"HE LEADS ME IN THE TRACKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS" -AS TOLD BY OLGA CAMPBELL

"A good example is like a bell that calls others to follow," said my sister Emily.  "You rang a bell, and I responded."  She was writing to congratulate me on completing 60 years in the full-time ministry. Let me tell you what my early life was like and how I came to take up my lifelong career. 

I WAS born on January 19, 1927, into a Ukrainian farm family near Wakaw, Saskatchewan in mid-western Canada.  My twin brother, Bill, and I were the sixth and seventh of eight children. We little ones helped our hardworking father in the fields. In our tiny house, our mother nurtured us despite the crippling pains of rheumatoid arthritis, which eventually took her life. She was just 37 when she died; I was only 4 years old.

Six months after Mother died, Father remarried. Tension soon filled our home, which we came to share  with five new half sisters!  I tried to show our stepmother respect, bu my older brother John had a more difficult time.

In the late 1930's, Bill and I  attended middle school, where we could escape  the turmoil at home. With World War II on the horizon, patriotism filled the air.  Our new teacher  instituted the flag salute, and one girl refused participate.  The students showered her with insults. However, I admired her courage and asked her why she had not saluted. She explained that she was a Bible Student, as Jehovah's Witnesses were sometimes called, and that she gave allegiance only to God. -Exodus 20:2, 3; Acts 5:29. 

Next time: "HE LEAD ME IN THE TRACKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS" -AS TOLD BY OLGA CAMPBELL -Striking Out on My Own

From the Watchtower magazine