When Brother Weymark and I finished four years at Hebron Missionary School, he was sent to Victoria, and I was called to help in the health clinic in Sydney. My first job was as laundry boy. I thought that washing clothes was for girls, but I had the job of washing by hand, sheets and towels that had been used by the clients of the health center. It wasn’t until later that we managed to get a washing machine.

At that time, Brethren Alex Macdonald and Ivan Smith began teaching us the basics of natural therapy: anatomy, physiology, nutrition, massage, and hydrotherapy—together with [the books] The Ministry of Healing and Counsels on Health.

Eventually I began to spend more time with the patients—learning to massage and to help look after the hydrotherapy department. There was a young sister who also spent much time in the steam and cold water part of the hydrotherapy department, and that is how this young lady and I got to know each other—while reading over nutrition notes.

However, there were times when I had to leave the clinic and travel with some of the other young brethren and went canvassing. One day, while we were traveling on the highway south of Sydney, we saw a well-known bus broken down on the side of the road. We stopped to see if we could help. While the boys were all over and under the bus like bees on a honey pot, the brother who was the leader of the group went into the bus and told the passengers that these young men were training as missionaries. When the people heard that, they all dug into their pockets and gave a really good donation to the work. By that time, we had cleared a blocked gas line, and all were happy to be on their way again.

On another occasion we were working in Queensland. Friday afternoon came, and we pitched the tent to get ready for the Sabbath. While others were preparing potatoes and onions for a meal, I was lighting the paraffin stove. It had a paraffin tank in the center with a burner on either side. I lit one; and then, while lighting the other, a breeze came up and carried the fumes of the lighting fluid to the burner that was already alight and—poof—the fluid exploded in the bottle, it spewed from the neck of the bottle in a stream of liquid fire straight over the corner of the tent. Fortunately, one of the boys quickly picked up the large dish of water, potatoes, and onions, and he threw it over the burning tent. After the fire was out, we had the fun of gathering up the potatoes and onions and finishing the preparation of the meal. We spent a very thankful Sabbath—thankful that no one had been burned and that the damage to the tent was not too bad.

During this time we worked only for accommodations and food and got help with clothing when it was needed; but somehow it was similar to the Israelites. As Moses said: “Your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot” (Deuteronomy 29:5).

Sometime after that period I was sent to work with Brother Haynes in western Australia. There I made many wonderful experiences working with him; helping with Bible studies and canvassing gave me much needed experience. We had to battle with financial needs as usual. To try and make extra money to meet bank payments on the field property, we plowed up some of the land (something I had learned at Hebron) and planted melons. We planted a different variety to that usually grown in that part of the country; and when they were ready, we set up a stall on the side of the road and sold melons as if they were really going out of season.

Winter could be cold there; and one evening, when driving back from a Bible study at Fremantle, Brother Haynes began reminiscing about the problems of the pioneers. He said, “You know, Brother, we are very fortunate. Just think of the days when the pioneers went out and traveled with a horse and cart. They were considered fortunate when they had a rug over their knees, and here we drive in a nice warm car.” I nodded in agreement—with an icy breeze blowing on my feet through a hole in the floor. 1937 Dodges didn’t have heaters in those days. There are some now who wouldn’t go for Bible studies even with a heater in the car. Are we becoming soft, or are we losing the missionary spirit?

In 1953, we crossed Australia by car for the conference session. It was quite an adventure in those days—about 1,000 miles without a town and a desert that was not very hospitable. What supplies were available could only be obtained from farmers about 150 miles apart. The road was so bad in some places that it was quicker to leave the holes and ruts and pick one’s way through the salt bush. It took us ten days to complete the trip of 2300 miles; but now the beautiful road makes it possible to make the distance in three days, and there are gas stations all the way across. That conference was memorable for me, because soon afterwards I married the young lady from the hydrotherapy department (Betty Southwell).

We went back to western Australia for two more years before we were called back to Sydney to look after the clinic where we had trained. Four years later, worldwide financial problems also hit the work in Australia. At one stage, there was no money in the treasury to pay the workers so we left the work; and after two years of struggle, the way opened to enter the health work again. We were given the opportunity to join with a natural health organization run by nonbelievers who wanted to work in the same lines as taught in The Ministry of Healing, page 127. During almost 14 years with that organization, we were able to take part in an ever-increasing circle of influence through lectures and assisting in organizational work in the Natural Therapy profession.

On the surface, others may have not have been aware of it, but in reality I still had a problem. I was a legalistic Pharisee. Near the end of my time with the “Hopewood Health Center,” I was reading the experience of John Wesley as recorded in The Great Controversy. I had read it before and enjoyed it immensely. But this time, it was different. I always had a difficulty relating Law and Grace; and it was still a bit of an enigma. I would read James and Romans and then read Galatians with James and Romans in the back of my mind. I had to admit that I had difficulty there. But now, I saw that John Wesley and I had some things in common. He had been through a university, was ordained as a minister, and he had become a great Anglican preacher, but he didn’t know the joy of a relationship with Jesus Christ. After his experience with some Moravian missionaries, he became a changed man. But if you read carefully, you will see that it wasn’t his way of life that changed so much as his motive for that way of life. Take down your Great Controversy and read it for yourself right now (page 256):

“[John Wesley] continued his strict and self-denying life, not now as the ground, but the result of faith; not the root, but the fruit of holiness. The grace of God in Christ is the foundation of the Christian’s hope, and that grace will be manifested in obedience.” [Emphasis supplied.] There it is, obedience through love. A verse from Scripture came to my mind: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). I had wondered about that little word "if," and now I knew. Jesus put that little if there because He knew that there would be many, just like me, who would try to keep the commandments because they knew it to be right to do so. But that is not what He wants. He wants us to do what we know to be right for the best reason in the world—because we love Him. But to love Him, we must know Him. One day, when Jesus was talking with His Father and our Father, He said: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

There are many people in the world who know about the President of the United States. But they don’t know him. Why? Because they don’t live with him. And we might know about Jesus and our Father in heaven because we have been taught about Them; but we don’t really know Them if we don’t live with Them every day.

Do you love to talk about Jesus as your Friend? Or would you rather talk about the weather, or perhaps about your friends, or your car, or what happened to the local football team last week? If Jesus is your friend and you love Him, you will do anything you can to please Him because you love Him. That is the best reason for doing as He asks us.

Dear young people, will you love Him as John Wesley learned to do? I am glad I learned that if we love Him He will live with us; and the more we live with Him, the more we will love Him. Won’t you do just that? It is easier than you think. Just bow your knees to Him in prayer, and tell Him just what you need. And Jesus will answer you because He loves you enough to want you to be His friend, not just now, but throughout Eternity.

In March 2014, at the age of 85, Bro. Neville S. Brittain, a faithful warrior for Christ, was laid to rest in the Lord—soon to resurrect at the glorious fulfillment of Revelation 14:13.

We worked only for accommodations and food and got help with clothing when needed.