Some brethren who had passed through our town on their faith-trips, gave my mom and me the address of a nearby Family Home. We were curious to know more about the Family and decided to visit them the following weekend. I liked the brethren right from the start, but was very shy. I guess Sharon noticed it and came up to me with a radiant smile, saying in a prounounced, emphatic way, "I love you, honey!" and put her arms around me in a warm embrace. It put me at ease right away, actually it blew my mind. I had never experienced anything like that before, as in Germany, people are not used to giving each other hugs or being expressive in their affection. I was won over on the spot. We continued visiting, and a few months later (around the beginning of 1978) my mom and I joined.

Sharon was around 32 years old at the time and took me under her motherly wing. She made sure to faithfully instruct me in the Word, taking personal Word-time with me for an hour and a half every day during nap-times, apart from the united nightly Word classes we would have in the Home after the witnessing outings.

I learned a lot from her just watching her teach her 3 daughters, faithfully working on memory projects with them and always busy doing activities, games or coloring projects having to do with the Word. Simply making the Word so much fun for the kids.

Sharon was always full of inspiring testimonies she would share, bubbling over with the Lord's love. I remember her always wearing a beautiful, radiant smile.

The Lord called Jonathan, Sharon and their kids to move on to Eastern Europe a couple of months later and then to India where they had 2 more kids. We stayed in contact by mail.