was overflowing with Jehovah’s witnesses, some going in one direction and some in another. It surely is interesting to observe that in this little country of approximately 900,000 people there are now 1,100 publishers for the Kingdom. It is believed that there are many more people of good-will to be found and, by the Lord’s grace, the publishers in Costa Rica are going to feed the “other sheep” that Christ gathers to his fold.

PANAMA

The two travelers, Brother Knorr and Brother Morgan, wished they could have remained longer to visit with the graduates of Gilead, for their stay seemed to be no longer than the long breakfast they had together on Monday morning, January 2, at which time some personal problems were discussed. But traveling they must be, in order to keep the schedule. A fast rise was made by our Pan American DC-3 plane in order to get over the nearby mountains to the south. And it was not long till we were flying out over the Pacific and, a little later, approaching the airport at Davíd, Panama. This was just a refueling point, but a few passengers also got off. It was good, however, to see this city in the northern part of Panama where there is a small company organized due to the good work of missionaries. Then on again, flying in an easterly direction out over the Pacific, for here the mainland takes a jog to the east. It was a disappointment to Brother Knorr not to land at Balboa, where he had come in on previous trips; however, within the last three months the commercial airlines had to move out into the country to a new field, Aeropuerto Tocumen. The Balboa field is convenient to the city, but the new airport is about twenty miles away from Panama City. But this did not quench the desire of the brethren to meet the plane. There was a number of carloads of brethren, as well as many travelers by bus, who had come out to welcome the visitors from the Society. There were so many people that it was difficult to see all the missionaries; but it was not long until we arrived at the missionary home on 4th of July avenue and were able to talk to all those who had been through school and had taken up foreign assignments. It was a real pleasure to talk to them that night and show them the latest photographs of the Brooklyn Bethel home and factory and the campus of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, all of which brought back many memories to them. And they had a lot of questions to ask, including some about the 1950 assembly that were not answered. But it is hoped they will get the answers in due time, to their full satisfaction.

Brothers Knorr and Morgan stayed with the sixteen missionaries at the home in Panama City, which is a very beautiful home. Four and a half days were spent in Panama and they were busy ones. During the day the publishers were busy in the field advertising the public talk “Liberty to the Captives”. In the evening we were busy in the assembly hall, which was a night club rented for the occasion. The session, beginning at 7 p.m., had to be over by 9 p.m. so that the room could be used for other purposes. On Tuesday night there were 350 brethren in attendance, both English- and Spanish-speaking publishers and people of good-will. The lectures had to be interpreted from English into Spanish. Brothers Knorr and Morgan spoke to the congregation.

Wednesday morning, January 4, a baptism talk was given and twelve brethren symbolized their consecration. Advertising of the public meeting by means of handbills and placards continued. That evening the auditorium was packed out, every seat having been taken, and there were hundreds standing. The count showed that 703 had gathered together, and they paid rapt attention. Thursday was devoted to the missionaries and the Branch office activity, as well as was part of Friday. A trip had to be made to Colón on the Atlantic side of the isthmus, where there are also an English and a Spanish company. A visit was made to the missionary home in Colón. Excellent work is being accomplished through it. Two good companies are established, and these brethren assembled together in their regular Kingdom Hall, which they use jointly. Their book-study people were invited to attend this meeting, all in English, as the majority of the Spanish-speaking brethren also understand English. Filling the Kingdom Hall were 294. This was the first session of their English circuit assembly on Friday night, so Brother Knorr and Brother Morgan were their speakers, devoting time to service talks. That night after the meeting a few of the brethren returned to Panama City with the brethren from headquarters, for it was necessary for the visitors to be up early the next morning to travel on to Colombia.

The work in Panama is progressing very nicely, but there is still room for expansion, and that is the thing every missionary is anxious to see. Some are most desirous of getting off into the interior, and they hoped a new missionary home would be opened up. They felt sure they could get away from the larger cities, work the smaller towns and start new companies. So arrangements were made to open up a new missionary home with some of the present Gilead graduates in the interior immediately after the 1950 assembly, for these brethren want to attend the assembly and then return to new territory. Upon reviewing the work it was determined that a number of new missionaries should go into Panama. So probably four or six brethren will be sent to Panama immediately after the international gathering of Jehovah’s witnesses to add stimulus to the work going on so well there. During the first year the missionaries were in Panama, the record shows, there were 53 publishers on the average. And in five years the average has increased to 375, with a peak of 490. Here too we see a number of local brethren taking up the general pioneer service. Fifteen of the publishers in this land have found it possible to get into the full-time service. A number of them have gone into the interior, having excellent success. There are now eleven companies established, and the brethren believe that in 1950 a number more will be built up in other towns and villages.

Panamanians are an excitable people and very active, and, as the missionaries have said, are either quick to grasp the truth or want nothing to do with it. Probably their temperament can be best understood by observing their bus-driving tactics. You find hundreds of these small twenty-passenger busses throughout Panama City; and it is not uncommon to see these small busses racing with one another to get to the next stop first in the hope of getting to the prospective passengers before the competitor. You often wonder how your driver will make it on the narrow streets as he squeezes by other vehicles. Brother Morgan and Brother Knorr were traveling with four Gilead graduates through the city on one occasion, and they were amused to watch the bus driver draw up to the curb and ask someone if he wanted to go somewhere. It is all right for the driver to solicit business, and he will stop for anyone who even looks as if he were thinking about getting on a bus. Sometimes he will stop in the middle of an intersection to pick up a passenger.

