Guatemala

GUATEMALA is a beautiful Central American land of eternal spring, lofty mountains, active volcanoes, blue lakes and many varieties of plants and animals. Most of its more than 5,169,000 inhabitants reside in the central mountainous region, where the nation’s capital, Guatemala City, lies on a 5,000-foot-high plateau. Nearly half the populace are descendants of the Mayas and live in farm communities. Almost all other Guatemalans are Ladinos, persons of mixed Spanish and Indian ancestry. Spanish is the official language of this rugged land, but a large proportion of the population understand only an Indian dialect.

The towering mountains, mile-high lakes, tropical greenery and the lovely climate of Guatemala bear silent testimony to Jehovah’s Godship. But here, as elsewhere, he has raised up living, intelligent witnesses for himself. They have had to contend with formidable problems in spreading the good news of the Kingdom. Among these has been a high rate of illiteracy. Also, the extremely low wage-earning power of the laborer has put travel, good means of communication and common luxuries beyond the reach of the majority. Political instability has done little to foster progress. Furthermore, the mountainous terrain itself presents handicaps.

The many Indian dialects, unrelated to Spanish, have also impeded progress of the Kingdom-preaching work. Pointing up the difficulty of translating the Bible into these dialects, The Book of a Thousand Tongues, by the American Bible Society, states: “In Cakchiquel (Guatemala) any verb may have some 100,000 possible forms by the variety of particles which may be added to its  root.” Consequently, those of one Indian tribe often do not understand the language of their neighbors living just across a ridge.

So there have been many obstacles. Nevertheless, years ago ‘a large door leading to activity’ swung open for declaring the Kingdom good news in Guatemala. We can now enter it in retrospect.​—1 Cor. 16:8, 9.

THE PREACHING WORK BEGINS

Looking back, we can distinguish several separate groups that were learning God’s truth by reading the Watch Tower Society’s publications. This literature first came from Spain in the form of the Spanish Watch Tower. Associated with the first of these groups was an Englishman named Fred Cutforth, living in the isolated village of El Rancho, about fifty miles east of Guatemala City. During 1910 he visited his brother, Charles Cutforth, at Gilbert Plains, Manitoba, Canada. Charles was reading The Divine Plan of the Ages, written by Charles Taze Russell, the Watch Tower Society’s first president. This was Fred Cutforth’s initial contact with true Christianity. Once again, in 1919, with his family, he journeyed to Canada, where he attended meetings held at the home of his eldest brother, Herbert. Later, while he and his family resided briefly in San Antonio, Texas, Fred attended meetings and was baptized.

About this same time, another individual in Guatemala apparently was reading the Society’s publications. We know this because the Spanish Watch Tower of April 1, 1919, gives this name and address: G. A. Tavel, Apartado 44, Quezaltenango, Guatemala. This address disappeared from the Spanish Watch Tower with its issue of September 1, 1920.

Late in 1920, Fred Cutforth and his family returned to El Rancho, Guatemala. Using the Society’s publications, he began to spread the truth. He traveled by means of the narrow-gauge railroad, then the best form of transportation, as roads were almost nonexistent. Brother Cutforth distributed the tract “The Fall of Babylon.” He even mailed out literature, inviting interested persons to contact him. Brother Cutforth also continued to study with his family, and his son Robert still recalls how his father played Bible Student hymns on his accordion while the rest of the family sang.

In 1930 Fred Cutforth and his family returned to Canada. However, some seeds of truth that he had sowed in Guatemala produced fruitage.

During the same decade that Fred Cutforth lived  and preached east of Guatemala City, another man far to the west was also drinking in the waters of truth. He was Servando Flores of Nuevo San Carlos on the lush Pacific coastal plain. In 1923 he obtained a copy of the Spanish Watch Tower from a mule driver employed on a coffee plantation. Recognizing the ring of truth, he wrote to Spain for more literature. Servando Flores was then a pillar of the Presbyterian Church, serving as treasurer and elder. But he, too, began talking to others about the truth. Soon a small group within the church was reading the Society’s literature and having Bible discussions.

Fellow Presbyterians soon accused them of having political discussions. The clergy, especially foreign missionary Pablo Burgess, head of the Western Presbyterian Church, began to stir up opposition. After enduring much mocking and jeering, Servando Flores got out of Babylon the Great, attending his last Presbyterian religious service on June 12, 1925. Pablo Burgess and other church elders visited him with the hope of persuading him to return. But these Presbyterian leaders were totally unable to defend their pagan beliefs before humble laborers who upheld the Bible. In fact, these churchmen were quick to deny the inspiration of certain parts of the Bible that contradicted their false doctrines. Infuriated when their intentions were frustrated, Pablo Burgess circulated a tract against the Bible Students entitled “An Open Letter to Russellism.”

