Antioqueños, a Staunchly Roman Catholic People

Now, on to internationally renowned Medellín in the province of Antioquia, 45 minutes by air and inland from Cartagena. Spanish Basques and Asturians settled this region during the second half of the 16th century. Their descendants today are a proud and energetic people, staunchly Roman Catholic, with a reputation for being shrewd and thrifty but friendly and, above all, loquacious. Antioqueño farmers over a century ago turned to coffee growing and helped develop Colombia into the second-largest coffee-producing country in the world, after Brazil.

Medellín, second-largest city in Colombia, lies in a valley bordered by 1,600-foot [500 m] ranges on east and west. Signs of prosperity are everywhere: industrial and commercial activity, an elevated rapid-transit metro system near completion (the first in Colombia), freeways with interchanges, attractive shopping centers, and in the southeast, luxury high-rise apartment buildings. There is poverty too, squatter settlements climbing high on barren hillsides, the dwellers often heedless of the danger of seasonal mudslides and avalanches.

Eugene Iwanycky is the city overseer. Although Austrian born, he learned the truth in Canada and moved to Colombia in 1969 with his family. He reports that there are now 33 congregations in the city​—more if suburban areas are counted—​and they are growing rapidly.

Religious Capital

It was Wednesday, October 1, 1958, when the first Gilead graduates arrived in Medellín to spearhead the evangelizing work. Although the dictatorship had ended and Jehovah’s Witnesses were already established in the other major cities of the country, Medellín was different. At the time, it was renowned as the religious capital of Colombia. Nevertheless, the missionary couples welcomed their new assignment. After a year in hot, tropical Barranquilla, they were delighted with the mild, springtime climate of Medellín and were pleased to find a clean city with an abundance of colorful flowers, including many orchids.

Richard and Virginia Brown were one of those missionary couples. Richard, now coordinator of the Colombia Branch Committee, describes how the missionaries felt: “The accounts we had heard about the city’s being notoriously religious were eloquently confirmed. Black-robed priests and nuns seemed to be everywhere​—along the streets, in the stores, on the buses. The city was full of churches, chapels, and religious schools. In our limited Spanish, we made attempts at informal witnessing, only to be rebuffed by disapproving looks.

“Though we were just four missionaries in the city, notices began appearing in the newspapers about our activity: ‘A warning to Catholics. Intense campaign started by Jehovah’s Witnesses . . . Reject and destroy any of such literature that gets into your hands.’ Still, interest was found, and by June 1959, with 23 publishers, including 5 who had come to serve where the need was greater, Medellín’s first congregation began to function.”

‘Throw Stones at the Witnesses’

In March 1960 a new missionary, George Koivisto, arrived in Medellín from Canada. He was single, blond, and of Finnish descent. After a month of concentrated Spanish classes in the missionary home, his time arrived for field service. George will never forget his first morning in magazine service.

“I was working with a small group of pioneers and local publishers,” George relates, “and I was still very limited in speaking and understanding Spanish. The publisher I was with understood no English. It was midmorning, when a howling mob of schoolchildren targeted us, hurling stones and clumps of clay.

“The householder hustled us inside her home and quickly slammed closed the wooden shutters, just in time. Rocks and stones began to rain against the front of the house, onto the clay tile roof, and down into the center patio.

“Shortly a patrol wagon drove up. The police wanted to know what was behind the uproar. Someone shouted that it was the schoolteacher; he had let some 300 children out of school long before lunchtime. Another voice cried out: ‘Not so! It was the priest! He announced over the loudspeakers to let the students out to “throw stones at the Protestantes.”’”

After that incident, attitudes changed throughout the neighborhood, and soon the Witnesses were finding interest and starting Bible studies.

In 1961 George married a local pioneer, and before long two sons were born. The Koivistos remained in Colombia another 18 years. In 1980 George moved back to Canada with his family. The Koivistos​—George, Leonilde, and their two sons—​have been serving in the Canadian Bethel since 1983.

Schoolboys Left Confused

On another occasion, a missionary sister was witnessing alone in Medellín when a group of teenagers began screaming to the householder that she should not listen to that missionary. This frightened the woman. So the missionary ended her conversation and began to leave the neighborhood quietly, but the boys surrounded her, not letting her take another step.

They asked her if she had Protestant literature in her bag. She replied that she had the Bible and asked them if the Bible was a Protestant book. They did not know how to answer, so they charged that the Witnesses do not believe in the Virgin. The missionary calmly took out her Bible and asked them to find where it talked about the Virgin. But none of them could.

Thereupon, the sister said: “I know where to find it. Would you like me to find it for you?” Then she opened the Bible to Luke 1:26-38 and had them read the account of the angel Gabriel’s visit to the virgin Mary. She then assured them that Jehovah’s Witnesses believe what the Bible says. The boys retorted that they had been told that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the Virgin. Now they were confused and again did not know what to say. The sister put her Bible back into her literature bag and quietly walked away, leaving the schoolboys perplexed and pensive.

Richard and Virginia Brown opened the first missionary home in Medellín in 1958.