ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Mission Network)—While others their age may feel they have earned the right to a restful life, Lois Buckwalter, 90, and Beulah Gonzalez, 88, keep a schedule that would exhaust many younger people.
After a morning swim, these daughters of Mennonite missionaries make use of their roots in both North and South America to help neighbors caught between cultures. Now living in Goshen, Ind., with its large Hispanic population, they invest themselves in welcoming Spanish-speaking newcomers, partly because they remember their own pain.
They grew up in Argentina with Spanish as their heart language. Their parents, Ada and Nelson Litwiller, served with Mennonite Board of Missions, a predecessor agency of Mennonite Mission Network, for 42 years—first in Argentina and later in Uruguay.
Download full-resolution image.Beulah shudders as she remembers the “worst year of my life.” She was in fifth grade when her family returned to North America for 18 months. “I could hardly wait to get back to Argentina to forget that English,” Beulah says.
One of the ways Lois and Beulah ease the stress of others caught between cultures is the tutoring they offer to Spanish-speaking families who are attempting to become U.S. citizens. Each Wednesday and Friday evening, they join as many as a dozen other volunteers who prepare immigrants for the naturalization process. The sisters have also become abuelitas (grandmothers) as they enter the joys and sorrows of the families with whom they work.
Beulah volunteers three hours a day at Chandler Elementary School, mostly in Jordan Bodnar’s second-grade classroom, where 10 out of 24 children speak Spanish as their first language.
Lois and Beulah seem surprised that others may find their continued mission remarkable. They credit their parents’ example and Mennonite colleges for their commitment to a life of service.
The motto of Goshen College, Lois and Beulah’s alma mater, is “Culture for Service.” Beulah says these three words have become ingrained in all she does.
Beulah began teaching as soon as she graduated from Goshen in 1944 and hasn’t stopped since. In 1948, Mennonite Board of Missions asked Beulah to go to Puerto Rico to start Academia Menonita Betania in Aibonito.
Download full-resolution image.Beulah met her husband, Ismael Gonzalez, in Puerto Rico. Beulah and Ismael were married in Goshen and had two children, who are both teachers.
Lois and her husband, Albert, were among the recipients of the first Culture for Service award that Goshen inaugurated in 1989. They were honored for developing a new way of doing mission among the Toba people of the Argentine Chaco and for serving there for 40 years.
The Buckwalters disbanded the mission-compound model that separated people from their culture when they expressed interest in becoming followers of Jesus. Lois and Albert lived among the Toba Christians as learners and laid the groundwork for a ministry of accompaniment that continues today. They also worked with a team of Toba linguists to create a written language and to translate the Bible.
Lois and Beulah, both having outlived their husbands, are now neighbors at the Goshen Greencroft retirement community and members at College Mennonite Church.
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.