In rebuttal, Servando Flores and Samuel Mazariegos, a principal early associate, wrote a booklet entitled “In Defense of the Truth.” It was distributed by the brothers, and, though printed in 1929, it was in harmony with present-day understanding of the Scriptures. Interestingly, it opens with this quotation from the tract of Pablo Burgess: “There still lives in my memory the encounter that I had with Pastor Russell in a hotel in Switzerland in 1912. Even before I knew who he was, his venerable aspect, the sweetness of his voice, and pleasant manners, made a living impression upon me. And now when I have just reread his Divine Plan of the Ages I feel overwhelmed again by the power of his personality. When he speaks in defense of the Bible, when he rejects the arguments of unbelievers, his conviction is carried to my heart and I say, ‘This could not be a bad man.’ With one sweep of the pen he resolves the doctrinal difficulties and Bible interpretation that has sapped the energies of the best Christian thinkers of the twentieth century.” Of course, Burgess went on to recant his first opinions.

 The Spanish Watch Tower of January 1927 contains a letter reporting the establishment of a “new class” in Guatemala. It is signed “S. F. G.” (Servando Flores Gramajo). Hence, pure worship had by then been established in Nuevo San Carlos. Jehovah’s people have continued active there to the present, and today this town has a congregation of fifty Kingdom publishers, among whom are the widow of Servando Flores, his children and grandchildren. One of his sons has been serving as an overseer in the congregation.

Between 1923 and 1930 Brother Flores, in western Guatemala, was corresponding with Fred Cutforth at El Rancho. It appears, however, that the two men never met.

During this same general period, a person in Guatemala City was receiving The Watch Tower from Spain and distributing it to others. This man became interested in the Bible as early as 1913, but we do not know exactly when he first obtained the Society’s publications. By 1928, however, he was receiving from the Society supplies of magazines for distribution. How do we know this? Well, on December 25, 1928, Trinidad Paniagua first received a copy of The Watch Tower through this distributor. Paniagua went to the address stamped on the magazine to locate this person. That very day he obtained the Society’s address in Spain, and he thereafter continued to receive and study the publications.

Something very interesting now took place. An American sister named Johnson came through Central America, witnessing in Guatemala and elsewhere. We do not know whether she also had some other reason for traveling in Central America, but she must have been in contact with the Watch Tower Society, for she had addresses of those reading its literature and sought to locate and encourage them. Sister Johnson found the home of Trinidad Paniagua and talked to him about spreading the Word. She spoke limited Spanish, but she did much house-to-house work in Guatemala City and outlying villages.

While witnessing in the capital, Sister Johnson contacted Eduardo Maldonado, a poor shoemaker. Not being satisfied with the teachings of his Catholic religion, sometime before this he had obtained a Bible. Though he was interested in acquiring the literature Sister Johnson offered (such as the books Creation and Reconciliation), he could take only a few booklets because of his economic condition. When she returned, he still was unable to contribute for the publications, but offered to trade a pair of shoes for a set of books.  To this she agreed immediately. Eduardo Maldonado will ever be grateful to this itinerant sister and expresses his sentiments in these words: “Had she not been willing to accept barter, it would have been impossible for me to obtain the literature that has meant for me gaining life-giving knowledge.”

Sister Johnson gave Eduardo Maldonado the address of Trinidad Paniagua, and he began corresponding with Brother Paniagua. How long Sister Johnson stayed in this country we do not know. But we wonder if she was the one pioneer Witness that the January 1933 Bulletin listed as working in Guatemala during the special testimony period of October 1-9, 1932.

The work in Guatemala was then under the supervision of the Society’s Mexico branch. So in 1933 Roberto Montero, the branch overseer, visited the groups in Guatemala. He saw Brother Flores at Nuevo San Carlos. In Guatemala City he brought together Brothers Paniagua and Maldonado and other interested ones. Taking Brother Paniagua with him, he visited Carmen de Mayorga, who sometimes resided in the capital, but was studying the Society’s publications with two women at Zacapa, far to the northeast.

Brother Montero tried unsuccessfully to obtain government permission for some Bible lectures to be given on the radio. So he arranged to have El Imparcial, the principal newspaper, print 15,000 copies apiece of two tracts, Peace, Prosperity and Happiness and The Hope of the World. Brother Maldonado was left in charge of distributing these. Besides Guatemala City, he worked in Zacapa and nearby Chiquimula. Brother Paniagua went by train to Port San José on the Pacific coast. A group worked the village of Fraijanes and there a talk was given to about twenty persons. Tracts were also sent to Servando Flores for his use in Nuevo San Carlos.

In Guatemala City there were some police interruptions. Once the brothers were taken to police headquarters, but the chief of police released them after explaining to the officers who brought them in that the literature was against the Devil, the enemy of God and man. He even suggested that each accept a tract to read personally.

Not until September 1937 was there another visit to Guatemala by a representative from Mexico​—this time Daniel Ortiz. For three months he stayed with Brother Paniagua, working diligently in the house-to-house ministry from early morning until late afternoon. On weekends he was joined by Brothers Maldonado and Paniagua, who now got firsthand training in the ministry.  Formerly they had only distributed tracts on the streets and in parks.

During 1938 Fred Cutforth’s sons Robert and Samuel moved to El Rancho. Later, they settled in San Antonio, not far from Brother Flores’ home. Their uncle in Canada asked the Mexico branch office to keep in touch with them, and so they were sent a letter encouraging them to receive literature for use personally and in spreading the truth.

