2 Good Experiences

I think I'll start something new. I blogged an interesting experience from one of our Circuit Assemblies in the past. It was good enough that I wanted to share it, and remember it. Well, I want to share all the good ones - THE GOOD ONES I said. Some of them just stand out. So I'm gonna start recording some of the better experiences from our assemblies and conventions.

We just had our 2 day assembly for the year and it ended up with 2 good experiences given by Brother Madsen, our current 66 year old District Overseer, who was raised on a farm in Ohio:

For some reason I didn't catch the very beginning of either of these experiences, So we'll start with the near the beginning. This was about a couple in the ministry in Ethiopia. They stayed in the city and were sent to a village that would be "safe". They were told there were no witnesses in the territory. After working some of it they met a 6 year old boy who told them he was one of Jehovah's Witnesses. They were baffled. They looked for his family and could find none. The boy belonged to no one. So they contacted the authorities to see if they could take the boy out of the village, back to the city and find a home for him. The authorities said he was likely kidnapped as a sex slave, it was very common in the area. So, yes, they could take the boy and do what they could.

When they got back to the city it was already meeting time so they headed straight for the Kingdom Hall. When they got to the hall the boy recognized it and said that it had been his hall! Then, when they got inside in the front row were his parents! They were all amazed to have found each other! The parents had looked for 2 years for the boy, then gave up and determined that he'd been murdered, they even had a memorial for him.

But the most astonishing thing about this story isn't how the boy and his family were reunited - rather it was that he had been taken when he was 3. That was 3 years prior and he knew that he was one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Those parents had definitely inculcated the truth into his heart. The heart of a 3 year old. He knew he was a Witness and that's what got him back to his parents!

The next experience takes place closer to home, I'm not sure where exactly but that doesn't matter. It involves a 40 something brother, a prematurely bald dad with kids at home. That's important.

He apparently was having health issues and an ambulance had been called. En route to the hospital he had 2 major heart attacks that did much damage to his heart and he actually died twice before reaching the hospital.

In the hospital he gained consciousness and while he was in a lucid state his doctor wanted to get him to make a decision before he lost consciousness again. The doctor told him that he had major heart damage and he had only 2 choices. He could have surgery in the morning that would help him live another 10 or 20 years (if he lived til the morning). His chances of surviving the surgery were 50%. Or he could choose to not have the surgery and live as long as his heart lasted, which would only be a matter of days, not even a week. He had no problem deciding. He had kids at home, he had to do what he could to try to live as long as he could, he had to take care of his family, he would have the surgery.

That night an elder visited and they read some scriptures. One that was shared was Romans 14:7 & 8 "None of us, in fact, lives with regard to himself only, and no one dies with regard to himself only; for both if we live, we live to Jehovah, and if we die, we die to Jehovah. Therefore both if we live and if we die, we belong to Jehovah."

Jehovah only sees the living person, even if he's dead, he's alive to Jehovah. So it really didn't matter to this brother if he lived or died, either way he was alive to Jehovah. Then the elder made this remark: "So when you wake up after the surgery, even before you open your eyes, reach up and feel the top of your head. If you feel hair up there you know that you are 'on the other side'. If you're bald you know you made it!"

He had the surgery and is happily still alive.

I think I like the second one better, I love humor, But the first one makes you realize that you really can sound the truth down into your kids' hearts, even if they're only toddlers.