After one call

I was in field service during the early 1970’s. I knock on the door and nobody answers. I hear a noise come from under the house. I look under his house and find someone working on the plumbing. I crawled under there and presented my magazines. After a brief discussion, the magazines are placed and I then find out that he’s working on his plumbing. I know plumbing so I give him a hand. No big deal, job is done, message is delivered and I leave.

I hear nothing else about this person. I didn’t know his name and never made a return visit. 35 years later I am living on my property in Haleiwa. A person tries to use the pay phone fronting our property but soon realizes he doesn’t have any change. He goes to the gas station fronting our property and asks for change for the phone. For some reason, just making small talk, the worker asks who he’s looking for. He says, Todd White. She says, “Oh, he lives right over there.” (pointing to our shop). He walks over to our shop and meets my wife. My wife calls me on my phone and I said I’d be home in about 10 minutes.

This person, who later became known to me as Kevin was the same person under the house that was working on his plumbing. He had moved to the mainland and continued his contact with the witnesses. He eventually got baptized and had tried unsuccessfully to return to Hawaii to look me up. All he remembered was that my name was Todd from Haleiwa. Through research from meeting other witnesses in California I knew, he later learned that my last name was White. That time for him to return to the islands came about in 2006 when he conveyed this story to me. And I was unaware that all this was even taking place.


That angel flying in mid heaven (Rev. 14:6) strikes again.

A lady from India #2

July 2012 - I was in the door to door work with a sister from Brazil (Jael W.) when we knocked on this lady’s door. She had a baby in her arms and I played with it trying to be friendly. We placed magazines and then left.

Sept 2012 – I found time to make a return visit on this lady and found her home with her husband. I mentioned that I remembered her and her baby. She said that she remembered me too and asked us to come in. She said that she had had contact with Witnesses in India before she came to Oregon. The study fell through when she told the Witness there that she had no intention of converting to Christianity. She has not had contact with the Witnesses since then. Jael will be starting up the study with her this week.

Will report back as the study develops.

That angel flying in mid heaven (Rev. 14:6) strikes again.

A lady from India #1

A sister from Brazil (Jael W.) and I were in a car group. We got left off at an apartment complex. We are only allowed to work 4 units at a time then we must leave. Our first call was on a woman from India. She answered the door with the usual “hello”. She spoke very good English. We mentioned our purpose for being there and this woman looks around like she’s afraid of being spied on and quietly pulls us in to her house. We hesitated but on entering her apartment we offered the magazines. She said, “I want to learn to become a Christian, but you must not tell my husband.” We then offered a free home bible study. She accepted. Jael and another sister have now been studying with her for about 3 weeks at the time of this writing. She has been making very good progress and absorbs everything told to her. Then last week she says that her husband, who we have now learned was part of an arranged marriage and that she is either afraid of him or doesn’t really like him and appears not to even know him very well (not sure which), but he has gotten a job transfer and is scheduled to move to the Intel plant in Ohio. I think that this week will be the last weeks study. I hope to hear a follow up of this lady in continuing her studies. Hopefully now that she has moved will continue to find a way to keep up her studies without too much resistance.

That angel flying in mid heaven (Rev. 14:6) strikes again.

Early morning service

Traditionally, we go field early field service at 7am then we meet at the Hall at 9am for regular field svc. A brother and I decided to try going out at 6am and see how svc was. At 6:10a I found this young popolo (black) kid (turns out he's from Ghana) at the bus stop on 185th ave. This time, I talk to him and placed two current mags with him and then I left him with an encouraging thought on the importance of prayer.

Taking a chance that he’ll be there the next day, we show up. I find he’s walking to the bus stop at 6:05a and that he’s there by clock work at 6:10a daily. The bus to pick him up comes at 6:15a sharp, so each of our discussions must be ontime and brief. I discussed some points with him on the subject of prayer since that’s where we left off the last discussion. During this brief discussion, (about 10min in length) I find out that he’s studied with the witnesses for a short time in Ghana before he moved to US. So again after another brief discussion I arrange to pick him up from the bus stop and drive him to his house where we could have a bible study. He agrees to study the Bible teach book. Before we get into a study, I ask him about his studies in Ghana and determine that he’s had enough study to discuss slightly meatier subjects. We had our first study at the Kingdom Hall. The second study was in my car outside in the kingdom hall parking lot. Each study was about 3 hours and some progress seemed to be made. The 3rd meeting was more of a get stuff done for him, hair cut etc. By the way, the three studies took less than a week to complete. We studied about every other day.

This study would not have been found (at least by me) had we not adjusted our service time to start at 6am. I’ll report back to let you know how this study progresses.

That angel flying in mid heaven (Rev. 14:6) strikes again.

From a sister in Kauai

You never know when your seeds will grow!

Since my mom moved to Hawaii in 1985 her cousin Susan would come visit and when she did I always tried to plant seeds of truth in her. Fast forward to 2009 and Susan and her husband Bob came to visit my husband Liko and I on Kauai and we watered those seeds of truth. They were so excited about our discussions they decided to go back to church :( Two years later and they came to visit again but this time they we're less than enchanted in the church they were attending and after many scriptural discussions I suggested they begin studying the Bible with the witnesses where they live. Susan said she was really only comfortable talking to me so I asked her if she knew about Skype and she said "yes I Skype my friend in England all the time" so I suggested we study together via Skype and in December of 2011 we embarked on our Skype studies her in California and me on Kauai. I suggested she go by the local Kingdom Hall and get a reference Bible and so she called and ordered one and then when it came in she arranged to go pick it up and the Brother who met her there gave her a tour of the Kingdom Hall and shared his experience of coming into the truth. When Susan came home she told her husband Bob about how nice the Brother and his wife were and how nice the Kingdom Hall was and so Bob said "I think starting this Sunday we should should start going to the Kingdom Hall. By the way everything Susan had been learning she was sharing with her husband. So from that Sunday on they regularly attended the meetings at the Kingdom Hall. After the first meeting Bob suggested they prepare their Watchtower together before the next meeting (sounds like Family Worship). Susan and Bob have continued to progress in the Truth and what is most impressive is how appreciative both of them are about everything Jehovah has done for them. Two weeks ago they attended their first Circuit Assembly and this weekend they are at the District Convention. I contacted a sister in the territory where they live Carina and Mark and they are studying with Bob and Susan as a couple. I am so thankful to Jehovah that those seeds began to grow after so many years of watering and it helps me to realize never to give up on anyone. My mom will be so happy when Susan and Bob and Liko and I and the the rest of the new world society greet her back in the resurrection that is a day I truly look forward to.