In 1940 Brother Montero again visited Guatemala. During his stay, Brothers Maldonado and Paniagua symbolized their dedication to God by water baptism. Brother Montero took Brother Maldonado with him to visit the group at Nuevo San Carlos, and on this occasion two or three were immersed there. Brother Fred Cutforth had been the first baptized Christian living in the country, but not since he left for Canada in 1930 had there been baptized servants of Jehovah in Guatemala.

Brother Montero arranged for a public lecture to be given at a hall in the capital city. Furthermore, Brother Maldonado’s humble home there was made the center for the preaching organization. The arrival of a literature shipment from Mexico City made this vivid impression on the mind of Brother Maldonado’s eleven-year-old son Francisco: “A truck, full of boxes which contained phonographs, records, books and magazines, had arrived at our house. Being poor, we shared the house with many families, all living in small apartments. Our house was just full of these cartons, stacked in the hallway and every other available space. What excitement!” He recalls that now each Sunday his father and several other brothers would leave early in the morning and spend a full day in the field ministry.

Also, about 1940 Sister Johnson returned to Guatemala. While in San Salvador she had run short of funds, but a doctor friendly to the truth helped so that she could continue her journey. When the Guatemalan brothers visited her at a small hotel, though she had aged and was rather feeble, she always tried to upbuild them spiritually.

The death of the Society’s second president, J. F. Rutherford, early in 1942 touched Brother Maldonado deeply. Francisco Maldonado still recalls the seriousness and sadness manifested by his father when telling him that a great man and fighter for truth and righteousness had died.

Later that year, Amy Campbell of Tiquisate, on the Pacific coastal plain, contacted Brother Paniagua. When this colored woman and her husband first read the  Society’s literature, we do not know. But before Amy’s husband died, he, too, was grounded in the truth. At Amy Campbell’s request, Brother Paniagua delivered the Memorial talk in Tiquisate. During this visit he also baptized Sister Campbell in a nearby river.

In May 1943 Brothers Paniagua and Maldonado visited Sister Campbell and interested persons she had contacted in her pioneer ministry. Brother Maldonado also decided to visit the Cutforth and Flores groups, since he already was at Tiquisate, more than halfway there. Although financially he did not feel able to journey farther, he did so and was rewarded spiritually and materially. There was an interchange of encouragement, and the brothers gave him fruit and a small monetary contribution that helped make up for his lost time in the shoe trade.

During 1943 Servando Flores died at Nuevo San Carlos, leaving a widow and minor children. Certainly they felt the loss, especially of the spiritual head of the family. This was the death of the first dedicated, continuously active witness of Jehovah in Guatemala.

MISSIONARIES ARRIVE

Something special happened in late 1943 or early 1944. The Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, together with Milton Henschel, visited Guatemala to see what could be done to expand true worship here. The brothers who then met with them at the Maldonado home still recall Brother Knorr’s promise to do everything possible to send missionaries to help organize the work in this land.

How this stirred the hearts of Brothers Maldonado and Paniagua! Brother Paniagua recalls that people would ask, “Where do you meet?” He comments: “We would be very sad because we had no place where we could bring together interested ones and no organization to introduce to them. We would say to them, ‘Very soon we will have a place to meet together.’ We were confident that by some means in the future Jehovah would bless us and his organization would provide what we needed.” Now the prospect of missionary aid brought hope of better organization for the advancement of Kingdom interests.

The government denied the Society permission to send missionaries into Guatemala. But in 1944 the country found itself in the throes of great political upheaval. The revolution removed the Ubico regime from power and the succeeding government granted the requested permission. During March 1945, Brother N. H. Knorr, with F. W. Franz, visited Guatemala to  complete arrangements for the entry of missionaries.

Then came the momentous day​—May 21, 1945. John and Adda Parker, graduates of the first class of Gilead School, arrived in Guatemala. What joy this brought to the brothers here! Says Brother Paniagua: “This was exactly what we needed, teachers in the Word of God that would help us understand how to go about doing the work.” Brother Maldonado states: “These brothers became active immediately, taking the necessary step to obtain a house that would be suitable for the establishment, really, of the first congregation in Guatemala.” His son Francisco, then fifteen years old, remarks: “What a difference there was now! In just a few days the first Kingdom Hall actually began to function at 16 Calle and 5 Avenida, right in the center of town, and I had the privilege of being among the ten persons who attended the first meeting. Now we were studying The Watchtower each Sunday and in just a few weeks the Theocratic Minsitry School was started.” Though isolated at Nuevo San Carlos with seven minor children, Sister Flores was also thrilled. She said: “Oh, what happiness to know that for the first time missionaries are here! What a provision of Jehovah God!”

How did the missionaries themselves feel about this assignment? Sister Parker tells us: “On the day of our arrival we visited Brother Maldonado, and the following Sunday we were in the service with his family. The city was small, and even the main streets were cobblestone. Ending the hunt for a missionary home, we moved in the second week. It was a happy month, as I had the privilege, in my broken Spanish, to start seventeen studies.” The Parkers are still serving here as missionaries.

August of that same year marked the arrival of the second missionary couple, Charles Taze Russell Peterson and his wife Freida. The present-day missionary home arrangement did not then exist, but these four worked as special pioneers on a very limited allowance. There was furniture to buy and things to get in order, but they immediately got busy in the preaching work. Describing the first street witnessing done, Brother Peterson says: “The second Saturday after arrival, I decided to do street magazine work that evening. I took my briefcase loaded with literature and in one and a half hours I emptied it, having placed thirty-two magazines, thirty-four booklets, four books and a Bible.”

