Invitations to prospective students for the first class were sent out on December 14, 1942. It was mid-winter when the 100 students making up that class enrolled at the school facilities located in upstate New York, at South Lansing. They were willing, eager, and somewhat nervous. Although class studies were the immediate concern, they could not help but wonder where in the world field they would be sent after graduation.

In a discourse to that first class on February 1, 1943, the opening day of school, Brother Knorr said: “You are being given further preparation for work similar to that of the apostle Paul, Mark, Timothy, and others who traveled to all parts of the Roman Empire proclaiming the message of the Kingdom. They had to be fortified with the Word of God. They had to have a clear knowledge of His purposes. In many places they had to stand alone against the high and mighty of this world. Your portion may be the same; and God will be your strength thereunto.

“There are many places where the witness concerning the Kingdom has not been given to a great extent. The people living in these places are in darkness, held there by religion. In some of these countries where there are a few Witnesses it is noted that the people of good-will hear readily and would associate themselves with the Lord’s organization, if instructed properly. There must be hundreds and thousands more that could be reached if there were more laborers in the field. By the Lord’s grace, there will be more.

“It is NOT the purpose of this college to equip you to be ordained ministers. You are ministers already and have been active in the ministry for years. . . . The course of study at the college is for the exclusive purpose of preparing you to be more able ministers in the territories to which you go. . . .

“Your principal work is that of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom from house to house as did Jesus and the apostles. When you shall have found a hearing ear, arrange for a back-call, start a home study, and organize a company [congregation] of all suchlike ones in a city or town. Not only will it be your good pleasure to organize a company, but you must help them to understand the Word, strengthen them, address them from time to time, aid them in their service meetings and their organization. When they are strong and can go on their own and take over the territory, you can depart to some other city to proclaim the Kingdom. From time to time it may be necessary for you to return to build them up in the most holy faith and straighten them out in the doctrine; so your work will be that of looking after the Lord’s ‘other sheep’, and not forsaking them. (John 10:16) Your real work is to help the people of good-will. You will have to use initiative, but looking to God’s guidance.”a

Five months later the members of that first class completed their specialized training. Visas were obtained, travel arrangements were made, and they began to move out to nine Latin-American lands. Three months after their graduation, the first Gilead-trained missionaries to leave the United States were on their way to Cuba.

[Pictures on page 522]

Students of the first class of Gilead School