My Stand for the Truth

Eventually, in June 11939, when I was 18 years old, I was baptized in the River Severn.  That year I was also appointed sound servant. In those days we used a large transcription machine that blasted out in public places the message "Religion Is a Snare and a Racket." The emphasis at that time was on exposing the hypocrisy and false teachings of Christendom. 

Once I was at the front door of a procession carrying a banner that proclaimed on one side "Religion is a Snare and a Racket" and on the other side "Serve God and Christ the King." Following along was a pony that had large posters on either side of its back that advertised the public lecture. What a sight that procession must have been in the very religious city of Gloucester! 

Despite financial difficulties at home, Mother encouraged me to become a pioneer.  Thus in September 1929, at the start of World War II, I arrived at my first pioneer assignment in Leamington, a small town in Warwickshire. The town was the home of a number of retired clergymen.

We used a lightweight phonograph in our house-to-house ministry, playing lectures of Joseph F. Rutherford, then president of the Watchtower and Bible and Tract Society.  On the other hand, our transcription machine (which could be use for larger audiences)  was much heavier, and we carried it in a pram, or baby carriage. Sometimes clergymen, irate at the message exposing false religion, marched us off their premises. but we were not downhearted.  Jehovah blessed our work, and today a congregation of over a hundred Witnesses can be found in Leamington .  

In 1941, as World War II raged, I moved to Wales where I pioneered in the towns of haverforwdwest, Carmarthen, and Wrexham.  As  a full-time minister, I was exempted from military service, but people did not appreciate our neutral position.  Thus, my partner and I were denounced as spies or fifth  columnists. One night,m police surrounded our trailer. My partner, who had just returned from his work of shoveling coal, popped his head out to see who was there.  His face was covered in coal dust, and to the police he looked as though he were ready for a commando raid.  That needed some explaining!

We were richly blessed in our assignments. Once, while we were in Carmarthen, John Barr from the branch office in London (now a member of the Governing Body) paid us an encouraging visit. At the time, there were only a couple of publishers in Carmarthen; at present there are more than a hundred. Wrexham currently had the privilege of dedicating a fine Kingdom Hall in Haverfordwest. -1 Corinthians 3:6. 

Next time: Grateful for My Ministry

From the Watchtower magazine, 1997