Kümpel, Waldomiro Victor (1931–2019)

Waldomiro Victor Kümpel was an influent member of the Adventist Church in Ijuí and the grandson of Adventist pioneers in Brazil. He was born on January 11, 1931 in Carazinho, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to João Kümpel (b. July 1, 1890 – d. October 10, 1958) and Martha Nowack Kümpel (b. April 11, 1894 – d. November 16, 1948).¹

Waldomiro was raised in a traditional Adventist family together with his siblings Olga Tereza, Ernesto Leopoldo, Ivo Carlos and Ivone Arlinda. The religious principles he learned at home and the rural environment in which the family practiced agricultural activities had a great influence on his Christian formation.²

He was the grandson of pioneers in establishing the first Adventist Church in Brazil by Adventism of immigration.³ His grandfather was Friedrich Wilhelm Kümpel, born on April 24, 1842 in the district of Barmen, city of Wuppertal, Germany, who died on May 25, 1915. His grandmother was Helena Pongs Kümpel, born on September 2, 1848, who died on July 29, 1929.⁴

His grandmother Helena was baptized as Sabbath keeper in Germany, in 1866, and later became a Seventh-day Adventist, still in Europe. The Kümpels appear on the list of early members of the Adventist Church in Vohwinkel, Wuppertal, Germany, organized in January 1876, as a result of the evangelistic work by pastors John Nevins Andrews and James Erzberger, pioneers in preaching the Adventist message in Europe. Previously, the Kümpel family was a member of the Sabbatarian church Die Getaufte Christengemeinde (The Baptized Christian Community), founded by Johann Heinrich Lindermann in 1856. Lindermann had been a pastor of the Reformed Church until he found out in the Bible about immersion baptism and Sabbath keeping. After the evangelistic effort done by Andrews and Erzberger virtually all of the members of that church became Seventh-day Adventists.⁵

In December 1892, a part of the Kümpel and Lindermann families emigrated to Brazil; among them were Friedrich and Helena, and Pastor Johann’s son. Shortly after their arrival, they settled in the German colony of São Pedro, near the city of Santa Maria, state of Rio Grande do Sul. In the following year, the Kümpels moved to a place that later would be known as Boa Vista do Guilherme, in the city of Não-Me-Toque, today Lagoa dos Três Cantos.⁶

There the family organized a group of Bible studies together with the Reis family, who found it curious that the Kümpels did not work on Saturdays, and through their influence also became Adventists. Through the Kümpel family, many people came to know the Adventist faith. When Pastor Huldreich Graf visited the field in 1898, in his words, he found a “well-prepared field.” He organized the church of Não-Me-Toque eleven days after his arrival, on October 27, 1898, baptizing five of the Kümpel children and 40 native Brazilians. This is the twelfth Adventist church organized in Brazil and the first Portuguese-speaking church, since the rest spoke only German. The Não-Me-Toque church is significant to SDA history for marking the transition of Adventism in Brazil from the German to the Portuguese language. Also, because it was initiated through the work of lay Adventist members from Europe, which characterizes the Adventism by immigration.⁷

Following in the footsteps of his grandparents and parents, Waldomiro was baptized into the Adventist faith in 1949. He served the Adventist Church of Ijuí as a deacon and used his musical talent as member of a quartet together with his younger brother, where he sang the bass voice. In addition, he played trombone in the church's wind orchestra, well known throughout the city, along with which he performed in many churches in the region.⁸

In 1956 he married Ilga Boenig Kümpel (1934-1994), in Ijuí, state of Rio Grande do Sul. From their union were born Liane Lucila, Leila Ivoni and Marlon. After the death of his first wife, Waldomiro married Lilian Marlene Raspolt in 1996, in Ijuí. Waldomiro passed away on May 5, 2019, in Ijuí, at the age of 88. He was buried in the Central Cemetery of Ijuí.⁹

Sources

Graf, Huldreich. “One Hundred Days on Muleback.” The Missionary Magazine, vol. 11, no. 06, June, 1899.

Graf, Huldreich. “Travels in Rio Grande do Sul.” The Missionary Magazine, vol. 11, no. 06, June, 1899.

Greenleaf, Floyd. Terra de Esperança: o crescimento da Igreja Adventista na América do Sul. Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2011.

Link, Edgar. “Raízes da Nossa História.” Revista Adventista, year 112, no. 1328, December, 2017.

Meyers, E. H. “Uma recapitulação dos começos na América do Sul.” Revista Mensal, October 1928.

Peverini, Héctor J. En Las Huellas de La Providencia. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Associacion Casa Editora Sudamericana, 1988.

Spies, W. F. “Organization of the Brazil Conference.” ARH, October 21, 1902.

Timm, Alberto R. Igreja Adventista de Campos dos Quevedos 1905-2005. Engenheiro Coelho, SP: Unaspress, 2005.

Notes

1. Liane Lucila Kümpel, interviewed by Sergio Micael, São Paulo, April 2020.↩

2. Ibid.↩

3. The first Seventh-day Adventist Church by Adventism of mission, that is, by the work of missionaries sent by the Church for that purpose, was in Gaspar Alto, Santa Catarina, on June 15, 1895, by Pastor Frank Westphal. See: Westphal, Frank H. Pionero en Sudamérica. Centro de Investigación White: UADP, Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos, 1997, 29; E. H. Meyers, “Uma recapitulação dos começos na América do Sul,” Revista Mensal, October, 1928; F. W. Spies, “Organization of the Brazil Conference,” ARH, October 21, 1902.↩

4. Ibid.↩

5. Floyd Greenleaf, Terra de Esperança: o crescimento da Igreja Adventista na América do Sul (Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2011), 24; Héctor J. Peverini, En Las Huellas de La Providencia (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Associacion Casa Editora Sudamericana, 1988), 76, 77; Edgar Link, “Raízes da Nossa História,” Revista Adventista, year 112, no. 1328, December, 2017, 7; Alberto R. Timm, Igreja Adventista de Campos dos Quevedos 1905-2005 (Engenheiro Coelho, SP: Unaspress, 2005), 15; Link, Edgar, “Direto nas Fontes,” Revista Adventista, year 108, no. 1266, November, 2013, 27; Department of Education GC, The Story of Our Church (Mountain View, California: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1956), 284.↩

6. Ibid.↩

7. Edgar Link, “Raízes da Nossa História,” 6; Timm, 15; Link, “Raízes da Nossa História,” 27; Huldreich Graf, “One Hundred Days on Muleback,” The Missionary Magazine, vol. 11, no. 06, June, 1899, 249; Huldreich Graf, “Travels in Rio Grande do Sul,” The Missionary Magazine, vol. 11, no. 06, June, 1899, 239.↩

8. Liane Lucila Kümpel, interviewed by Sergio Micael, São Paulo, April 2020.↩

9. Ibid.↩