What a Day Wednesday!!!

Hi everyone...its Dan Ward.   Wednesday was an exciting and very memorable day.  We were really getting into the groove of the ministry here.  All of us had 10 or 12 hours of service in so far for the week and we were hitting our stride, making sharp points with the Bible and finding several honest hearted ones of multiple faiths that recognized the ring of truth from the Bible.  We broke up our service time a little different on Wednesday...hence why we didn't make a post last night.  We met the group at the park at the usual time, 9:00 am, but this time only went out until noon.  After that we did a little shopping in town and some ate lunch at the mall while others went back to the house for lunch and a little "heat of the day" rest.  We wanted to go back out in the afternoon and try to find some return visits as well as take a little different tack working afternoon door to door.  We had mild success in both, but always someone in the group had an outstanding conversation.  It is very common.  Everyone worked from 4-6 pm and we all met at the Outback Steakhouse for a nice meal, 14 of us together.  The waitress was very surprised that we didn't need any kid's menus...  :)

After eating for an hour or so, we made quick time to the Provo Kingdom Hall and shared a wonderful school and service meeting with our brothers there.  They had oral review this week, making up from CO visits and District Convention reschedules.  One of the brothers from the local congregation commented during his part..."I love seeing this hall so full"...he was not alone in his sentiment.  We all love seeing full Kingdom Halls and the near deafening roar of so many zealous ones singing loudly together gave many chills and goosebumps.  It was neat to see 5 students from BYU there at the meeting also.  Some from one of the other visiting groups had met them in the service and invited them to the meeting.  Talking with the locals, it is evidentally not rare for the LDS college students to visit the Kingdom Hall. 

Jeff and Barbara Weathers

Following the meeting, Jeff Weathers, the local Special Pioneer that is organizing the group work, took all the visiting groups up to a viewpoint in the mountains above Orem.  Having shared with so many in the territory Luke 4:5-7, is was a running joke that he was taking us to "an unusually high place." It seemed like we drove and drove and drove...up and up and up.  But when we got to the top, the view was breathtaking.  The city lights were amazing. We could see over 30 miles north and south.  Jeff described where the unassigned territory borders were and we all felt a great sense of joy and accomplishment looking down on a portion of the world that the faithful slave had entrusted to us for preaching.  We stayed for awhile, laughing together with our brothers...sometimes at our brothers...but enjoying the fellowship with over 30 wonderful friends that we only find in Jehovah's organization.

We didn't get back to the house until after 11.  We went straight to bed...well some of us had ice cream, but we went to bed after that.   Hence no, post last night.



Meeting for field service in the Park

Today, Thursday I made my 3rd visit on a very special man that I met and placed a Teach Book with on Tuesday.  The initial call, Tuesday mid morning, was not unlike a BTB placement that we so often make in our Portland territory.  When we were working the apartments that this man lives in, we often took a much less straight forward approach.  Few in the apartments are devout or even practicing LDS.  Many more are just struggling people that need a hope for the future.  That was Mike's story.  I shared Pslm 37:10,11, he was amazed at the opportunity for perfect life on a paradise earth.  He literally snatched the book from my hand when
 I showed it to him.  We discusssed some chapters from the book and made a specific appointment to meet again the very next day.  If you have opportunity to do this with calls back home, please try it.  Here we have such a sense of urgency knowing we only had a few days to meet with interested ones.  If it is at all possible, go back on RVs the next day...two days at the most, their reaction can be outstanding.  Anyway, Shauna and I went back on Wednesday at 11:00 am and we were there for an hour.  Mike had stayed up that night and reread the book of Matthew.  He felt a need to be prepared for our next discussion.  He had wrote down some points he wanted to talk to us about, several questions he had and he could not wait to ask them of us.  When he brought out his personal copy of the Bible for our discussion, it looked like Sister Long's study copy of the Watch Tower.  Almost no margin not written in and so much highlighter the pages almost glowed.   We sat down on his loveseat and he shook his room mate awake that was sleeping in a sleeping bag on the couch.  "Get up and listen" he told his friend, whom I have to admit was quite surprised to see us in his apartment. 

Mike dove right in and asked us "what is the difference between you and the LDS church"....I could not have been happier to answer that question.  Shauna and I fired away at the LDS church, their teachings of politics, the immortal soul, God's purpose for man, approval of war and on and on.  We shared scripture after scripture and both men were absolutely soaking up the truth.  It was an enormous joy to use the Bible so freely and see intelligent men discovering the truth...and doing this all with my wife. They kept exclaiming..."this is so simple"..."why aren't you telling people this stuff"...we smiled, chuckled and told them about our worldwide preaching work.  The next question was..."ok...tell us what is different about Jehovah's Witnesses and other Christian churches."  I immediately went to John 13:34,35.  "This is one of the identifying marks that Jesus gave you, Mike, to find the true religion.  Go down to the Methodist church (his father was a methodist preacher) and ask them if they would send their young men off to war to kill other methodist in another country...and when they tell you yes!, then go down to the baptist church and ask them...and when you get done, go to the LDS church and ask them if they would kill their brother at the beck and call of some man made government...and then come down to Kingdom Hall."  Our loving unity will always make us different.  We also went to Matt 24:14, and said we are the only ones doing this work, preaching about the Kingdom of God.  We left him after an hour with the question, "what is that kingdom."  Both him and his room mate, Jacob, were so excited to hear what the Bible teaches and were nearly dumbfounded at the simplicity of the Truth. Shauna and I floated back to the car and truly felt Jehovah had sent us to Utah to find those men.

We went back today.  This time Pete and I shared another 25 minutes with Mike.  We demonstrated the Bible study program, getting into the BT book under the subheading "What is God's Kingdom."  His interest in the truth is outstanding.  I could type 10 pages and still not tell you the whole experience.

It will feel empty not to go back again to this call.  We told Mike about Jeff and how he would be taking over the study the very next day.  Mike, gave us his phone number and enthusiasticly told us to make sure that Jeff comes by.  We assured him we would and I told him that I would call in a week to make sure everything is set up and to see how he is progressing.  With the right heart condition and if Jehovah draws this man, I have no doubt that he will make good spiritual progress. 

With that experience...my 3 sentence soap box.  I implore you to make time in your schedule to work unassigned territory.  There is no experience in Jehovah's organization like this.  You will be sharpened by the territory, encouraged by the tremendous interest that you find, uplifted by the time spent with your brothers and rejuvinated to continue the urgent preaching work back home. 

Your brother,

Dan Ward



The View from the "unusually high mountain"