FRANK DEWAR was a New Zealander and well acquainted with adversity. After all, he was one of the seven who sailed the South Pacific in the mid-1930’s on a 52-foot [16 m] ketch called Lightbearer. For the previous six years, he had trekked through New Zealand and ridden the waves to Australia, Tahiti, and Rarotonga, of the Cook Islands, with a burning missionary zeal. He had a message to preach. And did he preach about God’s Kingdom! Not content with evangelizing in the South Pacific, he set his sights on frigid Siberia. So, during July 1936​—a hot, steamy, monsoon-wet month—​what was he, at 27 years of age, doing in the strange city of Bangkok, where he knew not a soul and did not speak the language?

He and his partners, six other pioneers, or full-time preachers, had been asked by the Watch Tower Society’s branch office in Australia to select a country in the Far East as their witnessing territory. Frank singled out Siam, now called Thailand, figuring that was the nearest spot to the Soviet Union.

So, from Australia, Lightbearer, with the seven courageous pioneers aboard, set sail for Singapore.

[Pictures on page 188]

Frank Dewar sailed the South Pacific on the 52-foot [16 m] ketch “Lightbearer.” He arrived in Bangkok in July 1936