After we had a lively discussion in the marketplace with a prominent lawyer, the local press published the following: “There have arrived in Montería some young ladies skillfully taught in the use of the Bible and who are, therefore, a danger to the Catholic religion. We call this to the attention of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities in order to put an end to that propaganda.”

‘WE RECOMMEND OURSELVES AS GOD’S MINISTERS . . . BY PRISON’

The experience we had in our second assignment as full-time ministers reminds us of the apostle Paul’s words: “We recommend ourselves as God’s ministers . . . by prisons.” (2 Cor. 6:4, 5) That assignment took us to a major petroleum center, the river port city of Barrancabermeja. There was already a full-time preacher of God’s Word there, but she needed help. Shortly before we went there Barrancabermeja was declared to be “Catholic mission territory.” This meant that it was out of bounds for proselytizing by other religious groups.

On the second day after our arrival, we were accompanying the local Witness in the preaching work when the four of us were picked up by detectives. We later found out that some Evangelicals had gone to the Catholic bishop with The Watchtower and Awake! to inform him that it was the Witnesses who were distributing these magazines. So the bishop had given the order for our arrest. After arresting us, the police then arrested our brother and nephew and confiscated our Bible literature, twenty cartons of it.

When we refused to pay a fine of 200 pesos each, they sentenced us to three months in jail. Soon we found ourselves in a large, bare cement room with about a dozen other women who were in there for terrible crimes, even murder. Nevertheless, even among these sinful women there were those who seemed anxious to know about the Bible. We were delighted to explain God’s truths to them, using a small Bible we had managed to keep with us. When it came time to bed down for the night, some let us use their straw mats for sleeping, while they slept on the bare cement floor. Then, as soon as all was quiet, out of the sewer came huge white rats.

The next day our brother managed to gain an audience with the military mayor and convinced him that it was a terrible disgrace on his administration to have four Christian women locked up under such deplorable conditions. He asked that our sentences be added to his and to our nephew’s. Strangely enough, the request was granted. So after spending some twenty-four hours in that abominable place, we were released but remained under police surveillance. On our leaving, two of the women inmates, who had listened with pleasure to the Kingdom message, embraced us and asked if we would give them our little Bible, which we were glad to do.

Due to the efforts of James Webster and a cousin of ours who was then a lawyer in Bogotá, the national capital, our brother and nephew were released from jail a week later on the condition that we leave town. Although the office of the President of the Republic had ordered their release and also the return of the confiscated Bible literature, a priest showed himself indisposed to comply with the request. It so happened that he had been guarding the twenty cartons of Bibles and Bible literature in the vestry of the cathedral. He demanded 200 pesos in return for the literature. However, upon being informed of the priest’s demands, the mayor’s office, already smarting under the pressure applied by the Government, ordered a group of soldiers to go to the cathedral and take the literature by force, if necessary. The priest was a little more obliging that time. So the next day when the authorities put us and our belongings on a couple of buses headed for Bucaramanga, the literature was with us.