We have mentioned Joy’s paternal grandfather, Albert, previously, in one or two articles. When we met, Don was not a believer, and at some point, Grandpa began praying for his salvation. He didn’t really know Don very well, so he must’ve made it a practice to pray for all his many grandchildren and their significant others. Of course he did! But more than that, he also prayed that Don would become a pastor! Don did attend church with Joy’s family as a teenager, yet it likely would have seemed very peculiar if we had known of Grandpa’s prayers at the time. But so firm was Grandpa’s conviction that God would honor his prayers that he had been buying Bible commentaries and other tools and resources a preacher would need. We dated for three years and then were married for an additional three years before our son was born. We had not been attending a church regularly in those early years, but the responsibility of raising a child weighed heavily on Joy as a new mother, causing her to renew her faith. She asked me to read some books that had been helpful to her, and I readily agreed. After all, I had realized long before that if Joy wants something badly enough, it is easier just to give in early. So, read I did, and I ended up believing. We began attending a church and dragged several of our newly believing best friends to church with us. Well, at the next family picnic, Grandpa Albert arrived with a box of Bibles, commentaries, and other useful books to give to Don. We thought it pretty amazing but were not certain about any future “pastoring.” Joy was not at all sure she was called to be a pastor’s wife. After all, she didn’t even play the piano.

We were avid bowlers, and at one point, Joy joined a women’s scratch league where she met some delightful and fun women who, as it happened, were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Joy knew that JWs believed many questionable things because of her mom’s witnessing to them whenever they came to the door. But she certainly didn’t know how to share the gospel with them. We went to our pastor, who also wasn’t sure, but he gave us a tract that included several Bible verses, without providing an explanation of why they were important. Joy’s love for these women sent us both on a research project to discover what they believed and why they held those beliefs. We read every book we could find on the subject, but there just wasn’t that much good material available at that time, at least that we were aware of. We then saw some Christian ex-JWs on the John Ankerberg Christian television program, comparing their newfound Christian faith with the JW religion they once believed in. It was compelling. We decided to attend a yearly convention these former JWs put on in Pennsylvania, where many exes (and interested people like us) gathered and told their stories, and shared what they had learned since leaving that organization.  So, the next October, we drove to PA and joined them. It was a wonderful spiritual experience. We listened to everyone’s story and read every book we could find on the subject but only wanted to learn more. Weird, huh? We never would have even imagined it. We did not pursue this knowledge to win spiritual arguments, but because we cared for JWs and wanted to free them from this cult. Eventually, we opened a pre-recorded help line for JWs in our area and advertised the phone number in area newspapers with provocative questions. Joy wrote and recorded the messages, which were about five minutes long, and they were changed weekly. We were cautioned not to pick up the phone because JWs who called were fearful that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society was trying to “catch them” questioning their faith, and disfellowship them. There is much fear in that organization. No grace. Eventually, that type of telephone outreach had grown in the US and Canada, and we changed ours to a live line, which some of the lines referred their callers to if they wanted to speak with someone right away. All of this led to what became Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. It turns out Grandpa Albert’s prayer was answered, in a slightly different way than he might have imagined, and we were indeed in ministry. We had never had the slightest clue we would end up in this or any other ministry. Funny how God works. Before you know it, you’re involved in something you never planned on, and wouldn’t have believed possible if someone had told you! JWs are constantly warned in their literature about people like us, “bad, bad, bad” through and through! But they don’t understand that it’s really only that your grandfather prayed for you to end up in ministry, and what else could you do but fall in line, as each new step presented itself? WHAT ELSE COULD YOU DO? Getting involved in this type of ministry arises out of a strong love God gives you for these lost folks, and it is certainly not about hate.

One afternoon, the live line rang, and Joy picked it up. A distressed Jehovah’s Witness was on the line. She had been seeing the helpline ad for years and decided she had nothing to lose by calling. During the conversation, she asked, “Why do you do this?” Joy explained that she had joined a women’s bowling league years earlier and loved the JW women friends she made and wanted to reach them. The caller said, “I know who you are!” Joy immediately asked, “Who are you?” The caller was extremely hesitant; she didn’t want to reveal that info and potentially be “outed,” so Joy assured her she didn’t need to tell her anything. Further into the call, Joy offered to send some materials (we sent out “bricks” of cassette tapes from ex-JW conventions in those days, along with plenty of written material). But, in order to send them, Joy told her, trying not to sound scary, she’d need an address, which didn’t have to be her own, and a name, which didn’t have to be hers, in order to mail the materials. With a little fear and trepidation, she gave her real name and address. Joy was shocked. It was one of the women she had bowled with. She said she had persuaded her JW friends to join the morning bowling league all those years earlier. This was soon after the failed “1975 Armageddon prophecy” had not come to pass, so since many JWs had left college or sold their homes or made many other dire lifestyle changes that were not at all necessary but cost them plenty, JWs were given a little freer rein than before. (The Watchtower Society – Jehovah’s Witnesses – had made many false prophecies and taught obviously false teachings over the years, none of which actually came to pass, but they didn’t stop making these foolish false prophecies for many, many years. They always said these prophecies and teachings came straight from God, and sometimes were carried down by angels, because God, Jehovah, simply cannot be everywhere at once, which would obviously be ridiculous. The organization has not shared new false prophetic dates in recent years that we are aware of, but the old ones in the literature are still in numerous hands and can be shared with a JW if you get the opportunity. And here’s the thing to remember – God never teaches people mistakes or lies, and would never have put them into print, even if He did! Which we reiterate, He did not.

