illustrations make the advertisement more eye-catching and invite the reader to read the advertisements. The Southern Sierra Team stated they needed a car, cassette players and contributions towards the establishment of a radio show that transmitted daily Gospel messages (see figure 2).
This use of cassette players and establishment of a radio programme tie into my previous blogposts, outlining the use of these media to spread Gospel messages in areas in the Loreto region. A similar tactic was clearly being used by the Southern Sierra Team. The advertisement for cassette players states that evangelical and teaching messages can be left on these tapes in Quechua or Spanish in villages or homes as part of teaching via the extension method or to foster interest in the mission’s teachings.
The daily radio programme advertisement describes the success of Hermano Pablo, or Paul Edwin Finkenbinder, in using radio Gospel messages as an evangelistic tool. Hermano Pablo’s radio gospel show In Mensaje a La Consciencia garnered many listeners in El Salvador, where he operated as an evangelist.The RBMU wanted to adopt a similar programme, as it was proving successful for other evangelicals in South America. The radio show was meant to garner interest in the Gospel, and could be supplemented by a free correspondence course, another example of teaching via the extension method. This method could also be used by Jan Hellens and Rosemary Flack, two missionaries for the RBMU who wished to go to villages in the surrounding area of Calhuanca on weekly visits, and were asking for a vehicle for their work in the Calhuanca area.
The other side of the flyer states that missionaries applying to the advertised posts often needed to speak both Spanish and Quechua (see figure 1). This would potentialize the effectiveness of their work and allow them to take part in the creation of such radio shows and cassette recordings and effectively reach out to communities in these areas.
This pamphlet is a visually interesting supplement to lots of the heavily textual material housed in the archive, while still being informative and interesting. It shows some of the approaches to missionary work adopted by the RBMU and how they reached out to potential new recruits.
Figure 1 – Projected Personnel Requirements for the Southern Sierra Team. CSWC 33/41/1, Archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh.Figure 2 – Projected Materials Requirements for the Southern Sierra Team. CSWC 33/41/1, Archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh.
File 33/39/4 is filled to the brim with decades worth of financial records and correspondence between the different treasurers for the Peruvian Inland Mission, now operating under the Regions Beyond Missionary Union (RBMU) as of 1948. These treasurers were operating out of Great Britain, Canada and the US, and the mission field in Peru from the 1950s until the 70s. In this file I came across a hand drawn map and survey of the Amazonas region in Peru made in the late 1960s by Mark Sirag, a missionary who was part of the RBMU. This map (see figure 1) and the information given in the survey help give an idea of what the landscape and lives of people in this area looked like.
Figure 1 Hand-drawn map of four provinces in the Department of Amazonas, Peru. CSWC 33/39/4, Archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh.
The map was probably drawn in 1967 by Sirag. It is accompanied by a four-page document, hand signed by Sirag, titled “Impressions from Amazonas”. The survey, in his words, gives a general outline of “the trip – by plane, truck and feet; the facts – geography etc.; opinions and recommendations”. This information serves as advice to other missionaries on where would be best to start a mission, based on the level of need of different communities and whether there is already a different mission or Church established in the area. Sirag gives population figures and states how these populations were dispersed into rural or urban settlements (see figure 2). It becomes clear that this area was sparsely populated, and that many lived in rural settlements.
Figure 2 Population data provided by Mark Sirag in his survey Impressions from Amazonas. CSWC 33/39/4, Archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh
Sirag lists the “recognised Indian communities” in the area. These are the Asuncion, Cheto, Chilliquin, Yambajalaca, Huancas, La Jalca, Levanto, Montevideo, Olleros, Quinjalca, San Isidoro de Mayne, San Pedro and Sonche. You can see some of these settlements dotted on his provided map. According to Sirag, it is the land of “the ancient Sachapuyos (or Chachapuyos or Chacas – the race of Indians conquered by the Incas in the 15th century.)”. Chachapuyos means “Jungle of the Mist”, which further creates a mental image of misty green rainforests and highland plains with river valleys piercing through. Sirag describes the area as follows:
The climate, the people, and the culture is that of the Sierra; typical are the potatoes, the coca, the ponchos, the shawls worn by the women, the eucalyptus tree, and the cool climate and the cold water.
The eucalyptus tree was likely first introduced in Peru, along with Chile, Argentina, and other South American countries, in the late 19th century by Franciscan friars and upper-class landowners. Over the course of the next hundred years, it had become a common sighting in the Sierra of Peru. By the 1960s, when this survey was written, eucalyptus had been readily adopted by many Peruvians in response to growing wood scarcity after the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century. Deforestation and scarce forest regeneration due to increased demand for wood in housing construction and for use in mining endeavours caused an increased shortage of wood and deforestation. Planting the tall eucalyptus tree, with its fast growing and straight wood, served as a fast solution to this shortage.
A small passage in the four-page survey recounts the journey that Sirag, along with some other travellers, made to various regions and villages in four counties in the Amazonas. The survey details what kind of transport the travellers used. This, along with the population data on the next page, shows how interspersed communities here were and what travel to these villages involved. It says the following:
November 3 we flew to Chachapoyas
4 we went by truck to Leymebamba and visited national pastor David Landa (Presbyterian) and saw his work. We returned the 8th.
