“A Job Well Done!”

SO READ a headline in the St. Helena News. Jehovah’s Witnesses had done it again. They had constructed a second Kingdom Hall on the little island of St. Helena, over a thousand miles [1,600 km] west of Africa. The building is situated at an elevated site in an area called Half Tree Hollow, with a magnificent view of the Atlantic Ocean.

The building inspector and the fire chief paid some compliments to the Witnesses. “You have worked wonders,” said a retired governor. “This is a showpiece!” the electrical inspector added.

Dedication day was set for Saturday, January 9, 1993. By announcements over the radio, the whole island of some 6,000 people was invited to attend. But would the small group of local Witnesses, some 150 strong, be able to complete the project in time? Sarel Hart, a traveling overseer from South Africa, explains: “Concern filled our hearts when on the afternoon of the eighth, the driveway still required many loads of fill to level it.” How could they get trucks, equipment, and sufficient fill material to level the ground at that late hour? Hart continues: “Silent prayers were heard by Jehovah. The contractor who supplied the fill material said to the brothers: ‘You asked for five loads. I know you need more. I have stopped counting​—just let the trucks load until you have enough.’ It was 4:00 p.m. when an operator on a front-​end loader passed by on his way home. One of the Witnesses stopped him and explained our predicament. ‘Just pay my overtime,’ he said, and he pulled his machine into the driveway and leveled off the soil as fast as the trucks dumped it. Within three hours the rough approach to the Kingdom Hall was transformed into a smoothly graded driveway.”

The next day a total of 328​—more than 5 percent of the island’s inhabitants—​attended the dedication talk. Included in the audience were the government secretary and one of the counselors, and the Anglican bishop also sent a message wishing them well.

[Map on page 31]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

Africa

St. Helena

[Picture on page 31]

New Kingdom Hall