Early in 1950 Brothers Knorr and Robert E. Morgan had visited Panama. In February, almost immediately after the visit of the brothers from the Society’s headquarters, a national assembly was held in the city of David, Chiriquí. Recalling the trip from Colón and Panama City, Hazel Burford wrote:

‘Several buses went up from Panama City containing brothers from both terminal cities. The trip took some twenty hours over dirt roads full of ruts and chuckholes. Since this was toward the end of the dry season, the powdery dust was inches deep. Those of us who sat over or behind the wheel boxes were sitting in clouds of dust, as the floor of the bus had pulled away from the wheel box a couple of inches. So the dust picked up or stirred up by the wheels poured into the bus. At times, we could not see the front of the bus. We tied handkerchiefs over our noses and mouths in an attempt to strain out some of it, but we breathed and swallowed a goodly portion. When we arrived in David about noon, we were all exactly the same gray dustcolor​—skin, hair and clothes. Obviously, our first need was a shower, which was hospitably provided. Soon we all emerged with our true identity.

‘The assembly was fine, as always. It resulted in a tremendous witness to the people of David and vicinity and was a real stimulus to our brothers there. Knowing the condition of our bus, on the return trip we packed wet gunnysacks around the wheel boxes and so prevented much of the dust from entering the bus.’

A GLIMPSE AT MISSIONARY LIFE

After these missionaries returned from a vacation and the Theocracy’s Increase Assembly, four of them went to a new assignment in Chitré. Looking back to that time, Mary Hinds, a pioneer since 1930, wrote:

‘At the end of August, Hazel and I were packed and waiting for the arrival of an interested person to bring his truck and move us. He arrived later than we anticipated. But before we could be on our way, he had to wash down the truck. It had been used to transport cattle the previous day. A stop on the highway to change tires delayed our arrival in Panama City, where we were to pick up Ellen Kienbaum. Carolyn Grenz followed later. We also obtained a supply of canned goods, as we had heard that fresh fruits and vegetables were very scarce in our new assignment. After eating lunch at the branch, we were off.

‘Getting there was more than half the fun! The truck driver’s wife accompanied us and, since only three persons could ride in the cab, the other two had to crawl in back with the furniture. During the last half of the journey, the driver’s wife and I were in the back, just in front of the endgate, sitting on a mattress on a table turned upside down and with a tarpaulin taut above us. Rain overtook us; so the driver stepped on the gas, thinking that speed would prevent the rain’s running down into the back end of the truck. We caught the brunt of it​—not only the rain, but also the terrific jolts over that rough road.

‘Nightfall found us unloading things under the scrutinizing glances of the neighbors. We spent the night on the mattresses spread on the floor of the apartment. Our two bedrooms, large dining-living room and the kitchen on one end of the porch all were cupboardless. Wooden shutters covered the windows. Necessity was laid upon us to ply our skills at carpentering. Hazel and Ellen screened the windows and made screen doors. A little later, Hazel and I made cupboards for the kitchen and wardrobes for the bedrooms.

‘We learned that our water supply was piped in from the nearby river, where people bathed, swam and washed their clothes. There, too, cattle drank and pigs wallowed. Whether it was clear or chocolate in color, we boiled every drop of our drinking water for fifteen minutes, then let the sediment settle, and we never had amoebas or dysentery during our more than two years there. Pulp of a species of cactus prevalent in that section was employed to clear the dirt out of the water we used for washing clothes.’

Describing something of the local life-style and the people, Sister Hinds continued: ‘Chitré​—capital of progressive, agricultural Herrera Province—​was the meeting place of old and new civilizations! Here is where mud walls of thatch-roofed huts with dirt floors stand beside modern chalets of concrete block walls, tile roofs and glazed tile floors; where witch doctors practice alongside modern medics; where cattle from barren pastures, driven over dusty city streets to the river below to quench their thirst during the summer months, were just a stone’s throw from others of their species in modernly equipped pasture lots with running water.

