Providentially, in 1946 a spiritual boom also began, with the arrival of Harry C. Behannan, a missionary graduate of the third class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. Brother Behannan was a gifted black musical artist who had given piano recitals throughout Europe, even in the presence of royalty. He had a remarkable zeal for God’s service, an ardor well suited to his anointing as one of the Lord’s “little flock.” (Luke 12:32) He arrived in Monrovia as a true pioneer, alone. Immediately, Brother Behannan set out in the house-to-house preaching work. Within the short space of six months he had established many friendships, placing over 500 books. To bring the truth to other parts of the country, he traveled by open surfboat to Greenville, Sinoe County, 150 miles (240 kilometers) from Monrovia ‘as the crow flies.’

Alas, the abundant seed that this loving brother planted and nourished was not to mature under his care! Upon his return from Greenville, Brother Behannan became ill and succumbed in the hospital, apparently a victim of tropical fever. Members of the American embassy, among many others, were in attendance at his funeral. Of Brother Behannan, a Liberian gentleman said: “He moved like a man with great purpose.” That purpose was not to fail.

MISSIONARIES ESTABLISH THE WORK

In May 1947, a ship anchored offshore and two Gilead-trained missionaries, George and Willa Mae Watkins, were transported by surfboat to their assignment at Monrovia. For this married couple in their forties, a new life was beginning, one that would require adaptability and perseverance. It was fine that Brother Watkins, formerly an amateur boxer, possessed a strong physique. After a week in a hotel, the couple moved to an unfurnished room where the floor was their bed until the brother could make one, along with other furniture.

There were no water taps here. Rather, water was obtained in buckets from a well and had to be boiled for fifteen minutes to make it safe to drink. Food had to be kept well protected from dysentery-carrying “mission” ants. The stove? There it was, three rocks supporting an iron kettle. It was fueled by kindling wood.

Mosquito nets and bitter Atabrine tablets served to keep them free from the ravages of malaria. Also, the missionaries had to deal with another enemy when, after some time, a leather suitcase was reopened, only to find that its underside and contents had been devoured by “bug-a-bugs,” white termites.

Brother and Sister Watkins found two Liberian cultures existing side by side. The majority of the country’s population belonged to its more than twenty tribes, speaking that many different languages and dialects and governed by native customary law administered through commissioners and tribal chiefs. The descendants of the original immigrant settlers, on the other hand, carried on Western customs, as did more and more tribal peoples who were becoming educated in Western ways. Although English was the official language, many tribesmen in Monrovia then spoke it only “small-small,” and the vast majority were illiterate.

In general the thirst for knowledge was great and over a thousand of our bound books were placed during the missionaries’ first fifteen months. However, many educated ones did not want to embrace a “new religion,” saying, “What was good enough for my father is good enough for me.” For the most part, the greatest interest was exhibited by those handicapped by a lack of vocabulary and reading ability. Very helpful in teaching such thirsting ones were the illustrations in the Watch Tower Society’s book “The Truth Shall Make You Free.”

The “homes” of so many persons consisted of single cubicles in a large house containing twenty or more of such residences, ranging in location from under the house to the attic. For numerous persons, these cubicles were merely sleeping places. This made it difficult for the Witnesses to find interested ones again on return visits. And oh, how the people kept moving from place to place! Why? Because of their having no jobs or because of their looking for better accommodations.

Despite such hindrances, Christian meetings were soon organized on J. G. Hansford’s piazza. He had learned the truth over twenty years earlier from W. R. Brown. Many truly meek persons began to attend. One can only imagine the great amount of patient effort put forth that resulted in a peak of fifteen persons sharing in Kingdom service by September 1948, when Liberia’s first congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses was organized. At this time Leticia Martin, the first Liberian woman to accept Bible truth, began to preach the good news. By 1949 she had become the first Liberian pioneer, or full-time Kingdom proclaimer.

EARNEST EFFORT BRINGS INCREASE

In May 1949 a second missionary couple arrived, Frank and Taretha Faust. By this time the missionary home was located on a busy thoroughfare, Camp Johnson Road. An electric sign was set up to display the book “The Truth Shall Make You Free.” Among those whose interest the sign attracted was a young man named Frank Powell. He said to a missionary: “That’s my father’s church.” His father, one of the anointed followers of Jesus Christ, had been a Witness in Jamaica for forty years, and Frank had attended some meetings during his youth. Now he resumed his association with God’s people and began to share in the preaching work. In 1951 he was the lone Liberian delegate to the Christian assembly at Wembley Stadium, London, where he was baptized in symbol of his dedication to Jehovah God. His father’s “church” was now his, too.

