A pioneer from Texas says: “I realize that I was spending forty hours every week in secular work that would soon go up in smoke at Armageddon and I would have nothing to show for it. So I quit my job and started to vacation pioneer and later I became a regular pioneer.” No doubt, some of you may have thought the same way about working in the world. But how many of you have thought about setting these jobs aside for two or more weeks in order to vacation pioneer? It can bring the satisfaction you desire.

Many young people today are plagued with thoughts about the future. A young pioneer from Michigan wrote: “During my last year in high school I began to think seriously about a career. Knowing that this old system was fast approaching destruction, I didn’t want to get involved with it. I decided to pioneer.” First he vacation pioneered. This he enjoyed so much that he became a regular pioneer. Are you thinking about a career? Have you given serious thought to the times in which we are living and the privilege of vacation pioneering now?

A father with five children says: “There was great pressure to be content with being a good publisher. With my wife pioneering for some time now, I would fall into the rut of believing that if I can manage to keep her going as a pioneer, what more could be required? But I still felt the need to do more. . . . I vacation pioneered last April and resolved that pioneering is for me.” So he examined his life closely and found a way first to vacation pioneer and then to be a regular pioneer. Perhaps with some soul-searching, you can do the same.

A schoolteacher from New York state, with a family, tried to content herself with being a good publisher. She writes: “As articles on pioneering kept appearing in the Kingdom Ministry my conscience continued to be pricked. I knew that Jehovah was receiving only the dregs of my energy and that the Board of Education was receiving its firstfruits. It should definitely have been the reverse, I knew, but since I had an unbelieving husband and a young son I wondered how I could ever pioneer.” While she was vacation pioneering during the circuit servant’s visit, he showed her how she might become a regular pioneer, and that is what she is now. You may not be able to make an adjustment as big as that, but you may be able to arrange to vacation pioneer sometime during the year.​—Ex. 23:19.

In the scrutinizing of themselves some brothers have given special thought to their dedication vow and what it means to them individually. Such an honest probing of themselves caused a number to vacation pioneer and some to become regular pioneers. A young brother from Michigan said that serious thinking about life made him realize that he ‘had dedicated his life to Jehovah,’ which moved him to take up the vacation pioneer work and then become a regular pioneer.

There are great joys that come from vacation pioneering. Said a sister from California: “I have never been so happy in all my life as since I started vacation pioneering.” A brother from Illinois writes: “I took my first bite of vacation pioneering. It tasted so good that I wanted a bigger bite. Now I’m a regular pioneer.”

In one case a father of ten children arranged matters so that each of his children could vacation pioneer during the year, and to that end they all cooperated. The results were gratifying. The three oldest children are now special pioneers. The latest graduate from school is entering regular pioneer service, while the mother and younger children continue to vacation pioneer during the summer months.

A sister in Virginia says: “I found vacation pioneering wasn’t so hard, so now my daughter and I are pioneering together and enjoying every minute of it.” And she adds: “Vacation pioneering is a wonderful stepping-stone to the regular pioneer service.” And so it is.

A sister from Ohio writes: “After vacation pioneering for five months, I realized that I could not stop. Pioneering had become part of me and it was something too wonderful to resist.” A brother from Florida wrote: “The joy and the satisfaction that came from those few full days of vacation pioneering created in me a strong desire to make the regular pioneer ministry my goal.”