The Ranger Online

Issue date: 5/18/06 Section: Urban Journalism Workshop

Media Credit: Lindsey York Julie Conover, 18, a graduate of Health Careers High School and a Jehovah's Witness, hands a magazine to Zachary Ostrando while she goes door-to-door in a Northwest San Antonio subdivision on Saturday. Conover, a member of the Helotes congregation, volunteers doing missionary work to tell others about the Bible.

Media Credit: Lindsey York Julie Conover, holding one of the publications she hands out on her door-to-door visits, hopes to volunteer 70 hours a month for a year to become a pioneer in her congregation.

On a humid June morning with the sun peeking out after a welcome rain, a young man watching television hears a knock at the door.

He finds two teenage girls standing on his porch, one of them with magazines in her hand.

The girl with the magazines tells the man that terrorism and war will be over soon and a paradise on Earth is coming. All of this is explained in the magazine Awake!, she tells him. Awake! and The Watchtower are publications handed out by Jehovah's Witnesses.

The man accepts the magazines and agrees to a second visit, where she will sit down with him and share what the Bible says.

This is how 18-year-old Health Careers High School graduate Julie Conover spends most of her Saturdays. While not all of the houses she visits yield a "favorable response," she is always happy to spread the word about her religion.

Jehovah's Witnesses are not required to go door-to-door, but that doesn't stop the almost 6.5 million Witnesses in 230 countries around the world from spreading the word.

Jehovah's Witnesses view their visits as a sign of friendship and as a way to show concern for their fellow man, said Steve Durocher, 55, a Witness who attends meetings at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses at 15720 Huebner Road.

Jehovah's Witnesses promote their religion because they believe everyone should have an equal opportunity for salvation.

"If we share what we know about God, and if we share the Scriptures in the Bible with people, that not only leads to their salvation, but to our own salvation as well," Durocher said.

Durocher has been one of Jehovah's Witnesses since he was visited by two Witnesses in 1991. Fifteen years later, he is a regular pioneer, the term used to describe Witnesses who spend at least 70 hours a month promoting their faith.

He works five hours a day as a Northside School District bus driver, leaving the rest of his time free to go out and talk to people.

Unlike Durocher, Conover is unable to devote so much time to visiting people, but she, too, wants to become a regular pioneer.

Conover is juggling working as a ticket seller at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, attending five Jehovah's Witness meetings a week and spending time with her family, something all Witnesses are taught to appreciate.

She will soon have to throw in classes at Northwest Vista College, where she plans to study for two years before transferring to the University of Texas at San Antonio to major in biology or chemistry.

No matter what, though, Conover tries her best to spend from 9 a.m.-noon Saturdays and one or two additional mornings promoting the teachings of the Bible.

So who are Jehovah's Witnesses, and what do they believe?

Jehovah's Witnesses consider themselves Christians, but unlike most Christian denominations, Witnesses do not believe that the three parts of the Holy Trinity -the Father, God; the Son, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Spirit, the guiding force of God - collectively form one God.

"Most people who profess to be Christians view Jesus as God, but we know our creator by the name of Jehovah, and it is mentioned in the Bible over 7,000 times," Durocher said. "We worship Jehovah as our creator, and Jesus as God's son."

Ultimately, Witnesses are a part of a "worldwide Bible education program," staying true to the denomination's origins as a Bible study group founded by Charles Taze Russell in Pittsburgh in the 1870s.

"We're really not trying to convert you; we just want to get you to read the Bible and help you understand what it says," Conover said.

When she schedules a second visit with people, she talks more about the Bible and offers to return for further study. She has knocked on hundreds of doors in the three years she's been witnessing and has led two studies on subsequent visits.

Jehovah's Witnesses use every opportunity to inform others about their religion, Durocher said.

"We go door-to-door. We talk to people in the grocery store. We call them on the phone if it's a gated community where we can't visit their houses. We reach them any way we can," Durocher said.

Before going out on this June morning, Conover meets with seven other Witnesses at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses at 5950 Lockhill Road, where they briefly discuss Scriptures and listen to what amounts to a pep talk by Jason Burnett, an elder. Similar meetings occur daily before Witnesses go out and spread their faith.

Witnesses are assigned territories and keep records of addresses where no one answered the door so they can stop by at another time.

Conover will go with another teen and her parents.

She is determined to promote her religion, and, like Durocher, has alternate methods of doing it.

"When it's raining, we go to Plan B, and that's just making return visits to people who were interested when we first talked to them," Conover says. "If it starts raining hard, we go to Plan C, which is when we go to places like laundromats or gas stations, any enclosed area, really."

After driving through the Oxbow neighborhood attempting to make return visits, Conover, her teen partner and adult Witnesses drive several blocks to the Parkwood neighborhood.

They park and walk door-to-door on Bonita Park Street. The teens knock at 10 homes. Three residents answer the door. Two make it clear that they are not interested. The young man, named Zachary Ostrando, OKs a second visit.

"You have your good days and your bad days," Conover says. "There are days where everybody you talk to is interested, and there are days where nobody wants to talk to you."

Conover believes many people view Jehovah's Witnesses negatively because they do not understand what the Witnesses are trying to do.

"We're definitely not trying to bug you," Conover explains. "I'm trying to promote the use of good morals in everyday life."

She resents people refusing to answer the door when she visits them, saying that people should not be afraid of her.

"We won't force you to become a Witness," Conover says. "If you answer the door and tell us you're not interested, we'll respect your wishes and leave. We just want the best for people."

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