Finding the Most Valuable Possession
A SURPRISINGLY large number of men and women are finding that there exists a possession so precious that it overshadows everything of material value. Their taking hold of it has had a wholesome effect on their lives, giving them a joy and a satisfaction that money cannot buy. What is this possession?
It is a fine relationship with the Creator, based on having an accurate knowledge of his will and living in harmony therewith. Those who have gained this relationship are so happy about it that they eagerly share with others the knowledge they have acquired.
Some have even given up material advantages in order to have more time to acquaint fellowmen with what they have found to be the most valuable possession. That is what an electrical engineer working for the Hitachi Manufacturing Company in Japan did. He relates how this came about:
“My work took me all over Japan, and often overseas, to Iran and the United States. On one trip, my wife accompanied me, and we stayed in an apartment at Placerville, near Sacramento, California. It was then that one of Jehovah’s witnesses called on us, and we accepted copies of the Watchtower and Awake! magazines. Since our English was limited, we did not get very far in reading them.
“Shortly thereafter we returned to live in a company apartment in Hitachi City, Japan. Hardly had we arrived home when my wife had a caller, who showed her the same two magazines—that is, the covers were the same, but the titles were written in Japanese. This immediately impressed my wife with the fact that the activity of Jehovah’s witnesses was international. She gladly accepted the magazines. The Japanese Witness made repeated calls, and soon my wife was studying the Bible regularly with her.”
In time, the husband also began to study and became just as enthusiastic about it as his wife. Both continued to progress to the point of getting baptized at a circuit assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Adachi, Tokyo.
Appreciating how much accurate Bible knowledge had benefited them, both he and his wife wanted to devote as much time as possible in helping others to gain this knowledge. They wanted to be “pioneers,” spending at least one hundred hours each month in preaching and teaching Bible truths to others, in addition to caring for their little boy. The husband realized, however, that as long as he continued his full-time employment at the Hitachi Manufacturing Company he simply could not be a “pioneer.” So what did he do? He continues:
“I resigned from my firm. My wife and I established ourselves as private tutors, teaching five or six junior high school children on most evenings. Instead of our calling on them, parents began calling on us, requesting tutoring for their children. Soon we were teaching more than twenty children. In July 1972 I became a regular pioneer and my wife followed in May 1973. Though we had to leave the Hitachi Company’s apartment, we were able to obtain, in Hitachi City, a very fine apartment with two bedrooms and all other facilities, for just $11 a month. By living reasonably, and eating nourishing foods, we have had no problem in continuing our full-time service to Jehovah.”
As to the effect of this activity on their son, the husband says: “Our four-year-old boy, Shinya (meaning, ‘It Is Truth’), loves the service most of all. Even on mornings when the rain is pelting down, Shinya cries out, ‘Ikitai! Ikitai!’ (‘I want to go! I want to go!’) So go we do. Then, each afternoon, to conserve time and gasoline, we conduct home Bible studies and make return visits on interested persons in one district only, meeting back at the car when it is time to go home. Shinya usually goes along with me, and this makes it possible for me to make calls on womenfolk who might otherwise be embarrassed if I went alone.”
This former electrical engineer and his wife are delighted with what they are now enjoying. He observes: “I have found that one of my greatest joys is that I am free from the tension of having to associate all day long with people whose thoughts are only of the world. Now the greater part of our association is with fellow Christians who are concerned about helping others to gain accurate Bible knowledge, and righteously inclined people who are studying the Bible with us. ‘Pioneering’ has brought real joy to our family!”