Following Jehovah’s Direction Brings Rich Blessings
As told by Donald J. Morrison
THE making of a dedication to Jehovah should mean what for a Christian? For me it meant that ‘I must obey God as ruler rather than men.’ (Compare Acts 5:29.) Despite this, here I was—single, having no responsibility, holding down a good job with opportunity for advancement, attending Christian meetings and doing some field service as a Kingdom proclaimer.
At the same time, there in Canada, young, single, unencumbered Christian men and women were being encouraged to take up full-time witnessing as pioneers. Months passed, but finally in April 1942 I entered the pioneer service. From then till now I have come to realize that following the direction Jehovah God gives through his Word and the congregation of his people brings many blessings.
The Truth Enters Our Home
My first contact with Bible truth took place while I was still a child. The Bible Students, as Jehovah’s Witnesses then were called, had advertised a meeting to be held in a small one-room schoolhouse one Sunday afternoon in 1921. Since the subject sounded interesting, our whole family attended. After the meeting my parents talked with the speaker, and this resulted in a discussion at our home the following week. My parents readily accepted the truth.
Till then, our family had been Presbyterian, and my younger brother and sister and I attended Sunday School. But with the light of truth illuminating our home, we learned that there is no such thing as hellfire or immortality of the soul. Instead, we learned about the wonderful hope of living forever on a Paradise earth. (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10; Ezekiel 18:4; Luke 23:43) What a marvelous prospect!
Our home became a center for regular meetings and also a haven for any Bible Students who might be witnessing in the area. Although as children we attended the Bible Students’ Sunday School, much of my early Scriptural education took place at home. When we came home from school for our noon meal, Mother would always have something to tell us about what she had learned at the meetings or had read in the Watch Tower Society’s publications.
Handbills were prepared for one of the public talks to be given in our home. Although only eight years old, I was given the privilege of distributing these leaflets to all the homes in our village. This not only advertised the meeting but also served notice on the villagers as to where we now stood religiously. Thereafter, whenever my schoolmates wanted to get at me, they would call me Never-Die—this as a result of the talk “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.”
Despite this fine beginning, I really did nothing except learn about the truth. However, the year 1938 brought a change. By then I had spent some years in secular work, had bought a car and was able to take our family to all the congregation meetings. This also opened up the opportunity to engage regularly in the field service. It was a joy to see my father and my mother symbolize their dedication to God by undergoing water baptism at the first assembly I attended. During this zone assembly, held in New Liskeard, Ontario, World War II broke out. Being of military age and single, I would soon be affected. However, a more immediate effect was the banning of our work in Canada.
Adjusting to Service Under Ban
In August 1940, together with my brother and my sister, I symbolized my dedication to Jehovah by being baptized in one of the beautiful clear-water lakes of northern Ontario. Although under ban, we continued holding our meetings in private homes. And during the rest of that summer, as one of a car group of Witnesses, I was privileged each Sunday to conduct Bible studies with interested persons living in the rurals. Most of these individuals and their families came right along and accepted the truth.
In time it was arranged that there would be a big Canada-wide “blitz,” leaving special booklets at the homes of the people at three o’clock in the morning. This was followed by other early-morning distributions. Of course, our family was blamed for this in our community, and some mornings we would find torn booklets on our veranda. Eventually this activity gave way to regular door-to-door witnessing with only the Bible.
During this time two special representatives of the Society visited the congregation, and arrangements were made to have all the brothers and interested persons meet at our home. Some of our neighbors attempted to have the meeting raided by the police. But because we were on the alert, the police arrived to find only a square dance in progress. So the police car just drove slowly past the house and left the area.
In 1940 I was making plans to enter the full-time pioneer service. But the ban disrupted this. However, by 1942 the time had come for me to serve Jehovah full time. My first assignment was at Parry Sound, in the Georgian Bay area of Ontario. An incident there still stands out in my mind.
One afternoon a car came racing up the hill to the house where my partner and I were staying. Inside the car were two policemen and with them two others (one on each running board). They came rushing to the house as if in pursuit of some desperate criminals. But after searching the house and asking many questions, they went away empty-handed. They intimated that what angered them was our door-to-door preaching. Further encounters with the police followed, but our adhering to sound advice received from the Society kept us from being arrested.
In the meantime, with the acceleration of the war the subject of neutrality became a major issue. (John 15:19) Many subtle schemes were devised to try to get us to violate our neutrality. For instance, a Roman Catholic selective-service officer opposed to our activities directed me to work in a sawmill, earning my keep and $75 a month. The proviso was that $50 of this salary had to be donated to the Red Cross. But he was informed that I was fully occupied as a minister. So this directive was ignored and I kept on pioneering.
