Lois Miriam Buckwalter

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Lois Miriam Buckwalter, age 102, died on March 8, 2024 at Greencroft Healthcare. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 2, 1921, to Ada (Ramseyer) and Nelson Litwiller. In 1925 the Mennonite Board of Missions (now Mennonite Mission Network) sent them as missionaries to Argentina. Lois grew up together with three younger sisters and one younger brother in the towns of Pehuajó, Trenque Lauquen and Bragado. Family life revolved around Nelson and Ada’s active church work in these towns. In 1941 Lois went to Goshen College, where she majored in Spanish, English and Teacher’s Education, graduating in 1944. She met Albert Shank Buckwalter at Goshen College in 1942 and they were married August 22, 1947, in Hesston, Kansas. In 1950 they departed for the Argentine Chaco, appointed by the Mennonite Board of Missions to work among the Toba (Qom) Indians. Only a few years after beginning this work, they made a soul-searching decision to desist from attempting to plant a Mennonite church among the Tobas, but instead to encourage the emergence of an independent Toba church. They assumed an accompanying role towards this new Iglesia Evangélica Unida, making it a point every weekend to visit one of its fifty-some congregations widely scattered throughout the Chaco and Formosa provinces, receiving many Toba visitors in their Sáenz Peña home, and especially taking upon themselves the effort of learning the Toba language.

In the course of over 40 years of missionary work, they oversaw the translation by indigenous associates of the New Testament and selections of the Old Testament not only into Toba, but also into the related languages of Pilagá and Mocoví. They also compiled Toba, Mocoví, and Pilagá dictionaries, as well as a Spanish-Guaycurú quadrilingual dictionary. In addition, Lois edited a bilingual Qom-Spanish quarterly church newsletter entitled Qara’aqtaxanaxanec (“Our Messenger”). On October 7, 1989, in recognition for their life and work, the Goshen College Alumni Board presented them with the newly established Culture for Service Award. Lois and Albert retired in 1993 to Greencroft Goshen, in Goshen, Indiana, where they were members of the College Mennonite Church. Albert passed away on May 12, 2004.

Lois was a cheerful, outgoing person, a curious and sensitive observer of the world around her, always eager to meet new people and gifted at finding common points of conversation. She took on the tasks at hand with enthusiasm, impatience and determination. Besides bringing up four children in the Chaco and collaborating unstintingly with Albert in their missionary work, Lois was an avid correspondent. She devoted tireless energy to writing letters to family and friends on a regular basis, a practice she began in college days and continued throughout her life, transitioning seamlessly into emails in the last 25 years of her life. When no longer able to read comfortably or type, she carefully dictated her answers. She was very interested in, and followed up closely on the activities and projects of her grandchildren, both by email and phone. She loved going on walks and was a brisk walker. Her faith made her an avid reader of Scripture, a critical reader of ecumenical theological literature, and a concerned observer of world events. She kept track of topics she thought were relevant to her children, and often mailed them journal articles or newspaper clippings.

Lois was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters Esther Schertz and Eunice Miller, and her brother John T. N. Litwiller. Survivors include a sister, Beulah González of Goshen; two daughters, Rachel Lois (John) Miller of Lawrence, Kansas, and Naomi (Mimi) Rose Buckwalter of El Cajón, California; two sons, Timothy A. (Crissie Shank) Buckwalter of Goshen, and Stephen E. (Ulrike von Fritschen) Buckwalter of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Germany; five grandchildren, Julia Buckwalter, Shannon Scott, Victoria (Vic) Scott, Niklas Buckwalter, and Amelie Buckwalter; and cousins, nieces and nephews.

Cremation will take place at Yoder-Culp Funeral Home.

Visitation will be Tuesday, May 21, 2024 from 1 to 2 p.m. at College Mennonite Church, Goshen.  A Service of Thanksgiving will follow at 2:30 p.m. at the church.

Ashes will be scattered at the College Mennonite Church Memorial Garden in Goshen and buried in Eastlawn Cemetery, Newton, Kansas.

Memorial contributions may be given to Mennonite Mission Network (for work among the Indigenous people of northern Argentina).