Chapter 35
On Monday evening October
6th, 1969, Ada and I had a call from Ben Stoltzfus' brother John, telling us
that Ben had been shot and killed while driving through the jungle from Orange
Walk Town to Belize City. He was alone and the motive was robbery. Ben was on
his way to meet with Paul N. Kraybill and
Harold S. Stauffer of the Mission Board's overseas office, in conference with
Paul Z. Martin.
Ada and I talked long into
the night about the tragedy. At one point, I said to Ada, "Do you think that we might be asked
to go down to help?" We knew that Becky would not stay and that there were
now no other workers in O. W. The Dr. Masts' had terminated some time earlier
and the newly appointed doctor couple would not be there until mid-December.
Ben was buried on October
9th in the cemetery to the rear of Mennonite Center in O. W. His grave is about
thirty feet from the western window of the living room.
We attended the Memorial
Service, Sunday October 12th at the East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church in
Lancaster.
Two weeks later Becky came
home with her two little girls, Cynthia age six and Denise age three. She came
to see us and while we were talking she said to Ada, "Why don't you and
Landis go to O. W. for a while?" Ada said that we had thought of it. So
Becky said, "I'm going to suggest it to Harold Stauffer."
So I was not surprised on
Friday noon, November 7th, to have a call from Ada to the job where I was
working for Ken Buchen. She said that she had a call from Harold Stauffer, from
the Salunga office of the Mission Board, asking if we would go back to O. W.
for three months. She told him that she thought we could and he asked us to
call back in the evening. I called Harold and told him we would be glad to
help. (Actually I was also tired of Ken’s remodeling work).
By Monday it was
confirmed in Belize and Salunga that we would go. We made hasty preparations,
closed down our house and flew from Philadelphia International, Sunday November
16th, 1969.
With the others who met us
at the Belize International Airport was our youngest son, Ronald. It was good
to see him and we were together during our three months at O. W.
On Monday Paul Martin took
us north to O.W. and gave us our assignment. Ada was to keep house in the
Stoltzfus apartment where we were to live. We were to use Becky's things and
when we were leaving, to pack them for shipment to U. S. I was to take care of
the Church in O. W. and help in the trading center. Dr. and Mrs. Elam Stoltzfus
were expected in O. W. in mid-December; so Paul Martin told me to have the
three V. S. boys, who had rooms in the medical building, moved into two
bedrooms of the Center, so that I could get the entire medical building ready
for the new doctor and his family.
I repainted all the rooms in
the doctor's apartment and disposed of a lot of junk. Ada helped to clean and Ron
and Don Sauder, both V.S.ers, helped some with the painting. We were just about
ready when the doctor and his family arrived on Wednesday, December 17, 1969.
With their arrival the load was a little less heavy on us.
By the time we got to O. W.,
we understood that another couple was coming for a two-year term to pastor the
Church; Mr. and Mrs. Elam R. Stauffer who had served in Honduras. So my next
job was to repaint the rooms and chapel in the Center; the building I had built
two years before. With all the painting and other repairing; with entertaining
visitors; filling in as pastor and all the other incidental interruptions, we
were busier than on our first assignment. In fact, we worked harder than we did
at home.
The Stauffer's came to Orange Walk, Tuesday, February 10, 1970 and Paul and Ella took Ada and me back to Belize
City the same day. We flew back to U. S. the next day and settled back into our
last NEST.
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