On to India

In 1970, at the recommendation of the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Bombay (now Mumbai), we moved to Bangalore, a city of about 1.6 million at the time. It was there that I had the narrow escape from the horns of the water buffalo. There was then an English-speaking congregation of 40 and an isolated group that spoke Tamil. Frank studied with several men who progressed in knowledge of the Bible and later became Christian elders. I also studied with families who came to serve Jehovah.

One lady named Gloria lived in a very poor section of town. When I first called on her, she invited me in. Since there was no furniture, we sat on the floor. I left a copy of The Watchtower, and from this she cut out a Bible quotation from Revelation 4:11 and pasted it on the wall where she could see it every day. It included the words: “You are worthy, Jehovah,” which was such a beautiful phrase to her. A year later she was baptized.

Frank was invited to work for a year at the branch in Bombay and to oversee the construction of the first Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in India. The Assembly Hall was made simply by adding an upper floor to the existing branch building. There were then only a little over 3,000 Witnesses in all of India, and fewer than 10 served at the branch. In 1975, when our funds were depleted, we were sad to leave the friends we had come to love so dearly.

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With Frank in India, going to an assembly