• A Rewarding Journey in Jehovah’s Service
    The Watchtower (Study)—2024 | September
    • André Ramseyer.

      LIFE STORY

      A Rewarding Journey in Jehovah’s Service

      AS TOLD BY ANDRÉ RAMSEYER

      IN 1951, I had just arrived in Rouyn, a small town in the Canadian province of Quebec. I knocked on the door of the address I had been given. Marcel Filteau,a a Gilead-trained missionary, came to the door. He was 23 years old and tall; I was 16 and shorter. I showed him my pioneer assignment letter. He read it, looked at me, and said, “Does your mother know that you’re here?”

      RAISED IN A RELIGIOUSLY DIVIDED HOME

      I was born in 1934 to Swiss immigrants who settled in Timmins, a mining town in Ontario, Canada. About 1939, my mother began to read the Watchtower magazine and to attend meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She brought me and my six siblings with her. Soon, she became one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

      Father was not happy with her decision, but Mother loved the truth and was determined to stick with it. She did so even during the early 1940’s when the work of Jehovah’s Witnesses was banned in Canada. And she always treated Father with kindness and respect, despite his verbal abuse. Her excellent example helped me and my siblings to accept the truth too. Happily, Father’s attitude softened in time and he began to treat our family more kindly.

      BEGINNING FULL-TIME SERVICE

      During the summer of 1950, I attended the Theocracy’s Increase Assembly in New York City. I was very motivated to do more in Jehovah’s service after meeting brothers and sisters from around the world and listening to exciting interviews of Gilead School graduates! I became more determined than ever to enter the full-time ministry. As soon as I got back home, I applied to become a regular pioneer. The Canada branch office wrote back, suggesting that I get baptized first. I did so on October 1, 1950. One month later, I became a regular pioneer and received my first assignment in Kapuskasing. That town was many kilometers away from where I was living at the time.

      André holding an issue of “The Watchtower.”

      Serving in Quebec

      In the spring of 1951, the branch office invited Witnesses who could speak French to consider moving to the French-speaking province of Quebec. The need was great there. I grew up speaking both French and English, so I answered the call and was assigned to Rouyn. I did not know anybody there. All I had was an address, as I related earlier. But things worked out well. Marcel and I became good friends, and I enjoyed serving in Quebec for the next four years, eventually as a special pioneer.