We had lunch on Saturday, after church, with a family of four. The husband is a converted Jehovah’s Witness from South Africa. His wife is a converted Jewess from the same country.
Talk about stories to tell!
The husband was converted at an evangelistic service where an American wearing a cowboy hat and boots and chewing gum, preached. Somehow his friends had persuaded him to go. He said that when the preacher talked about Jesus, he had a warm feeling come over him that he had never experienced before—he knew it was the Lord. After the service, they asked people to stand up and confess Jesus, using the scripture from Matthew 10 that says, “If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before my Father in heaven. But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before my Father in heaven.” He told that he stood up quickly, pointed toward heaven and said, “Jesus is Lord!” and then sat down, just as quickly!
When he brought the news home, his father, a Catholic, wasn’t bothered, but his mother, an ardent JW, was incensed.
His wife, who had a troubled childhood—she didn’t know her biological father until she was twenty-six years old—came to know the Lord when she was a little girl. Because she was uncontrollable, the school wanted to send her to a psychiatrist. But her step-father, who had recently become a Christian, said, no, that she should go to Sunday School. Although her English was limited, she was told that if she asked Jesus into her heart, she would “never be sad, lonely or scared again.” Because the family was so poor, they had an outdoor toilet. So, at night, when she had to go to the bathroom, she would run out, saying over and over again, “Jesus, come into my heart so I will never be sad, lonely or scared again! Jesus, come into my heat so I will never sad, lonely or scared again!”
She told us that, basically, she grew up always conscious of Jesus being in her life. He was her friend, her constant companion.
