Blessings "in Favorable Times and Difficult Times"/AS TOLD BY TROPHIM R.NSOMBA

ARRESTED AND IMPRISONED

In February 1984, I was on my way to Lilongwe to deliver reports for the branch office in Zambia. A policeman stopped me and searched my bag. He found some Bible literature, so he took me to the police station and started to beat me. Then he bound me with ropes and put me in a room with prisoners who had been caught with stolen goods in their possession. 

The next day, the chief of police took em to another room, where he wrote out a statement that said:  "I, Trophim R. Nsomba, have stopped being a Jehovah's Witness so that I can be set free."  I responded:  "I am ready not only to be bound but also to die. I am still a Witness of Jehovah."  I refused to sign it. That angered the  police chief, and he slammed his fist on the desk so hard that it caused a policeman in the next room to come running to see what had happened.  The chief told him:  "This man is  refusing to sign that he has stopped witnessing.  So let him sign that is is one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and we send him to Lilongwe to be bound." All this time, my dear wife was wondering what was happening to me.  Four days later, some brothers were able to tell her where  I was.  

At the Lilongwe police station, I was treated kindly. The police chief said:   "Here is a plate of rice because you have been bound on account of God's Word. The other people here are thieves." Then he sent me  to Kachere Prison where I was kept for five months. 

Next time: Blessings "in Favorable Times and Difficult Times"/AS TOLD BY TROPHIM R. NSOMBA - Conclusion of ARRESTED AND IMPRISONED 

From the Watchtower magazine