A Blind Man Gains Sight
THE wife of a circuit servant in Korea writes: “About six months ago while engaging in house-to-house work during a circuit visit with my husband to one of the Seoul congregations, I met a person of good will who was blind. My sermon dealt with the blessings of the paradise new earth, where sight will be restored and there will be perfect health and happiness. He manifested much interest in the message. Although unable to read, he nevertheless readily accepted a year’s subscription for The Watchtower, with the thought of having one of his friends read it to him. He has always had a keen desire for knowledge and he is quite well educated. His home has become sort of a community center for his blind friends.
“A back-call was arranged for the next day and on the call a Bible study was easily started. He wanted some publications in braille so that he could make faster progress in his study, but we had no publications in Korean braille.
“When my husband and I returned to the congregation four months later we found this good-will person making excellent progress, even attending all the congregation meetings and preaching to his friends. He expressed the desire to study twice a week to make more rapid progress so he could be immersed soon.
“About that time we read in the English Watchtower about a man in Japan who had been convicted of murder but who had learned the Bible truth while in prison. Although confined to prison, it was ten years before he was executed, in June, 1959. It was during the last years of this period of waiting that he came in contact with the Kingdom message. He made a dedication to Jehovah God and symbolized it by water immersion there in prison. Before he was executed he did everything he could to present the good news to guards and prisoners, and to others, including the relatives of those he had killed, by letter writing. He even studied braille and then transcribed a number of the Society’s publications into braille and had them distributed to persons in different parts of Japan, including schools for the blind.
“Since our Korean man of good will could read Japanese braille, we wrote a letter to Japan requesting some of these publications. Just before our April district assembly a box arrived containing a number of braille publications, and immediately my husband and I took them to him. Before handing him the books, we told him the story of the brother who had transcribed them. What a joy it was to watch his fingers slowly go over the braille impressions and to watch him repeat with his lips, ‘This Good News of the Kingdom’! ‘Oh!’ he said, ‘I finally have something that I can study and use in helping my blind friends to see the truth.’ Having inquired further about the brother who had prepared these publications in braille, he said: ‘In the new world I surely want to meet and see him and express my thanks for this wonderful gift.’
“This person of good will who is physically blind has now gained spiritual sight and is a publisher of the Kingdom. He has really come out of darkness and now rejoices in Jehovah’s marvelous light.”