lire cette carte, s’il vous plaít?” Then we heard a flood of words in reply.

Week in, week out, our knowledge of French gradually improving, we attended the Watchtower study and faithfully followed through in French.

LEARNING AND TEACHING AT BIBLE STUDIES

Because of circumstances beyond our control, it was not possible to stay longer than five months, and so we returned to England. I received another assignment, this time to Belgium. I arrived in Belgium on September 1, 1949. Already armed with some knowledge of French, and there now being four missionaries together, I gradually increased my knowledge of French. I can truthfully say that I received the most help in understanding and speaking French by conducting home Bible studies, both in France and in Belgium. I managed to make the people understand that I would appreciate their correcting my glaring errors of pronunciation and grammar. At the same time I was able to show them, with Jehovah’s Word, how they could learn the “new language” of the Bible. Looking back, I can say that I learned much of the language that way—getting out among the people and learning from them, putting the same time to profit for their spiritual well-being.

During my first month in Belgium, which was a booklet campaign month, I placed 514 booklets; and in the seventh month I was privileged to conduct nineteen Bible studies.

While here in Belgium I have had varied privileges of service: as missionary, as circuit servant, working in the Brussels Bethel and also serving as district servant. In July, 1955, after serving Jehovah in a single state for nigh on seventeen years, I married a sister who was in Gilead’s seventeenth class and who has been in the pioneer work since May, 1945. We were married here in Brussels; and up to now we have served together here in Belgium for the past five years.

Missionary work is a happy life. I must say that those few months in France right after Gilead were the hardest up to the present; but I am glad now that I stuck it out then, because by such experiences one becomes steeled for further tests.

I am glad that I made the decision to go to London Bethel back in December, 1938; for it has resulted in bountiful blessings. Many privileges will come our way if we adopt the attitude of Isaiah: “Here am I! Send me.” When decisions have to be made, it is proper to count the cost, but he who decides for the Kingdom and its interests will never be disappointed.

Bibles Replace Rifles

In two small adjacent villages in Guanajuato, Mexico, consisting of a total of but 153 souls, there are 150 witnesses of Jehovah and the remaining three are of good will toward Jehovah God. It came about in this way. Some time ago a special representative of the Watch Tower Society began to preach to these people and found them all armed with rifles and pistols because of feuds in which whole families killed one another. When government tried to prosecute the guilty, they found no one willing to testify. At first these people also suspected even the minister of Jehovah sent into their midst; then one of the villagers agreed to having a Bible study in his home, and soon he and all his family became Jehovah’s witnesses. Eventually all the neighbors accepted the truth about Jehovah God and his kingdom. When asked what they did with their pistols and rifles, one of them quietly replied: “We sold them and with the money bought Bibles.”—1961 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses.