Excerpted from My Story.
Circa 1960's: I was pioneering where the need was great and wrote my friend Mickey about my experiences and then out of the blue he wrote back and said he'd like to join me. Actually he really wanted to go to Bethel. Realizing it would help to have more experience he decided that a year spent serving where the need was great might do it.
Our Presiding Minister liked him straight off and pretty soon he was the Bible Study Servant in our small congregation. The PM asked him if he'd handle the snakes and Mickey thought about it for a moment and said sure, but when did we start handling snakes? Your going to do well at Bethel, the PM said. Mickey was a good brother but as far as door to door work went he was worse then I was. The only back call he had was an empty house, after a fresh snow all you saw were his foot prints. But on the plus side he was a big fan of 'getting the time started' before we took our break.
Mickey had been there for a couple of months when a new Circuit Servant came for his visit. This guy was hard core. He met with the two of us and while my stats were just ok, Mickey's were terrible. The Circuit Servant jumped all over him.
"You’re the Bible Study Servant! BUT YOU DON'T HAVE A SINGLE BIBLE STUDY OF YOUR OWN! AND YOU ONLY AVERAGE ONE BACK CALL A WEEK.…...how do you explain that?" So the CS told him no bible study ...... no Bible Study Servant, maybe no pioneering either.....forget about Bethel.
A month passed and still no bible study, Finally I suggested he take over my one and only study. "Wheel Chair John, you'd give him to me?" Mickey said. He was acting like this was the best gift he'd ever gotten. "Sure", I replied. John was the only study I had but I didn't want to go to Bethel so.......anything for a buddy.
John had muscular dystrophy and he was physically in bad shape. His speech was garbled and he was down to being able to use one arm with a slight assist from the other.
"If John's ok about it you can take over the study, but listen this isn't like a traditional bible study. It's really about a visit, when I tried to have a bible study with him he pretended to go to sleep or he growled at me (which was one of the ways he articulated his displeasure). The way I see it this should be right up your alley, open and close with a brief prayer (Mickey's prayers were the briefest I'd ever heard, I always called on him when I could), and in between visit with him."
Mickey agreed and on the way over to meet John I told him that John was able to gesture with one hand. I didn't tell him about John's favorite gesture though.
Mickey and John seemed to get along pretty well and Mickey emboldened by his welcome got out his bible and started to give him a witness. And John started to fidget and grumble. After a while John started to growl! It wasn't a growl but sort of like one, Mickey had been reading a scripture and he finally looked up when the growling started. John pointed at Mickey then closed his fist and made an up and down gesture. "What's he doing, is he doing what I think he's doing?" asked a confused Mickey, " Yep, he just called you a jerk off!" Mickey looked at me and I could see it in his eyes ..... this was the bible study that was supposed to save his Bethel career?
Well as things turned out they became friends. I continued to visit John from time to time. And Mickey stopped by almost every day to drop off some food or to take out the garbage ....... so his back call numbers shot way up. And best of all Mickey had a bible study ....... of sorts.
When the Circuit Servant returned he insisted on visiting John to see for himself if he really existed. Mickey said when they got to John's the CS was surprised to meet a real live person. One who rolled up to the door in his wheelchair holding a bible and study book at the ready. During the visit the CS was so moved by John's courage and his eagerness to hear about everlasting life in a perfect new world that he began to tear up, taking his handkerchief out he wiped at his eyes. At that moment John pointed at the CS and…….... Mickey told me later that John almost knocked himself out of the wheel chair making his definitive gesture. By the time the CS got his eyes cleared John was sitting normally, at least for him, with a big lopsided grin on his face. After they left, Mickey dropped the CS off at the Kingdom Hall and before he got out of the car the CS, who was still very moved, shook Mickey's hand and thanked him for his good work. Mickey quickly doubled back to pay John the $10 he promised if the CS could come for a visit.
Wheelchair John died about six months later. "They don't make Bible Studies like that anymore", Mickey said to me at the funeral. Mickey got a nice letter from the CS recommending him for Bethel .......... he was accepted and served for 5 years ........untill he met his future wife.