However, the two visitors and the Gilead graduates got their greatest thrill and amusement this morning when the driver stopped on a hill behind several other busses. Then this rickety vehicle’s brakes gave way and the fun started. Instead of allowing his machine to drift two or three feet and bump into the machine ahead, the driver foolishly steered the bus to the right and mounted the sidewalk. People scattered quickly to avoid being run down as the bus rolled along the sidewalk. Finally the driver, gesticulating wildly to show that his brakes were not working, wedged the machine in between another bus and the building, blocking the entrances to two shops. Fortunately no one was hurt, and it was impossible to keep from laughing at the situation. The passengers could not get out of the bus, because the entrance was jammed against the building wall and the windows were too small to crawl through. There was much excitement and a lot of talk, and within a few minutes three policemen were on the scene arguing with the bus driver as to why he did such a thing. Arguments were loud and gestures augmented the words to prove that the brakes really did not work. This seemed to wholly satisfy the policemen. It seemed that if your brakes did not hold, that was the thing to do; and there were no traffic violation summonses being handed out to appear in court for using a vehicle for public conveyance that was not in proper shape.

Finally the policeman got after the driver of the bus that had us pinned to the building and told him to get moving. Then we wondered what would happen. Would we continue to roll down the sidewalk? There were hundreds of people standing right in front of the bus by this time, thoroughly discussing the situation, and it would do no good to tell them to move. There was excitement and everyone wanted to be in on it. Fortunately the bus was pressing so tightly against the wall that it would not move down hill. The only way the passengers could now get out was through the emergency door in the side of the bus, now that the other bus had moved on. Brother Morgan tried to open the door by loosening the latch, but he found that the emergency door for quick exit was nailed shut. One of the Gilead graduates explained to the driver in Spanish that we wanted to get the emergency door open. So he took his lucky horseshoe and, using that as a hammer and pry, bent back the nails, making it possible to open the emergency door. All the passengers got out and walked down the street a few blocks to another bus, leaving the excitement behind. Later in the day the same group of brethren got on another bus returning to the missionary home and, much to their surprise, there was the same driver who had run the machine up on the sidewalk. He appeared just as exuberant and happy as ever, only this time he had a new bus and he insisted that the brakes worked on this one. To convince us he drove full speed ahead and then slammed on the brakes to stop quickly at a corner. And so with the little busses and their horns Panama City keeps on the move.

Resolution of First Canadian French Circuit Assembly

The following letter of resolution was drawn up by a committee of elder brethren of the Quebec circuit who have witnessed the growth in numbers of Jehovah’s praisers from about 5 publishers twenty years ago to well over 500 now. It was presented at the final session of the circuit assembly, Sunday, January 15, 1950, and enthusiastically adopted.

“Jehovah’s witnesses of Quebec, Circuit No. 1, and their friends, united in assembly in the number of 800, desire to express to all their brethren, and to all their friends, as well as to all persons who may be reached by this present, their firm resolution to remain unshakably in the service of our heavenly Father, the Great God of the universe, Jehovah, who made himself known to us through his organization, while we in Quebec were still held captives, in ignorance of the Word of God, the Bible.

“Our resolution signifies our determination to continue in the way blazed for us by Jesus Christ and the apostles, in spite of the fact that systematic opposition and intense persecution are unleashed against us. We have not forgotten the words pronounced only a few years ago by persons in high honour in this province, declaring that ‘the handful of Jehovah’s witnesses will soon be forced to evacuate this province’, dominated almost entirely by Catholicism. In fact, far from having left the province, by the grace of Jehovah, who has abundantly blessed and protected us, His witnesses are now in greater numbers than ever before, spread out in more than 32 different localities of the province.

“The persecutions and restrictions of which we have been the target since the start of our preaching of the Bible under the direction of the Theocratic organization will not at all impair our resolution to march ever forward in the way that we have followed to now, and which we would follow even to death, whatever be the persecutions and the machinations that the Devil may raise by his agents or organizations.

“We know that there are yet many ‘prisoners’ in this province, but the fact of being united here, in our first French circuit assembly, in such large numbers, is for us the proof that we are carrying out the will of God.

“It is therefore with absolute confidence in Jehovah and with gratitude toward Him, and love for our neighbor, that we are resolved, being fortified by ‘food in due season’ received from Jehovah through his faithful and wise servant, to seek in our turn all those in our circuit who hunger and thirst after righteousness; to bring them the same spiritual food which will deliver them from their condition of captivity and cause them, with us, to ‘praise Jehovah more and more’ in preaching His Word.

“With much love for our brethren of Bethel, of Gilead, and of the Toronto Bethel, we are,

United with you to the end of the fight,

YOUR BRETHREN OF QUEBEC CIRCUIT No. 1.”