What began with heartbreak on the mission field grew into a powerful story of faith, aviation, and God’s redemptive purposes. Discover how one family’s tragedy became a catalyst for transformation, and why their legacy is still unfolding today.
Written by Valmai Redhead
“Making the trip with a young baby was a challenge. He was covered in a heat rash, and with only a small kerosene burner to heat milk for his feeds every three hours.“
In October, when I called by his house to return a book I had borrowed, I expected to be there only a few minutes. Instead, I paused when he blurted out ‘Never underestimate the power of a book’. I sensed a story coming. He continued without stopping.
“My father’s story was published sixty years ago and last Sunday, via video link, I watched it unfold in a stage presentation in Cochabamba. About two hundred people were there. The lady who produced it is from the Salazara family who kept me alive.”
I had read the book. What a hard ride it must have been on the ox cart. Five days bumping over a dirt track with relentless sunshine, persistent mosquitoes and no comfortable place to sit would test the most intrepid traveler. Making the trip with a young baby was a challenge. He was covered in a heat rash, and with only a small kerosene burner to heat milk for his feeds every three hours, it was exhausting for both his dad and the nursemaid travelling with them.
However, the moment that would sear itself into history was when they noticed a small plane flying overhead. In the 1930’s flying was uncommon. It could be noisy and risky especially in mountainous territory. But that plane sparked an idea that God would use to transform mission and to impact an entire country. God uses everything, even immeasurable grief, to work out His purposes.
It is hard to imagine how shattering it was for Wally Herron, a few weeks earlier, watching his wife Violet step into eternity ten minutes after Robert was born. The trip back to New Zealand for father and baby must have been taxing at every level. In Peru there was no wharf. Boarding the ship was by means of a sling seat supported by a crane; imagine clutching a young baby for the ride. Maybe the hardest test of all was leaving Robert in the care of his kiwi grandparents in Southland, New Zealand. It was to be seventeen years before father and son met again.
For Wally, God’s call to return to serve the people in the Beni province in Bolivia was clear, and the plane he saw that day transformed his call beyond expectation. The challenge of flying in the jungles and above the mountains did not daunt this quiet shy lad who grew up in the Australian outback. He had never been in a plane, let alone learnt to fly. But with God nothing is impossible. Miracles and discouragements, perseverance and faith culminated in triumph, totally transforming mission. Wally’s service was recognised by the government with its highest award ‘The Condor of the Andes.’ When his story was published in Spanish, it spread the gospel even further. How easy it would have been for Robert, back in New Zealand, to grow up feeling resentful. Yet when God called him to take up his father’s mantle, he too went out. But that is another story.
Stories shine a light on truth. Stories are at the heart of faith and mission. Stories shape who we are. One hundred years of SIM NZ stories are being gathered for a new book. Watch this space.
