Longtime hogs of door-knocking, Jehova’s Witnesses are often at BART stations in the Mission. Their message of salvation now comes pre-loaded in their tablets.
“The prophecies from the Bible are being fulfilled, and Jesus spoke of the end of everything” says Wilfredo Castellón. The 50-year-old flips through his virtual holy book as he makes his point.
More often than not, train riders won’t stop to hear the message. Other times, they will hand them spare change, which the evangelists turn down. Other times, they insult them, or tell them to go get a job.
They already have one. Castrillón is a construction worker. His preaching partner, Mirella Muñiz, is a manager at McDonald’s, and a part-time manicurist. “People scream to me to go clean my house,” she said. She does all of that, and then goes out to evangelize.
“We don’t lose our spirit because we’re doing God’s will,” he adds.
With its openness to pretty much anything, San Francisco can be especially tempting for the heralds of the scripture. And although they avoid hard subjects like homosexuality in their BART sessions, they always have a few bibles to give away. Or a download link.
“We don’t reject people, or try to impose anything on them,” Castrillón says. “It is in the person to investigate and serve Jehova.”