stone benches in the center of town. At 10:30 the train came through and we would arrive home about 12:30 or 1 a.m. However, one time we got home at 6:30 a.m., just twenty-four hours after leaving. The train had been held up by a landslide. But all that work was not in vain. The two chief supporters of a Protestant organization became Jehovah’s witnesses. Others joined these two in the service and soon a regular Watchtower study was being conducted with them. Endurance under hardships always brought rich blessings.

For two and a half years my wife and I had worked alone without the help and companionship of other missionaries or other mature brothers, but we had the joy of seeing new ones take up the truth and proclaim it, dedicate their lives to Jehovah God and grow to maturity in his service. One night when we returned late from one of these trips we came home hot and tired, but we were quickly refreshed. There was a letter from the president’s office asking if I would accept an assignment in another country as branch servant. I have been in this assignment several years now, and greatly treasure this privilege of service. Instead of working with a small group I am now associated with many hundreds of fellow servants. Now there are very few physical hardships, although there are always problems. But there is no place in Jehovah’s service that does not bring joy and happiness.

Now we have a lovely new branch home here in Costa Rica; the work is well established and continues to grow. In the last few years I have also had the privilege of visiting the branches in the Central American countries as zone servant and working with the missionaries in the field to help them surmount the obstacles they encounter in the ministry. Surely there is no end to the blessings that come in the full-time service.

Did I lose anything by not going into secular business? It would have meant an abundance of this world’s goods; material security. Do the joys and privileges of pioneer service outweigh the loss of those material things and the gain of hardships that many pioneers undergo—perhaps not knowing how tomorrow’s food will be bought, perhaps in isolated territories without the association of other brothers? There just isn’t any comparison! The full-time service is not the easiest life, but it is the best. For those who are able and willing to enter the full-time service there is no reason to accept anything less than the best. Those who will live in the new world will certainly enjoy the best of everything, so there can be no better time than now, just before stepping over into that new world, to begin pursuing one’s purpose in life by entering that service. Probably Jesus’ words at Matthew 6:25-34 mean more to pioneers than to anyone else: “So, never be anxious about the next day, for the next day will have its own anxieties. Sufficient for each day is its own evil.” Thousands of pioneers have demonstrated their faith in this promise. Their continued service proves that these words are true. And more thousands, when they courageously choose in this ever-shortening “favorable season” before Armageddon, also can prove them true, to Jehovah’s delight and praise.

No Time

“I was speaking to a man the other day who has travelled extensively,” writes Ronald K. Ross. “When he arrived at New York the customs officer, observing his Bible in his bag, said to him, ‘Say, brother, you’ll have no time to read this in the States. We are all too busy making dollars. Guess the almighty dollar is our god.’”—Treasury of the Christian World.