THE GOOD NEWS IS HEARD

The Kingdom work in Panama started about the turn of the century. In the late 1890’s an agent of the American Bible Society brought some of the Watch Tower Society’s publications into the country and began to distribute them. Soon others became interested in the Kingdom message and began to talk about it. Isaiah Richards, a schoolteacher in the city of Colón, organized a class (or “ecclesia,” as it was called) and presided at the weekly Bible studies. That was about the year 1900.

Shortly before that, W. R. Brown, who later became known as “Bible” Brown in Nigeria, West Africa, had become interested in the good news. That was in 1907, when he attended a street-corner lecture given by Isaiah Richards. The Bible discourse was based on the “Chart of the Ages,” which was used as an aid in explaining God’s purposes.