On March 1, 1946, six more missionaries, all single sisters, arrived. One of them, Marjorie Munsterman, says this: “We were aware that we were embarking  on a new way of life and that a strange language and different culture awaited us. We often wondered: Will we live in a house with a dirt floor? Will we cook on a charcoal stove? Will the house be lighted by candles? Our apprehension soon disappeared when we arrived at the missionary home, a new, roomy second-story apartment with pretty, shiny tile floor, electric lighting in all the rooms and even an electric stove for cooking.” Ann Munsterman chimes in: “What a blessing to have a home already provided! We got busy and what a sensation not to understand anything around you! We could not be separated from our Spanish dictionary. But the people were very patient and our witnessing prospered.”

How happy were the seventy-seven present for the Lord’s evening meal that year! Ten missionaries were now in the country and there was a Kingdom Hall. “How I admired the work that these missionaries were doing so that more persons were coming to know about the truth and were attending the meetings,” remarks Brother Paniagua.

PROGRESS BECOMES MORE EVIDENT

With another visit by Brothers Knorr and Franz on May 10, 1946, came the establishment of the Society’s Guatemala branch office and the missionary home arrangement. For the widely advertized public lecture, 187 filled the Kingdom Hall and some other rooms. After the talk lunch was served to the sixty-five who stayed and then participated in the Watchtower study. According to Brother Maldonado, Brother Knorr said that if a certain number attended he would treat them to ice cream. Though the number fell slightly short, he says, “We ate ice cream anyhow.”

Theocratic progress now became quite marked. The book The New World was released in Spanish. On June 9, during the first baptism since the missionaries’ arrival, twelve were immersed, among them Brother and Sister Antonio Molina, Brother Alberto Mariles and Sister Eudalda Peralta, all still active in God’s service. In July, Brother Parker, then the branch overseer, visited the group in San Antonio, where a congregation of ten publishers was formed. During that visit, five were baptized, including Brother Lucilo Tello, still serving as a special pioneer. After little more than a year’s work by the missionaries, some fifty publishers were busy declaring the Kingdom message in Guatemala.

The missionaries certainly were stirring up a lot of interest. Marjorie Munsterman reports: “Street work  was something quite novel. It was unusual in Latin America for decent, respected women to stand on the street corner offering anything. Although the people were somewhat dubious about us at the beginning, our constancy, and the people becoming acquainted with the contents of the magazines, soon dispelled any wrong ideas that they could have had. To this day the magazines hold a fine reputation for their edifying information.” Noting the zeal of Jehovah’s witnesses in the magazine street work, a news columnist later commented: “If the Catholics were like this maybe there would not be the alarming spiritual breakdown which we see in the Church today.”

Store-to-store work with the magazines was also inaugurated and business people soon were well acquainted with the “Atalaya girls” (“Watchtower girls”). “Bench-to-bench” witnessing with magazines in parks was also begun and continues as a successful feature of our activity to this day.

The ten missionaries missed the first postwar international assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1946. However, the Society thoughtfully had Ted Siebenlist, branch overseer of Costa Rica, bring us a direct report of assembly events. At that time the first real Guatemalan assembly of God’s people was held, with a peak attendance of 188.

Missionaries continued to arrive​—eight more, including Brother and Sister Aubrey Bivens and Brother and Sister David Hibshman, on October 21, 1946, and Don Munsterman and Charles Beedle in November. Rapidly the Kingdom Hall grew ever more crowded. But this is how Brother Paniagua felt about that: “Even though I could not express it at that time, it brought me great happiness to see that there was no longer room for all to sit down at the hall. My heart overflowed that we had brothers now who could help us and supply the necessary spiritual food.”

REACHING INTO THE INTERIOR

Early in 1946, German-speaking Martin Lisse, his wife and daughter came from Canada and settled at Coban, in the rugged mountains north of the capital. There on muleback Brother Lisse preached earnestly for about a year, until his wife’s health required moving to a drier climate. The family then settled in Antigua, ancient capital of Guatemala that was destroyed by an earthquake in 1773 at the zenith of its glory as the Roman Catholic religious center of Central America. Left to future generations were the ruins of religious structures and a tradition of past religious dominance.  In this atmosphere, amid intolerance, Brother Lisse spread the truth of God’s Word. Concerning his activities, American writer Albert E. Idell wrote a chapter in his book Doorway in Antigua, in which he said: “I admire the little man’s faith and his courage. I desire intensely to understand the power that moves him and has kept him here under conditions that would discourage men of less faith.” Of those in the Antigua congregation today, the Solorzano family and Pedro Gonzales first heard of the truth through the efforts of Brother Lisse.

The first circuit assembly was held in conjunction with the Lord’s Evening Meal in 1947. Even brothers from outside the capital were present and could observe the correct way to commemorate Jesus Christ’s death. Seventy attended the Memorial, and 178 the public meeting. By Memorial time in 1948, 118 publishers were sharing in the ministry. In May a “servant to the brethren,” Joshua Steelman, served the two congregations then in the capital, and 252 attended an assembly there.

