Des Zanker, who became my father, and Victory were baptized in the early 1950’s, and Des became a member of the Australia Bethel family in 1958. After he married Victory, who was serving as a special pioneer, they pioneered for a while and then were invited into the traveling ministry. Then I came along, and they had to leave the traveling work to rear me. Yet, after 27 years, Dad is still pioneering.

Early in 1990, Oma died peacefully at home, in the very same house in which my mother was reared. I too was reared in this same Melbourne house, and so were my younger brother and sister. It has been a real blessing for our family to share a house together. Sometimes it was tight quarters, but I cannot remember ever worrying about it. Even during the first four years of our marriage, my wife, Gayle, fitted in there somewhere and loved it. When we finally left for our new assignment, I cried. I had received so much support and love in that house.

Now, though, Gayle and I have cause for abundant joy, for we are able to do what my parents and their parents before them did. When we left home, we found comfort in our reason for going, which was to do Jehovah’s will in the full-time service. We are trying hard to follow the fine example of our faithful forebears, who found similar comfort when working in tough assignments, when in extreme poverty, and even when held for years in Japanese concentration camps.​—2 Corinthians 1:3, 4.

Opa has always found solace in the inspired words of King David to Jehovah: “Your loving-kindness is better than life.” (Psalm 63:3) It has always been my grandfather’s intense desire to enjoy that loving-kindness eternally. It is the desire of his entire family to share it with him.

[Picture on page 23]

Craig Zanker (rear), with his wife, parents, and younger brother and sister