This brother, Emile Schrantz, entered the pioneer service in 1936. Though patient and humble, he was dynamic in pursuing his ministerial career throughout the Dutch- and French-speaking parts of Belgium. During World War II, when the brothers were forced to go underground, he served as a zone servant, or circuit overseer as it is termed today. He was a man of faith and action, and today, in spite of his age, he still serves as a special pioneer.

He began his traveling pioneer work in a section of Belgium known as the Ardennes, where he would travel on bicycle through this sparsely populated land of scattered towns and villages perched on the wooded hillsides and where the people lived in a superstitious fear of the priests. The police often stopped him, but he would not comply with their orders to quit the Kingdom-preaching work. After having been stopped several times one week in Bastogne, he was finally taken to the police station and ordered by the chief of police to cease his preaching work immediately. Brother Schrantz simply replied, “No.” He never stopped preaching despite the many threats that reflected clergy opposition.

Encouragement was not easy to find. People would very rarely invite him indoors to listen to what he had to say. However, Jehovah proved to be his main source of encouragement. The only contact he had with the brothers was through letters he received from the Society, counseling him to follow the example of the prophets. When he felt discouraged, he would go to the edge of a wooded area and reread an article in The Golden Age on the prophets’ lot and then he would take to the road again.

Thanks to his teaching them the Bible, a few meek countryfolk in the Ardennes came to a knowledge of Jehovah and his truth. Today there are seven congregations serving the true God in this area.

[Picture on page 55]

Brother Emile Schrantz, along with his wife, while in the circuit work (Brother Fevrier is on the right). Moving to the next congregation was done by bicycle