Witnessing to Jehovah is not without danger

It's been a while since I've had anything blog worthy to share, but this is a story too rich to keep to myself. This is a true story ... it really happened. And the names and locations have not been changed to protect the innocent.

I talked to my friend Tab today. She lives in the little town of Hermitage, Arkansas, population 750. Hermitage is waaaaaaaay down in Southern Arkansas, out in the country.

Tab has a dear friend who is a home healthcare nurse. She cares for many different kinds of people from different walks of life. One of the people she cares for is a young man with Down's Syndrome who's living on his own. She checks in on him during the week, but on the weekends, this young man is on his own.

Well, he called the nurse on Saturday, a bit upset. He told her that she needed to come out there. He said he had a "troll" in his closet. He even repeated it ... "there is a troll in my closet."

Now, seeing as they live out in the country, she figured that a mouse - or even a squirrel - had gotten in and was rustlin' around in the closet, makin' noise and that it had scared him. She told him she'd be there on Monday and not to worry about it - it would be okay.

Well ... he called back this morning, more frantic than yesterday, and told her that there was still a "troll" in his closet and that she needed to get right out there. So the nurse and her husband loaded into the car and took a ride out to his home, positive they'd be able to chase away whatever had scared him, calm his fears and be on their way.

When they arrived, they realized how wrong they were. They arrived to find the young man in his home, with all of his furniture piled up against the closet door and his sitting up against it. As they got closer, they heard hollering and yelling from inside the closet and realized there was someone in there.

It turns out that the young man with Down's Syndrome had never seen a little person before. The day prior was a day of ministering for some visiting Jehovah's Witnesses. The one who chose to visit this house happened to be a little person Jehovah's Witness. The young man, confused as to what he was seeing, tackled the little person off the porch, carried him into the house and locked him in the closet - sure that he had a troll in his home.

The nurse and her husband moved the furniture and freed the little person, who then called in the local Sherriff, wanting to press charges. But every time the young man saw the little person, he would get terrified all over again and freak out, and they'd have to take him away again. And every time the little person saw this, he would get upset again, because he had ... well, because he'd been tackled off someone's porch and locked in their closet in a little town in Southern Arkansas for more than 12 hours, all the while being yelled at for being a troll.

I'm not sure who I feel sorrier for right now, to be honest. And I'm pretty sure that I'm a bad, bad person for laughing almost uncontrollably as I pictured this entire scene play out in my head. Can you imagine the poor horrified look on the nurse’s face when she realized it wasn’t just a rat in the closet? Can you imagine what must have been going through the head of the local Sherriff (who I imagine to look like Sherriff Rosco Coltrane from the original Dukes of Hazard!)?

I had two thoughts, almost simultaneously. 1) Who knew being a Jehovah's Witness was a dangerous job? And 2) Only in Arkansas ... only in Arkansas!