Rev. Alva Hardie

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Missionary in São Paulo and Minas Gerais

(Loosely translated from Portuguese)

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Rev. Alva Hardie was the last Presbyterian missionary to arrive in Brazil in the 19th century.

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He was a native of Alpine, Alabama, where he was born on September 26, 1873. His parents

were Alva Finley Hardie and Elizabeth Darby Mallory. When Alva was two years old, his family moved to Dallas, Texas, where he did primary and secondary education and then worked in the trade. Feeling the ministerial vocation, he attended Austin College, in Sher-man, where he obtained his baccalaureate in letters (BA) in 1898, and studied theology at Southwest Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee, graduating in May 1900. He was ordained by the Dallas Presbytery on July 3, 1900, and soon afterward embarked in New York to Brazil, arriving in Rio de August 27 of the same year.

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He initially worked in the East Mission area while learning the language. It was in Lavras,  Minas Gerais, for a period of one year. She went to take care of the field of São João Del   King on September 26, 1901, associating for over a year with Rev. Baldomero Garcia in the evangelization of that region. Retired from Rev. Baldomero, Hardie continued for another four years in São João Del Rei. At that time, priests sent boys to stone the house of wor-ship; the leader of these boys was the future Rev. Paschoal Luiz Pitta.

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Hardie married on May 14, 1902, Kate Eugenia Hall, born in 1879, daughter of the couple Charles and Mary Hall, American immigrants residing in Vila Americana, Sao Paulo. Kate, who was the cousin of Katherine Ives Hall, the wife of Rev. William Calvin  Porter had been a faculty member of the American College of Natal for two years. At the end of that year, Hardie participated with other colleagues from the organization of the Churches of Saint João Nepomuceno (05-11-1902) and São João Del Rei (07-11-1902). It was

Presbytery of Mines in 1904.

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In 1905, the Western Mission decided to reopen the International College in Campinas and

the Rev. Hardie as a director, a position he held for two years. At the end of that year, he was one of the signatories of the proposed division of the Southern Mission, which occu-rred the following year, arising the Western Mission and the Eastern Mission. Was the intermediary in the sale of properties from the International College to the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, to host the Seminar Presbyterian. The Seminar needs to leave São Paulo and the Assembly is meeting. General of the Presbyterian Church in that capital, Rev. Hardie, on behalf of the Foreign Missions of Nashville, sold the farmhouse and the three furnished buildings to the Presbyterian Synod for the small amount of fifteen thousand reis. Finished the deal, Hardie closed the college and helped set up the seminar in Cam-pinas. The reopening of classes occurred on February 1, 1907, with the presence of the directors Revs. Hardie, Laudelino de Oliveira Lima and Herculano de Gouvêa and the students Aníbal Nora, Alberto Zanon, João Pereira Garcia and Samuel Barbosa. In the same year, Hardie left for the United States on vacation.

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When he returned in 1908, the Presbytery of Minas decided to open work in Descal-Vado, and sent Rev. Hardie to take care of this field, which also included the cities of Limeira, Araras, Leme, and Porto Ferreira. He built temples in Descalvado, Limeira and Araras. The prosperity generated by coffee attracted many people to that region. In 1913, seeing the need for a newspaper dedicated exclusively to the gospel propaganda, founded The Evangelist, which he maintained for almost all of his missionary activity (there was a lapse of a few years). The newspaper even had a of 12,000 copies and is distributed free of charge throughout Brazil. Even in other places where he was pastor, the Rev. Hardie wrote it, sending it to Descalvado, where Mr. Sebastião Lacerda printed it in typography bought for this purpose and distributed it. In 1924, Rev. Hardie went on vacation to the United States and received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity (DD) from his alma mater, Austin College.

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At the end of 1924, Dr. Hardie moved to Patrocínio, in the Triângulo Mineiro, in the com-pany of his wife Kate and his sons Elizabeth Helen and Charles, starting the of his long ministry in Brazil. He had already visited this city in 1923, a company of colleagues Robert Daffin and Edward Epes Lane. This field Presbytery of Mines, having been pastored by Rev. Alberto Zanon, into the hands of Mission West. In Patrocínio, the missionary acquired a house well located in the center of the city, next to a deposit that was adapted to be a room of worship. The temple was inaugurated four years later in 1929. At the time there were only a few small groups of believers in Patrocínio, Carmo do Paranaíba, Patos de Minas and Estrela do Sul. Hardie greatly expanded the work, often amid great opposition and bitter persecution. Once, while running the service in Rio Paranaíba, a bomb exploded

on the roof, shaking the whole building. People were very frightened and began to but the missionary calmed the group and quietly continued the service.

