• From Delinquent to Missionary
    Awake!—1990 | March 8

    • In February 1960, after nearly six months of study and training, we graduated in the 34th class of Gilead. We were assigned to Bogotá, Colombia, where we arrived on March 1, 1960.

      Our first challenge was to learn Spanish. My misuse of words was a source of much laughter. I recall working in the Rooming Department during our first district convention and asking the brothers to lend us mattresses (colchones), but I used the word cochinos (pigs). They kindly asked me: “What do you need them for?” I said: “For the brothers to sleep on.” After the laughter, we got the mattresses.

      While enjoying God’s creation in the natural beauty of the majestic snowcapped Andes, the jungle areas, and the plains, we had many unforgettable experiences. One was while we were visiting the special pioneers in Villavicencio, where the llanos (plains) begin. In the town of San Martín, we met with the group of Witnesses from Granada. This would be the first time for the people of San Martín to hear the Kingdom message. While my wife was talking to a lady at her home, a boy approached my wife and asked her what she was doing. When she told him, he left but then came back and told her that a customer in the drugstore across the street wanted to talk to her. The man heard the message gladly and asked for all the Bible literature she had. When she offered to have the Watchtower and Awake! magazines sent to him by mail, he told her: “I live so far out on the plains that there is no mail service. I would have to pick the mail up here in San Martín, and I only come here once a year for supplies.” Providentially, that year he had come during our visit.

      We greatly enjoyed sharing the truth of God’s Word with the Colombian people for 16 years, traveling by every means of transportation available: piragua (dugout canoe), airplane, bus, car, horse, and burro. Wherever we went, we found friendly people who were happy to discuss Bible truth and come to know and truly understand the love of Jehovah and his dear Son.