• Belize
    2010 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • UNASSIGNED TERRITORY PRODUCES GOOD FRUIT

      Toledo District, in southern Belize, is an area of rolling hills and dense rain forest, peppered with Mopan and Kekchi Maya villages of thatched-roof houses with dirt floors. For the most part, the villagers lead hard lives doing heavy farmwork with simple hoes. During dry spells they have to carry water to the fields by hand to grow corn, beans, and cacao. Many of the women do traditional Kekchi embroidery and make baskets for the souvenir shops throughout the country. Increasing numbers of young people are leaving the villages to study or work in the more populated centers of the country.

      In 1995, Frank and Alice Cardoza were invited to serve as temporary special pioneers during April and May to help distribute Kingdom News No. 34, “Why Is Life So Full of Problems?,” in the Toledo District. “I had taken part in one of the annual bush trips in this area,” recalls Frank, “and I saw that the Maya people could be better helped to learn the good news if someone would move into the area. The branch recommended that I rent a place to stay, start a Bible study group, and give the special talk in San Antonio. We were to distribute the Kingdom News there, as well as in eight other villages.”

      The Cardozas conducted a weekly group study in their rented one-room basement, and within a few weeks, three to four families started attending. These interested ones also joined the Cardozas for their hour-long drive in a well-worn pickup truck on a rutted dirt road to Punta Gorda for the Theocratic Ministry School and Service Meeting. That first month, Frank delivered the special talk in San Antonio. Jesús Ich, one of those attending for the first time, paid rapt attention. As a member of the Nazarene Church, he was particularly impressed to learn that the teaching of hellfire is rooted in paganism and that the Biblical hell is the common grave. He took Frank aside after the meeting, plying him with more questions on the subject. As a result, he began to study the Bible and was baptized a year later.

      At the end of their two-month assignment as temporary special pioneers, the Cardozas had to make an important decision. “We had started many studies,” remembers Frank, “more than we could handle. Our hearts and consciences just wouldn’t let us go back to our comfortable house in Ladyville. If we decided to stay in San Antonio, we could have better living conditions by renting the upstairs of the house we were in rather than the basement. I could install a little sink, a water gutter to pick up rainwater and, in time, maybe a flush toilet and electricity. We prayed to Jehovah about it, confident that with his blessing a congregation could be formed in this area. Then we wrote to the branch, informing them that we were willing to stay in San Antonio as regular pioneers.”

      Jehovah’s blessing on the Cardozas’ decision was quickly apparent. Within just six months, in November, they held their first Public Meeting in their rented house. And by April of the following year, they began holding the Theocratic Ministry School and Service Meeting in San Antonio. How relieved the little group was not to have to make the weekly 40-mile round trip to Punta Gorda for the meetings.

      “HIS THREATS COULD NOT STOP ME”

      The group of sincere Bible students in San Antonio soon began to progress, and their love for the truth was truly moving. “In these villages,” explains Frank, “the women in particular are very shy, and by tradition they are submissive to their fathers and husbands. It is not their custom to talk to strangers. It was very difficult for them, therefore, to participate in the door-to-door ministry.”

      Priscilian Sho, who was 20 years old at the time, was an unbaptized publisher who really wanted to preach to her neighbors in the area. On one occasion, Priscilian was making some return visits with a sister-in-law, Amalia Sho, when they suddenly faced a crisis.

      Priscilian remembers: “I hadn’t told my father I was going out to preach publicly because he had forbidden me to do it and I was afraid of him. That Sunday morning when we were out preaching, we suddenly saw my father in front of the Baptist church he attended. At first, we crouched in the grass because we didn’t want him to see us. But then I said, ‘You know, Amalia, Jehovah is watching us. It’s not right for us to be afraid of my father. It is Jehovah we must fear.’”

      Priscilian’s father was furious, but an even bigger issue lay ahead because he was violently opposed to her becoming one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. After praying about the matter until the day before the assembly where she was to be baptized, Priscilian finally mustered up the courage to tell her father.

      “Tomorrow,” she said to her father, “I’m going to Belize City.”

      “What are you going to do?” he inquired.

