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

Striking Out on My Own

In 1943, I took a job in Prince Albert, loading trucks and delivering cases of soft drinks. Yearning for spiritual guidance, I bought a Bible but found it so difficult to understand that I shed tears of frustration. The Our Father was about the sum total of my Bible knowledge. -Matthew 6:9-13. 

One Sunday, my churchgoing landlady proudly related that she had shoved a "Bible lady" off the doorstep. 'How could she be so unkind?' I wondered. A few Sundays later, I didn't feel well, and I stayed home from church. That day the "Bible lady" came back.  Do you pray?" she asked me.  "The Our Father,"  I replied. As she explained the  meaning of  Jesus' words, I listened eagerly. She promised to return the following Wednesday.  

When my landlady came home, I excitedly told her about the "Bible lady," who was one of Jehovah's Witnesses. To my dismay, my landlady threatened, "If she comes back on Wednesday, I'll kick both of you out of the house!" 

I combed the neighborhood looking for the Witness, who I had learned was Mrs. Rampel. When I found her, I explained my dilemma and asked her to tell me everything she could about the Bible. It seemed as if we covered  Genesis to Revelation!  She compared the present time to Noah's day, when God brought an early end to an unrighteous world and delivered Noah and his family into a cleansed earth. -Matthew 24:37-39; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:5-7, 12. 

"I can see that you have accepted these Bible teachings as the truth," Mrs. Rampel noted after our long discussion.  "In two weeks, there will be an assembly of Jehovah's Witnesses, and you should be baptized." That night I lay awake thinking about all I had learned.  Baptism seemed like such a serious step. Yet, I wanted to serve God! Though my Bible knowledge was limited, I was baptized at the age of 16, on October 15, 1943.  

Next time: "He LEADS ME IN THE TRACKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS" -AS TOLD BY OLGA CAMPBELL -A Cross-Country Move

From the Watchtower magazine