On the Monday following the assembly Brother Beedle received word from a special pioneer in La Unión that the bus the brothers were on had been in an accident. Three brothers were instantly killed, including the one who had just been baptized.

Tears flowed as the brothers gathered at the scene of the accident and picked the convention notes, songbooks and other belongings from the wreckage. By the time Brother Beedle reached La Unión it was too late to give a funeral talk, since the crowds were already at the cemetery for the burial. The special pioneers in La Unión deeply felt the loss of their precious brothers who were the fruits of their labors.

ADJUSTMENT IN BRANCH MANAGEMENT

By the spring of 1958 Brother Beedle had, for ten years, taken almost sole oversight of the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses in El Salvador. For much of this time he carried the duties of circuit and district servant, as well as congregation overseer, missionary home servant and chief errand boy. He had supervised the construction of the branch building as well as the Kingdom Hall-missionary home in Santa Anita. The pressures of all these responsibilities took their toll on him physically and mentally, and he needed some relief. So in April of 1958 Brother Frederick Bowers was appointed branch servant.

Charles Beedle went along to help them with any problem they might have en route. At the assembly they rejoiced to be with their brothers from around the world, as well as Saúl De León, who was attending Gilead at the time.

Many Salvadoran brothers worked in volunteer service and some came home with a list of friends from other countries with whom they carried on correspondence. Pedro Aguilar, a special pioneer from La Unión, found this correspondence so interesting that he later went to the United States to marry a sister he was writing to. Raúl Morales faced the same decision, but he said he feared to bring a foreign girl to El Salvador. It might turn out like the European cars, he said, that you can’t always get parts for. He decided to continue his service in El Salvador where the need for Kingdom proclaimers was greater.

This assembly made a great impression on the brothers, and their minds and hearts carried indelible impressions of the love, harmony and unity in the New World Society. It was at a special get-together of all the convention delegates from El Salvador in a New York hotel that Jane Beedle announced that she and Charles would soon be parents. This meant that they would have to leave the missionary home. However, they were determined to remain in El Salvador.

FROM MISSIONARIES TO PARENTS

In the fall of 1958 the Beedles were busy trying to find accommodations outside the missionary home.