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Enrique Balada

From The Missionary Magazine, January 1899, pg. 14.

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Balada, Enrique

By Matías H. López

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Matías H. López

First Published: January 29, 2020

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Enrique Balada was an Adventist minister born in Spain and one of the first Adventists in the republic of Chile. He made extensive mission trips and did evangelizing work in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru.1

Early Years and Acceptance of Adventism

The few available sources allow to establish that Balada was born in Spain, from where he emigrated at the age of 20 to Argentina. He remained 11 years in that country. He was Catholic before he became a Baptist. He became a canvasser of the Bible Society, and a teacher and pastor. Shortly before arriving in Chile, Balada had bought the book Estudios Bíblicos para el círculo de la familia [Bible Studies for the Family Circle], in French, from an Adventist canvasser.2 He arrived in Chile in the mid-1890s. At the age of 31 he married Prudencia Núñez.3 In 1896 the Adventist missionaries Thomas H. Davis (c. 1866–1911) and Frederick W. Bishop (1864–1929), the first Adventist canvassers in Chile, stayed at his home in Santiago, capital of Chile. They taught him, in a broken Spanish, about the biblical day of rest.4 The first one to be convinced and accept Adventism was his wife. A short time later Balada was also converted to Adventist faith.5 He was one of the first Adventists in Chile who became a church leader and a pastor.

Missionary Service

Balada's missionary trips took him to almost the entire territory of Chile and at least to countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. In 1896 he began his first preaching series in northern Chile accompanying Granville H. Baber (1852–1936).6 The meetings of the first Adventist converts of Santiago de Chile were held on the second floor of Balada’s house, where sometimes up to 40 believers would meet.7 In 1898 he participated in the first Chile Union Mission Conference in the city of Victoria (it was called “General Conference”).8

In 1902 he was sent to Lima, Peru, to help in the beginning of Adventist work in that country. He worked as a canvasser and accompanied the Sabbathkeepers. In 1906 he was in Valparaíso, Chile, in charge of the Adventist congregation in that city.9 There was a great earthquake in Chile that year, and his house was very affected. A year later they moved to Rengo where Balada had bought a land.10 When the Adventist congregation was formed in Santiago, Chile, Balada was an elder.11 Some information provided by Balada was published in the Adventist Review.12 In 1909 he was ordained to the ministry by the president of the Misión de la Costa Oeste [West Coast Mission], G. H. Baber.13 By 1910 he was working in the northern district of Chile near Soto. In that place 27 people joined the Adventist faith through baptism.14

In 1911 Balada traveled from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Barcelona, Spain, where he stayed at Walter Bond’s house and preached in several places.15 In 1914 Balada worked in Linares, Chile, in a series of evangelistic conferences with Víctor Thomann, Damaso Soto and Frank H. Westphal.16 By 1919 F. W. Bishop mentions in the Review and Herald that Balada continued to perform his work for the advancement of the gospel in Chile.17

Last Years and Legacy

There were no records of his subsequent activity. Apparently Balada was mostly dedicated to canvassing, especially distributing the review Signs of the Times.18 Enrique Balada died in Spain. Prudencia Núñez de Balada died in Santiago de Chile in 1952.19 It is also known that his daughter Amera married Walter Schubert (1896–1980) in 1921 and his daughter Enriqueta married Karl Mayr.

Enrique Balada is remembered as one of the first people to accept the Adventist message in Chile, as one of the first pastors of that country, like Julián Ocampo, Eduardo W. Thomann (1874–1955), Víctor Thomann (1878-1955) and Carlos E. Krieghoff (1870-1969) and for his intense evangelizing activity in the founding years of South American Adventism.

Sources

Baber, Granville H. “Chilean Mission.” Missionary Magazine 11, no. 1 (January 1899).

Balada, Enrique. “Chile.” La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], January 1914.

——. “El adelanto de la obra en Chile” [The Progress of the Work in Chile]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review] 14, no. 7 (July 1914).

———. “Grata respuesta” [Pleasant Answer]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], July 1906.

———. “Iquique—Chile.” La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], August 1907.

———. “Mi arribo a España” [My Arrival in Spain]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review] 11, no. 8 (August 1911).

———. “Predicar en desierto” [To Preach in the Desert]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], July 1908.

Bishop, Frederick W. “Early Experiences in Giving the Third Angel’s Message in Chile,” Review and Herald 96, no. 49 (November 20, 1919).

Brown, Walton John. “A Historical Study of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Austral South America.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, 1953.

