In February 1946 I received notice of a new assignment, to a foreign country, Jamaica, West Indies. One of the graduates of my class was going with me as my partner.

We arrived in Jamaica on March 10, 1946. Two days later I was in the field ministry, working in the block near the branch office. Four days later Brothers Knorr and Franz, the Society’s president and vice-president, came to Jamaica, and a two-day assembly was held in the Ward Theater in Kingston, with 1,270 persons attending. The Society’s president also arranged for the one congregation of two hundred Witnesses in Kingston, the capital, to be divided into three congregations. This was really the beginning of expansion in Jamaica. Since then it has been a source of joy for me to see those three congregations grow into fifteen congregations with over 1,500 proclaimers of the good news.

During the years 1946-1950 I was assigned as part-time circuit supervisor for one of four circuits here on the island, and part-time worker in the branch office. In those days transportation, especially in the rural areas, was not very good. So one presiding minister of a congregation came to the railway station to meet me with two donkeys, one to carry my luggage and the other to carry me. Up the hills we went for five miles or more, and it caused quite a stir. People would stop what they were doing to see a white man riding a donkey.

At other congregations my luggage would be put on a donkey, and a Witness would be sent with me to bring the donkey back, after we walked from five to twelve miles to the next congregation. Naturally youth was in my favor, and how happy I am that I did remember the Creator then. It was a joy to serve my Christian brothers.

Not long after I returned from Grand Cayman, the Society suggested that I work at the branch office full time. So from 1951 to January 1962 I remained in the branch office in Kingston. During this time I also served as presiding minister in three different congregations. It was a blessing to work with many young ones in those congregations and to help them remember their Creator.

RETURN TO GILEAD AND MORE BLESSINGS

In the latter part of 1961 a test came regarding my faith. I received an application from the Society for attending a special ten-month course at Gilead School. The application stated: “If you fill out this application and are accepted you might not return to the country you are now serving, so if you do not want to leave, it would be better not to fill out the application.” It was not easy to decide what to do.

I had come to love my Christian brothers here so much and really felt at home with them. I was now forty-two years of age and not a youth anymore, but I could look back twenty-one years to the time when I started in the full-time pioneer ministry. I could see that Jehovah took care of me for all those years. So I made my decision to agree to go to Gilead again. Not long afterward a letter came requesting that I come to Brooklyn to attend the ten-month course beginning in February 1962. When leaving Jamaica, I will never forget the crowd of over two hundred that came to the airport to see me off. I bade them good-bye with mixed feelings.

I enjoyed that course even more than the one I took back in 1943. So I promised the Creator that I would make use of what I learned to show him that it was appreciated, no matter where I was sent.

When the Society’s president gave us our assignments a few weeks before graduation, my heart began beating extra fast. He started alphabetically, and I was happy my last name began with the letter “B.” Quickly he came to the “B’s,” and when he said, “Brother Bangle will be going back to Jamaica,” I felt like jumping for joy. My heart must have skipped a couple of beats. It was really a happy day for me.

Soon came graduation, and I was informed that I would take up work as a district supervisor in Jamaica. I arrived back in Jamaica in December 1962, and took up the district work in March 1963, and am happy to say that I am still serving in this most joyous work up to the present.

As I travel around the island it is a pleasure to show the Watch Tower Society’s films to thousands of people. People here love to see the films.

Since I came to this assignment over twenty-five years ago, I have been privileged to see the growth of the Kingdom work here in Jamaica from about 1,000 Witnesses in 1946 to over 5,500 today.