Following the communication breakthrough the Lord Himself opened the door for them to get the Gospel into the homes. A terrible plague of smallpox broke out among the natives. Almost every but had some one in the family ill with smallpox. The two children of God often knelt together before the Lord to plead for these people whom they had learned to love, asking the Lord the best way for them to help them.
Rose was a registered nurse from New York and had also worked in the hospital in La Paz for several years. Her husband had partly finished studying a medical course in New Zealand but gave it up to go to Bolivia. They decided to do what they could to help these poor stricken people. It was with fear and trembling they put on their white coats and masks and went from but to but to see what they could do to help. Many were already suffering with the infection in their eyes. Carefully and gently the missionaries opened their eyes and dropped a 10% boric solution into them. In this way many eyes were saved from blindness and, as a result, each day the missionaries were welcomed more and more into their homes.
One day, to their surprise, they received an ampule of vaccine, enough vaccine for twenty children, from a doctor in Sucre who had heard of their work among the Indians. The missionaries lovingly advised the mothers to bring their small children to be vaccinated against the disease. One by one some of the mothers fearfully brought their little ones to be vaccinated. The missionaries made arrangements for them to stay around so they could watch that they did not remove the covering from their children's arms and thus cause infection.
After three days the children's arms began to swell and some of them ran a high fever. The mothers became very angry, accusing them of killing their children. The missionaries tried to explain, saying their children would not die but in another day or so would be well again. Oh, how they prayed that the Lord would not allow any of the children to die! Every one of the children was soon well again, and other mothers hearing about this brought their younger children many miles to be vaccinated.
The kind doctor in Sucre heard about this and sent more ampules of vaccine. How very thankful the missionaries were for his kindness! This opened the door to the Gospel. Also they had the joy of seeing many Indians come to offer their help in some way. The epidemic was soon over, but the missionaries' hearts were sad as they realized so many had died without Christ during that time.
This whole experience prompted the young couple to start another little room for a small clinic. Here they thought the Indians might come for help when sick. They still had only part of one room finished for their own little home.