LIFE STORY - "I Wanted to Work for Jehovah"/AS TOLD BY DANIEL VAN MAR - WEAVING A THREEFOLD CORD

 Although I could see how singleness was an advantage in my service, I still felt the need for a lifelong partner.  So I started praying specifically to find a wife would joyfully endure the rigors of full-time service in the rain forest. About a year later, I started courting Ethel, a special pioneer who had a self-sacrificing spirit.  From a young age, Ethel deeply admired the apostle Pau  and wanted to give of herself in the Christian ministry as he had. We married in September 1971 and started serving in the circuit work as a couple.

Ethel had been raised without any material comforts, so she adjusted well to the traveling work in the rain forest.  For example, when preparing to visit congregations deep in the forest, we packed light. We washed clothes and bathed in rivers. We also got used to eating whatever our hosts served us-iguanas, piranhas, or anything else they may have hunted in the forest or caught in the rivers. When there were no plates, we ate off banana leaves.  When there were no utensils, we ate with our fingers. Ethel and I feel that making sacrifices together while working for Jehovah has drawn us into a tightly woven threefold cord.  (Ecclesiastes 4:12) We would not trade those experiences for anything!

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