Bob, Susan, Carina and Mark

That angel flying in mid heaven (Rev. 14:6) strikes again.

As related From a governing body member

We had a governing body member give a talk for our memorial here in Oregon. The next day was a special talk. His name was Br. Rain. He gets a call that morning from Bethel and has to be back in Bethel by Sunday PM for a very important meeting on Monday. Br. Rain. Br. Rain says he'll only be able to give the special talk then has to be rushed to the airport for his 2pm flight out. His flight takes off as scheduled. He arrives in San Francisco on time for his departure relay to New York. At the last minute something happens and the flight is cancelled. The airline had been informed about the importance of his catching that flight, so a chief air port personnel is assigned to find Br. Rain another flight out to New York. He is escorted to a waiting room where this agent scrambles to find another flight out. Nothing. There is no flight out to New York that day. For the next couple of hours this agent, who by the way had a full beard and some tatoos, but was a very pleasant personal person spends time with Br. Rain. During the time, Br. Rain witnesses to this agent. Then during the conversation the agent says that he used to study the bible when he was a small child in Chicago while he was growing up. Br. Rain notices that his last name began with an "O". This seemed unusual to him so he asks what the agents last name was. He tells him and Br. Rain says, "I used to study the bible with a small boy in Chicago back 50 years ago when he was 10 years old," The agent scratches his head for a bit and then says, "you're Br. Rain?" They spent the next few hours discussing the importance of attending bible meetings, personal study & most of all prayer. He promised he would. After about another hour after that, Br. Rain gets a phone call from The Governing body who said that the meeting had been cancelled and that the urgency to return had been cancelled. Hmmmmm Coincidence?

Prefer to think that that angel flying in mid heaven (Rev. 14:6) strikes again.

How it seems to work

You already know this but I want to tell you again.

1) Acts chapter 8:26 the ethopian eunich is approached by Philip and learns the truth

2) Acts chapter 9:3 Saul is approached by Annanias and learns the truth

3) Acts chapter 10:22 Peter is sent to Cornelius to teach him the truth

In all three occasions people educated people about the truth, but Jehovah always sent an angel or in the case of Acts chapter 9, He sent Jesus, the Arch-Angel to maneuver the setting so that the teaching and desciple making could take place. You too were led to the truth by an angel, but you were trained by a human. It is not by coincidence that your call just happened to be in one place and that you just happened to be there and that you just happened to talk to them about the truth. There are no concidences like this in the truth. You just have to do your job and plant seeds. Jehovah makes it grow. 1cor3:7 And that's a fact.

In the 3rd year Cyrus, the King of Persia, in the approximate year of 618-536BCE, Daniel 12:8 was recorded which says that only those with insight would understand the words of the Bible. Insight as it is used in this setting, has nothing to do with intelligence or a special ability to understand more than that of others. Daniel 12:8-10 says, "Now as for me, I heard, but I could not understand; so that I said: “O my lord, what will be the final part of these things?” 9 And he went on to say: “Go, Daniel, because the words are made secret and sealed up until the time of [the] end. 10 Many will cleanse themselves and whiten themselves and will be refined. And the wicked ones will certainly act wickedly, and no wicked ones at all will understand; but the ones having insight will understand." Daniel certainly was a good man in the eyes of God. He was well known as a prophet and evangelizer in Babylon. He was well educated in law and was in good standing with Jehovah. Yet in verse 8 of chapter 12 of the book of Daniel it says in part, "Now as for me, I heard, but I could not understand."

In this instance, the Hebrew word translated into engish word "insight" is found at Psalms 52:3 where it says, "As for God, he has looked down from heaven itself upon the sons of men, To see whether there exists anyone having insight, anyone seeking Jehovah". When there is a noun followed by a comma, the word after the comma usually describes, enhances or shares an understanding of the noun preceding the comma. This happens often in the scriptures although this does not mean that this is the only meaning for the word insight. But this does seem to be an appropriate application. The book, "Insight on the Scriptures" vol.1 by Jehovah's Witnesses has further scriptural application.

Other scriptures showing how the word insight is used:
Psalms 14:2, As for Jehovah, he has looked down from heaven itself upon the sons of men, To see whether there exists anyone having insight, anyone seeking Jehovah.

Psalms 32:8 “I shall make you have insight and instruct you in the way you should go. I will give advice with my eye upon you."

And at the time when this scripture was written by Paul in Corinth around the year 56ce (of our common era), he made this statement:
Romans 3:11 "there is no one that has any insight, there is no one that seeks for God."

It appears that those having insight, those seeking for Jehovah, often without their even knowing it, are appealing to the Holy Spirit for assistance in searching for understanding of the Truth. 1 Corinthians 2:10 says in part: 10 "For it is to us God has revealed them through his spirit, for the spirit searches into all things, even the deep things of God." Enjoy your gardening so that the angel flying in mid heaven (Rev. 14:6) can find someone (your bible study) with insight and strike again.