In our time living in NZ I would regularly have visits from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. But instead of refusing them I would invite them in to talk, much to their surprise. But I was prepared for them when they came. I had gathered lots of material (courtesy of two men in Sydney, Australia, who had gathered and organized the JW’s own material to point out the errors of Jehovah’s Witness teaching) and was organized to discuss with them anything they wanted to talk about. But I would explain to them before we started that there were some ground rules which they had to agree to before we started. I would tell any JW representatives who came that I didn’t like the way they would change the subject if the discussion got uncomfortable for them. They had to agree to stick with the subject they had chosen to talk about at the beginning. Which mostly they readily agree to. I would tell them they could choose what we talked about, but one thing I asked is that we stayed with that topic and didn’t change from topic to topic when they felt backed into a corner or defeated.
Over a period of time only the head elder of the Jehovah’s witness would come to our door. I found out from a comment made by one of the other JW people that others were not allowed to visit me, only the leader and his partner. Well one day two JWs knocked at the door who were not the head elder and his partner. These were “new kids on the block”. They asked to talk to me at the back door and to their surprise I invited them in. I explained the ground rules and let them choose what we talked about. They chose to talk about the name of Jehovah and how it was God’s special name. A topic I was delighted with because it was easy to point out the error of their teaching on that topic. We started discussion and within a few minutes (not more than 10) they wanted to leave. The discussion was getting uncomfortable for them. But I wouldn’t let them leave until I was allowed to finish the point I was making about their erroneous teaching. Well after that they were desperate to leave and so I offer to prayed for them before they left. That made them want to leave quicker.
I noticed when they walked out of our driveway that they turned left to go next door to our neighbours on the side left side of our house. They were good friends from our church in Matamata. We had a gate in our fence at the back of the house so we could freely go between our house to visit. As the JWs turned left to head for John and Lynn’s I said to Tania, “I will race over to warn John that the JW’s are coming.” and I quickly went out of the back door and through the back gate to John’s. When I knocked on the door he was just inside the door and opened it immediately. I told him the JWs were coming and to be ready for them.
He said “Oh Ian, I can’t be bothered talking with them. They don’t ever listen to what I have to say. You go.”
I said, “I would love to.”
As I went inside John and Lynn’s place the JW people knocked at the front door. So I went to my neighbour’s front door to receive them. As I opened the door the older of the two was bending down to get his material out of his bag. The other person was the first one to see me and a look of horror came over his face as he recognised me as the man they had just left in the previous house. His jaw dropped open and he stood there speechless. The older man then having gathered his material stood up and looked up to see me standing there. He too had a shocked look on his face and then very quickly shook my hand and said, “Thank you.” He then bent down again and put his material back into his bag and they turned around and left. John’s was standing watching it all unfold and “laughing” so much.
I must admit if there had been a gate between John’s house and the next house down the street I would have been tempted to do it again. I would have followed them down the street to answer the door each time they knocked.