While living in Aracataca, our three younger brothers died of malaria within a two-year period. Our father also died at that time. That left Antonio, our oldest brother, in charge of the family. By that time he had been indoctrinated in Communism, and he became a militant member of the Communist party. When his life was threatened by jealous rival members, we begged him to move the family to the large coastal city of Barranquilla. He did so in 1946.

GOD’S TRUTH FINDS US

In 1948 a missionary of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, James Webster, came to our door. He spoke with our brother and left him the booklet ‘The Meek Inherit the Earth.’ On reading it, we found information about a marvelous future that until then was unknown to us.

Months later, after we had moved, another Watch Tower missionary, Olaf Olson, visited our home. Although Antonio was no longer an active Communist, he still held to Communist doctrine. When this Witness spoke about Theocracy, Antonio thought that what he really meant was Communism. We overheard enough of the conversation to know that the missionary was not talking about Communism.

After this Witness had a number of discussions with our brother, we decided it was time to make ourselves known. So the next time he visited, we came out of the interior room where we did dressmaking and said to him: “Look, Señor. Our brother talks about Communism, but we’re not in agreement with him. Having read the publications you’ve left, we find they speak of God and his kingdom. We understand that it is God who is going to solve the problems and not the political governments.” Then it was that Witness Olson placed a Bible with us and offered to study it free of charge in our home with the aid of the Bible study aid “The Truth Shall Make You Free.”

In August 1948 we began to study God’s Word. Appreciating the need to help others to know God’s truth, we went out in the house-to-house ministry four months later. Early the following year we dedicated ourselves to Jehovah, and were baptized in water with our brother, Antonio, and our older sister, Eusebia.

After we had a lively discussion in the marketplace with a prominent lawyer, the local press published the following: “There have arrived in Montería some young ladies skillfully taught in the use of the Bible and who are, therefore, a danger to the Catholic religion. We call this to the attention of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities in order to put an end to that propaganda.”

‘WE RECOMMEND OURSELVES AS GOD’S MINISTERS . . . BY PRISON’

The experience we had in our second assignment as full-time ministers reminds us of the apostle Paul’s words: “We recommend ourselves as God’s ministers . . . by prisons.” (2 Cor. 6:4, 5) That assignment took us to a major petroleum center, the river port city of Barrancabermeja. There was already a full-time preacher of God’s Word there, but she needed help. Shortly before we went there Barrancabermeja was declared to be “Catholic mission territory.” This meant that it was out of bounds for proselytizing by other religious groups.

On the second day after our arrival, we were accompanying the local Witness in the preaching work when the four of us were picked up by detectives. We later found out that some Evangelicals had gone to the Catholic bishop with The Watchtower and Awake! to inform him that it was the Witnesses who were distributing these magazines. So the bishop had given the order for our arrest. After arresting us, the police then arrested our brother and nephew and confiscated our Bible literature, twenty cartons of it.

When we refused to pay a fine of 200 pesos each, they sentenced us to three months in jail. Soon we found ourselves in a large, bare cement room with about a dozen other women who were in there for terrible crimes, even murder. Nevertheless, even among these sinful women there were those who seemed anxious to know about the Bible. We were delighted to explain God’s truths to them, using a small Bible we had managed to keep with us. When it came time to bed down for the night, some let us use their straw mats for sleeping, while they slept on the bare cement floor. Then, as soon as all was quiet, out of the sewer came huge white rats.

The next day our brother managed to gain an audience with the military mayor and convinced him that it was a terrible disgrace on his administration to have four Christian women locked up under such deplorable conditions. He asked that our sentences be added to his and to our nephew’s. Strangely enough, the request was granted. So after spending some twenty-four hours in that abominable place, we were released but remained under police surveillance. On our leaving, two of the women inmates, who had listened with pleasure to the Kingdom message, embraced us and asked if we would give them our little Bible, which we were glad to do.

Due to the efforts of James Webster and a cousin of ours who was then a lawyer in Bogotá, the national capital, our brother and nephew were released from jail a week later on the condition that we leave town. Although the office of the President of the Republic had ordered their release and also the return of the confiscated Bible literature, a priest showed himself indisposed to comply with the request. It so happened that he had been guarding the twenty cartons of Bibles and Bible literature in the vestry of the cathedral. He demanded 200 pesos in return for the literature. However, upon being informed of the priest’s demands, the mayor’s office, already smarting under the pressure applied by the Government, ordered a group of soldiers to go to the cathedral and take the literature by force, if necessary. The priest was a little more obliging that time. So the next day when the authorities put us and our belongings on a couple of buses headed for Bucaramanga, the literature was with us.

When we refused to pay a fine of 200 pesos each, they sentenced us to three months in jail. Soon we found ourselves in a large, bare cement room with about a dozen other women who were in there for terrible crimes, even murder. Nevertheless, even among these sinful women there were those who seemed anxious to know about the Bible. We were delighted to explain God’s truths to them, using a small Bible we had managed to keep with us. When it came time to bed down for the night, some let us use their straw mats for sleeping, while they slept on the bare cement floor. Then, as soon as all was quiet, out of the sewer came huge white rats.

The next day our brother managed to gain an audience with the military mayor and convinced him that it was a terrible disgrace on his administration to have four Christian women locked up under such deplorable conditions. He asked that our sentences be added to his and to our nephew’s. Strangely enough, the request was granted. So after spending some twenty-four hours in that abominable place, we were released but remained under police surveillance. On our leaving, two of the women inmates, who had listened with pleasure to the Kingdom message, embraced us and asked if we would give them our little Bible, which we were glad to do.

About the year 1955, I, Finda, met a woman in the door-to-door preaching work who told me that, as Evangelicals, they knew all about the Bible. Nevertheless, she invited me in and listened as I read her several texts that show that Paradise will be restored here on the earth. (Rev. 21:3, 4; Luke 23:43) She wondered how it could be possible when the only hope she was acquainted with was life in heaven. However, she was soon convinced and said she wanted me to speak with her husband.

It turned out that her husband was an Evangelical preacher. At the outset he told me that he would talk with me if only the Bible were used. I accepted. He asked me questions on many subjects that I answered with Bible texts. As I was leaving he said to me: “Señorita, I would like to know what you know.” So I offered him a Bible study for the entire family, which he accepted. Just two weeks later he resigned as Evangelical minister. The family began to associate with God’s true ministers and soon they were sharing these Bible truths with others. He would tell these truths to the Evangelicals and then say: “I would like you to do what I did: abandon a religion that does not teach the truth.”

While working in Bogotá in 1961, I, Inéz, met a young married woman who responded favorably. A study was started. While in the midst of the study, her mother unexpectedly came in. She wanted to know why her daughter had not told her that she was studying the Bible. Knowing her mother to be such a devout Catholic, the daughter replied that she had been afraid to tell her. The mother asked me various questions, with the result that she requested a study too.

After a few studies, the mother expressed her desire to invite her neighbor to study with us. She called her neighbor on the telephone. “I want to share something with you,” the conversation went. “I’m enjoying an exquisite dish, but I don’t want to eat it alone. I would like you to come over so that you might eat from the same dish.”

The neighbor, who was then almost seventy years old, came. After a few studies, she invited an older sister of hers and her son to join us. Before long three more were invited to sit in. All seven are now baptized and serving Jehovah.