Unexpected Help From Awake!

BY AWAKE! WRITER IN BENIN

▪ When 23-year-old Noël decided to terminate his secular schooling and become a full-time minister of Jehovah’s Witnesses, his relatives doubted if he would survive financially. Indeed, he had difficulty finding suitable part-time work. So when the Awake! magazine featured the timely article “Five Keys to Finding a Job,” Noël read it carefully several times. * Did it help him? Yes, but not in the way he expected.

The director of a private school saw Noël preaching from house to house and asked if he was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The director needed another teacher, and having observed that Jehovah’s Witnesses teach effectively, he asked Noël if he knew anyone who would be interested. When Noël said no, the director countered, “How about you?”

Noël had never taught school, and he sometimes stuttered. In Benin this posed a problem because the board of education requires teachers to take an exam confirming that they do not stutter. “Get the certificate,” promised the director, “and you can have the job.”

Noël had progressed well in the Theocratic Ministry School, which is a school designed to improve public speaking ability and is held weekly in the congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He even gave public talks in his home congregation. Nevertheless, he was apprehensive when he appeared for the exam.

The examiner handed him a magazine and requested that he read aloud a paragraph outlined in red. Noël’s eyes widened when he saw the article “Five Keys to Finding a Job.” He read the paragraph fluently and received the certificate.

The examiner later stated that he regularly reads the magazines of Jehovah’s Witnesses. “These magazines are informative and so well written that I often use them for examinations,” he explained.

Noël began teaching, and the director wanted to sign him up for the following year, but Noël had other plans. He had been invited to work at the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses, where he is now serving.

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