By the year 1949 the Society had purchased a large modern house in Guatemala City. The branch office was set up there, the inside patio was roofed for a Kingdom Hall, and the missionaries moved in from their two former homes. But there was not enough room for all of them. So six, including the Bivenses and Hibshmans, were assigned to 8,000-foot-high Quezaltenango, the country’s second-largest city. Concerning this assignment, Helen Hibshman says: “We packed our things, hired a truck and set out on our journey at two o’clock in the morning. In those days the trip took twelve hours. It isn’t exactly easy to get started in a new territory, and in this one the population was over 50-percent native Indian. We placed many books. In fact, the group of six placed around 2,000 books in the first six weeks in this virgin territory, where we were not building on anyone else’s foundation. We soon rented a small room below the missionary home and meetings were started.”

The group in Quezaltenango also worked the smaller highland towns. Reaching down to the Pacific coastal plain, they preached in Coatepeque, Retalhuleu and Mazatenango. Furthermore, they visited the groups at San Antonio, Nuevo San Carlos and Tiquisate to give public talks and strengthen fellow believers there.

During 1949 a peak of 218 publishers was reached and the Memorial attendance rose to 301. In December Brothers Knorr and Robert Morgan visited the branch,  and 425 attended the public talk at an assembly held at that time. Greater effort was put forth to give public lectures in the capital and towns throughout the country during 1950. Often, in rented theaters, 250 or more at a time heard the talks delivered by the missionary brothers. During the same year all seventeen missionaries then assigned to Guatemala went to the international assembly in New York city. Present there, too, were six native Guatemalans, who thus got their first taste of the organization’s international aspect. In the meantime, Oscar Custodio cared for the work and missionary home in Quezaltenango and Manuel Monterroso looked after the branch office and congregational matters in Guatemala City.

Manuel Monterroso was one of the first persons with whom missionary Taze Peterson studied the Bible in Guatemala. “I was born a Catholic and expected to die a Catholic,” said Monterroso. “My reason for wanting to study was to improve my English and if I learned something about the Bible incidentally, that was all right too.” Needless to say, he did “learn something about the Bible.” In fact, he became the first Guatemalan to attend Gilead School, returning after his graduation at Yankee Stadium in 1953 to become the first Guatemalan circuit overseer, from 1953 to 1958.

During the absence of the missionaries in 1950, Jorge Alfaro, whose brother had once studied the truth, decided to look into the work of Jehovah’s witnesses. He came to the Kingdom Hall where the branch office was located, and, to his surprise, a former schoolmate, Manuel Monterroso, was conducting the Watchtower study. After the meeting they had a long talk that led to a Bible study. Jorge Alfaro made fine progress. In 1951 he was baptized and joined the regular pioneer ranks. A year later, in October 1952, he and Oscar Custodio became the first Guatemalan special pioneers.

Brother Alfaro feels privileged to have been associated with such fine missionaries as Robert DeYoung and Brother Bivens. He says: “There were many problems we had to face. I had to walk a great deal, fording rivers, sometimes on horseback, resisting the fury of unfriendly religious leaders in isolated areas. Sometimes we ate our meals under the trees and even slept wherever we could find a place to lie down. However, despite all these things, the spirit of Jehovah always resulted in strength to me, together with many blessings.” Today Brother Alfaro is overjoyed that his oldest son has joined him in the full-time service.

By the end of the 1950 service year there were six congregations in Guatemala. A memorable event of  1951 was the circuit assembly at Quezaltenango, to which two buses carried Witnesses from the capital. With two years of work by the missionaries, a congregation was flourishing in Quezaltenango. Regarding work done among the Indians living in and around this town, Sister Hibshman says: “We were getting a few native Indians interested in the work. They are hard to reach, steeped in their customs and religion, being very sincere, but also clannish. One family of two brothers and two sisters took their stand. Another man and his wife were baptized. The wife was taught to read and the brother would accompany us on preaching trips to the villages. On one occasion we were stoned by a drunk Indian. Many could not understand Spanish, only their Indian dialects. In all, about fifty Indian villages were witnessed to in the highlands.”

In the capital a woman with whom missionary Ruby Campbell studied was able to obtain permission for a radio program on a newly established station in 1951. For many years three times weekly we broadcast the fifteen-minute program “Things People Are Thinking About.” Many householders told us that they heard and enjoyed these discussions. This was true, not only in the capital, but in the interior.

In 1952 the missionaries at Zacapa began working the nearby town of Gualan. There a public talk was arranged in a building in front of the Catholic church. The priest first tried to stop the lecture by ringing the church bells. But the talk went on. Next the lights went out in the hall. Yet, there was no confusion, even with 300 present, and no interruption of the discourse, because a man in the front row mounted the platform and trained his flashlight on the speaker’s notes.

Also in 1952 the truth found its way into the jungles of Petén, far to the north. How? An elderly Korean man living at Uaxactun, a chicle camp accessible only by air, became ill and was brought to the capital for treatment. While in a hospital there he received the book “The Truth Shall Make You Free.” Upon returning to the jungle, he began to preach, even walking great distances to other isolated chicle camps to do so. Soon a congregation was formed at Uaxactun, with this man, Brother Kim, appointed as overseer. Later the brothers there built a Kingdom Hall, the finest building in a village of about sixty thatched-roofed, dirt-floored huts.

