doctor came out, so he could not see me well. I kept quiet while he chatted along about progress of the war (that was about the time of the Battle of the Bulge). When we were about a mile up the mountain he said: “By the way, who are you?” He was really nonplused when I told him. I waited and took him back to town. That was a bucket of coals on his head. I never heard any more about being run out of town.

While we were on this special assignment we attended the convention in Buffalo, New York, in 1944; and there we filled out preliminary applications for Gilead. We had heard so much about how strenuous the course at Gilead was that my wife was against the idea. I told her that it would do no harm just to go and hear what Brother Knorr had to say to prospective Gileadites. We sat away in back and in the end did turn in our applications.

In December, 1944, we received our applications for Gilead. My wife suggested we send them back blank, but I said: ‘Let’s fill them out and tell them that you are not very well and we won’t be called anyway.’ We did that and in June, 1945, we received the call to report for the sixth class.

A few months before we went to Gilead we had a visit from a zealous circuit servant who walked with a slide rule and measured nearly everything he came to. When we arrived at Gilead the first person we met was our circuit servant. I said: “Don’t tell me you are going through school with us.” He: “No, they brought me here to teach.” I gave him a laugh but was really surprised when I found out he really was our mathematics teacher.

Gilead was a wonderful experience and, while it was a busy time, it was certainly not so hard as we had been led to believe. I led quite a normal life at Gilead, going in the service nearly every Saturday and Sunday, and reading my Watchtower and Awake! from cover to cover as I have always done since I could read. I also kept up a normal correspondence with my family and friends.

From Gilead we were assigned to work with the congregation in Bayonne, New Jersey. It was one of the nicest assignments we ever had and local friends treated us royally. We shall never forget them.

Our foreign assignment was the Netherlands West Indies and we arrived in Willemstad, Curaçao, N.W.I., on May 16, 1946. At a small gathering the first night the brother offering a prayer thanked Jehovah so fervently for our arrival that we could never think of abandoning them. At that time the housing situation was very bad in Willemstad and for six months we had it pretty tough until we finally got a decent house. The water was terrible and we had one spell of dysentery after another, but we did not get discouraged. The local friends very kindly brought several kinds of herbs to help.

It has been said that after one gets through Gilead and to his foreign assignment the excitement is over and the hard work begins. But for me the excitement has never stopped. What makes life interesting, especially for Jehovah’s ministers, is not conditions, not the scenery, not even the language, but people, and you have them in every assignment.

One thing that did make us feel sad was that after we had been here about a year and a half my father died suddenly. We had really expected to see him again, as he appeared to be in such good health when we left the States. He was a faithful witness that brought up a large family in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

At the 1953 Yankee Stadium convention our whole family was together for the first time in eight years. This convention was not only a landmark in the history of the New World society but in the history of my family too.

In 1950 Brother Knorr visited the Netherlands West Indies for the first time and set up a branch office and I was assigned as branch servant and still hold that post by Jehovah’s undeserved kindness. Being a branch servant in a small place means that at times you also act as district servant and again as circuit servant, which is more excitement. I shall never forget the first time we went to the island of Bonaire. When we arrived for the public lecture there were more than a hundred people standing around. We said: “What a nice crowd!” When only about thirty came inside we thought the others were bashful, but we soon found out—rocks began to rain on the tin roof like hail in Egypt, firecrackers went off, the people beat on buckets and yelled. What a racket! I’m surprised until now that somebody did not get hurt that night. But most of the people have changed. When we showed The New World Society in Action film in the theater in Bonaire recently it was packed out and some present were those earlier troublemakers, and they liked the film.

In a foreign assignment one does not always have to learn another language, but usually you do; and that is something interesting. Even though you never learn to speak it perfectly you will learn to understand it, and that is a thrill. Here we learned Papiamento.

When I first came to Curaçao I was arrested for the second time in my life, for the same thing, street magazine work. I was taken to the police station but when I explained the nature of my work and that it was not commercial the desk sergeant told me to continue, much to the chagrin of the policeman. The very next day I was going from house to house and a Dutchman invited me in to explain my mission to his wife. When leaving I said to him: “You look familiar; where have I seen you before?” He laughed and said: “I’m the desk sergeant that let you go yesterday.” I did not recognize him without his uniform.

Jesus certainly knew what he was saying when he said that whoever gave up home and family for his sake and for the sake of the good news would find a hundred in this time and everlasting life in the world to come.

While letters and packages from home occasionally are not a necessity to a successful missionary career, they can be a source of extra pleasure. Every Watchtower and Awake! is like a letter from home, always full of surprises, always something new. Here are included only a few of the many experiences I have enjoyed. Volumes would be required to tell them all, such as, for instance, showing the film The New World Society in Action for the governor and his family in his back yard.

Many say: “Oh, if I could only live my life over again.” I say, If I could my goal would be the same, to pursue my purpose for a life of praise to Jehovah my Creator.

The Widow’s Mite Unacceptable

● The Jersey Journal, March 26, 1956, said: “Msgr. P. B. O’Connor, pastor of Queen of Peace Roman Catholic Church, North Arlington, startled his congregation yesterday. ‘To those of you who have not been here since last Palm Sunday,’ the pastor said, ‘I want to say that we do not accept silver in the collection basket. In fact, I am thinking of getting a basket which, if any coin is dropped into it it will automatically ring a bell and fire two shots in the air.’ It is reported that after this pastoral admonition, the collection baskets were as green as the palms.”