Did all of this happen by chance, or was there a long-term plan God had laid out? This woman shared the material with her husband. She had been a JW for 24 years, and he for 35. They both, as well as their children, came to the faith. As we were meeting with them, we discovered that he had an elderly Baptist aunt who had been praying for them every day for many years. A coincidence or something else?

Year later, after the 2008 financial crash, we worked as a long-haul trucking team, because Don’s long-time occupation as a builder had temporarily dried up. Joy drove during the day into the night, and Don drove the night into the day. We were an express team, California and back every 6 days, then one blessed night at home before the next trip. Actually, there were lots of good points about it – beautiful scenery in the daytime, and unbelievably beautiful nights under gazillions of stars far away from major cities. One morning, we stopped at a rest area in Texas. Rest areas tend to have the auto and the semi-truck parking separated, and this one had a very large truck parking area. When we stopped, it was about mid-morning, and as it happened, we were the only truck in there. A few minutes after we parked, a car drove into the truck parking area and stopped beside us. It appeared to be a man with his family. He got out and came up to our driver’s side door, indicating he wanted to talk to Don, who was sitting in that very seat. He did not appear to be threatening, so Don opened the door to see what he wanted. He was a Jehovah’s Witness, of all things, and had stopped to tell Don about the Watchtower, Jehovah, and His kingdom. What are the odds that a chance meeting at a rest area off the interstate like this would occur? As he was introducing himself, Don asked the poor man who his mediator was? (The Bible is very clear that there is only ONE mediator, the man Christ Jesus! He was a bit surprised and responded immediately that yes, Jesus was the mediator. So, he was more than a bit surprised when Don pointed out that the Watchtower clearly states that Jesus is only the mediator for the special 144,000 “anointed class” of Jehovah’s Witnesses!¹Watchtower April 1, 1979 p.31 Yes, according to their teaching, Jesus did not mediate for the vast majority of JWs. There was more bad news for him, though. The official position of the JWs is, as the Watchtower dogmatically states, that everyone else’s salvation is based solely on how they treat the 144,000 anointed class of the JWs! Just to be clear for our readers, a man or a “class” of men cannot be the mediator between God and Man! Only Jesus – who is both God and man – can fill this role. But the Watchtower taught:

Your attitude toward the wheatlike anointed “brothers” of Christ and the treatment you accord them will be the determining factor as to whether you go into “everlasting cutting-off” or receive “everlasting life.” (Matt. 25:34-46) Prove yourself to be a loyal companion of the anointed “wheat” class, the “faithful and discreet slave,” whom Christ has appointed to provide spiritual “food at the proper time.” (Matt. 24:45)²Watchtower August 1, 1981 p.26

There is so much JW literature out there that JWs cannot keep up with all the new “truths” and/or all the necessary “changes in truth” that come along, but which they MUST now believe. This poor man was completely unaware of this official teaching by the Watchtower. After explaining this very bad news, Don was able to share the good news that one can be truly saved by believing in God’s truth, which never changes, calling on Jesus as LORD, Jehovah (God), as stated in Romans 10:9-13. We won’t know what this man decided until we are with the Lord, but this certainly seemed like a divine appointment rather than a “chance meeting” at a truck stop.

On another trip we were parked in a line of about twenty other semis at a truck stop in Yuma, AZ. It was early morning, about 7:30 AM. I will let Don tell this story since I (Joy) was in the sleeper.

I was reviewing where we would pick up our next load and preparing to call and schedule the pickup time with the shipper. A small pickup truck pulled in, drove past about ten semis, and, strangely, “happened to stop” in front of our vehicle. The passenger door opened, and out stepped an elderly gentleman. The pick-up pulled away and parked as the gentleman walked up to my door. I opened the door, and with a big smile, the visitor to our truck introduced himself as “one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.” What a surprise! As we spoke, I asked if he could perhaps help me understand why their New World Translation of the Bible has “Jehovah” sending “Jehovah”? (We had learned long before that day that it is very often best to work with their own JW literature when speaking with JWs, that is produced by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. You may be interested in our article, “The Not So Strange Tale of Two Jehovahs.”) The poor man became very uncomfortable and assured me there must be a good explanation. I pointed out other problematic teaching in the literature from the organization, which, of course, we did not have with us, but I offered to mail it to him if he gave me his address. After all, he was kind enough to leave his home and come to a truck stop to deliver a magazine to me, the least I could do was return the favor via mail. By then, Joy was awake and praying for the conversation. He was trying to make his way back to the pickup truck he arrived in as quickly as possible, and afterward, the driver wasted no time in leaving the truck stop. A chance meeting or a divine appointment? We had absolutely no idea that a JW would leave their house and drive directly to our truck parked in a truck stop in their town, but we are fairly sure God did. We had many other “chance meetings with JWs over the years. We learned pretty quickly that in the Christian life and/or ministry, “chance” is not always that “chancy.” Sometimes chance appears to be a sort of pre-arranged meeting. Strange the way that works.

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 1:3)Ω

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