A UNIQUE REUNION After 30 Years

They Become Witnesses

Dennis, you will recall, was hitchhiking around the country looking for a purpose in life. His tour took him to Montana, where he found a job outside of Chinook helping a farmer during the grain harvest. The man's wife and daughter were Jehovah's Witnesses.  Dennis was given an Awake! magazine to read. Before long, he became convinced that the Witnesses practiced the true religion.

Taking a Bible with him, Dennis left the farm and moved to Kalispell, Montana. There he attended the first meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses.  He asked for a Bible study at that meeting. Shortly  thereafter, he cut his hair and shaved his beard. In January 1974 he went out in the preaching work for the first time, and he was baptized in a watering trough in Polson, Montana, on March 3, 1974. 

Meanwhile, Mark and Kathi, living on Gabriola Islland,decided that since they had the time, they would try investigating the Bible.  They began reading the King James Version but found the archaic English somewhat difficult to understand.  Then Mark remembered that he still had the Bible and books the Witnesses had given him years earlier .  They read the Bible along with the books The Truth That Leads to Everlasting Life and Is the Bible Really the Word of God?  Mark and Kathi were deeply impressed by what they learned.  

Mark explains:  "I was particularly struck by the fact that the Truth book mentions a group of Christians who would not go to war under any circumstances. I felt that such ones were practicing true Christianity."  Shortly afterward, Mark and Kathi returned to Houghton, Michigan, to visit Kathi's family -despite the risk of arrest. There, still looking like hippies, the attended a meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses. They accepted a Bible study and studied during the month they were in Michigan.

After returning to Gabriola Island, they met a Witness on the street in Nanaimo, British Columbia, and explained that they wanted a Bible study. That same day a carload of Witnesses came over on the ferry to contact them, and a Bible study was started. Three months later, Mark and Kathi began  in the preaching work. Three months after that, on March 10, 1974, both were baptized. It was one week after Dennis was baptized! 

Next time: A UNIQUE REUNION After 30 Years - Dennis in the Full-Time Ministry

From the Awake! magazine, 2002