The title of the book displayed on the electric sign intrigued Frank Songor, a man of the Kisi tribe from Guinea. At length, he asked a missionary about ‘this truth that would make a man free,’ and a Bible study was started with him. The truth delighted Songor tremendously. In time, one of his three wives died. But which of the two remaining should he choose to be his one wife? When he explained the situation to them, that Scripturally he could have but one wife, one of the girls promptly said that she did not want to become a Christian and preferred returning to the country. However, the other, Alberta, said that she would stick with him wherever he went.

This pleased Frank; so Alberta remained as his one wife, though she was of a different tribe​—Mano. But the question remained: Would she become a real Christian? She seemed extremely timid. Whenever Brother Watkins visited their home, she literally fled from him. Why? Well, her husband owed this missionary a small sum of money, and Alberta feared that Brother Watkins was coming to claim her as a pawn until the debt was paid!

Alberta, in time, did become a fine witness of Jehovah and mastered English and Kisi. Indeed, a splendid example of what the truth can do for one who is loyal!

One day a young illiterate brother named Isaac came to the missionary home. He had been preaching to a military man who listened well but who asked for someone who could read to call on him. Finding Sister Faust at home, Isaac took her to Major A. G. L. Williams, Bandmaster of the Liberian Frontier Forces. In his mid-sixties and Catholic by religion, Williams hailed from the West Indies and had a long career as a professional soldier. His real faith, however, lay in the power of “medicines” for protection and success.

Sister Faust at once recognized that this man was searching for truth. Regular visits were made and then the bombshell exploded​—Deuteronomy 18:10-12 exposed reliance on demon-inspired “medicines.” Profoundly shaken by this divine pronouncement, Williams promptly discarded the entire lot of his assorted “medicines” and put faith in Jehovah.

Retired now from military service, he replaced the title of “Major” with “Brother” as he took up the Kingdom service with zeal, preaching to many in high station. After a time, infirmities kept him at home, but people visited him around the clock, and he spent many hours teaching and conducting Bible studies. If no one was visiting, he would go to his gate and call for passersby to pause so that he could tell them the good news. Continuing as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, this highly respected and kindly old gentleman did not slack his hand until his death in 1963.

The fifth missionary to join the group was Hoyle Ervin, arriving in January 1950. He studied with two men together​—Spencer Thomas and Lichfield Remmie, who later rendered valuable services to God’s people. At first their wives remained aloof despite Ervin’s efforts to involve them in the studies. Finally, endeavoring to fathom Mrs. Remmie’s reason for not participating, Ervin quite innocently asked: “Are you illiterate?” What? That did it! She would show him that she was quite well educated! So she joined the study group​—and learned the truth. Mrs. Thomas then also took part and both wives were baptized the following year. As zealous pioneers, Winifred Remmie and Olive Thomas have helped many others to learn the truth.

During 1950 two other missionaries, Brothers Cyr and Mroz, joined the group temporarily before being sent on to East Africa. In May a more spacious home was occupied at 17 Johnson Street, Monrovia, and the Fausts traveled by ship to a new assignment at Harper City on Cape Palmas. By then, about three years had passed since Brother and Sister Watkins had arrived in this ‘land of liberty,’ and a nucleus of 28 publishers and 8 pioneers then regularly declared the good news. But, what would service to Jehovah produce during the 1950’s, then just beginning?

BACK TO HARPER AFTER FIFTY YEARS

Some fifty years had gone by since the Zion’s Watch Tower study classes at Harper were disrupted by the death of the Gibson brothers. Now on that picturesque, palm-dotted cape jutting into the Atlantic, the Fausts found a ready response. After only four months, ten publishers were reporting field service.

Nevertheless, the missionaries encountered opposition from the “Prophets.” Several times a week, these fanatical religionists would dress in white robes and march through the streets carrying lanterns, chanting, shouting, beating drums and stopping now and then to go into a sort of shuffling dance. They were great believers in “healing.” When one of the missionaries became sick and had to go to the hospital, the “Prophets” surrounded the missionary home gibing: “Servant of God get sick and go to hospital? You not God servant; you false prophets!” During the next few weeks these false religionists would come to the missionary home in the dead of night and silently go through very strange antics and motions, undoubtedly intended to drive the missionaries away by weaving a spell.