Greenleaf, Floyd. Tierra de esperanza: El crecimiento de la Iglesia Adventista Sudamericana [A Land of Hope: The Growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America]. Trans. Claudia Blath. Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 2011.

“Inicios en Chile” [Beginnings in Chile]. Accessed on May 8, 2018.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=631664990192670&id=631644760194693.

Meyers, E. H. Reseña de los comienzos de la obra en Sudamérica [Overview of the Beginnings of the Work in South America]. Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 1940.

“Pioneros en Chile” [Pioneers in Chile]. Accessed on May 8, 2018. https://datenpdf.com/download/pioneros-en-chile_pdf.

Rojas, Luis A. “Necrología” [Obituary]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review] 52, no. 4 (April 1952).

Westphal, Frank H. Pioneering in the Neglected Continent. Nashville: Southern Publishing Association, 1927.

———. Pionero en Sudamérica [Pioneer in South America]. Trans. Silvia Scholtus de Roscher. Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos: Ellen G. White Research Center, 1997.

———. “The Chile Conference.” ARH 87 (July 16, 1910).

Zambra Ríos, Leopoldo. No con ejército, no con fuerza, sino con su Espíritu [Not With Army, Not With Force, but With His Spirit]. Santiago, Chile: Adventist Book Center, 1994.

Notes

  1. See: E. H. Meyers, Reseña de los comienzos de la obra en Sudamérica [Overview of the Beginnings of the work in South America] (Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 1940), 11; G. H. Baber, “Chilean Mission,” Missionary Magazine 11, no. 1 (January 1899): 14.↩

  2. Walton John Brown, “A Historical Study of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Austral South America” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern, California, 1953), 115.↩

  3. Leopoldo Zambra Ríos, No con ejército, no con fuerza, sino con su Espíritu [Not With Army, Not With Force, but With His Spirit] (Santiago, Chile: Adventist Book Center, 1994), 134.↩

  4. See the document, without author, entitled: “Inicios en Chile” [Beginnings in Chile]. Accessed on May 8, 2018. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=631664990192670&id=631644760194693.↩

  5. Francisco H. Westphal, Pionero en Sudamérica [Pioneer in South America], trans. Silvia Scholtus de Roscher (Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos: Ellen G. White Research Center, 1997), 89 (this work is a translation of the original English Pioneering in the Neglected Continent [Nashville: Southern Publishing Association, 1927]).↩

  6. Leopoldo Zambra Ríos, 53.↩

  7. Ibid., 55.↩

  8. Ibid., 64.↩

  9. Enrique Balada, “Grata respuesta” [Pleasant Answer], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], July 1906, 8.↩

  10. Leopoldo Zambra Ríos, 133.↩

  11. See the document “Pioneros en Chile” [Pioneers in Chile], Accessed on May 8, 2018, https://datenpdf.com/download/pioneros-en-chile_pdf.↩

  12. Enrique Balada, “Iquique—Chile,” La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], August 1907, 5, 6; Enrique Balada, “Predicar en desierto” [To Preach in the Desert], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review] (July 1908): 66.↩

  13. Floyd Greenleaf, Tierra de esperanza: El crecimiento de la Iglesia Adventista Sudamericana [A Land of Hope: The Growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America], trans. Claudia Blath (Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 2011), 34.↩

  14. F. H. Westphal, “The Chile Conference,” Review and Herald 87 (July 16, 1910): 59.↩

  15. Enrique Balada, “Mi arribo a España” My Arrival in Spain], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review] 11, no. 8 (August 1911): 9; Balada, “Chile,” La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], January 1914, 11.↩

  16. Enrique Balada, “El adelanto de la obra en Chile” [The Progress of the Work in Chile], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review] 14, no. 7 (July 1914): 10, 11.↩

  17. Frederick W. Bishop, “Early Experiences in Giving the Third Angel’s Message in Chile,” ARH 96, no. 49 (November 20, 1919): 17.↩

  18. Lepoldo Zambra Ríos, 133.↩

  19. Luis A. Rojas, “Necrología” [Obituary], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review] 52, no. 4 (April 1952): 15.↩

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López, Matías H. "Balada, Enrique." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 29, 2020. Accessed October 15, 2024. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=EGF8.

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López, Matías H. "Balada, Enrique." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 29, 2020. Date of access October 15, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=EGF8.

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López, Matías H. (2020, January 29). Balada, Enrique. Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved October 15, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=EGF8.

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