THE ORGANIZATION GROWS IN STRENGTH

It was during this same year, 1952, that an intensive effort was made to establish high moral standards by  insisting on legal marriages for Jehovah’s witnesses here. This is very different from the majority who live together without legal marriage and yet have a good standing with their religions. At Nuevo San Carlos, for example, some were put aside by Jehovah’s organization because they would not clean up their lives. This showed the entire congregation the seriousness of our ministry and the need to keep Jehovah’s name free from reproach. On March 16, 1952, those of the group who were morally clean were baptized. These included Manuela Flores, her son Aureliano and Samuel Mazariegos. Such insistence upon Biblical morality laid the groundwork for an organization of greater spiritual strength that also would grow in numbers under divine approval and direction. Indeed, succeeding years were to bring evidence of Jehovah’s blessing upon the Kingdom work in this country.

Following the 1953 international assembly at New York city, the Society poured more missionaries into Guatemala. Among them were Arlene Kulp, Mabel White, Alma Parson, Ruth Dollin and Vivian Martin. Brother Reast, and Paul and Dolores Hibshman were assigned to a new missionary home at Mazatenango. In November 1954 Brother and Sister Sindrey took up the work in the Antigua home.

The year 1954 also was one of revolution and political change here. An invasionary force crossed the border not far from Zacapa and there were daily air raids in the capital. Describing those difficult weeks, Sister Parker states: “The branch servant arranged a room that had a concrete roof as a shelter, the window being blocked with cartons of books. We had ten chairs and drinking water in the room. From the radio announcements each morning, the branch servant would decide if it was advisable to go out of the house and at what time all should be home.”

Late in 1954 Brother Knorr visited once again, giving lectures in theaters at Mazatenango, Quezaltenango and the capital. During the lecture at Mazatenango a power drain in late afternoon rendered the sound system ineffective, but Brother Knorr finished his talk without it. In Quezaltenango the Municipal Theater, given free, was crowded with over 400 persons. In the audience was the wife of Presbyterian leader Pablo Burgess, who had once opposed Brother Flores and who had distributed the tract against “Russellism.”

Though Brother Knorr flew to Mazatenango, the trip from there was not an easy one. Continuing with the missionaries by car over narrow, dusty, winding mountain roads, the Society’s president once again  showed his desire to be “on the scene” of the missionary expansion, even getting into the interior. He was persuaded to put aside his suit in favor of more suitable attire borrowed from the missionaries. Incidentally, during this journey a brother traveling with Brother Knorr photographed some scenes later used in the Society’s motion picture “Happiness of the New World Society.” Among these was one of David Hibshman conducting a Bible study amid surroundings of corn drying on a roof and on the ground. Another captured the beauty of the waterfalls high above Lake Atitlan.

In 1955, for the first time the Memorial attendance went over the 1,000 mark. By 1957 many Guatemalan brothers were serving as special pioneers. Consequently, more departmentos (states) were being reached with the Kingdom message, eight new ones in that year alone. With additional isolated groups springing up, a new circuit was formed, and for the first time there were two in the country. At the end of 1957 a missionary home was established at Jutiapa, where Brother Reast was joined by Brian Forbes, new arrival from Gilead. So still another departmento received the witness.

The year 1957 also brought to a happy climax an experience of Sister Marjorie Munsterman. Among the first Bible studies she started in 1946 was one with a woman living with a military man. It was interrupted many times, as his career often took them out of the capital for extended periods. However, due to the tragic accidental death of her son, this woman took a stand for the truth. Her marital status was legalized and she was baptized. Since 1959 a Kingdom Hall (now used by two large congregations) has occupied the front part of the house of this woman, Sister Victoria de León, and for years she has served as a pioneer.

We were all looking forward to Brother Henschel’s visit in February 1958, but our request to use the racetrack grandstand near the capital’s airport met with stalling and finally denial for evasive reasons. The truth was revealed when the minister of agriculture remarked that ‘the state religion is Catholic.’ However, we applied again, permission was granted and a fine assembly was held, with 952 present for Brother Henschel’s public talk.

Special travel arrangements enabled more than ninety brothers from Guatemala to attend the 1958 “Divine Will” International Assembly in New York city. They will never forget the hospitality shown them by their brothers in the United States. At this convention the second Guatemalan student graduated  from Gilead School. In December we had our own “Divine Will” national assembly.

With the opening of a missionary home at Panajachel in 1959, there were Jehovah’s witnesses preaching in all twenty-two departmentos of Guatemala. That year a circuit assembly was held at Quezaltenango, and present for the first time were two brothers from the group at remote Gracias a Dios, near the Mexican border. To attend they had traveled two days on foot and twelve hours by bus. In November the “Awake Ministers” District Assembly in the capital had a public talk attendance of 1,478. Incidentally, there were provisions at the assembly site for Witnesses from outside the capital to put down their straw mats for sleeping, thus saving families hotel or pension expenses. Such arrangements are part of all national assemblies here.

