Pedro Morales and others were preaching in Maracaibo. On the east side of Lake Maracaibo in the oil camps of Cabimas and Lagunillas, Gerardo Jessurun, Nathaniel Walcott, and David Scott were preaching. Later they were joined by Hugo Taylor, who in 1995 was still serving as a special pioneer. All together, they were covering a vast area of the country.

Missionaries Arrive in Maracaibo

Maracaibo, in the northwest part of the country, is the second-largest city in Venezuela. Two of its outstanding features are its heat and its high humidity. It is also Venezuela’s oil capital. The new part of the city is a vivid contrast to the old town near the docks; that older part, with its narrow streets and colonial-style adobe houses, has hardly changed since the last century.

Six missionaries arrived in Maracaibo by cargo ship on December 25, 1948. They were loaded down with heavy winter clothing because they had just come from cold New York. In the group were Ragna Ingwaldsen, who had been baptized in 1918 and who still pioneers in California, Bernice Greisen (now “Bun” Henschel, a member of the Bethel family at the world headquarters), Charles and Maye Vaile, Esther Rydell (Ragna’s half sister), and Joyce McCully. They were welcomed into the small home of a couple newly associated with the Witnesses. Here the perspiring missionaries arranged their 15 trunks and 40 cartons of literature as best they could. Four slept in hammocks and two on beds made of book cartons until they found a house to rent for their missionary home.

Ragna recalls that the six of them looked very strange to the Maracuchos, as the inhabitants of Maracaibo are popularly called. Several of the missionaries were tall and blond. “Often when calling from house to house, we would have up to ten naked little children following us, listening to the strange way we spoke their language,” Ragna later said. “Not one of the six of us knew more than a dozen words in Spanish. But when they laughed at us, we would just laugh along with them.” When these missionaries arrived, there were only four publishers in Maracaibo. Early in 1995 there were 51 congregations with a total of 4,271 publishers.

His Prayer Was Heard

The couple that had kindly welcomed the six missionaries into their home were Benito and Victoria Rivero. Benito had received the book “The Kingdom Is at Hand” from Juan Maldonado, a pioneer from Caracas. When Pedro Morales later called on Benito to offer a study, Benito was enthusiastic; not only did he study but he immediately began to attend the meetings of the small group. He also encouraged his wife to attend, telling her​—because she liked to sing—​that the songs they sang were very pretty. She would go with him, but she really did not understand all that was being said, so she would often fall asleep.

One night at home, thinking his wife was asleep, Benito prayed aloud to Jehovah and asked him to enlighten her. She overheard the prayer and was deeply moved by it. Following Benito’s death in 1955, Victoria became a regular pioneer and then a special pioneer.

Reaching Rural Areas Around Maracaibo

Among those who embraced the truth in the Maracaibo area was the father of Rebeca (now Rebeca Barreto). She was only five years old when Gerardo Jessurun began studying the Bible with her father, who progressed to baptism in 1954. She holds wonderful memories of sharing in the preaching work as a young person. “We would hire a bus, and the whole congregation would travel out to the rural areas,” she recalls. “The countryfolk had little money but appreciated the literature. It was quite a sight at the end of the day to see the brothers and sisters pile onto the bus with eggs, squash, corn, and live chickens that had been given to them in exchange for literature.”

But not everyone was glad to see them. Sister Barreto recalls an incident that took place in the village of Mene de Mauroa. She says: “As we went from door to door, the local Catholic priest followed behind us, tearing up literature that people had accepted and telling them not to listen to Jehovah’s Witnesses. He stirred up a mob that included many young people and managed to get them into a furious mood so that they threw stones at us. Several brothers and sisters were hit.” The group of Witnesses ran to the prefecto of the town for help. Being kindly disposed toward the Witnesses, he told the priest that he would have to keep him in his office for a couple of hours ‘for his own protection against these preachers.’ The crowd, now without a leader, dispersed, and the Witnesses joyfully spent the next two hours, free of harassment, giving a thorough witness in the town.