Indonesia​—Another World!

On one side of the road were Cadillac cars, men in white suits, and ladies in frills. On the other side were covered wagons pulled by water buffalo​—often with the driver asleep in the wagon. There were shapely women with colorful sarongs and men carrying baskets of food and brassware hung from a long stick across their shoulders. They hurried along with their peculiar bouncing yet shuffling steps.

We hailed a taxi and went to the home of a person who had showed interest in the Kingdom message when Clem was previously in Surabaja. A huge, white-robed man who fitted my mental image of Moses greeted us with arms outstretched, just like the patriarchs of old. Such warmth and enthusiasm made me feel truly welcome.

Our host had been a millionaire, but because of a slump in sugar prices, he was having financial difficulties. Despite this, his enthusiasm for life was undaunted, and he had warmly embraced Bible truth. We stayed only a short time with him before moving to the capital, Batavia, now called Djakarta. There Clem took over the office from Frank Rice, who then moved to French Indochina.

A Fascinating Assignment

We learned to witness in Dutch and Malay, preaching in well-to-do houses as well as in clusters of small huts called kampongs. As we witnessed in these villages, sometimes up to 50 children in scant, tattered clothing would follow us from door to door. Great numbers of books were distributed from one end of Java to the other.

The yacht Lightbearer was used in preaching on the many islands of Indonesia, including the Celebes and Borneo. As we entered each small port, the crew would turn on the transcription machine and play one of the lectures of J. F. Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society. Imagine the surprise of isolated Malay villagers on seeing a large yacht arriving in their port and then hearing such a loud, powerful voice coming through the air. A flying saucer could hardly have aroused more interest.

In time, stirred up by the clergy, opposition of the authorities to our work resulted in the closing of all Indonesian ports to the visits of the Lightbearer. So it was decided that the boat should return to Australia.

Soon after our return to Indonesia, Clem decided that the island of Sumatra should be witnessed to again. So Clem and I, along with Henry Cockman, another Australian, worked as a team, preaching throughout the mountains and rice fields of the island. We stayed in travelers’ hotels. While some of our lodgings were comfortable, others left much to be desired.

Witnessing in one village that consisted mainly of small Chinese shops, we placed a whole carton of Chinese books in about an hour. The shopkeepers had seen very few white women, and none had ever called at their humble businesses. Whether this was the reason I placed a book at every shop, I don’t know, but I placed so many books that Clem and Henry spent most of their time bringing fresh supplies for me from the car.

In another village I was returning to the car for more literature when I saw that it was surrounded by shouting, gesticulating people. This seemed like trouble. I hurried over, quite concerned, and was surprised to see Clem, standing half in and half out of the car, handing out magazines as fast as he could. Contributions would be handed over the head of one person to another, and then Clem would send back a magazine over heads to the one who had given the coin. It was an amazing scene, people practically scrambling to obtain literature.

As we continued our nostalgic tour, one friend explained that many of the books distributed to Dutch people in the early days ended up in secondhand shops after the Dutch left and were purchased by people in search of reading material. Some who obtained literature in this way developed quite a deep understanding of the Bible and were delighted to enter the preaching work as soon as they were contacted.

In one place a Witness went to show his father the Bible truths he had learned. His father, however, maintained that he had already found the true religion. He had gathered about a hundred people to worship according to the way he had discovered. Imagine the surprise of the Witness to find that this group was studying the Watch Tower Society’s literature! They were quite unaware that there was a worldwide organization already worshiping Jehovah according to this pattern!