In 1931 at a convention in London, Brother Rutherford called for volunteers to spread the good news in foreign lands. I volunteered, and along with Andrew Jack, I was assigned to Kaunas, then the capital of Lithuania. I was 18 years old.

Preaching the Kingdom Message Abroad

At the time, Lithuania was an impoverished agricultural society, and preaching in the rurals posed challenges. Accommodations were difficult to obtain, and some lodging places we remembered for a long time. For instance, one night Andrew and I woke up because we felt uncomfortable. After we lit the oil lamp, we saw that the bed was covered with hundreds of bedbugs. We were bitten from head to foot! Each morning for a week, I had to stand up to my neck in the cold water of a nearby river to ease the pain. Still, we were determined to carry on in the ministry. Soon thereafter, the lodging problem was solved when we met a young couple who had embraced Bible truth. They took us into their home, which was tiny but clean. We gladly slept on the floor, and what a relief it was!

Lithuania was then dominated by the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox clergy. Only the rich could afford a Bible. Our main objective was to cover as much territory as possible and to leave as much Bible literature as we could with interested ones. First, we would find accommodations in a town. Next, we cautiously covered outlying areas, and then we rapidly covered the town itself. In that way, we could usually finish our work before the local priests could stir up trouble for us.

Causing a Stir and Receiving Publicity

In 1934, Andrew was assigned to work in the branch office in Kaunas, and John Sempey became my partner. We had some memorable experiences. One day, I visited a solicitor’s office in a small town. The man became angry, pulled a pistol from a drawer, and ordered me to leave. I prayed silently and remembered the Bible counsel: “An answer, when mild, turns away rage.” (Prov. 15:1) So I said, “I came here as a friend with a message of good news, and I thank you for your restraint.” The man’s finger on the trigger of his gun relaxed, and I cautiously backed out of his office.

When I rejoined John, he told me that he too had had quite an experience. He had been taken to the police station because he was falsely accused of stealing a banknote of high value from a woman whom he had met. At the station, John was strip-searched. Of course, he did not have the banknote. Later they caught the real thief.

Both events caused quite a stir in that otherwise quiet township and resulted in extensive free publicity for our work!

Undercover Operations

A risky assignment was to take Bible literature into neighboring Latvia, where our preaching was banned. About once a month, we made trips to Latvia on a night train. At times, after dropping off literature, we traveled on to Estonia to pick up more literature, which we left in Latvia on our return trip.

On one occasion, a customs officer had been tipped off regarding our activity and demanded that we leave the train and bring the literature to his superior officer. John and I both prayed to Jehovah to help us. Surprisingly, the officer did not tell his superior what we were carrying but simply said, “These men have something to declare.” I “declared” what I described as literature that would help people in schools and colleges to understand the significance of what was happening in our very troubled world. The customs officer waved us through, and we safely made our deliveries.

As the political situation in the Baltic States deteriorated, anti-Witness sentiments grew and our preaching work was banned in Lithuania as well. Andrew and John were deported, and with World War II looming, all British subjects were advised to leave. I too left​—with sadness.

Later I called at large villas on the outskirts of Belfast, where I met a Russian woman who had lived in Lithuania. When I showed her some literature, she pointed to one book and said: “I have that one. My uncle who is a professor at the university in Kaunas gave it to me.” She showed me the book Creation, in Polish. The margins were filled with notes. How surprised she was to learn that I was the person who had initially given the book to her uncle when I met him in Kaunas!​—Eccl. 11:1.

In Lithuania, I was taken to a little town called Šiauliai, where I had pioneered. At a gathering there, a brother told me: “Many years ago my mother and I bought a house in town. We were clearing rubbish out of the attic, and I came across the books The Divine Plan of the Ages and The Harp of God. When I read them, I realized that I had found the truth. You must have been the one who left those books at that house so many years ago!”

I also attended a circuit assembly in a town where I had pioneered. I had attended an assembly there 65 years earlier. Back then, there were 35 in attendance. But what a delight it was to look out over an audience of 1,500! How Jehovah has blessed the work!