Please click on name and see a greeting from each one.
In November 1980 I was on my way to Liberia, West Africa. I prayed to Jehovah that I would get there safely. The coordinator took me to the city of Monrovia which is the capitol of Liberia. Also I visited the missionaries. I was the first single sister ever to come to Liberia as a missionary. What did I think of my assignment in Liberia? The people were very friendly, even the children wanted me to be their play-ma. The missionary home was in the branch office and there is where I was sent. I had a partner the following year-1981. The first day I went out in field service was interesting. I would say my presentation at the door to a Liberian woman and then she would say: “I don’t understand here, her English is slipper oh . . .” So the sister that was with me would say the same presentation that I said and the Liberian woman would understand her. I said: “That is what I said.” The Liberian sister said to me: “You have an American English accent. That is the reason why she did not understand you.” So I asked Jehovah to help me to talk like them. After a year I was able to talk like them and pronounce the words they would say. Like
Morning OH . . .
How is the body? The body fine.
How is the family? Family fine.
Where are you from? Who is your parents? Do you have children?
Where are they?
It was fun. At one time I had up to 22 Bible studies. As the years went by many of my Bible studies were baptized. Some became pioneers, some are Bethelites and special pioneers and have married nice brothers or sisters. The preaching work is like Paradise.
I will explain: The reason it is like Paradise is because when you go to their homes, the Liberians welcome you and they go bring chairs, their Bibles and even invite their children to sit down and hear God’s word. They start asking questions about the Bible. Or they ask you to pray for them before you give the message. Then I would answer and ask them if they knew what Jesus said about prayer. I would go to Matthew 6:5, 6 which says in verse 5 – “Also when you pray, you must not be as the hypocrites; because they like to pray standing in the synagogue (standing in the church) and on the corners of the broad ways to be visible to men (like street corners, local markets). They are having their reward in full.” Then in verse 6: “You however, when you pray, go into your private room and, after shutting your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; then your Father who looks on in secret will repay you.” (Then I say-you see, you are to go into a room to talk to God.) Then I showed them Matthew 10:11, 12. Verse 11: “Into whatever city or village you enter, search out who in it is deserving, and stay there until you leave.” Verse 12: “When you are entering into the house, greet the household” (I then say the Bible says you greet the person, it doesn’t say to pray first.) After that they understand that we do not pray at each house we go to. Now I am read to place my book to teach them. I would show them how to use the book, look at the contents and then do the first chapter. We would read the paragraphs, underline the answers to the questions, look up the scriptures and then ask viewpoint questions to reach their hearts. We would review the lesson at the end and then I would give them homework to do for the next lesson. I also make sure that I invite them to the Kingdom Hall.
Sometimes when I am walking down the street someone will call out and say: “Please when can you study with me?” I then go to the person and say: “I would like you to come to our meeting at the Kingdom Hall on Friday at 6:30 p.m.” They come to the meeting and at the meeting I invite them to come on Sunday at 10 a.m. Guess what?! They come so then I say: “Okay, we will start your study at the Kingdom Hall” and I give them their Bible teach book.
In January 1981 I met a spiritual missionary brother who was a circuit overseer in Liberia. We got to know each other very well along with our chaperone. His name is Raphael N. Harrison. He came to Liberia in 1973 and was in the 55th class of Gilead in 1973. We were engaged in December 1981. So we sent a letter to the Watchtower Society letting them know that we wanted to continue in the missionary service in Liberia as man and wife. We waited to hear from them.
On March 10, 1982, we heard from the Service Committee and they wished both of us every happiness in our planned new way of life together and hoped that we would find great joy on our service and in our lives as man and wife. They stated: “We do not object for you to continue on in the missionary service following your marriage.”
We were married on July 17, 1982 at the Sinkor Kingdom Hall. (PICTURE)
After 3 months vacation I had the privilege of going in the circuit work and district work with my husband from November 1982 to July 1990. I really loved it very much - meeting the brothers and sisters and staying with them in their homes and going out in field service with them. Thanks to Jehovah I was able to encourage the brothers and sisters.