While confined in a tuberculosis sanitarium, Brother Jeronimo Morales preached regularly despite the protests of nuns working there as nurses. He interested a man named Margarito Figueroa, and conducted a study with him. Brother Figueroa was baptized in 1959, and later, upon his release, was appointed a special pioneer, a privilege he still enjoys. Brother Morales himself gained release from the sanitarium and returned to the ranks of special pioneers. Today, with his wife, he serves as a circuit overseer in the Guatemalan highlands.

During December 1960, for the first time over one thousand publishers preached throughout Guatemala. In March 1961 Brother Knorr again visited the capital. By now there were ten congregations in the city.

Through the years the need for more presentable meeting places has moved many congregations to construct their own Kingdom Halls. Doubtless you will recall that first to have its own hall was the small congregation at Uaxactun in the Petén jungles. Mazatenango built the second congregation-owned Kingdom Hall in 1960. Today, among many others, the congregation at El Rancho has its own hall.

The year 1961 was marked by special Kingdom Ministry School training for overseers, special pioneers and missionaries. Memorial attendance was 2,663, and 2,000 were present for the district assembly in November. The year’s report also showed the versatility of our special pioneers. For instance, one brother placed literature with the poor by trading magazines for eggs, corn, a bottle of tomato sauce, or a few boxes of matches. Once he exchanged five books for enough wood to build a table and benches for the Kingdom Hall. Other  things he accepted in exchange for literature included a ladder, a machete, a chicken, flower pots, a blackboard for the Kingdom Hall, a watch strap and a blouse for his wife. Such bartering not only permits the special pioneers to continue in their assignments, but, of far greater import, aids others spiritually.

During November 1962 a national assembly was held. But on the final day there was a military uprising directed against the air force, with headquarters directly across the field from the hall we were using. On Sunday morning the military authorities told the brothers that the assembly could not continue. They said there was too much danger and that the conventioners should go home. A circuit overseer asked tactfully whether it would not be better for all to remain inside the hall, since shells and bullets were flying outside. The official agreed and the peaceful assembly continued, while outside, not far away, some bystanders were killed. By noon the rebellion had been squelched. So, when the assembly ended, the brothers left in safety.

Fifty Guatemalans attended the 1963 assembly at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. During November, 2,824 were on hand for this country’s district assembly. The year 1964 also was memorable for its assemblies, as each of the three circuits held their own gatherings, with over 3,340 persons present to see the Society’s new film.

Flag saluting became an issue at least once here. In 1964 Samuel Cutforth of San Antonio was arrested and jailed when his children (grandchildren of Fred Cutforth) refused to salute the flag. Seeking to aid, the branch overseer and another brother soon arrived in Quezaltenango, where military authorities had taken Brother Cutforth. There they found the military judge to be favorable to the truth, for he had studied “Let God Be True” with one of Jehovah’s witnesses. A telephone call effected the immediate release of Brother Cutforth, bringing great joy to all.

Brother Milton Henschel visited Guatemala once again in March 1965, and also served the national assembly held at the new industrial fairgrounds known as Parque Centroamerica.

INTERNATIONAL ASSEMBLY GIVES IMPETUS TO THE WORK

Climaxing the year 1966 was the international convention on December 7-11. From fourteen different lands came more than 500 foreign delegates. Surely  they will not forget their warm welcome at the airport as missionary and Guatemalan sisters pinned corsages on the shoulders of the visiting sisters, with native marimba music in the background. Nor will the visitors forget the warm smiles and hearty handshakes of their Guatemalan fellow believers, who had come to the assembly site from the mountains, hills, valleys and seashore. One delegate from the United States expressed his sentiments this way: “The love and humility of these brothers of meager means has made a lasting impression upon me. Their zeal for Jehovah in their humble station has put me to shame. I will be a better servant when I return home.” Another delegate said: “I have enjoyed talking to the native brothers.” When asked how that could be, since he spoke no Spanish, he replied: “No, but our hearts speak the same language.”

Memorable, too, was the assembly program featuring talks by directors of the Watch Tower Society, Bible dramas and much fine spiritual instruction. Present at the assembly were Wesley and Martha Hampton and their eleven-year-old daughter. Brother and Sister Hampton had graduated from Gilead School in 1955, but because of Sister Hampton’s pregnancy they could not accept an assignment to Guatemala, though they served faithfully as special pioneers until the birth of a second child. But upon hearing the announcement of a forthcoming Guatemalan assembly, they determined to come and see this land and the brothers with whom they never had the opportunity to work. Their oldest child, now eleven years of age, came with them and was baptized at this notable assembly.

For assembly delegates the Society arranged tours of such sites as beautiful Lake Atitlan and the Mayan ruins at Tikal, with its ancient temples as high as twenty-story buildings of today. At Tikal the Witnesses were heard making comparisons of these Mayan temples with the religious buildings of Egypt and Babylon. In the museum of Antigua, eighteenth-century center of Roman Catholicism in Central America, they could reflect on the spiritual poverty that prevailed during the Inquisition as they viewed remains of instruments of torture. Delegates who visited Chichicastenango saw still another aspect of false religion, the present-day Mayan-Quiche Indians mixing the worship of ancient pagan deities with “saints” of Catholicism. Both inside and on the steps of the church the visitors saw strange rites performed. Just a short stroll from town, on a hilltop, a smoke-blackened idol of centuries past still is honored with candles, pine needles, prayers and even animal-blood sacrifices.

