The family of God is not limited to national borders.

When my father baptized me in 1945, the Lord spoke to me. As I looked up to see his big hands, hands that disciplined me often, I felt God saying: “You must serve me and continue in the steps of your father and complete his work in Argentina.” So with baptism came my consecration to the mission of serving the kingdom of God.

I was 17 then, and we had to return to Canada on furlough. The next step for me was completing my high school at Rockway Mennonite School, then college and seminary in Goshen, Ind. Then the Lord took us to serve among Latin Americans in Chicago, where we lived for seven years. In 1960, supported by the Elmira (Ontario) Mennonite Church, we returned to Argentina to install ourselves as a family and begin a new outpost for the Mennonite church in the northern suburb of Greater Buenos Aires called Villa Adelina.

It was like coming home. My youth friends were at the airport to receive us, taking us to the Floresta church for a welcoming party where pastor Laurence and Dorothy Brunk hosted us. They helped us get started in the new mission field. Pastor Albano Luayza, one of the oldest and main leaders of the Argentine church, congratulated us and said: “We are most happy that the first missionary kid has come home.”

We moved to the new area in Villa Adelina after living five weeks with the Brunks, Barbara (my first wife) and our three children: Mary Kathryn, Mark and Ann. We started meetings in our home with a half dozen members of the Floresta church who lived close by in the suburb where we were to go.

We walked in the steps of the apostles of Jesus. We related to people in our neighborhood in a natural way. Talking and testifying to them on the street, markets and everywhere we went. We went house to house, sharing Christian literature, offering Bibles and New Testaments, often praying for the sick and comforting the needy.

We also celebrated open-air meetings. The first one had the help of evangelist Nestor Comas from the Bragado church, who came with his son Daniel and his piano accordion. The six disciples of our group plus our three little children went to the town square or plaza on Good Friday and started our meetings, just before the local priest began the traditional Catholic procession. The visiting preacher did not arrive in time, so I had to do it all. I explained our presence there and sang a couple of choruses with a megaphone, then preached a short message explaining the death of Jesus on the cross for the remission of our sins. One woman was converted. With her, Estela O Campo and our family, plus the four members who came from Floresta church, we inaugurated the new church in our house.

Those were wonderful days, as we saw how the Lord continued to add those who should be saved, and little by little the Villa Adelina church grew. By 1964 it had its own native pastor, so we could go to a new place and begin another work, for we came to stay and plant many churches for the Lord.

In all of this we worked at it as a family. Our 6-year-old daughter Mary Kathryn witnessed in school and with Mark, won several children from the neighborhood, so we started open-air children’s meetings every Saturday. Then the children grew up, and we faced a big problem.

In those days, missionaries sent their adolescent children to college “back in the USA.” All our children decided to stay and study in our country. Later, they married Argentines, and now we have 16 grandchildren, and each family is serving in their local church.

I remember the difficulties I had with some relatives on this matter. One of them wanted her grandchildren to study in a Mennonite college “at home.” I trained my children in this kingdom way of thinking. I told them that home was Argentina, for the Lord had called me to return here, so this was our home. Furthermore Argentina had good schools and universities, and since we were members of Christ, we belonged to the larger church family; the “family of God” was in this country. And as T.K. Hershey, one of the first missionaries to this country said: “The distance to heaven was the same from Argentina as it was from the States.”

The church here in the “mission field” understands that when a missionary comes to the field and plants a congregation, he should become part of it, a member of the family of God in that country. He should be willing to become one with the people he serves, speak the language, administer his support without marking a difference with his colleagues, accept the practices and culture, not only eat the good barbecues with good dark wine but drink maté, be ready to receive people at any time and have supper at 8 p.m. or later and be a soccer fan instead of being preoccupied with who wins the World Series, although as a foreigner he should not get into politics. For we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

The missionary must be like Abraham, a person led by the Holy Spirit, living simply and willing to establish himself in the place the Lord indicates, putting aside customs and manner of his country of origin, following the Lord in total obedience. He is one who undergoes many trials but always with his eyes fixed on Jesus.

When J.D. Graber spoke to the missionaries who were going to the mission field in the summer of 1957 in Harrisonburg, Va., he challenged us “to be servants of Christ, preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, plant the church of Jesus Christ and be ready to suffer for the cause of the kingdom.”

So we came to Argentina (by the Mexican way of Chicago) to do this big job, for as Jesus said: “You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appoint you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name” (John 15:16). After 55 years of Christian ministry, we have had the joy of planting a half dozen congregations, helping provide leaders for all of them and being pastor of the pastors who today continue the work.

And we also had the joy of raising a family for the service of God. Today our six children are married and all serving the Lord in their respective congregations. We experience as grandparents the many rewards God has for us. We experience many of Gods rewards, for we are surrounded by their love and care. And we enjoy having close by our 16 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, who are following in the steps of their fathers. Soon our youngest married son will be departing to Italy with his two little ones to cooperate with God’s mission enterprise there.

Nobody is sorry for not being able to live in the First World. The Snyder family is part of the big family of God in Argentina. We are at peace and happy, for we have done the Lord’s will. What is in the future for us and the church?

The Lord will continue to work, and his church in Argentina will grow holier, more united and bigger. It will send more of its own missionaries and plant more new congregations in the interior of the country.

As the prophet said: “The earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.”
And as T.K. Hershey said at 79 years of age, I also say: “I would do it again.”