Strachan, Harry (1872-1946)
Co-founder of Latin American Mission (LAM)
Strachan was born of Scottish parents temporarily resident in Fergus, Ontario, Canada. At age seven, he returned with them to Aberdeen, where he was raised until he left to seek work in Sunderland, England. There he was converted and called to missionary service in Africa after training in London at Harley College. A routine physical examination unexpectedly closed the door on African service, however, and in 1902 he was sent instead to Argentina, where he renewed his courtship of fellow student Susan Beamish. They married in 1903.
During more than 15 years of pastoral missionary work, principally in Tandil, 190 miles south of Buenos Aires, he experimented successfully with the use of tents, colportage, and horse-drawn Bible coaches in the work of evangelism. Eventually he felt called to expand this ministry throughout the continent. He therefore resigned from the Evangelical Union of South America (of which his original sponsoring mission, the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, had now become a part) to cofound with his wife the Latin American Evangelization Campaign (later known as the Latin America Mission [LAM]), with headquarters in San Jose, Costa Rica.
In a day of Protestant repression and timidity, Strachan pioneered with high-profile, cooperative, interdenominational evangelistic crusades in the major cities of Latin America, launching a tradition that has figured prominently in the growth of the evangelical church up and down the continent. This tradition of evangelistic priority has been projected—consciously or unconsciously—across successive generations in LAM ministries such as Evangelism-in-Depth, Christ for the City, and others. Strachan died in San José.
W. Dayton Roberts, “Strachan, Harry,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 645.
This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.
Biography
Secondary
Roberts, W. Dayton. One Step Ahead: the Innovative Strachans and the Birth of Latin American Mission. Miami, FL: Latin American Mission, 1996.
Evangelist, the monthly publication of LAM (issues from 1921-1946).
Links
Portrait
From left to right: Harry, Grace, Susan, and R. Kenneth Strachan. Used by permission of the Strachan Family Foundation.