Juve 1, 1949 Pazmifio. The few necessary matters in connection with future travel were attended to in the city and then the rest of the time was spent at the home. Our few days in Quito were busy ones. There are eight graduates of Gilead stationed at this capital city. Most of them were doing quite well with the language and they were having some interesting experiences among the people. The ones who met us were the fruits of their work done for a little more than two years. Meetings were arranged for the brethren and the public. On Tuesday night, March 1, 55 of the publishers and people of good-will were present. Among these we met a number of people who had been associated with the Adventist organization in Quito. The brethren told us that these who had discontinued association with the Adventists had been the backbone of the Adventist organization and that the Adventist organization had been disorganized and the preachers returned to the United States. The attendance would have been more than 55 except for the fact that there was rain and some hail that evening. The Eeuadorians seem to be afraid of rain, and when it rains they customarily do not go outside if they do not really have to do it. But 55 braved the storm to hear something from the Lord’s Word. At the close of this meeting the brethren presented a resolution with great enthusiasm, expressing their determination to carry on the work in that capital city of Ecuador and expand into other territory. And already there was evidence of the expansion, for present at the meeting was a very enthusiastic brother from the north. The truth had made its way into the border city of Tucumaén and now there were already 15 meeting regularly. To aid this group Brother Knorr arranged to have one of the Ecuadorian pioneers go there to work with the new brethren. The following evening the public meeting was scheduled at the hall of the Unién Nacional de Periodistas, Garcia Moreno at Manabi, important streets in the city. Once more the weather was not good. In fact, this night it was worse. About two hours before the meeting was to be held the downpour began. It was questionable whether there would be many at the meeting that night. We arrived at the hall about half an hour early and we had hardly gotten our coats off when the electric power failed and darkness settled over the building. That is quite a common thing in Quito, so none of those assembled left. Some of the brethren purchased candles at a near-by store and those provided sufficient light for the speakers’ table. Three ushers held candles, and so the meeting proceeded. The subject Brother Knorr used was, “It Is Later than You Think!” One of the Gilead graduates who has been in Quito for about two and a half years, Chas. T. Kiingensmith, did the interpreting, and he did well. The audience could see the speakers, but the speakers could not see the expressions on the faces of the audience; but they gave good attention, because they scarcely moved during the whole time the talk was being given. About two-thirds of the way through the talk the lights came on, and behold there was still an audience there, It had increased to 82 persons. At the close of the talk many expressions of appreciation were made both for the leeture and for the visit of the North American brethren. We bad to say farewell at that time beeause it was necessary to rise early the next morning to catch a She WATCHTOWER, 173 plane for Guayaquil. A brother who has his own bus took us home that night from the meeting and he also arranged to come to the missionary home the next morning to carry the family to the airport. While we were out at the airport we noticed that there was more snow on the mountain peaks surrounding Quito; up there the rain had been frozen. The plane was a DC-3 operated by Avianca and it took off on time. At seven o’clock it was quite light there at Quito, and so as we took off we could see many of the wonders of nature that had been bestowed upon Ecuador. We headed toward the south for a few minutes and in the general direction of the famous mountain Cotopaxi, a peak of almost perfect cone shape, Mount Chimborazo, with its more than 20,000 feet, stuck up into the sky like a great white giant. To our right or toward the west was the voleano Pichincha, and as we passed by this mountain the pilot started to head toward the Pacific and the lowlands along the Ecuadorian coast. Brother Klingensmith aceompanied us and pointed out the places of interest. As we passed over the lowlands we flew above the clouds, which obseured the view of the ground below. Occasionally we saw the land, and generally it appeared to be swampy and steaming; we were near the equator. By 8:30 we had covered 171 miles and we were circling over the Guayas river and the city of Guayaquil. There had been rain there, and so we splashed to a landing to find eight more Gilead graduates waiting at an airport, this time Guayaquil. It was with great joy that we shook hands with these missionaries, They had arrived in Guayaquil only 2} months before we did and they were experiencing considerable difficulty with the Spanish grammar; but while struggling along they were having excellent success in the distribution of the literature and in conducting studies in the Bible. They found the people were very patient with them and the people appeared anxious to learn about God’s kingdom. They had advertised the public meeting to be held in the Masonic Temple and had done a good job. Newspaper photographers were at the airport to get a picture of the speaker, and these photographers took two photos that were later published in the Guayaquil newspapers along with information about the Society and the public meeting, all of which provided a fine witness. The missionaries had made friends with a radio station operator who made spot announcements free and who put on an interview with Brother Klingensmith concerning the purpose of this visit and the public meeting. There was also advertising through use of handbills. Before the public meeting, however, there was much to be done. We found the city to be laid out in exact squares, for the most part, and most of the houses were two or three stories high. The missionaries took us up Calle Luqué to No. 634, and up one flight of stairs at that address we found the missionary home and the Kingdom Hall. Because Guayaquil is so near the equator and just a few feet above sea level, the climate is hot and the humidity is high. But Guayaquil is the commercial center of the country and almost all traffic passes through the city. It was the logical place to center the Society’s work, and so a new Branch office was established at Guayaquil, Ecuador, with A. M. Hoffman as the Branch servant. This will aid in advancing the work in Ecuador.
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