IT WAS on October 25, 1945, that two missionaries of Jehovah’s Witnesses, graduates of the third class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, stepped off a DC-3 plane in La Paz. Their names were Edward Michalec and Harold Morris. It was from that time that the work of making known God’s kingdom started in real earnest in Bolivia. These missionaries were all alone in a vast and challenging land, ranging from the lofty Andes mountains and the bleak and barren Altiplano, to remote tropical valleys, virgin jungles and frontier lowlands. This was the land of the giant condor and prideful llama.

The magnificent Andes chain is rich in material treasures of tin, antimony, lead, wolfram, zinc and silver. Mining is a principal industry of Bolivia, and humble miners are to be found grouped in mining camps throughout the Andes. Here, too, superstitions from Christendom have been mingled with pagan customs.