To this day I keep up with its events and happenings, all of which makes me feel that I belong here.

After working three and a half years in Maracaibo’s heat, we were transferred to Barquisimeto, an interior city, much cooler. An entirely different type of city, its people are very fanatical, poor, and much more than half of them cannot read. That meant we had to work a little harder to find the sheep, and now we have in this place a strong, growing, clean organization. Our hearts go out to these people; they are so blinded by the Catholic priests who continually warn them against us and the Bible. One day while I was witnessing in a store a Catholic priest stepped up and grabbed a booklet from my hand, tore it in four pieces and tried to hand it back to me. I told him it was my property and he would have to pay for it. He fished around in his skirts and came up with the price of the booklet. He didn’t utter a word.

When the “saints” are carried from one church to another thousands of people walk in the streets, carrying lighted candles. Most of them have never seen a Bible, nor do they know who Jehovah is. One woman told me she had her own god and ran into the house and came out with an image of Mary. She said: “This is my god.”

What better career could I have chosen for pursuing my purpose in life than to be a foreign missionary and have the privilege of introducing the Bible, God’s holy word of truth, to these people? Where could I have received more blessings than have been mine in this missionary assignment? Often I think of the rich blessings I would have missed had it become necessary for me to return to my home land during the first few months or first year in my assignment. I would not have learned a new language, nor learned to live in the tropics, where I can enjoy the beautiful flowers that bloom all year round, eat new foods, see congregations spring up where the truth had never been heard of, and associate with the “other sheep” of a different race.

I could just go on and write a book on the joys of being a missionary, but I think the time can be better spent by me in preaching and I’ll let the pages be the “other sheep,” and bind them in love and gild the edges in happiness. Thanks be to Jehovah for giving me the privilege of being a missionary.

Jesus said to him: “If you want to be complete, go sell your belongings and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, and come be my follower.”—Matt. 19:21, NW.

“Christ Has No Objection to Prosperity”

● Foremost advocate of divine healing in the United States is one Oral Roberts. In February, 1956, he visited Australia and, while putting on a healing campaign at Sydney, registered at the city’s lavish hotel, the Glen Ascham, under an assumed name. When newspaper reporters discovered the subterfuge, Roberts replied: “Christ has no objection to prosperity.” But if Christ has no objection to prosperity and Roberts had a clear conscience why did he register under an assumed name? Because of fear of man? Could it be that he feared some persons might make an unfavorable comparison between Roberts’ choosing the most exclusive hotels and the example and teaching of the One whom Roberts professes to follow, Jesus Christ?