This was not to last long, however, for shortly thereafter I was arrested. Interestingly, this occurred as I finished conducting the funeral of a Christian sister. I had just concluded the closing prayer at the graveside when the police officer came and marched me out of the cemetery. But the officer could not make up his mind what to do. He kept taking handcuffs out of his pocket and then putting them back again. Finally, I was taken into custody without being handcuffed. At the court trial some days later, I was sentenced to a detention camp and escorted there by an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in full dress.
Serving in Detention
The two years of my detention were spent in four different camps, two in Ontario and two in Alberta. What happened to our preaching and disciple-making work during this time? It continued but on a limited scale. At the camp in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies, 80 Witnesses were in detention at one time. We managed to rent a vacant store on the main street in the nearby town of Jasper, and this meeting place was fitted with a large “Kingdom Hall” sign for all to see—in itself a silent witness.
Just prior to my release, I received an invitation to attend a special meeting to be held at the Cleveland, Ohio, convention in 1946. Happily, I was released just in time. At that meeting I was invited to serve in the circuit work. What a joy and blessing from Jehovah! Later I was invited to work at the Toronto Bethel in Canada, and I served there until 1950 when I married Marjorie, a pioneer in one of the Toronto congregations. We both pioneered until I was invited to serve in the circuit work again. Thereafter we attended the 23rd class of Gilead School, graduating at the 1954 district assembly in Toronto. Our assignment was Rhodesia (now renamed Zimbabwe).
To a Foreign Assignment
A fierce snowstorm was raging when we left my home in Cobalt, northern Ontario. What a delight it was when our ship docked in Cape Town, South Africa, and we felt the warm sunshine. And how pleasant to be witnessing to the people in such a lovely place! Our stay in Cape Town lasted six weeks while we awaited permission to enter our assigned country. Then, for three days we traveled by train through terrain so different from what we had been accustomed to, and we savored the sights and sounds of Zimbabwe, the country that was to become our home. Here was a land of contrasts because of the two ethnic groups. At first we stayed at the missionary home and Society’s branch office in a residential area of Salisbury (now Harare).
Our service began with the English-speaking population, and soon we were conducting a number of Bible studies. One of my early experiences was that of calling on one of Christendom’s missionaries who complained that we did not respect their boundaries. What boundaries was she talking about? Later, we discovered that the various religions had divided the country into areas in which each would operate without interference by the others. Needless to say, Jehovah’s Witnesses would never enter into a boundary agreement with some segment of Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion. (Revelation 18:1-5) So the witness work advanced in all areas as the truth reached them.
It was not long till I was assigned to the circuit work covering the entire English-speaking field. What a joy it was to meet so many witnesses of Jehovah in our new home!
Later, as we became better acquainted with the customs of the country, I was assigned to the district work among our African brothers. This meant studying a new language and covering many miles between congregations and assemblies in a van provided by the Society. It was like going on safari because we had to set up camp in the various places we visited. What a collection of items we carried! Besides Bible literature, we took along a generator, a projector for the Society’s films and the necessary equipment for cooking and sleeping. This was a completely different way of life for us. But it was a wonderful way to get close to our brothers and learn about their problems and how they approached people in the field service. It was also heartwarming to note that some Witnesses walked 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km), and even farther, to attend assemblies, and then paid rapt attention so as to miss nothing.—Hebrews 10:24, 25.
Looking back on the time spent in the district work, many things come to mind. There was the very old and wrinkled African woman who had tears in her eyes when I read her the scripture about the aged ones returning to the days of their youth. (Job 33:25) On another occasion, the headman of a village called his 5 wives and 19 children together to hear what we had to say.
One night we had a puff adder in our tent and, obviously, had to get rid of it before we could get to sleep. Near one home, loud grunts drew our attention to about a dozen hippos basking in the sun at a pool in the river. Then there were the times when, after a day of witnessing on foot, we returned to camp to find several people waiting to receive first aid because there were no doctors or clinics in the area. But above all, we remember the love of our fellow Christians and their appreciation for the arrangement that enabled us to travel to areas, sometimes very remote places, and to associate with them.
Rich Blessings Continue
My life as a servant of Jehovah has really been very rewarding and exciting, and I have had many blessings and privileges. One of these was being able to attend Gilead School a second time as a student in the 37th class. And a number of times I have been able to return to the United States and Canada to attend international assemblies. For some 20 years Marjorie and I have been serving at the Society’s branch office in Harare. During this time some of those with whom we have studied the Bible have been baptized. They, in turn, have helped still others to take their stand for Jehovah.
After many years of full-time service, I have come to appreciate more fully the counsel coming from God through his Word and the congregation of his people. Indeed, following Jehovah’s direction brings rich blessings.—Proverbs 10:22.
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Our first Kingdom Hall in Jasper, Alberta, Canada
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My “office” as a district overseer in Africa