How did we travel in the circuit and district work? We traveled by public transportation, flew in airplanes and sometimes had to walk. We did this at one congregation where we could not get a car or a truck to take us. So we walked. We left at 5 a.m. I carried my umbrella for the sun and my water jug and we walked ten miles going up and down hills. We go there at 5 p.m. The brothers could not believe that I was able to do it! Ha! Ha!
In 1989 we had to get off the circuit work because a civil war had started in Liberia up in the interior. We have been evacuated several times. Our evacuations started at Gbarnga where the missionary home is (about 150 miles from Monrovia). As we were coming back from serving a congregation we went to our missionary home. We heard that the rebels were coming to take over the city we were in. So the branch heard and came to get us. (2 Pictures of our home in Gbarnga) (2 pictures of trucks from Branch coming to get us in June 1990).
After we left, the next week the rebels came to the city and destroyed our missionary home.
Then we were taken down to the branch in Paynesville. That is where we stayed for 3 months before leaving Liberia. While we were there on July 2, 1990, the Civil war took place in Monrovia. While we were in Paynesville the rebels came and took it over. We were stuck in the Branch for three months. The shooting went on every night. We were 13 missionaries and about 12 Bethelites and four Hawaiian pioneers. We had enough food for six months. But later the rebels came and brought some people to the Branch for us to take care of. We could not say “No” . . . The later the area got so bad that people in the neighborhood came and we had to let them in. Their bags were checked because we did not want any guns in the Branch. (PICTURE-checking bags)
It went up to 300 people that we had to cook for, find beds to sleep on, and even wash their clothes. Because the branch had 15 foot walls the people felt safe here. (PICTURE OF BEDS, PICTURE OF GROUP THAT STAYED IN BRANCH)
They had to follow the rules that the branch set. Morning worship was at 7 a.m. They had to attend 2 meetings at the branch-the book study and the Public talk and Watchtower study. (3 PICTURES-after meeting and using porch as meeting place).
Plus they had duties to do-clean up the area where they slept. We cooked the food for them and they had to stand in line for it. (PICTURE IN LINE FOR FOOD)
Also we had to go out and find food to eat because within weeks we were running out of food. Then there were brothers and sisters we had to hide in the branch because some rebels were looking for them. We even had to bury a brother who died at the branch. He was buried outside the branch near a flower tree. Just think-he will be the only one resurrected at the branch! (PICTURE-Burying brother)
The war started on July 2, 1990 and ended in 2005. The following pictures show what happens in war time. They show the rebels, people running away from bullets. (9 PICTURES) There is a picture of people hiding, 2 homes destroyed and a Kingdom Hall that was hit and the rocket it was hit with.
Many brothers and sisters lost their homes and Kingdom Halls were damaged. Others fled to Cote d’Ivoire and an English-speaking congregation was started there. (PICTURE)
Many of the brothers and sisters with children ran to the nearest Kingdom Hall. They stayed there because it was safe. What is so interesting is that a rebel soldier had his son and his mother stay with the Witnesses in the Kingdom Hall. He heard that the government soldiers were going to go to all the churches and slaughter all the people. So he told his son that he and his mother should leave the Kingdom Hall and hide in another place. The son told the Witnesses and that was good because they could not leave and find a place to hide. It was that night at 10 p.m. that they would come. So the elders told the brothers who were strong to climb up in the ceiling of the Kingdom Hall. The sisters with children and all of their belongings went into the literature room and the magazine room. They locked the doors. That meant that everyone in the Kingdom Hall, including the children and the babies had to be very quiet. At 10 p.m. the soldiers came and opened the doors of the Kingdom Hall. They flashed their lights around the Hall and saw nothing inside the Kingdom Hall so they left and went to other churches where they killed hundreds of people in those churches. Can you imagine how Jehovah shut the mouths of the children and the babies! You know how children can be!
