Gilead Graduates Arrive!

A multifaceted program of education was introduced among Jehovah’s Witnesses beginning early in the 1940’s, and it had a profound effect on the global work of Kingdom proclamation. Part of that program involved training branch personnel to handle their work in the same way as was done at the world headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. Nathan H. Knorr, who had become the Watch Tower Society’s president in 1942, took the lead in this. The Mexico branch benefited from this in a very direct manner when Brother Knorr visited here for the first time, in February 1943. During his visit, at a special meeting held with publishers from areas throughout the country, he urged them to overcome the heritage of illiteracy that hindered people of Latin America who had for so long been influenced by Roman Catholicism. He also did much work with the branch staff, and by the time he left, the branch office and the Bethel Home were well equipped and much better organized.

There was still much work to be done in Mexico. Since World War I, there had been a gradual increase in the number of praisers of Jehovah in Mexico, but it was slow. In 1943, there were 1,565 publishers who reported activity each month, and they were working hard. Congregation publishers were witnessing, on an average, 28 hours each per month. Regular pioneers averaged 137 hours monthly.

In that year the Society inaugurated a school that has exerted a tremendous influence on the work of Kingdom preaching and disciple making. The Watchtower Bible College of Gilead had been established. (Later the name was changed to Watchtower Bible School of Gilead.) Its purpose was to prepare experienced pioneer ministers for service wherever they might be needed in the world field. On February 1, the first classes began. Plans were laid to send some of the graduates to Mexico.

At first, the brothers encountered legal obstacles when trying to obtain visas for the graduates of Gilead. World War II was still under way; besides that, in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas State (on the border with the United States), persecution had broken out against the Witnesses, and some had been put in jail. This situation was holding up the paperwork for visas. The branch overseer at that time, Juan Bourgeois, relates the following in his 1945 report:

“When the Watchtower Bible College of Gilead and its purpose were first announced, we here in Mexico anxiously awaited the date of the first graduation because we were confident that a good number of the graduates, especially trained for foreign Theocratic service, would be sent to work in the practically virgin territory of Mexico. It was to be expected also that the adversary would become frantic and would go to any extreme to impede the entry of our brethren. In August 1943, the Society informed us that if we could obtain the necessary permits for their entry into Mexico, about 30 of these instructors (Gilead graduates) would be assigned to work in Mexico.

“Every effort was put forth by us to obtain the permits, but an unbelievable number of obstacles presented themselves to prevent the entrance of these instructors into Mexico. We had practically given up, thinking Jehovah willed otherwise, when Brother Knorr arrived here in February of this year. He refused to take ‘no’ for an answer and made some special arrangements, and lo, the ‘impossible’ was accomplished! In March the barriers were let down to admit Brother and Sister Anderson, and shortly thereafter, in April, seven more Theocratic instructors, graduates of Gilead’s first class, were admitted into the country.”

Fred and Blanche Anderson

Fred and Blanche Anderson were beloved ones of the anointed remnant who devoted the greater part of their lives to full-time service in Mexico. Because of an accident that had occurred when he was young, one of Brother Anderson’s legs had to be amputated when he was in Mexico. Even so, using crutches, he persisted in working the territory in Mexico City. Fred Anderson was good-natured and cheerful. The presence of Brother Anderson and his charming wife (who was affectionately called Blanquita by her Christian sisters) filled the hearts of many Mexicans with love and appreciation.

Brother Anderson’s own expressions tell much about him. He said: “We gladly and prayerfully began to adjust our lives and train ourselves for [service abroad]. Gilead training helped us immensely to do this. For five and a half months, we worked and sweated and strained to cram as much as we possibly could into our craniums, but those months went by in a flash! And, before we knew it, it was graduation day. We thought our joy was full at Gilead—that we could not possibly be happier or be closer to God. But we had much to learn, and this we did in our foreign assignment.”

After a number of years in that assignment, he said: “How many of these humble people we have helped to come into Jehovah’s glorious light of truth we do not know. But we do know how great our joy has been in sharing Jehovah’s goodness.” The Andersons served for many years in the circuit work in Mexico and, afterward, in the Mexico Bethel, where they ended their earthly course—he in 1973, and she in 1987.

Companions for Half a Century

After her first decade in Mexico, Rosa May Dreyer, another Gilead graduate, wrote that of the 21 originally assigned to Mexico, 11 had been able to remain. She added: “These eleven I am sure will say with me: ‘I would not by choice be anywhere else.’”

