What International Assemblies Make Possible
WHAT makes international assemblies so important? Why should all who possibly can attend? One strong reason is that the assembly offers the eye, the heart and the mind an opportunity to see the length and breadth of the theocratic organization in action, and to witness its unqualified devotion to Jehovah God. For example: During the last assembly held at Yankee Stadium, on Missionary Day and on Branch Day, August 3 and 4, brothers and sisters representing the theocratic organization in over seventy lands stepped forward, and before our very eyes the theocratic organization could be seen in its ways of practical operation.
Branch servants and missionaries from foreign lands related experiences. They unfolded before the eyes of over 81,000 in attendance what a marvelous work and a wonder Jehovah is doing in the earth. They told of their life with new peoples in new lands, the problems that confronted them, the hardships they endured, the language barriers and adjusting difficulties, and of clergy intolerance. They also told of the joys of finding the lost sheep, the thrills of their companionship, of their affection and sincere devotion to the Theocracy, and of their love and integrity. Conventioners gasped when reports told of towns of 150 people with 48 publishers, of 100 population with 77 publishers, and towns of 30,000 and 40,000 with two good-sized units. Heart-swelling experiences came from missionaries who brought reports from lands that had banned Jehovah’s people. They assured those in attendance that a most efficient “grapevine” was functioning without interruption.
It is only by seeing and hearing firsthand, by directly feeling the zeal, spirit and enthusiasm of the new world organization that one can come near to appreciating the unity, devotion and magnitude of its operation now in the earth; also what it means to him individually. It is only at international assemblies that this view of the visible organization is made possible. Be at New York’s Yankee Stadium to appreciate it, come July 19-26, 1953.