Vol. 6, No. 9, 1989

Articles on Other Religious Topics

Tom Forehand

From time to time, yours truly will share with your about another "typical" day at Watchman Fellowship.

It was ten minutes to four - just about time to go home. The phone rang.... This was a cult evangelist's dream - the call was from a girl who was the daughter of a Jehovah's Witness elder. The good news was that she had some real questions about the truthfulness of the Watchtower and she was interested in some answers. The bad news was that she only had two hours to talk; at six o'clock, she would have to board the bus for Florence, Alabama. Could I help?

I grabbed some material and headed to downtown Birmingham. There, at the front of the station was "Toni Johnson" a short, very heavyset, young lady whose beaming smile silently said, "Thank you, Tom, for coming on such short notice. I need some help."

We went next door to the adjoining Burger King and grabbed a booth. She shared a few things with me about her background as a Witness and how she was beginning to have real unanswered questions. We had talked about ten minutes when all of a sudden - who walked up? Three Mormon missionaries!

One of them spoke to her, "We heard you talking about the Lord so we thought you might be the girl who hadn't eaten for three days. We received a phone call to come to the station and try to help her." I knew that if we got the Mormon missionaries involved in our discussion, it would be a disaster. I mean, after all, this poor girl was already confused and precious time was wasting. So I told the missionaries that this couldn't be their girl; she had wanted to talk about the Jehovah's Witnesses. So they left.

Toni and I continued to talk. I tried to answer her questions about the Watchtower and its real history of failed predictions concerning the end of the world. Also, I shared some scripture showing that Jesus Christ was also Jehovah God along with the Father and the Holy Ghost. She was very agreeable. Finally, I went over a string of scriptures showing her that she needed to put all of her faith in Christ.

Still I met no resistance.... Great!

At ten minutes until six, I led Toni in prayer about placing her faith in Jesus Christ for her hope of eternal life. Unfortunately, it was not time for her to leave. I gave Toni some literature, my home phone number and a promise that if she needed a place to stay, we would try to find one for her. She left.

On the way to my car, I met a young lady from California. Of all things, she was in a jogging outfit, out "jogging for world peace," and nearby was her van with Sri Chimnoy's name printed on the side of it. (Chimnoy is a well known New Age practitioner with roots in New York City.) Her parents were from the Hindu and Jewish faiths. I shared with her that the only true and lasting peace would not be found in jogging or following after Sri, but would be in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus, I told her, was not just another manifestation of God or another great religious leader, but was God Almighty, the Creator of the world we lived in and that Jesus had proven this claim by raising Himself from the dead just as He predicted. Finally, she left and I started home to my wife and three little ones, and thus, to the end of another day's work.

Just think: a "saved" Jehovah's Witness; three Mormon missionaries; and a New Ager - all in just two and a half hours.

I went home... but a day, at Watchman, doesn't necessarily end when one gets home. Guess who called, collect, at 9:30 p.m from the bus station at Florence, with no money for another ticket, with a mad Jehovah's Witness father who refused to let her in the house because she had been asking to many questions? You guessed it, "Toni." However, now, there was an additional problem. Toni was calling from some two and a half hours away and telling me she had no place to spend the night because all of her friends were Jehovah's Witnesses and they, just like her father, weren't about to help her. Could I help her?

I took her number at the bus station phone booth, told her to sit tight, and began making some calls to find help for her up in Florence.

However, on my first call, I received a tip. Then after I had made nearly a half dozen long distance calls to Georgia and Florida to confirm the tip, I finally found out that I was the one who needed help. Why? "Toni" was a fraud! "Toni Johnson" was actually Bobbi Francine Dentino who hailed from Fort Worth, Texas. However, as a scam artist, Bobbi apparently travelled (free?) across the nation bumming free room, board and bus tickets from unsuspecting Christians. Bobbi routinely "accepted Jesus" and would even be baptized to gain sympathy and a free ride ticket from the gullible - like me. However, Bobbi, it appears, had tried a new routine on me when she pretended to be a Jehovah's Witness (usually she feigns being a member of the Mormon church).

As Dick Baer would tell me the next day, Bobbi was in hot water all over the country and had been baptized probably over a hundred times. By the way, she was the one who no doubt called the Mormon missionaries to the bus station for help, too! Apparently, she was going to prey on the first fish who took the bait - that was me, all wet! Yet, I was only out about $20 worth of phone calls (and three pounds of pride).

By the way, I nonchalantly returned Bobbi's call about forty©five minutes later. I had caught her just before she was to leave. While waiting for me to call back, she had contacted a nearby church - she even gave me the name of the church - and dropped a hint that a bus ticket back down to Birmingham was only a few dollars.

So quickly, I called ahead to the church she had mentioned and gave the sad, sad story to the assistant pastor. While I was talking with him, Bobbi walked through their church door office. However, later that night, before she could "scam" that church for a place to stay and probably a free breakfast (although, believe me, Bobbi didn't need it) they confronted her. Then, the "cool acting Toni" apparently blew her top and asked to be taken to an all-night hospital cafeteria. And that was the last heard from "Toni" or "Bobbi" in the regions of northern Alabama.

Pray that God does "really" save Bobbi. With her zeal, and her "creativity," she could be a great warrior for Christ if she gets saved and just spend half of her energy (and calories) in telling the truth about Jesus instead of telling lies about herself. Pray, too, that you don't get preyed on or you might have the privilege of leading Bobbi to the Lord; but it won't be hard, 'cause she's had a lot of practice.