But the Fausts remained, and one day the leader of this band of fanatics obtained some Watch Tower literature. After a discussion with a missionary, this leader advised his followers that it would no longer be necessary for them to remove their shoes before entering the “holy ground” of the church. By means of a Bible study, this man became convinced that many of his ideas were “doctrines of demons” and that the true God is Jehovah, whose name should not be ignored. (1 Tim. 4:1, American Standard Version) This prompted the man to change the name of his church from “The Church of the Lord” to “Jehovah’s Tabernacle.” When the chief “apostle” of this group learned of this in Monrovia, he stormed into town and took his deflecting disciple to court for changing the name of the church. The ensuing argument split the congregation. Although the local leader won the case, further discussion and study led him to realize that his church was not “Jehovah’s Tabernacle.” Down came the sign.

Then one day he denounced his false religion to his startled congregation, declaring that he had found the true people of Jehovah. He then accompanied the Witnesses in house-to-house preaching, explaining to many how he had found the truth. Again he was haled into court by his former spiritual leader, this time charged with denouncing the faith of the “Prophets” and turning away the members of that church. The judge asked the defendant why he changed his religion, and he replied: “I was blind but now I see.” After an effective witness was given to all, the case was dismissed. This brother, Wilmot Bright, thereafter served as a Kingdom publisher at Harper City.

In 1951 the Remmies transferred from Monrovia to Harper City and were a great help to the new congregation. For a time Sister Faust was in a private hospital at Pleebo, eighteen miles (29 kilometers) away. While there, she studied the Bible with William David, and soon others of the family were learning the truth. Among them were three older illiterate women, who eventually became Sisters Blondie, Tardie, and Kardie, a familiar sight in Pleebo as they preached the truth enthusiastically in their native Grebo language.

Another relative who began studying at this time was Frank Williams and he became the first native Liberian to attend Gilead School, graduating at the Divine Will International Assembly, Yankee Stadium, New York city, in 1958. Yet another relative to begin studying was Jacob Wah, small in stature but keen in knowledge and speaking ability.

BRANCH OFFICE ESTABLISHED

To Monrovia’s Centennial Memorial Pavilion, 400 came to hear Brother Knorr’s public address “It Is Time to Consider God’s Way.” The general attitude was that the Kingdom-preaching work was just beginning, for the entire interior of Liberia lay virtually untouched. To supervise better the future expansion, a branch office was established, with one of the local missionaries appointed as branch overseer.

The missionary home at 17 Johnson Street, Monrovia, was a small house covered with corrugated zinc sheets. However, construction of a new building commenced in February 1953, and it was completed in October. The Kingdom Hall could accommodate 150 comfortably, and the missionary home had three bedrooms. The modern design of the structure elicited much favorable comment. With many more persons attending meetings, the general feeling was “Jehovah’s Witnesses are here to stay!”

INTO THE INTERIOR

At the end of May 1953, John and Michael Charuk, natural brothers (from “one ma and one pa” as a Liberian would say), arrived from Sierra Leone. These two missionaries, in their early thirties and originally from western Canada, had already served in Africa for four years, three of these as district overseers and missionaries in Nigeria. They had a wealth of knowledge and practical experience regarding problems peculiar to West Africa. With four missionaries now crowded into small quarters, John Charuk searched out a new location at Kakata.

After John Charuk got settled in Kakata, he visited elderly Thomas Holman in Salala and thereafter spent a few days with him every month. On the second visit, this sheeplike man expressed his determination to be a Witness and make necessary adjustments in his marital affairs. Thomas Holman, baptized the following April, was the first Witness in the Kakata-Salala area.

Early in 1954 a home was rented at Kakata. It served as a missionary home, and Michael Charuk joined his brother there. The brothers walked tremendous distances to reach sheeplike ones and build up a group. Michael Charuk found some really interested young men at Nyehn, four hours away, by walking a bush road. For a time they were visited twice a week. This meant leaving very early in the morning so as to return the same day, on foot, of course. These men really appreciated the efforts put forth to help them. As a result, William Bonney, William Morris and James Mally became Kingdom proclaimers.

By the end of September, seven Kingdom publishers were reporting in this scattered territory, and in February 1955 a congregation was organized. And how were people of the Kakata area responding to the good news? Well, please note the following: After completing a Bible study with an interested group, a missionary was asked when he was going farther down the road because the people there were looking for Jehovah’s Witnesses. The next week he decided to find some of them. At one house he was asked inside, but was politely scolded: “We were wondering when you would come and study with us. How is it you do us this way and take so long?” Literature was obtained and the first Bible study was held right then and there. Farther on, a woman greeted the brother: “At last you’ve come our way!” In appreciation of the Kingdom message, lunch was set out. At the next home, it was a joy to hear the lady say: “You’re not a stranger to me. I know the nature of your work, and we have been expecting you.” All the family gathered to hear the Scriptural discussion. In fact, they requested a return visit regularly so that they too might be taught Jehovah’s Word.