"Are you going to help me now?"

This experience was given by Brother Splane of the Governing Body at an assembly on Oahu.  They said everyone at the assembly was tearing up.

In an eastern European country in 1989 there was a huge 8.9 earthquake.  30,000 people died in 4 minutes.  It happened in the morning and a man had just returned from taking his small son to school. After he made sure his wife was alright, he went straight back to the school to find his son.  When he got there he saw that the school was completely flattened, like a pancake.  Just rubble.

He stood there devastated, completely destroyed.

Then he remembered a promise he had made to his son some time back.  He had told him that as long as there was life and breath in his body, he would always be there for him.

So with that promise in his mind he went around to the northeast side of the rubble where his son’s classroom had been and started digging through the debris.

Soon the neighbor came out and said, “Sir, I know you’re distraught but you have to accept that your child is dead.  There’s nothing you can do.”  The man didn’t stop digging; he just looked at the neighbor and said, “Are you going to help me now?”

Later, the fire chief came and told the man he had to stop, there was no one left alive and he was putting himself in danger. Again, the father simply asked, “Are you going to help me now?”

After many more hours of digging the chief of police came and told him he was putting other people in danger, and ordered him to go home and leave it to the professionals.  The man again said nothing but, “Are you going to help me now?”

Finally, after 38 hours of digging through concrete and twisted metal, the man moved a final boulder and found a small space where several children had been protected.  His son was among them.  The first thing he said to his father was, “Daddy, I told them not to be scared.  I told them you would come.”

Brother Splane paused and then he said… “The faithful slave is engaged in a massive search and rescue mission.  It is an enormous task, and what they are asking from you and me is:  ‘Are you going to help me now?’”

Then he walked off the stage.

Here is a link to a series entitled “Jehovah’s Witnesses – Who Are They? What Do They Believe?” which explains our “search and rescue” work:

Jehovah's Witnesses-Who Are They? What Do They Believe?