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Friedrich Segesser

Friedrich Segesser was a Swiss evangelist who helped raise up the Church of God (Iglesia de Dios) in Chile in the mid-1890s. He was likely dispatched from either Central Europe, or from the United States, commissioned by a Sabbatarian congregation - possibly the SDAs as he seems to have been a member of the organisation at that time.

His missionary efforts were concentrated in the Araucanía region of southern Chile. At that time, Chile did not experience any official religious persecution or practices, which allowed Segesser to operate without restrictions.

His evangelistic mission sought to disseminate the message of the "small remnant of Jesus," adhering to biblical directives such as Acts 1:8 and Matthew 28:19, which call for making disciples of all nations.

Segesser successfully converted Martín Ávalos, the first member of the Sabbatarian Church of God in Chile, around 1896 or 1897. Ávalos emerged as a significant figure, establishing congregations in Victoria, Curilén, Pitrufquén, Perquenco, Lautaro, Curaco, and Quepe, and he observed the Feast of Tabernacles in San Felipe in 1897.

Segesser's efforts established the groundwork for the Iglesia Israelita del Nuevo Pacto in Chile, emphasizing the preaching of the apostolic gospel. 

Below is a photograph of the group in Chile that learned to observe the Feasts due to Segesser. It is interesting that also in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s Greenberry Rupert was also promoting the Feast Days and eventually left the Seventh-day Adventists in the early 1900s. Rupert even promoted the Feast days in Guyana. Did he and Segesser ever correspond about this doctrine?