There was a knock on the front door and because I was the only one home, I went downstairs to open it.

‘Do you view the future with fear or hope?’ There were two women at my door.

‘Erm.’ I blinked and thought about it. Well, I still go on, don’t I? Despite the war, the injustice, the stupidity and the wastefulness.

‘Basically optimism, I guess.’

The woman who spoke looked a little confused. I guess she had been hoping I’d say ‘fear’ because she went on to read a passage from the bible, assuring me that God was coming take away our suffering.

‘The bible tells us we shouldn’t face the world in fear. The bible gives us hope because God is coming and will solve all these terrible problems we see in the world these days.’

What I thought was, ‘Well, that puts me out of a job.’ What I said was, ‘Okay.’

‘Have you ever thought about the bible?’ she asked.

By this time, you readers might be wondering why I was still talking to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Essentially, it was a sunny day and I was enjoying the warmth of standing at the doorway. And I had ten minutes before I had to leave the house.

‘No, not really.’ Actually, I’ve thought about the bible before but mostly in a storybook kind of way. I like bible stories but I don’t think that’s what she was getting at.

She gave me ‘The Watchtower’, a thin periodical that looks at different bible passages. I had read one a few months ago, which was about how the bible provides guidance on how to make day-to-day decisions like, ‘What do I wear?’ (nothing too short or sexy) and ‘Should I ask her out?’ (only if you respect her and intend to take it seriously).

That wasn’t the end of the conversation, though, because she asked me what part of China I came from (her husband used to work in Hong Kong). When I said actually, I come from Australia, she and her friend were quite excited because they were from Sydney. We ended up chatting about BBQs and the drought back home.

They promised to come back next week in case I had questions about the pamphlet.