9 -11 we visited Pomachocas and Jumbilla, starting by truck, arriving on foot.
13 – 15 we flew to Mendoza (Rodriguez de Mendoza).We hike through the valley, visiting Omia, Milpuc, Chirimoto, Limabamba, and Huambo.
16 We returned to Chachapoyas by truck
17 & 18 we visitied Luya and Lamud by bus
22 We visited the town of Huancas, near Chachapoyas
The dates show an indication of the time it would take to travel to these areas and what mode of transport was used, with flying frequently being used to travel across the mountainous, river filled terrains of the Department of Amazonas. Sirag’s flight from Chachapoyas to Mendoza only took 14 minutes, but the hikes they had to take to the individual villages of Omia, Milpuc, Chirimoto, Limibamba and Huambo each took up to four and a half hours. At the time the survey was written, there were not (yet) roads to some of these communities, so travel by air or by foot was clearly seen as the best way to access some villages.
Sirag’s hand-drawn map and his survey help us understand how isolated some of these areas were. We get hints about the type of terrain and vegetation, what the inhabitants wear, their faith and their dress, and even what their diet comprised of. This all, especially when viewed with the supplementary map, helps form a colourful mental picture of the landscape and people of the four provinces of the Amazonas Sirag travelled through: Chachapoyas, Bongará, Luya and Rodriguez de Mendoza. Mark Sirag’s survey is a determined and concise effort of a missionary to select where would be most suitable to establish a mission. 50 years later, these documents also serve us as an evocative impression of these provinces in the 1960s.
The Centre for Research Collections has recently begun cataloguing a series of periodicals from The Regions Beyond Missionary Union (RBMU). These texts summarise the Union’s work in Africa, India, Polynesia, China and Central and South America in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In particular, our current work has focused on the missionary practices applied in Latin America. The following blog post will discuss articles on missionary obstetricians featured in the 1906 periodical (ref. CSWC 51/23/3/9).
The RBMU periodicals feature a range of articles, covering the training of missionaries in England, recommended texts, prevalent issues in missionary areas and accounts from missionaries in the field. These articles are intended to be read by RBMU supporters, encouraging them to donate or enroll in training, as well as to become missionaries. The periodicals give significant historical and geographical information on the countries in which missionaries were stationed, particularly the “Neglected Continent” Latin America. Many of the articles on Latin America discuss the difficulties faced by missionaries, for example clashes with Roman Catholics or the impact of political instability. The articles in the 1906 edition on missionary obstetricians focus on the poor conditions in which the patients live and how this inhibits the role of the nurses.
The principal article on obstetrics is titled Cuzco Women’s Wrongs and was written by obstetric nurse Mrs McNairn.[1] The title is somewhat misleading, as the article highlights the needs of the women McNairn is treating, it appears their “Wrongs” are the poor conditions in which they live. She describes how her mission training at Doric Lodge, the RBMU training school, was supplemented by a full obstetrical course (fig. 1 shows Mrs McNairn with two other Regions Beyond nurses). This shows that the Union were keen to provide medical support as part of their missionary work. In Mrs McNairn’s case her husband was also a missionary and so they both travelled out to Cuzco together. He worked as a minister whilst she tended to the health of his (potential) congregation.
Figure 1: Portrait photographs of three nurses, including Mrs McNairn, p241 (CSWC 51/23/3/9)
Mrs McNairn describes how the obstetric nurses in Peru were sought out by the “well-to-do” in Peruvian society who believed English medical care to be more reliable. However, the article focuses more on the poorer women McNairn has treated herself. She was very concerned that many of these mothers are young teenagers that were unable to properly care for their children. She describes three cases where women have died or been close to death due to poor conditions or a lack of nearby hospitals. McNairn recalls the case of a woman she visited in a “Indian Tambo” (Inn) who was in labour and required surgery (fig. 2). She describes the Tambo as dirty and uncomfortable with “hens and guinea pigs running about the floor”.[2] The unsanitary room and the lack of clean water led to McNairn recommending she be taken to hospital. However, the hospital was two miles away and, due to a lack of ambulances, she had to be carried there by her family on a blanket. McNairn believed that this arduous journey unnecessarily led to the woman’s passing. It seems that the lack of established medical facilities in Peru at this time made it very difficult for nurses to apply the training they had received in England.
Figure 2: An Image of a Cuzco House similar to those that McNairn was working in. p239 (CSWC 51/23/3/9)
According to McNairn’s account it seemed missionary obstetricians in Cuzco were in high demand in this period and treated very high numbers of women. Though she was frustrated that the poor conditions led to preventable deaths, the care provided by missionary nurses would have exceeded any medical treatment typically available to poorer women. McNairn describes the gratitude of her patients and how she “always gets a warm welcome back into their homes”.
