Kingdom Proclaimers Report
A Nun for 25 Years Finally Learns the Truth
THE Bible foretold that “a great crowd” out of all nations would come and worship at Jehovah’s spiritual temple. (Revelation 7:9) This is happening today, and we rejoice to see that many, with the help of God’s truth, are thus breaking the shackles of false religion. The following experiences illustrate this.
◻ A woman in Rome, Italy, relates: “From the time I was small my greatest aspiration was to become a nun, since I desired with all my heart to serve God. I was able to fulfill my ambition at the age of 32, on December 8, 1960, when I took my first vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity. My assignment was to care day and night for about 30 poor and abandoned children who were orphans or children of prison inmates. I found satisfaction in my assignment.
“My faith was shaken after ten years of service when contention arose within the institution. I wondered why, if God was directing us, he would allow such contentions and disorders in his own house.”
The nun had a sister who lived in France and was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She witnessed to the nun by letter and sent her the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. The nun relates: “After 23 years, that was my first contact with God’s Word.” It was then that she accepted a Bible study with Jehovah’s Witnesses. She says: “As I progressed in the study, I got to know Jehovah God and his requirements as well as his wonderful qualities. I felt very bad when I learned that he disapproves of the use of images, since the institution was full of images of every size and kind. I understood that if I wanted to please Jehovah, I could not stay in that place. After 25 years of devoted service as a nun, I had finally found the truth. So on October 1, 1985, I gave my notice to leave, much to the dismay of my superiors.
“My loving brothers and sisters helped me both spiritually and materially. Grateful to Jehovah and his organization, I got baptized on August 30, 1986, and started on the road to everlasting life.”
Jehovah Blesses a Teenager’s Desire to Serve God
◻ A schoolteacher in Brazil who was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses noticed while correcting school papers that one 14-year-old student wrote of her desire to learn more about God. She started a Bible study with the student, but as the girl progressed, her Catholic family prohibited the study and destroyed her literature. The young student began to study the Bible during school recess, but was discovered. So the study was carried on by correspondence. Soon, though, the family found her letters and burned them. The father began to force her to go to Mass. She went along but took a copy of The Watchtower to read during the service, hiding it between the pages of the church booklet. This went on for six months, until one day she sneaked out of her home to go to the Kingdom Hall. During the meeting her father appeared at the door and told the brothers to tell his daughter that he would beat her when she got home. Efforts of the brothers to reason with him were in vain.
The next day, happy and all smiles, she went to see the brothers. She showed them the many bruises on her body where her father had just beaten her. Why, then, was she happy? After leaving the Kingdom Hall, the father had asked several people in town, including the mayor, about the advantages and disadvantages of his daughter’s being one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The mayor said that the Witnesses were good people, worthy of confidence. He added that they had excellent morals and that it would be very good to have a child with these standards, which were so much higher than those of youth in general.
Despite this, the girl got her beating. But the father told her that he was beating her because she had left the house without permission. And he said he would beat her again if she ever stopped studying the Bible or attending the meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses! The daughter is now a zealous publisher, and some of her family are showing an interest in the truth.
Truly, Jehovah blesses young ones who have a sincere desire to serve him, as this experience shows.—Psalm 148:12, 13.