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Rev. Hardie reactivated the churches of Paracatu and Estrela do Sul, which had almost  extinguished for lack of assistance, and opened works in Patos de Minas, João Pinheiro,   Carmo do Paranaíba, Rio Paranaíba, Arapuá, Ibiá, Araxá, Monte Carmelo, Douradoquara and other locations. He traveled throughout the region riding the mule "America" ​​and later on board a Ford T model. He used the "magic lantern" very successfully, a great novelty in time, a slide projector that attracted many people to the preaching of the gospel. With the arrival of Rev. James R. Woodson in 1926, the camp was divided between the two workers. Hardie and Woodson paved the way for the great education held in Patro-cínio and extends to the present.

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Initially, in February 1926, a course was set up to prepare evangelists laity, and Sunday school, teachers. Then, in 1928, the Patrocínio Colégio appeared.  Finally, in 1933, Rev. Edward E. Lane founded the Biblical Institute that today takes its name. At Patrocínio Colégio, the missionaries had the collaboration of the teacher Maria of Melo, the future author of the book Bandeirantes da Fé, who came to marry another collaborator of the school, Professor Carlos Chaves. Carlos was a brother of the well-known Rev. Oscar Chaves (1912-1991), ordained in 1943, who pastored the Presbyterian Santo André, in São Paulo, from 1952 to 1986.

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After seven years of fruitful ministry in Patrocínio, Alva Hardie, after a year of vacation in the United States, settled in Uberlândia for a period of equal duration and great results (1932 to 1939). He built a spacious temple and laid the foundations of a local Presbyterian church, organized on August 14, 1946, which would in turn give many other churches.  There were congregations in Santa Rita, Monte Alegre, Ituiutaba, Tupaciguara and Prata.  The last period of his ministry in Brazil was spent in Araxá, where built another temple and greatly developed the evangelical work. Over his ministry, Rev. Hardie built more than twenty Presbyterian temples. Alva Hardie was endowed with a strong and attractive personality. He made his decisions in a positive and firm, and lived a methodical and disciplined life. His devoted wife led the with order and serenity. There were certain times for meals, for teaching children, to visit the believers and interested people, and for all the activities of the day.

 Dr. Hardie had a cheerful spirit and preached the gospel with great enthusiasm. His sermons, full of good illustrations, were remembered for many years by his listeners. He loved the Brazilian people with his heart and was greatly esteemed.  During many years as a member of the old Presbytery of Minas Gerais at the insistence of his national author-ities. He was the only missionary to be part of that presbytery. In many photos of the time, he was wearing a white suit, standing out from Brazilian colleagues wearing dark.  The national church manifested its recognition by electing the moderator of the General Assembly in 1922, in Rio de Janeiro. He was the last American to Function. He was treas-urer of the "West Brazil Mission" for many years and showed management of mission properties. Hardie was a missionary who served on a mission to Brazil. He has left many spiritual heirs who have church and society to the present. One of many examples is that of D. Ita Edi Ribeiro Coelho, who was baptized by the missionary on May 17, 1925, seven days   Carmo do Paranaíba. She is the wife of the priest Abílio da Silva Coelho, who Presbyterian Church of Brazil.

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After 45 years of service in Brazil, Rev. Hardie retired in 1945 and returned to his home country, moving to Daytona Beach, Florida. He was received by the Presbytery of St. Johns on April 18 and the following year gave pastoral assistance to the Edison Chapel in Miami.  He used to spend the summer in Montreat, North Carolina, where the missionaries who came on vacation from Brazil and the new missionaries went to the field. He often exclaimed, "How I would like to be in Brazil preaching the Gospel!". I always wrote to missionaries and friends in Brazil, intimate contact with work. The valiant worker died on October 17, 1955, in the home of her daughter in Miami. Dona Kate Hall Hardie wrote the book On Eagles' Wings: Brazilian Mission, 1900-1945 (On Wings of Eagles: Mission in Brazil, 1900-1945), based on the Spouse's Journal and published in 1964. The Hardie couple had four children, two men and two women: Lucita Hall, Hugh Melvin, Elizabeth Helen, and Charles Alva. Lucita was named after his aunt Lucy Hall, the wife of Rev. Charles Morton.

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Bibliography:

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• Lessa, Annaes , 600.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 488, 550; II: 76, 116, 132, 154, 201, 247-49, 290, 356, 366,

370.

Page 83

83

• Alva Hardie. Report of the Spiritual and Financial Movement of the Missionary Field .

1930.

• "Rev. Alva Hardie, " The Puritan (28-02-1931), 3.

• RD Daffin, "Rev. Dr. Alva Hardie, " The Puritan (10-01-1956), 3.

• "Dr. Alva Hardie, " The Puritan (10 and 25-02-1956), 2.

• "Dr. Alva Hardie ", typed manuscript, Eduardo Lane Bible Institute.

• Ministerial Directory, PCUS (1861-1950) , 279.

• Chaves, Bandeirantes da Fé , 137-146.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 223.

• Divino José de Oliveira. Sponsorship . Goiânia, 1983.

• Hahn, Protestant Cult in Brazil , 268-271.

• Ferreira, Little History of the West Mission , 44-48