Because of obstacles to entering the country, Rosa May Dreyer and Shirley Hendrickson served for two years near the Texas-Mexico border. During that time they were learning some Spanish. Shirley, though a cheerful person, remembers that their territory there was difficult. So she was delighted with what she found in Mexico City. In the beginning, no local publishers were assigned to accompany them as they had expected. Instead, someone took them to a corner and said, “Here is your territory,” without any on-the-spot training. Furthermore, their knowledge of Spanish was limited. Nevertheless, instead of getting discouraged, they carried on their activity as well as they could. Shirley says about those times: “I remember the first building I went into, trembling a little, and at the first four doors I placed the four books I was carrying and had to return home for more literature. With that I took heart and never had any more trouble.” A few years ago, Shirley attended the wedding of a granddaughter of a woman with whom she had conducted a Bible study during her early years in Mexico. What a joy to find 50 descendants of that family serving Jehovah! One had served as a traveling overseer, and another one was a member of the Bethel family.

Shirley and Rosa May were service companions from 1937 (before going to Gilead together) until 1991, when “Rosita” died in her assignment in Mexico. Fifty-four years of service—nearly all of it together!

Some Others Who Came

Altogether, 56 Gilead graduates from other lands have come to Mexico to share in the grand work of divine education being done here. In addition to those already mentioned, there were others from Gilead School’s first class: Rubén Aguirre, Charlotte Bowin, Maxine Bradshaw, Geraldine Church, Julia Clogston, Betty Coons, Russell Cornelius, Dorothea Gardner, Verle Garfein, Frances Gooch, Elva Greaves, Thurston and Marie Hilldring, Fern Miller, Maxine Miller, and Pablo Pérez. More graduates arrived as recently as 1988. The service in the field rendered by all of these brought joy to them and to others. There were also unexpected, but happy, developments.

For example, after two years in Mexico, Charlotte Bowin was assigned to El Salvador. Then, in 1956, she became the wife of Albert Schroeder, one of her former Gilead instructors, who later became a member of the Governing Body.

In 1949, Maxine Miller married Samuel García, a Gilead graduate who was from Mexico and who at the time served in the Mexico branch as the legal representative of the Society. When she arrived in Mexico City in 1946, there were just four “companies.” By 1961, there were 70. And by early 1994, the number of congregations in Mexico City and its suburbs had grown to 1,514. What marvelous expansion she saw! Was her full-time service all joys and nothing else? “No, that is not true,” she once commented. “There are trying moments and difficult experiences too, but the joys far outweigh the sorrows, and it is these joys that stand out when I look back on the way that I have gone in the pursuit of my purpose in life as a servant of Jehovah God.” She died while faithfully serving in her assignment in 1992.

After Esther Vartanian had been serving in Mexico for about eight years, she and Gilead graduate Rodolfo Lozano, who had recently arrived in Mexico, got married in 1955. While living at the branch, she witnessed in the city and helped many people to come to know Jehovah. She had great success in helping entire families. Even though a husband at first might refuse to study, she always made sure that he was eventually included. Her particularly kind manner of talking with people made many respond to the message. She would approach them, speaking Spanish with her foreign accent, and say: “Honey, quiero hablarte de algo muy importante. [Honey, I want to talk to you about something very important.]” They listened. Now Sister Lozano and her husband both serve as members of the Mexico Bethel family.

Loving Christian Overseers in the Branch

Of course, some of the Gilead graduates sent to Mexico were assigned to care for responsibilities in the branch office, and they did excellent work. Before that, Juan Bourgeois, who was branch overseer after Roberto Montero, cared for that assignment from 1943 to 1947, when he had to return to the United States. Then, Pablo Pérez, a graduate of Gilead’s first class, became branch overseer for three and a half years.

Since then others have carried that load of responsibility and rendered loving oversight. Among them were Rodolfo Lozano for four and a half years, George Papadem for two years, and Samuel Friend for seven and a half years. William Simpkins began to care for branch oversight in 1965, and when the Branch Committee arrangement was instituted in 1976, he continued to serve as part of the Mexico Branch Committee until 1986. Each one made valuable contributions to the Kingdom work here in Mexico. After having served for many years in Colombia, Robert Tracy arrived in Mexico in 1982, and since then he has served as the Branch Committee coordinator.

[Pictures on page 207]

Others of the Gilead graduates who have served in the Mexican field: (1) Elizabeth Tracy, (2) Jean Friend, (3) Esther Lopez, (4) Rubén Aguirre, (5) Russell Cornelius, (6) Esther Vartanian (Lozano), (7) Mildred Simpkins, (8) Maxine Miller (García)