(2 PICTURES IN KH)
This brother who was in the war is the one that saved food for us. He did not know how he was going to bring it down to Monrovia because he lives 150 miles away from the Branch. We were running out of food at the Branch. At first we were eating two meals a day and then it came down to one meal a day. So we prayed to Jehovah about it. The brothers went to a Rebel captain and he escorted the brothers to Brother Abrama Mattar’s home. He was so happy to see some of the missionaries. They put the food into the car and came back to the Branch. All were so happy to see the food. Later the rebels came at night and brought 20 bags of rice and some medications. We were so happy that Jehovah helped us. The rebel soldiers did this at night because they took these things out of their food supplies and didn’t want the other rebels to find out. (PICTURE OF BROTHER)
Another experience:
In July 1990 the Civil war started in Paynesville where the Liberian branch was located. This Hawaiian sister, who is a regular pioneer, worked at the American Embassy. She decided to leave work and go to the Liberian Branch. She felt she would be safe there.
As she was coming on the road that goes to Paynesville she was caught in an ambush. The Rebels thought it was one of the government troops. So they shot at her all around. (4 PICTURES of car with windows shot out)
When they stopped shooting they found that it was a white woman. They even apologized to her. They wanted her to stay with them for safety, but she said she wanted to go to the Watchtower Branch up the road. They let her go and we met her at the Branch. She told us that she wanted to comb her hair in the car so that she would look presentable to go into the Branch. She went to get the comb in the bag on the front floor of her car and in that moment the shooting took place. Well, Jehovah took care of her. She survived with nothing but a flesh wound in her leg. (PICTURE)
Here she is holding a bullet in her hand. This one went into her hair. That was really something! We all could not believe that she was alive!!
Here are some pictures of the animals that we see-some as pets and some in the bush.
(4 PICTURES)
( PICTURE OF PEOPLE BEING BAPTIZED)
Methods of preaching- by boat to cross rivers, crossing over bridges in the bush, house to house (4 PICTURES)
Another experience: This congregation and the elders had disappeared for a time. Nobody knew where they were during the war. Then all of a sudden they all appeared at the District Convention. Many prayers were offered up to Jehovah for them. This is what happened: When they heard that the Rebels were coming to take over their city, the elders gathered all the brothers and sisters with their children and, of course, their own families. They went into the bush as a congregation, had their meetings there, ate together, preached to people who were running from the war into the bush and showed up at the District Convention with their field service reports. (PICTURE OF GROUP)
Another personal experience of mine: (PICTURE WITH MARILYN) I had the privilege of studying with this handicapped girl. She was living with her cousin, but her cousin began to persecute her, claiming that Jehovah’s Witnesses were brain washing her. So she burned her clothes to stop her from attending meetings. When this failed she would put her out of the house. Through all of this trial she remained faithful to Jehovah. This handicapped girl was brought up as a Methodist and the Church used her to translate some of their literature into one of the native languages. This brought in a lot of members for the Church. They were very disturbed to learn that she was associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses so they sent a delegation of six church officials to try to get her to return to the church. They even tempted her with material things. They said if she would return to the church they would give a brand new house, pay her $30,000 Liberia dollars every month and arrange for her to travel to the United States for medical treatment. Why were these offers so tempting? The Liberia Civil War reduced almost everyone to poverty. This young girl had nothing but the clothes on her back. And she would love to be able to walk again, if possible.
Well, she turned down their offers and used the Bible to explain why she would not return to the church. So they were angry and left her. Later I was able to get a wheel chair for her and we were able to preach from house to house zealously together. Of course, when there were small hills I would get on the back of the wheel chair and ride down hill with her! Ha! Ha!
Her loyalty under test, her endurance and her zeal for the ministry are a source of joy to us. She got baptized and she is a regular pioneer. Instead of putting in 70 hours she puts in 130 hours a month. She has 22 Bible studies and 5 are baptized with four more being unbaptized publishers.
Missionaries in Liberia: Brother and sister Watkins-Liberia’s first missionaries in 1947 (PICTURE) Missionaries in Liberia at present (34) (2 PICTURES)