 That international assembly has given real impetus to the work, for increases were forthcoming in many ways. More isolated groups were established and additional special pioneers were assigned to cover previously unattended villages. Three more classes of the Kingdom Ministry School were held in 1967. Brother Peterson was one of those students and expresses his feelings in these words: “I thank Jehovah for the privilege of being associated with these brothers from small congregations and isolated groups, persons of very limited secular education that perhaps could not explain the more difficult Scriptural points. However, I learned a lesson in humility that I can never forget, being with these brothers that have been used by Jehovah to bring many persons to the truth and Jehovah’s organization because of their deep sincerity and firm conviction of what they believe.”

Memorial attendance for 1968 was over 5,000, more than 300 percent of the peak of publishers in the country. Five more missionaries arrived and a new missionary home was opened in the Tikal Gardens section of the capital. Also, at the end of the 1968 service year a district assembly was held for the first time outside the capital, at Quezaltenango. Many buses loaded with brothers made the trip from Guatemala City. At this assembly the book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life was released in Spanish.

During 1968 Brother and Sister DeYoung returned to Guatemala after serving for several years in British Honduras. For some months Brother DeYoung showed the Society’s newest motion picture “God Cannot Lie” in many isolated places throughout Guatemala. Attendances at showings proved that not only the brothers but many interested persons appreciated the film’s clear message. In one town a Protestant minister who was studying with the Witnesses brought fifty members of his congregation to see it, despite the protest of some church elders. High in the mountains at San Marcos and its sister city San Pedro, with a combined population of about 15,000, a total of 2,157 persons attended the two film showings.

EFFECTIVE CIRCUIT WORK

Guatemala’s circuit overseers often serve with a minimum of comforts and conveniences, making their rounds in rainy seasons and through hot tropical zones. For instance, Miguel Saenz (appointed in 1968) and his wife once traveled four hours on a rickety bus, then walked in ankle-deep mud for several miles during a heavy downpour. Of course, there were no toilet  facilities and clouds of mosquitoes kept one awake at night. The next day called for another walk ten miles each direction to visit more brothers. But Brother Saenz comments: “I am thankful for this privilege of serving our Almighty God in these places because the brothers need encouragement to work hard in spite of the inconveniences.”

Another circuit overseer, Brother Reast, endured hardships to reach a small isolated group deep in the interior but felt that his presence with them resulted in an interchange of encouragement. He also remarked: “One would have to see with his own eyes how poor people can be. Being with them a few days opens the gates of one’s heart. They will really enjoy all that Jehovah our God will do for them in the thousand-year reign.”

Now the increases are coming from the interior as well as the capital. Because mountain roads once traversed with difficulty have been replaced by modern highways, the greater portion of Guatemala has become part of “the field” that is reached with the good news. The east-west railroad artery and fleet of two-engine DC 3’s no longer are essential as they were in the early days of expansion. Asphalt ribbons crisscrossing the republic now reach twenty of the twenty-two departmental capitals, where more than one hundred special pioneer ministers are serving growing congregations or opening up the work in towns long isolated.

SERVING WHERE THE NEED IS GREATER

The Society’s call in 1968 to “let down your nets” in more productive ‘waters’ resulted in over 400 letters of inquiry being received by the branch office from brothers in the United States, Canada and other countries who were interested in serving where the need was greater. Within the next two years many arranged their affairs and sold homes, businesses and possessions, freeing themselves to accept the call to preach in foreign lands.

It has meant a great deal to both the Guatemalan brothers and the missionaries to see these willing ones who have given up much to serve where the need is greater. While some have come and gone quickly, others have done good work for a year or a year and a half before having to return to former homes. Of course, the ones who remain are quickly becoming an integral part of Jehovah’s people here. Some have come here with past experience in missionary fields, but many more who never attended Gilead School or served as missionaries display the missionary spirit. And it has  not always been those having the financial means or the health to do so who have pushed into isolated areas where small groups need help and entire sections of territory have not been worked regularly. Places like Quezaltenango, Chimaltenango, Huehuetenango, El Rancho, Puerto Barrios, and Livingston, which once were just dots on the map, have become home to these brothers and sisters from other lands.

BLESSINGS CONTINUE

Especially have the last few years been rich with blessings from Jehovah. (Prov. 10:22) Imagine almost a thousand being baptized during the last three years. The united efforts of native Guatemalan Christians and those who have come from other countries have resulted in a good witness throughout this land. For example, over 130,000 books were placed in three years, and at the same time the congregation publishers are averaging well over eleven hours each in the field ministry every month. In August 1972 the new peak in praisers of Jehovah, that is, 3,004, represented a 24-percent increase over the previous year’s average. Thrilling to us, too, was the attendance of over 8,700 at the Memorial on March 29, 1972.

Not only do peace and unity continue with the new organizational arrangement for oversight of the congregations by appointed “older men,” but we are confident that Jehovah will continue to cause the ‘desirable things to come in’ while he goes on ‘rocking the nations.’​—Hag. 2:7.