Sidney Sowell
A Virginia farm boy slipped a piece of paper into a tree stump. In his 17-year-old scrawl, Sidney Sowell had penned his resolve to become a missionary to Argentina. Little did he know all God would do in this place he knew only through the pages of a book.
A Virginia farm boy slipped a piece of paper into a tree stump. In his 17-year-old scrawl, Sidney Sowell had penned his resolve to become a missionary to Argentina. Little did he know all God would do in this place he knew only through the pages of a book.
After attending the University of Richmond and Southern Seminary, Sidney applied to serve with the Foreign Mission Board. He was confident in his decision to go to Argentina, even though the FMB had never sent anyone to serve there. He was so confident, in fact, that he refused an offer to serve in Palestine.
Once he finally arrived in Argentina, Sidney met Pablo Besson, and the two men quickly formed a partnership. The long-time preacher and religious rights activist took Sidney under his wing, providing him a place to stay and a linguistic and cultural orientation. This cultural orientation proved to be a core contextualization element of Sidney’s ministry. He deeply desired that Argentine Christians could understand and apply Scripture to their own culture and context.
The young missionary’s ministry began with wide gospel sowing. As Christians began to gather, he and his wife planted churches, leaving them in the care of Argentines. By 1909, Sidney had worked with these churches to form the Argentina National Baptist Convention. This convention, through its publication and mission boards, produced print materials and sent missionaries around Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. As the years went on, the convention’s mission board established an orphan ministry and expanded its witness to post-World War I immigrants from Europe. Christians served in Sunday schools, youth groups, women’s ministries and the convention’s 41 churches and 52 other preaching and ministry locations.
Sidney also he served as a professor at the Theological Training School in Buenos Aires. In this role, he was able to invest in the next generation of Argentine church leadership.
Ermine Bagby Sowell, wife of Sidney Sowell and daughter of William and Anne Bagby, missionaries to Brazil.
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Sidney and Ermine Sowell
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Sidney Sowell
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Sidney Sowell with children.
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Sidney and Ermine Sowell with children Benjamin Luther, Anne Alice, Maurice Judson and John David. Anne served as a missionary in Argentina from 1941-1975.
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