Isthmus was at the door to take us in his car to our assignment in Colón on the Atlantic side. Although his skin was many shades darker than ours, he had that radiant Kingdom smile, the same loving consideration and desire to serve as our brothers right there in Bethel. From that first morning of our acquaintance on through the more than four years of our working together, he and our other brothers and sisters never were too busy or too tired to help us with any problem in our new home. They were so eager for help in doing the work and so co-operative that in that period of time we rejoiced to see the tiny group of some fifteen publishers grow into a well-organized congregation of close to a hundred. After working there about two years it was thought advisable to form a Spanish-speaking congregation, and, although my Spanish was still very poor, I was privileged to work with the congregation from its formation and even serve as a servant in it.

With the congregations in the Canal Zone’s terminal cities functioning smoothly the Society determined to help the people of good will in Panama’s “Interior”; so in 1950 I was one of the four chosen to move out to Chitre. Here we definitely began to realize the import of the miracle worked by Jehovah at the Tower of Babel as we struggled to put our precious Kingdom message into understandable Spanish. Ever since our basic training at Gilead, we had consistently studied and we could read quite well, but we now discovered our usage of the language was entirely inadequate for the many situations we were meeting. After about a year a congregation was organized, we four sisters occupying places as servants; and when, in December, 1952, we were called into Panama City we were able to leave in Chitre a group of eight publishers, with native brothers trained for the servants’ positions. Under Jehovah’s blessing by now the congregation at Chitre has about doubled.

In May, 1954, a congregation was organized in the Canal Zone itself, eight publishers first reporting; twelve months later, twenty. Jehovah’s blessing is making us all rich and strong spiritually. In many sections all day long we work amid squalor and filth of overcrowded tenements. At night we come home to a clean, comfortable missionary home maintained by the Society, our brothers. So these last twenty-three years I now see have been very well spent pursuing my purpose in life, and I hope to continue in full-time service forever in whatever assignment Jehovah may graciously give me.

To Start Action

The pastor at the First Methodist church in Cordele, Georgia, announced not long ago that the offering plates on a special Sunday would be filled with one dollar bills. The Sunday came. Each person present was asked to take out one one-dollar bill from the offering plates as they were passed among the parishioners. “Our people are faithful and loyal in their offerings to the church,” explained the pastor, “and we like the idea of the church giving an offering to the people so that they might in turn invest this offering for Christ and his church.” Observers could not help thinking of a rather apt illustration: pouring water into a pump to start action.