South America’s Call by Roberts Liardon
Posted on October 25, 2011
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When Lester said good-bye to Howard Carter just a few days later, he somehow knew that they would see each other and resume ministering together when the war was over.
Lester returned to America, determined to continue to travel the world with the gospel message. He no longer had Howard Carter as his companion, but the desire to minister to the lost now burned even more brightly in his soul. Hearing of a great need for God’s ministry in Alaska, Lester crossed the United States and headed to the cold, barren frontier of America. He ministered there for several months, saddened that there were so few churches and so many saloons. In Alaska, he met many who were independent-minded and hardened to the good news of Christ.
Roberts Liardon tells us that Lester also traveled briefly through several provinces of Canada. For the first time, he heard of the work of a young missionary woman, Louise Layman, who had just left her native Canada to work in South America. His curiosity was piqued, but they had no opportunity to meet.
When the United States entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Lester attempted to enlist as a chaplain in the army, but to no avail—there were no openings. He determined instead to continue to fight the spiritual war for men’s souls as he traveled throughout Mexico, Central America, and South America. Avoiding many of the larger cities filled with anti-American sentiment, Lester ministered to the impoverished Indians in the rural areas of each country. He loved them with the compassion of Christ, and they responded favorably to a gospel of hope.
In Central America, Lester encountered much superstition and witchcraft as a result of a mixture of paganism and Catholicism. He preached the gospel with power and saw men and women set free and healed of various diseases. Winding his way through South America in 1942, Lester found himself at the tip of Argentina. In two years, he had traveled from the northernmost parts of North America to the southernmost tip of South America, bringing the light of Christ to all nations. Now, God had a new path to reveal to Lester on his road of ministry.