The importance of obstetric care to the missionary cause is stressed by Mrs McNairn. She believed that her home visits were “almost the only way to reach [native] women’s hearts”. The childbed has offered a woman-only space in many cultures throughout history, and this has been observed by McNairn as an important tool for missionaries. She describes the native women in Peru as confined to their houses, and so through offering treatment she was able to form personal connections to individuals who may not otherwise access ministry. Though McNairn is sympathetic, to a certain extent she blames the poor conditions in which the expectant mothers live as “misery of their own making”.[3] She strongly believed that conversion to Christianity was the best way to help the native people make “their home-life all it should be”.[4] Her medical work certainly seems to have helped the community, but this article makes it clear that Mrs McNairn was not impressed by the Peruvian way of life.
This article was intended to encourage patrons to fund improved medical facilities and greater numbers of practitioners in Peru. This shows that in some situations missionary organisations put the support of native communities and saving lives first and conversion second. Nursing, including obstetrics, was clearly considered an important skill for many missionary women. As McNairn’s account shows, it offered an opportunity for missionaries to connect with women face to face and build a personal relationship. However, as a researcher we must acknowledge that the central aim was always conversion and aspects of McNairn’s account speak to a colonial mindset within the Union.
(Source: Regions Beyond, 1906, CSWC 51/23/3/9, Cuzco Women’s Wrongs, pp. 237 – 241)
[1] Mrs McNairn, “Cuzco Women’s Wrongs”, in H. Grattan Guinness, Regions Beyond, (S. W. Partridge & Co: London, 1906), pp. 237 – 241
As I was going through the financial records for the Regions Beyond Missionary union, which includes records for the RBMU run Evangelical Hospital at Lamas, Peru, an internet search of the Evangelical Hospital of Lamas led me to a Facebook group called Bienvenido a Lamas. Posted on here are some wonderful photographs from the 1950s and 60s submitted by one of Lamas’s residents of the mission post of the Peruvian Inland Mission (PIM), later the Regions Beyond Missionary Union (RBMU).
These images mostly show snapshots of everyday life at Lamas – sports matches, dinners, and weddings, amongst others. There are also some photographs of the old Evangelical Hospital and its staff, which is what originally led me to finding this page. Many people have commented under these photos, identifying the people, pets and horses shown in the photos. I recognise many of these names, as they have come up in the files I have catalogued so far. Take for example, this photograph, posted to Bienvenido a Lamas:
Figure 1 Bienvenido a Lamas. Facebook, June 11, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3163945540310697&set=a.3163945280310723
The many comments under this photograph say that this is a photograph of Vicente Coral, who, according to a commenter under the photo, went to study theology at the Costa Rica Bible Institute. My first blogpost on some index cards amongst the contents of one of the earlier files relating to the PIM includes a photograph of A.G Soper with some students who went to the Costa Rica Bible Institute with her. The caption to this photograph identifies one of the young men on this photograph as Señor V. Coral! Coral also has his own index card and is mentioned many times amongst the meeting minutes of the PIM or was himself present at these meetings.
Figure 2 Photograph taken at the Costa Rica Bible Institute showing Miss Soper, Senor V. Coral, Don Alejandro Castillo, Don Hildebrando Tello, Señora Hortensia de Pina and Señorita Rosa Portacarrero. CSWC 33/39/3, Archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh.
Hildebrando Tello is also amongst the group photographed at the Costa Rica Bible Institute. A photo posted to the Lamas Facebook group shows him, identified as ‘pastor Hildebrando Tello’ with his students at the Lamas Bible College.
Figure 3 Bienvenido a Lamas. “alumnos del estudio biblico.” Facebook, June 11, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3163947886977129&set=a.3163945280310723
Many other names of missionaries identified by the commenters under the photos are mentioned amongst the records of the PIM in the index cards. One of the index cards I came across while writing the first blogpost notes the details of a Megan Jones. A photo on the Lamas Facebook page shows a ‘Dra Miss Megan’ smiling next to ‘Miss Pat’. The names Megan Jones and Patricia Greening frequently feature in the financial records receiving donations for their work at the hospital in Lamas. Commenters under the photos on Facebook share memories of their childhoods at the missionary schools or hospital in Lamas, some even sharing that they were born at the missionary hospital.
Figure 4 Figure 3 Bienvenido a Lamas. “1959, en la mision en Lamas, Miss Pat y Miss Megan, la enfermera doctora.” Facebook, June 14, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3175135389191712&set=a.3163945280310723
Seeing these photos and the comments on social media brings these stories closer to the present, and helps create perspective on the establishment and development of the mission. The memories shared in the comments under these photos on Facebook adds so much more meaning and depth to the images, as well as to the materials housed in Edinburgh, such as the photo of Vicente Coral, Hildebrando Teller and Miss Soper at the Costa Rica Bible Institute. When I showed these photos to Kirsty Stewart, the archivist helping me as an intern, she commented how seeing these photos reminded her of the importance of the work we are doing. Making the collections housed at the University’s archives accessible to researchers around the world is so important, because this history pertains to many more people than those with physical access to the collections. Cataloguing and digitising these resources makes them accessible to the people in Lamas who have shared their own memories and photographs of the mission online with us. We hold a part of history in our archives that was experienced by many people around the globe. As such, our resources and records deserve to be shared, including with the relatives of the those featuring in the photos posted on Bienvenido a Lamas and in the archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union at the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh.
