Less than three months after this assembly, or on June 14, 1947, the first three Gilead graduates assigned to the Philippines arrived, to be followed a month later by a fourth. These were Brothers Earl Stewart, Victor White, Lorenzo Alpiche and Nick Skelparick.

The brothers met them at the dock and took them to the branch office. Since there was not sufficient room at the branch office, the new arrivals were housed temporarily in a room above a laundry about a block away. A month later Brothers White and Alpiche were assigned to travel as servants to the brethren, while Brother Stewart was appointed to serve as the new branch overseer in place of Brother Dos Santos. Brother and Sister Dos Santos stayed on at the branch office until February of 1949, when they began preparing to leave for Hawaii. On July 17, 1949, they left the Philippines, having played a big part during the formative years of the branch here.

FIRST CIRCUIT ASSEMBLIES

By the end of 1947, twelve circuits had been organized as the circuit arrangement began to be implemented in this land. The first series of twelve circuit assemblies ran from September to December 1947, and Brother Stewart served all of them as district overseer. This afforded him a fine opportunity to see the condition of the brothers throughout the country and to get acquainted with them.

The Filipino brothers overcame seemingly insurmountable difficulties to get to the assembly places. In Surigao one brother was the only survivor when a motorship sank during a typhoon. He lost most of his belongings, but still attended the assembly. Five typhoons swept through the country during the entire series of assemblies, but these did not deter the brothers from attending. In northern Luzon, two raftloads of brothers floated down the Abra River from their mountain homes to attend the assembly in Vigan. When they reached the mouth of the river, they dismantled their rafts and sold the lumber in order to buy tickets to go home on the bus after the assembly.

In a report to the Society’s Brooklyn office, the branch overseer wrote: “It was a strange sight to a man accustomed to Western civilization to watch these brethren arriving at the various assembly points. They brought with them big bags of rice, bundles of food, sleeping mats, many children and polite, welcoming smiles that grew bigger as the assemblies progressed. With rice, firewood, an old-fashioned burner and a sleeping mat, all their material needs were cared for.”

At the circuit assembly in mile-high Baguio City, Brother Stewart and the circuit overseer, Brother Skelparick, met the lone pioneer in Mountain Province at that time, Sister Rosalia Sotero (now Rosalia Delis). She had heard the truth during the war and was instrumental in blazing the trail of Kingdom proclamation in Mountain Province.