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May you all have peace!
I saw them as I pulled up the grocery store this morning... but made my mind up I just didn't want to "get into it." Just get out, run my errand, get back in the car... and go. So, when she held out the rag and asked:
"May I offer you a magazine?"
I quickly waved her off and kept walking. I was on a mission: errands to run and so no time (well, absolutely NO desire)... to engage in the usual "empty" debating that comes with talking with "committed" JWs, this morning. So, sigh, no...
Of course, HER "training" (or, maybe her own self-assuredness and "If anyone can convert someone, I can!" ism)... wouldn't LET her accept my "no" so she continued. I don't recall all that she said, however; for the most part I only heard "womp-wah, womp, womp, wahhhh!" But I DID hear her say that the contents (of her magazine) came "straight from the Bible."
No, no, girl... you have errands to run, so don't stop (I said to myself)...
As I passed her, I said:
"No, thank you. But I will offer YOU something and that is that you folks need to at least READ your Bible."
She responded:
"Oh, we DO! And EVERYTHING in our magazine is taken FROM the Bible!"
"No, it isn't," I said, as I moved away.
To which she retorted:
"Yes, it IS! EVERYTHING in this magazine (and she held one up) is taken from the Bible, which is... wait for it... GOD'S WORD."
Ummmm... sigh...
I stopped... and turned around... and looked at them more closely. In that instant I HEARD (as to her)... "hen"... and (as to him)... "henPECKED." No, it wasn't my own voice. MY voice had told me to keep moving! LOLOL! What I saw... and the ensuing conversation... showed me that what I'd heard was pretty accurate:
They were both in their late 50's to somewhere in the mid-60's, maybe. Not far from my age, perhaps even the same age. She was taller than me, on the heavy side, with bright blonde (dyed orange-y blonde) hair that "shook" as she spoke. He was short and portly, with a reddish-blonde "crew cut"... and a way too small yellow and black tie (that I just couldn't believe he bought for himself but was perhaps made to wear - by "someone" who felt he needed to wear a tie - it just didn't look like he was a regular tie-wearer but only had one on because he "had" to...). He was sitting a couple feet away on a planter completely empty handed: no book bag, bible, magazines, etc. She was standing, readied for any passerby, in full JW field service regalia: the customary book bag and a fistful of magazines (on sundry topics) in one hand, and... lo... the ooh-ahh new gray NWT in the other. Along with her own large, heavy purse (as customary, she was holding so much that she became physically exerted as she engage with me. Hence, MORE "trembling"... not from fear, but from weight, exertion, and vehement self-assuredness).
I approached and said:
"I'm sorry, but what you just said shows that you DON'T read your Bible."
"Yes, we DO!" she vehemently reiterated and then commenced with the usual serve-assured "Blah, blah, blah!" so common with many JW "pioneer" ladies.
"No," I tried to interject, "I mean as to what you just SAID..."
But she was turned ON, now, my turning around and speaking having literally flipped her "field service monologue" switch to "ON" (and at full speed!). As is also common to such ladies, then, she began to go, in a matter of seconds, through several different spiels... from the magazines... their purpose... content... even to death (yeah, death - who was talking about THAT??!)... but not really making a point as to ANY one of them (you know, that whole, "if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with... a whole lot of words about nothing")... and beginning to talk... and breathe... faster with each new one)...
To which I responded (to each one):
"No, that's not what I'm referring to... no, THAT's not what I'm referring to... no, I'm not talking about THAT but about what you SAID."
She, of course, kept talking... over me (what self-assured JW pioneer lady DOESN'T? LOLOL!)... and as she did, she began to puff (yeah, puff!!) and her breathing made it seem like her chest was swelling. And she trembled even more... and so I began to understand the description "hen"... because she looked JUST like a chicken that was getting plussed up by some disturbance, poor thing! I almost laughed, literally, when her double chin began to shake! NOT that I had ANY problem with her appearance, none at all - she looked totally fine - it was just the vision of a "hen" - she really did appear like such!
