by Eloy Schulz, MD, AIMS President
by Eloy Schulz, MD, AIMS President
Spring is in the air. Rolling hills. Vigorously growing wheat fields all around. A white tent is pitched breaking the peaceful uniformity of the surroundings. A small group of men is reassembling for the last session of a 12-day string of meetings. The leader looks out to the green wheat carpet as if looking into the future. Will the locust plague destroy its crop as it did in the last several years? Will the locust postpone the fulfillment of his dreams?
Suddenly he sees a man approaching across the fields. He delays the opening of the session. The man carries a small piece of luggage in one hand and . . . what's in the other hand . . . ? It's a book. He now recognizes the young man. He had baptized him in a distant Swiss settlement several months earlier.
Pastor Westphal greets young Luis Ernst. "What brings you here?" Luis, Bible in hand, says, "I'm coming to school. The Holy Spirit guided me to come to study to be an evangelist." "Well, Luis, there is no school here." In confusion and sadness, the young man says, "I sold my land and cattle and the cheese factory."
The school had been displaced from the agenda by the last locust disaster.
Previously, Westphal had requested approval and funds from the General Conference to establish a school. The GC approved the school and sent ONE dollar in seed money.
Now, Pastor Westphal continued the meeting . . . with renewed interest in the school agenda.
Soon the members of the Board raised 700 dollars among themselves in addition to land donations and future harvest pledges.
Luis became Westphal's student apprentice. Four months later, on September 26, 1898, the school opened and classes were initiated.
Let's fast forward one hundred years to September 1998. The Universidad Adventista del Plata now has 2,466 students, hundreds of teachers, doctors, and other hospital personnel, and a town of 5,000 to greet thousands of visitors there to celebrate and thank God for this blessed institution.
In talking about different places I have visited, I sound so enthusiastic and biased that many often think I have my roots there, from Uzbekistan to Cuba. I am especially fond of the Universidad and Sanatorio Adventista del Plata, however, for it was there that I received my theology baccalaureate, worked as a physician, and where my wife and daughters were born. Luis Ernst was my grandmother's brother. Luis Schulz, the current president, is my cousin. Therefore, I do not qualify as an objective reporter on the Centennial. However, Dr. Joan Coggin, with her characteristic insight, will offer you her perspective on the festivities.