My Brief Testimony

Welcome  --Assurance For Former Jehovah's Witnesses --My Brief Testimony --Our Purpose --Serving The Lord Since 2001 --Consider These



I was christened in the United Church of Canada as an infant.  That was in 1963.  In 1967 however my mother accepted information from the Jehovah's Witnesses who regularly had called at our door.  Politely refusing them before, this time she was taken in by their offer of literature.  This was the beginning of a life altering adherence for the rest of our lives.

I was just four years old when the Jehovah's Witnesses came weekly to our home, to 'study' with mother, and address my father's objections.  He however soon accepted this all as well.  By the middle of 1968 we were regulalry attending their Kingdom Hall, and I was raised believing that this was the real and only truth, the one and only and required way to God.  I had known, and knew nothing else.

From the very first day of school I was set apart as different, and not even understanding why, adhering to many new stipulations and restrictions.  By 1969 we had learned that my father's maternal grandparents had also been members of the Watchtower Society away back when the followers were known as International Bible Students.

In our small town of Port Dover, they had built their Kingdom Hall in the 1950's.  As a youth I cut the grass there, weeded gardens, painted, etc.  My prents were baptized by water immersion as full fledged Jehovah's Witnesses in 1971 as were father's parents, followed by my older sister in 1972.  My turn was in 1980 at age seventeen.  I was really gung-ho as they say, involved fully with them, and doing all that was required to the best of my ability.  I went regulalrly in the door to door work, attended all the meetings and conventions, and was truly indoctrinated.

At age of nineteen however, after having read the entire bible, and this the Watchtower's own New World Translation even, I was convinced that eternity was to be with Christ, and not relegated for me to a paradise here in the earth far away from Him.  I had set my sights on serving full time at the Canadian Branch of the Watchtower headquarters, and figured that a full investigation and research of the Watchtower Society from birth to present would affirm in me what I had been taught, strengthen my resolve, and make me even a better Jehovah's Witness.  The opposite however came to the fore.

I began seeing huge discrepancies and errors in their teaching, especially their disdain for the true identity of Jesus Christ, and their inadequate belief about His sacrifce, and numerous other things.  Soon my faith in the Watchtower Society as the real spokesperson for God here on earth began to erode.  I grew more and more discontent.  I knew that to air my differences would mark me as one to be wary of, an independant thinker, even an apostate.  This meant that I would lose all contact with my family and friends.  I quietly slipped into irregular activity, and just went through the motions for the next decade.

However, by 1996 I was feeling that I needed to confirm it all and get back to it, or see it all unsubstantiated and move on.  In October of that year I invited a Jehovah's Witness elder over to my apartment, and laid out everything I now questioned and what I had found to be unscriptural with the Watchtower Society.  His basic summary was that I was not to be reading the Bible on my own, and that I had no right to have had researched as I did, and that there was no way I could understand God's word without the guidance of the Watchtower Society leaderhsip, a.k.a their Governing Body.  That was it for me.

For the next four years I did nothing really toward spirituality.  By 2000 however I just had this nagging in me that I HAD to find the answers, find out who God really is.  For the first time in years I prayed... not even knowing if God would hear my prayer, or even knowing if I was praying properly.  One evening I was on my knees in my apartment, tears were streaming down my face, and I asked God that if He was real then would He please show Himself to me.

The very next day I met with an evangelical Pastor, the first kind and caring soul I had met in years, and he shared Christ's love with me, and prayed with me, and assured me that I was loved, and that Jesus wanted me to come to Him.  In the new year of 2001 I attended this Pastor's church, knowing that by watchtower Society laws that I had now really crossed the line, having gone into what they tell others is a demonized haunt of the devil.  I did feel out of place at first in this church, but soon the genuine real love I was shown there put me at ease.

I attended church regularly after that, and all the Watchtower instilled fears about a church were soon washed away and dissolved by the presence of Christ.  On March 15th, 2001 there in that sanctuary I gave my life to Jesus Christ, accepting Him as Lord and Savior of my life.  I have not once ever looked back.  Now, as a found sheep and a child of the Lord in the fullest and realest sense, I have no fears about life or the future.  I do not have to worry if I have done enough works to be considered worthy enough.  I knew then, that it is by the blood of Jesus Christ that I am washed clean, as white as snow.  Jesus took me in as I was, and He has lead me since.

In 2002 the Lord lead me to begin an outreach to others struggling as I was, and I have been blessed to have been used of Him to see many other former Jehovah's Witnesses come unto Him.  I now attend Center Street Baptist Church in St. Thomas, Ontario where I serve and sit on the Board of Christian Education.  Too, I have been blessed since salvation to have served in many different capacities. 

I now await the Lord's imminent return.  I want to kiss His cheek, give Him a hug and say 'Thank You'.