Slaving for the Lord Requires Persistence and Initiative
1 Help for a Man Who Is Blind, Deaf, and Mute: In 1999, the sign-language congregation in Kobe, Japan, learned of a deaf man named Hirofumi. When a brother tried to call on Hirofumi, his mother refused to let the brother see him. The brother called repeatedly and pleaded with the mother, and eventually she brought Hirofumi to the door. His hair and his beard were long and unkempt. He looked like someone who had been stranded on a deserted island for decades. His face was expressionless. Not only was Hirofumi deaf but he was also blind. The brother was stunned but then took Hirofumi’s hands and began to do tactile signing. There was no response of any kind. Hirofumi had been isolated from people and had not communicated with anyone since he lost his eyesight ten years earlier at the age of 31.
2 The brother returned two days later. Hirofumi’s mother was amazed, having assumed that the brother would give up after seeing her son’s condition. Again the brother pleaded with the mother to allow him to see Hirofumi, so the mother brought him to the door. After a month of visits and still no response from Hirofumi, the mother told the brother not to bother to come anymore. Nevertheless, the brother persisted. He took cakes to the home and did what he could to show that he cared. After two more months and still no response from Hirofumi, the brother felt that he was getting nowhere.
3 The brother decided to make one last visit. Before going to the house, he prayed to Jehovah for help to determine if he should keep calling on Hirofumi. When the brother arrived at the house, he took Hirofumi’s hands and signed that there is a God named Jehovah who was constantly watching him from heaven and who understood his sufferings more than anyone else. Jehovah cared about him and wanted to deliver him from distress. That was why one of his Witnesses had come to him. At first Hirofumi showed no reaction; but then he gave the brother’s hand a firm handshake, and a tear trickled down his cheek. Moved by this, the brother shed tears with him. A Bible study was started.
4 “I Have Been Looking for It for 30 Years!” Agnes, a missionary in Indonesia, used to witness to a middle-aged woman who was expecting a baby. The woman sold vegetables in a local market. She loved reading our magazines and enjoyed having Bible discussions when she was not too busy. One day when Agnes went to the market to visit the woman, she was not there. Her husband told Agnes that his wife had just given birth. Agnes decided to visit her. She brought the book My Book of Bible Stories wrapped as a gift. The woman was pleasantly surprised that Agnes had come to see her and the baby, but she was even more surprised when Agnes handed her the gift. The woman unwrapped the book, looked at it with disbelief, and said: “Where did you find this book? I have been looking for it for 30 years! I visited all the bookshops and asked everyone. Nobody had it, nobody knew about it, and no other book even came close to it.” It turns out that when the woman was a child, her uncle had the Bible Stories book, and she loved reading it. Now the woman is again reading the book, and her eldest daughter loves reading it too. A Bible study was started with both of them.
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Indonesia: Agnes with the book that she gave as a gift.