      “I’m going to be baptized,” replied Priscilian. “I’m going to do what Jehovah wants me to do. I love you, but I have to love Jehovah too.”

      “Are you really going to do that?” he responded angrily.

      “Yes,” said Priscilian. “Acts 5:29 says I must obey God rather than man.”

      Priscilian’s father stormed off in a rage. “I didn’t feel safe until I was in the truck, ready to leave for the assembly,” she recalls. “I didn’t know what he would do when I came home after the assembly. But I knew that by then I would be baptized, so even if he killed me, I would have done what was right.”

      Although Priscilian’s father did not harm her when she got home, he later threatened to kill her. “But he saw that his threats could not stop me,” she says, “and since then he has softened toward me.”

      AN OPPOSER TAKES SIDES WITH JEHOVAH

      The newly formed group of zealous publishers in San Antonio was prospering spiritually when the Cardozas were suddenly informed in a letter from the local village council that they should leave San Antonio. Earlier, when he paid an application fee, Frank had obtained permission from the council to stay in the village. Now, a prominent member of the village was intent on having the Cardozas chased out. At one of the council meetings, three of Frank’s Bible students spoke in his behalf. Then Frank’s landlord spoke up, warning the council that if they evicted the Cardozas, they would have to pay the rent the Cardozas had been paying him. Frank himself then presented a letter from the Lands Department stating that a person renting privately owned property could not be asked to leave. In the end, the council granted the Cardozas permission to stay.

      The man who had wanted the Cardozas evicted was Basilio Ah, a former alcalde (chief) who was still prominent in politics. Basilio used his influence to oppose Jehovah’s Witnesses in San Antonio in every way he could. When the little group wanted property to build a Kingdom Hall, he warned, “You’ll never build a Kingdom Hall in this village!” In spite of that, the brothers obtained property and built a modest and attractive Kingdom Hall. Amazingly, one of those at the dedication of the Kingdom Hall in December 1998 was Basilio. What had happened?

      Two of Basilio’s married sons had been having family problems. Twice Basilio had asked his church to help his sons, and both times he had received no response. Then his sons started studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Basilio’s wife, María, began to notice that her sons were making changes for the better and that their family life was improving. So María herself asked to study the Bible with the Witnesses.

      “I really wanted to get to know Jehovah God,” María says, “and I told my husband we should go to the Kingdom Hall to learn more about God.” Although Basilio did not easily let go of his strongly held feelings against Jehovah’s Witnesses and Frank Cardoza, whom he called “that foreigner,” he was impressed with the positive changes his sons were making as they applied Bible truths in their lives. Basilio decided to examine Jehovah’s Witnesses for himself, and after a few discussions, whom did he agree to have as his Bible study conductor? None other than “that foreigner,” Frank Cardoza!

      “What I read in the Bible changed my mind,” explains Basilio. “I had been a Catholic for 60 years, lighting incense before the idols in the church. Now what I was learning about Jehovah was in his own book, the Bible. I am ashamed of the way I acted with Frank Cardoza, who is now my brother. I’m not afraid to say that I was wrong. I was zealous for the things I believed were right for my village and my religion. But I stopped practicing the Maya traditions that have to do with spiritistic healing, common in our villages. I also ended my involvement in the Maya political movements.” Today Basilio and María Ah happily serve Jehovah as baptized publishers.

      Jehovah’s servants are known for their loving, joyful, and zealous spirit. In remote regions of Belize, many publishers walk three hours or more up and down steep hills to reach householders, and they do not like to miss meetings. For example, one evening Andrea Ich was assigned to be a householder on the Theocratic Ministry School. That day she had walked two or three miles [3 to 5 km] through the jungle to pick avocados with her sons. In the process she received 23 wasp stings. Nevertheless, she went home, prepared a meal for her family, went to the meeting, and handled her part on the program. Her face was swollen from the insect bites, but it was a happy face. It is always encouraging to see that although the dear Maya brothers and sisters may have traveled a whole day in a truck or bus to attend assemblies and conventions, they are delighted to be united in worshipping the true God, Jehovah.