Year Book of Jehovah's Witnesses - Watchtower Archive

152 Yearbook
A bell rang inside and they had to go. The door was shut
and the pioneer and companion left.
Scarcely had they gone half a block when a voice hailed
them back. A young priest who had overheard the entire
conversation wished to know more. Result: He took a "Let
God Be True" and booklets, and requested the brethren to
return the next week. When the revisit was made it was
very difficult to gain admittance again, but finally after a
wait of about twenty minutes the young priest appeared, and,
although apparently very nervous, seemed greatly comforted
by the message; had read some of the book, but had hidden
it so that it would not be taken from him. He stated that
the archbishop of Quito had issued a decree that made it
a mortal sin for any Catholic layman or priest to read any
of this literature. However, arrangements were made to
keep in contact with this good-will priest, who seemed to
really appreciate the value of the message.
Eleven from Ecuador were privileged to attend the convention
in New York, to receive the marvelous blessings
Jehovah had in store for his people there. Of these eleven
two were Ecuadorian publishers who went along with the
missionaries to attend a convention of Jehovah's people for
the first time.
Jehovah has especially manifested his blessing upon the
activity of the missionaries in taking an interest individually
in the new and weak and irregular company publishers.
They have taken them into the field service regularly and
worked with them on their back-calls and in the door-to-door
service. This has contributed largely to the great increase
in the work here in Ecuador.
EGYPT
The religious organizations of Egypt are not at all
anxious for their people to hear the truth concerning
God's kingdom. The Coptic and Greek Orthodox
churches have put all the obstacles they could in the
way of the preaching of the message. Despite this the
people do want to hear what the Bible has to say.
There has been a splendid increase in the work in
Egypt during the year. They have had six peaks
during the year, reaching a high of 221 publishers,
to compare with last year's peak of 167. Due to pOOl'
economic conditions within Egypt a number of brethren
had to leave for other countries to find work.
Some went to Libya and others to Sudan, but wher-