Willing to Serve Wherever There Was Need

Their earnest desire to do the work that Jesus had assigned to his disciples led the full-time workers to new territories, even to new lands. When Frank Rice was invited to leave Australia to open up the preaching of the good news on Java (now part of Indonesia) in 1931, he had ten years of experience in the full-time ministry behind him. But now there were new customs, as well as new languages to learn. He could use English to witness to some in the shops and offices, but he wanted to witness to others also. He studied hard, and in three months he knew enough Dutch to start going from house to house. Then he studied Malay.

Frank was just 26 years old when he went to Java, and for most of the six years he was there and on Sumatra, he worked alone. (Toward the end of 1931, Clem Deschamp and Bill Hunter came from Australia to help with the work. As a team, they made a preaching tour inland, while Frank worked in and around the capital of Java. Later, Clem and Bill also received assignments that took them to separate areas.) There were no congregation meetings that Frank could attend. Sometimes it was very lonely, and more than once he struggled with thoughts of giving up and going back to Australia. But he kept going. How? The spiritual food contained in The Watch Tower helped to strengthen him. In 1937 he moved on to an assignment in Indochina, where he narrowly escaped with his life during the violent upheavals that followed World War II. That spirit of willingness to serve was still alive in the 1970’s when he wrote to express his joy over the fact that his entire family was serving Jehovah and to say that he and his wife were once again preparing to move to a place in Australia where there was greater need.

[Picture on page 287]

Frank Rice (standing at the right), Clem Deschamp (seated in front of Frank, with Clem’s wife, Jean, next to them), and a group on Java including fellow Witnesses and newly interested ones