‘Here was a town where Catholicism had dominated with such a stranglehold that people feared to read the Bible, much less discuss it; feared to refrain from keeping a wake for days after the death of a relative in order to appease the spirit of such a one; feared to provoke the priest in any way that would bring his disfavor and resultant prohibition of their being buried in “holy ground”; feared to violate any tradition that had been taught them.

‘It was a marketplace for campesinos (country folk), who arrived by chiva (small homemade buses) with large pans of eggs atop the head, or by horseback with side baskets filled with produce, even pigs. Sometimes they were leading a second pack animal tied to the tail of the one in front. Or they came by foot, carrying baskets of produce over the shoulder. In exchange for the produce, they preferred silver coins to paper money. Here was the home of a humble, lovable people, reared with the custom of sharing whatever they possessed and expecting to be accorded the same courtesy by others, the home of a hardworking people, most of whom eked out a living by tilling the soil in the sweat of the brow. This was to be our territory for somewhat over two enjoyable years.’

The missionaries were there to tell the populace the good news. Would this be easy? Wrote Sister Hinds: ‘Now the problem was, how to reach the heart of this people. The literature placed by others who had gone out to scatter the seed of truth during vacation periods prior to our arrival had stirred up the resident priest. So we found ourselves in a hornets’ nest of prejudice. “Don’t listen to those people.” “Don’t read their literature.” “Spit on them.” “Pelt them with stones.” “If you read the Bible half through you will go crazy.” The priest had said it! Understandably, when the people saw us coming, they would run and hide.

‘Unintentionally, insult was added to injury in this way: Answering my knock at a certain door one morning was a slender, tall, sickly looking person dressed in what looked to me like a long dirty gown. By the feminine endings on my Spanish words, I addressed this figure as a “poor little lady” and asked if she was sick. Invited inside, I found this to be the priest! What a dressing down I received, as he accused me of being a Yankee imperialist there to mislead the people and bribe them away from their religion! That man left no stone unturned to give us trouble.’

Nevertheless, Christian zeal and neighbor love won out, as Sister Hinds explained: ‘Kindness, patience, empathy. How necessary and how effective! Before many days had passed, people were calling us into their homes and asking why the priest was so against us. Little by little, their confidence was gained. So, after a few home Bible studies, Señor Ramos had courage to ask me: “Was the flood of Noah’s day before or after 1914?” From her low banquito (bench), María queried: “Why is it a sin to eat meat on Friday?” Many were the questions just that simple, but this was the first time that they had been answered. Soon the four of us were conducting all the home Bible studies we could adequately care for. . . .

‘Health problems? Oh, yes, missionaries are not immune. But we found an excellent doctor who was acquainted with tropical ailments and who endeared himself to our hearts by his whole-souled interest in us, as demonstrated by his morning and night home visits until he was satisfied that his patient was recovering​—all of this without extra charge after his first visit. So Doctor Rojas Sucre pulled Hazel through malaria and me through a stubborn case of influenza, which I found to be far more treacherous in the tropics than in a moderate clime.’

After twenty-eight months in Chitré, a newly formed congregation was left to the direction of dedicated native brothers. The missionaries were reassigned, two of them to the Canal Zone.

At that time there was just one congregation in the Canal Zone. It was in the town of Gamboa and consisted of black brothers employed by the Canal Company. But among the white, largely American population employed in the Zone very little had been done. Hence, in 1952 Hazel Burford and Mary Hinds were assigned to work in the Canal Zone towns. About a year and a half later a congregation was formed in Balboa. It consisted of the two missionaries and five congregation publishers​—all sisters. The number of Kingdom proclaimers in this congregation has fluctuated as military men, whose wives were in the truth, would finish their tour of duty and move away, or others, employed in the Zone, would leave. In time, another congregation was established in Paraiso, a Canal Zone town for local rate employees.