“We met a challenge just three weeks into our district work,” recollects Geoffrey Wheeler. “We were at the assembly site, ready for the weekend program. I had inherited a faulty Primus stove. It was a hot, windy day, and as I lit the stove, a burst of flame flared up. Within minutes the fire was out of control. The tire on the front of our Land Rover caught fire, and the flames quickly engulfed the entire vehicle.”

The loss of their vehicle was bad enough, but there was more to contend with. Says Geoffrey: “Our clothes were in a black steel trunk inside the Land Rover. They didn’t burn; they shriveled! The brothers came around the far side of the burning vehicle and rescued our bed, a shirt, and my typewriter. How grateful we were for their quick thinking!” Their personal possessions were lost in the ruined vehicle, and they themselves were not due back in town for two months, so how did they manage? Geoffrey says: “A brother lent me a tie, and I gave the public talk in some rubber overshoes. We survived, and the brothers did all they could to comfort their inexperienced district overseer.”

In rural areas, gifts often take the form of farm produce. “On one occasion,” Geoffrey Wheeler remembers with a smile, “the brothers gave us a chicken. We put it on a perch in the pit latrine just before dark. However, the silly thing jumped off its perch and fell down the hole. We managed to scoop it safely out with a hoe. My wife then washed it in hot soapy water with plenty of disinfectant. We cooked it at the end of the week, and it tasted fine!”