I didn't laugh, of course, but raised my voice JUST a tad so that she could hear it over her own and said:
"Let's go back to what you just SAID, because that's what I'm referring to.
Somehow, she heard me this time, and ceased talking. The man sat up a bit straighter.
"YOU said 'The Bible is God's word."
"Yes, I DID," she vehemently responded, "and it IS."
"No," I said, "It is not... and I can SHOW you, in YOUR Bible," and held out my hand.
Now, it got a bit interesting:
First, before she knew what she had done... she handed her Bible to me. BUT... I could see in her eyes that she was confused as to why she DID, that she hadn't MEANT to, indeed, WOULDN'T have had she been thinking... but now she wondered if somehow she had been "tricked" into doing so (of course, she wasn't). A look of confusion passed through her eyes and I could almost hear her think that it was HER "tool" to use "against" me, possibly an "opposer," not MINE to use against her! Her eyes said, "Wait, uh, why did I DO that!?"...
I opened it and flipped to John 1:1... or so I thought... and started to read there. But the new gray NWT, which I was previously concerned about, actually has a new feature (that may prove to be more useful than I thought in turning over WTBTS false teachings, although I NOW think that the corporation will use it to say, "See! HERE's what we BELIEVE!" versus what they TEACH). That new feature is... commentary... and here, the commentary was entitled "Outline of Contents". THINKING I was reading AT John 1:1, I began reading from the commentary... and praise JAH! Because the very FIRST thing it says THERE is:
"The Word became flesh."
Oh, uhhh... say, WHAT, now? I quickly looked at her... and could her look of confusion grow. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the man lean forward... to pay more attention.
I quickly realized that I wasn't reading the actual verse, though, and so went to it (John 1:1), and read:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god"
... after which I quickly went to John 1:14 and read, ("The Word became flesh").
It got even MORE interesting here, though, because SHE said:
"Well, uh, ummm... now, I don't know... I can't see... I need my... I don't know where my glasses are..."
and reached for her Bible.
HE, however, said... with a slight look of amusement on HIS face:
"That's what it says. You don't need your glasses. She's right, that's what it says."
She shot him a "look", to which he appeared amused. She put her hands on her Bible to take it but, of course, I didn't stop there. I asked:
"And what about Revelation 19:13? You DO know what it says THERE, right?"
Her hands trembled on the Bible as I turned the pages. I read to her:
"... and he is arrayed with an outer garment sprinkled with blood, and the name he is called is 'The Word of God'."
To which HE said, again:
"Yep, that's what it says!"
I didn't look at him, but at her. She gave him another "look," and then grabbed her Bible back.
I said:
"The BIBLE isn't the Word of God. CHRIST is the Word of God. The BIBLE says Christ is the Word of God."
I paused. She put her Bible away but said nothing. I could tell, though, that she was NOT pleased with what I had shown her, but didn't have a reply handy. So she avoided my look. At that, I turned and went into the store, throwing up my hands.
I was in the store less than 10 minutes but when I came out... they were gone. Not a trace. I scanned the sidewalk and parking lot... but no sight of them.
Who were they? My Lord said she was a die-hard JW "pioneer" who had been telling her husband he needed to "go out in field service," but that he had problems putting ALL of his faith in the WTBTS and so had resisted that for some time, doing so reluctantly but resignedly from time to time (he looked like he would enjoy a game and a couple/few beers more than field service - LOLOL!). I am wondering, then (my Lord did not say) whether our meeting was actually for the husband's sake... that perhaps witnessing the interchange between me and his wife himself might cause HIM to rethink HER plan! May JAH's will... WHATEVER that might be... be done!
Anyway, just thought it might add some "spark" to some of you dear ones' day!
Peace to you, ALL!
A slave of Christ,
Shellamar
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Do It justice brutha!
"I am proud to say that I will not lift one finger ( except my middle finger) for the WTBTS." 
