We found Buenos Aires to be a clean modern city of approximately four million inhabitants, with subways and other means of modern transportation. Its being a cosmopolitan city made the door-to-door work all the more interesting, since we never knew from one house to the next what kind of people we would meet.

Shortly after arriving in Buenos Aires we attended our first assembly and got to know many of our Argentine brothers. We found a great need for missionaries, the harvest being great and the laborers so few in comparison. When we arrived, there were about a thousand active publishers in the whole country. Now, nearly twelve years later, there are about 7,000.

Our next assembly was at the time of Brother Knorr’s visit in the early part of 1949. It was broken up by the police, who took hundreds of us to jail until investigations were made. A ban was then put on all our public assemblies and all Kingdom Hall doors were closed. Nevertheless, Jehovah the Almighty continued to prosper our efforts, and there has been a continual increase in number of publishers year by year.

All our meetings had to be held in private homes, where ten or fifteen of us would study together. It was more like a family gathering and we all felt free to take part. I was assigned as study conductor of one of these groups, which meant added responsibility, and I was thankful to Jehovah that I could be used.

After being in my Argentine assignment for almost five years I made my first return visit to the United States. That was in 1953 to attend the international New World Society Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was a most enjoyable occasion. It was also my privilege to be at the 1958 Divine Will International Assembly. Upon returning to Argentina this time I was assigned with three other missionaries to work in the city of Salta near the Bolivian border. We are very happy in this assignment and have seen a steady growth both in numbers and in maturity of the small congregation, which was already formed when we arrived.

Looking back, I can truly say that my seventeen years of missionary service have been well worth the cost. In spite of the hardships we endure at times we still have that peace of God that excels all understanding. (Phil. 4:7) True to his promise, Jehovah ‘opens the windows of heaven, and pours out a blessing, that there is not room enough to receive it.’—Mal. 3:10, AS.

“A Famine in the Land”

Long ago the prophet Amos foretold that there would be a spiritual famine in the land. That famine is evident today in lands professing to be Christian. Responsibility for it rests upon Christendom’s churches and is occasionally admitted by them. The Christian Recorder said: “The Church today is like a rusty pipe disconnected from the source of supply.” The president of the Baptist Union of New Zealand remarked: “We are so busy maintaining our Church and running the multiplicity of Church organisations that we have neither time nor strength to take the Gospel out into the world.” Another clergyman remarked in the Charlotte News: “I sometimes wonder if we in the church haven’t been giving our children stones when they are asking for bread, giving them gadgets when they really want God.”