I was born in Durban, South Africa. My father was from England and my mother was an Anglican and we were sent to church on Sundays. At the age of 15, my mother started a so called “study” with two JWs and I sat and listened and read their books. We only went to one meeting at the local Hall where they met. However, my parents’ marriage was on the rocks, and the study was stopped and they got divorced. Rhona Johnson at 70 in 2012
I went to Art College for a year and then I had to find a job. I got married at 20 and by then I was a lonely housewife, and my sister had started a “study” with two JWs, so I asked her to send a Jehovah's Witness to me to study their beliefs. My husband was not happy with their teaching on blood transfusions. My Jehovah's Witness sister and I were both expecting babies. We were not yet baptised members! I suffered a massive blood loss at the birth of my son. My husband at the time had to give permission to have a blood transfusion. My life was saved. However, if we had both been JWs and been baptised, he would have refused to allow me to have a transfusion, and like many other JWs I would have died, at 21. I was spared for a reason, and you will see why. We continued to study with the JWs for two more years, and then my sister and her husband got baptised and we were pressured to do the same. The day came and as I stood there and we had to dedicate our lives to Jehovah (really, the Watchtower). I made the vow not to the Jehovah God of the JWs but to the God and Jesus who I had believed in as a child. I already had faith in a Creator. For the next ten years we were still going to meetings and decided to leave South Africa and emigrate to Western Australia. Our son was then 8 and was brought up as a JW. One couple at the hall had a car accident and the husband refused a blood transfusion and died. This upset us, and my husband started to study this doctrine and it took him three months to write his objections and sent them to the Sydney headquarters. We got three letters and then were told that we could not hold our own ideas and were disfellowshipped! I knew my Jehovah's Witness sister would cut me out of her life, and she did in 1968. It is now 2009 and she has never contacted me. She is now 79 and all her children are JWs. She broke her leg once and had to find a doctor who would not use blood. When we got disfellowshipped, we had nowhere to get help, no Internet, just one book, “Thirty Years a Watchtower Slave.” I decided that if the JWs did not have the “TRUTH” then who did? I went to the library to search the religions of the world for answers. I was getting more and more confused. Then a local minister offered a tract “What must I do to be saved” so I wrote for it and then the minister called. He was from the USA and a non-denominational Church of Christ member. I asked him about the Trinity, and for the next few months we went through the Bible and looked at scriptures. This helped and I got baptised again! Still I was not happy and still felt lost. Then my daughter was born, and we kept looking for answers. One day there was a letter to the newspaper from an ex-Mormon who warned people not to get involved with cults. I contacted her and we became friends. I asked her where the true church was, and she told me there is no true church on this earth. She told me that we have to be born again, and we become followers of Jesus. She asked me what Jesus meant to me personally, and I shook my head. It was all about Jehovah and the JWs. She gave me a book to read, “The Marvels of Grace.” That evening I was alone in bed and was reading the book. I had stopped reading the Jehovah's Witness bible because I was afraid I would not be able to unravel their teachings from the truth. I read a scripture, John 5.39, and Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, He warns them. “You search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, and they do testify to Me, and yet you WILL NOT come to ME so that you may have life.” As I read those words, I realised I had been like the Pharisees, like the JWs who search the scriptures more than almost any other group, yet we would not come to JESUS for life eternal. We were putting our trust in a man-made cult instead! That was when I became aware of a bright light in my room. I was not afraid, but in my mind I heard the words “this is your last chance, follow ME.” I decided then and there I would say YES I will! and I did. I was aware of a warm feeling coming over me and was filled with joy! I knew then I was born again and now belonged to Christ Jesus. I did not need a church, or a minister - all I needed was to put my trust in Jesus. Since that day in 1975 my search for truth was over. Jesus said He was the truth. I told my ex-Mormon friend, and we have been friends and sisters in Jesus and we were led into a counter-cult work for the next ten years, giving talks to Christians and also warning them of the cults. Many JWs are ex-Catholics who never read a Bible and wanted to do so. Becoming a born again Christian does not mean you will not have many tribulations and persecutions. Over the years there have been illnesses and other trials, too. I also decided to go to University to study world religions and obtained a B.A. Degree in Religious studies. I have never stopped reading books on all other belief systems and still keep an open mind. My faith gets tested and I do have doubts, too. That is part of having faith. It is trusting a person, not a church. In the end of life all we have is God. We will never know or have all our questions answered. If this wonderful world and the Cosmos was created or started with a big Bang, we live here and now. All other belief systems rely on people working to be saved. Jesus saves through Grace, that means we trust first, then give love and service to others and in the end only kindness matters. Jesus said if you give a cup of water in My name. We visit the sick and those who are in prison, we care for the strangers and we are the good Samaritans. GRACE is the answer to works. Trust in Jesus is the answer to faith and hope and love. Love is the greatest of all these. This is my story and now I am 72, retired but still sending my story to those who are still searching for truth. The Internet is a blessing indeed. Thank you for letting me tell my own story and may it be of some help to those who read it. Sincerely, Rhona Read also Rhona's response to Randy on his blog entitled, "Evolution of Randall" TRIBUTE TO RHONA – FROM EMMA – A CLOSE FRIEND
In 1967 Rhona and her family left South Africa to start a new life in Australia. She was a sister, wife, mother, mature student and friend. Rhona went to Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia and graduated with a Batchelor of Arts in Religious Studies in 1991. I met Rhona at an art class ten years ago. She was a very creative person, an artist and story teller who loved the beauty of nature and tried to capture it on the canvas. She loved reading and writing and had a very inquiring mind. We shared our stories about moving from Southern Africa, and our journeys of faith. She had a passion for sharing her knowledge of “grace” and understood what it was like for those that had come out of cults (having once been a JW). We would talk about everything - politics, religion, and relationships, sharing heartbreak and triumphs. Each day as she went out, she would pray, "Who do you want me to speak to today, Lord?" She appreciated her friends, many of whom she corresponded with on the internet. We supported each other as sisters in Christ. She shared her wisdom with me - as she had learnt to let go and accept God’s grace (which we do not have to earn, only accept as a free gift). I thank God for giving me the privilege of caring for Rhona and I recall that in early February, Rhona was the happiest I had ever seen her. Rhona, you will be missed but your story will go on. |