Year Book of Jehovah's Witnesses - Watchtower Archive

210 Yearbook
just board a subway or a trolley car or bus and get
to his territory. These publishers have to walk many,
many miles to get to their next house. It is interesting
to read of their experiences. The branch servant has
recorded a few of them in his annual report, and some
are recorded here.
Much hope for the people is spread in Newfoundland by
the two Gilead School graduates operating the Society's
floating missionary home, the motor vessel "Hope". During
the months from June to November this boat brings these
missionaries within reach of their congregations. A schedule
is fixed whereby each settlement in a selected area of the
coast is visited each two weeks, and in this WilY regular
studies are arranged. The clergy have stirred up much
opposition in the sections covered, but this has served to
advertise our work even further. Many are coming out as
witnesses for Jehovah in these isolllted sections of Newfoundland
and two of these have taken up the full-time
pioneer ministry. The coast of Newfoundland is a storlllY one
and the boat's crew have the elements to fight as well as
religious OPPOSition. On one occasion this year during a
pitch-dark night the boat was driven ashore in a storm.
Lucl{i1y it grounded on a sandy beach instead of the usual
rocky shore. When the storm subsided the boat lay on Its
side high and dry on the beach, where it had to remain for
over a week until the tide rose enough to float it again.
During the winter months the circuit servant visited some
of the Interested persons that had been found by the crew
of the "Hope". Reporting on the interest, he wrote in to the
oflice: "All the people of good wiII talk very highly of the
Hope and its crew and are looking for it to push its way
into their harbors again with more hope for them. They
loved to sit and tell me of experiences the missionaries had
and had told them and about the many times the Hope
would battle the waves to reach them, and about the many
hours its crew would sit and read and explain the Bible
to them These people here are genuinely for God's kingdom
and, though I have many miles (about 22) to wall{ to a
railroad tomorrow, I'm leaving this harbor very much encOU\'aged
and certain of the Lord's blessing on the Hope."
On one occasion this last spring, the circuit servant hired
a man to take him across lin arm of the ocean in a slllall
rowboat. When they were out in dangerous waters the boat
was found to he leaking faster than it could be bailed out.
Fortunately, chunks of ice were floating in the area, so
they were able to row from pan to pan, jump out of the