His Prayer Was Answered
IT IS often amazing to see how Jehovah helps honest people to shake off the fetters of this old system of things. Here is the experience of a young man who lives in a remote mountain valley in Switzerland, near the Italian border.
HIS STORY
“Owing to unpleasant family circumstances I had a hard childhood. Early in my youth I began to seek a God who would be able to help me in my situation. My mother was bound to the traditions of the Catholic Church, and to ensure my obedience she described how God sent people into purgatory or hell if they were not obedient. Instinctively I sought a God who would show love to his children. Religious instruction in school also depicted him as severe, impassive, unfeeling and inaccessible. It became clear to me that this God was not the one for whom I longed. For me he was only a God for the priests. I attended church less and less.
“When I was 19 years old I fell very sick and my illness lasted more than two years. The void within me and the many ‘whys’ that remained unanswered constantly shook my mental balance. Now I began to seek an unknown God who could give me a little peace of mind. I began to interest myself in parapsychology. I studied the technology of hypnotism and autosuggestion. I reached the condition of trance by a simple method, and a few times I even seemed able to see into the future, but when I applied self-hypnosis in order to find real help, I was completely disappointed. I made similar experiments with Yoga and the pendulum.
“Then in 1973 I had my first contact with Jehovah’s Witnesses, and I subscribed to The Watchtower. But I did not understand the message. For a time I read the first issues that arrived and then forgot all about them.
“Meantime I began to read The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels and then The Life of Mao Tse-tung, as well as various books on evolution. Yet neither from the practice of spiritism, nor from the ideologies of Communism, and still less from the theories of evolution, did I find peace of mind and the knowledge of God that I was seeking.
“One evening, in my room, I decided to take a retrospective view of my life, in order to find a way out of the situation. While reviewing all the negative experiences, the anxieties and the nightmares of the past loomed up in my mind. My powerlessness in finding a solution was so clear that I wished only to die. It was clear to me that I had reached a critical turning point. I did the only thing that came to my mind. I prayed: ‘O unknown God, you must exist, and you must be a God of love. Help me! I can’t go on any longer—help me to find the truth.’
“A few days later a young man and a woman called on me. I realized at once that they were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and I asked them a lot of questions about the Catholic religion and the Bible. A further appointment was made. The knowledge that both these young people had of the Bible, as well as their friendliness, surprised me very much. I was aware that this visit was in answer to my prayer, and I decided to compare every statement that they made with the Bible. If Jehovah’s Witnesses were really bringing me the truth that I had longed for, and so strenuously sought after so long, then I wanted to bring my life into accord with it. I also realized that I had to make some changes in order to have more time for the study of God’s Word. So I discontinued my preparatory studies for entry into a university.
“After making various changes in my mode of living, there began for me a period of untold mental torment. I could not sleep anymore. I experienced an incredible resistance in my mind, and as I did not understand the reason, my terror was increased. I was literally forced to flee into the nearby woods to find a little solace for my mental and emotional stress.
“Then the agonizing nightmares returned, nightmares that were so real and frightening that I could have gored my flesh and torn out my hair. To prevent falling into delirium, I began to pray and to call on the name of Jehovah. A feeling of great comfort came over me, and the unpleasant, repulsive hallucinations became weaker. I now understood the meaning of the situation in which I found myself—I was paying the price for my spiritistic practices. Satan, the ruler of this system of things, uses his weapons. The Witness who came to study the Bible with me advised me to destroy everything I had that was connected with spiritism. This I did. Nevertheless, the nightmares and the mental pressure did not stop immediately, but after a few weeks life became more bearable.
“I have now begun to attend the meetings at the Kingdom Hall, and although I must cover a distance of 120 kilometers (75 miles) there and back, I meet with Jehovah’s Witnesses every week. I am so happy to have learned to know Jehovah and his wonderful purposes toward the earth and mankind.”
This young man is now a baptized witness of Jehovah.