Impressed by What They Saw
◆ Recently a lady telephoned the receptionist at the Watch Tower Society’s headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. She asked: “Would you please tell me something about Jehovah’s witnesses and their beliefs. I am of the Jewish faith but I feel the need of spiritual strength. I have heard about your large assemblies and I notice how people are flocking to your organization. I would like to know what you have to attract so many people. I have lived in this neighborhood [a few blocks from the Society’s headquarters] for twenty-two years, and I have watched you grow from nothing to a flourishing organization. Your people have called on me regularly as often as once a week, and my reply has always been ‘I’m not interested.’ Now I have come to the point in my life where I feel I want to know more about Jehovah’s witnesses.”
Since it was difficult to explain the teachings of Jehovah’s witnesses with telephones ringing, the Bethel Home receptionist made arrangements to visit this lady the following Sunday. The woman told the Witness of how she had been attending various churches and always came away feeling weaker than before she went. When she asked one Protestant minister for help, his reply was, “Well, Mrs. P————, I can’t come over and hold your hand, but if you really want something to do you can answer the church telephone for two hours a week.” This was very disheartening to her, although she did say she never felt at home in church as she could not accept Jesus as Almighty God himself, and so much of “Christianity” had pagan background. Now her question was, “What must I do to become affiliated with you people?” Arrangements were made for a Bible study; she took the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained and the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures and attended the public talk at the Kingdom Hall that same Sunday. She is now attending the meetings regularly and enjoying a weekly Bible study. Her comment about the witnesses of Jehovah who study with her is: “They are truly shepherding me.” This illustrates one of the rich rewards of diligently seeking to feed the “little sheep,” though it may mean calling back year after year, even as often as once a week, to tell others about God’s kingdom.—John 21:17.
◆ One of Jehovah’s witnesses in New Jersey relates how she aided an interested woman who had taken the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures and the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained: “I invited her to a talk at the Kingdom Hall; she came and enjoyed it so much that she started attending all the meetings. I asked her if she would like to go along with me on the Bible studies I conducted; she agreed. She later asked me when she could start taking part in the door-to-door work. About two months after she first participated in the field ministry I invited her to visit the Watch Tower Society’s factory in Brooklyn. She took a day off from work. I have a letter expressing what she thought about the visit. It says in part:
“‘Today I have seen men and women working and living together in the harmony and peace of Paradise that is promised to us in the Scriptures. Can there be such a Paradise in this world as it is today? You may ask that question over and over, time and time again. But we in the New World society know the answer. I have seen it myself today for the first time. I was invited to visit the Watch Tower factory where the literature is printed to tell the people of Jehovah’s teachings. What I have seen was something beyond my wildest dreams of what people can accomplish under Jehovah’s guidance and blessings. A visitor such as I was would be amazed at the order and neatness of the place, and to think that each worker is a minister of Jehovah. Truly it is like the mighty hand of Jehovah writing His Word to nations all over the land. If I had any doubt in my mind about being a Witness, after what I have experienced today it has flown so fleetingly that I am eager more so now than ever to be dedicated to Jehovah so I can become a minister of his Word also.’”
In other places, too—in Europe, Africa, South America and the Orient—the Watch Tower Society has printing plants where Bible literature is published. The 1,461 ordained ministers who have volunteered to work in these plants and in the Society’s branch offices around the world all count it a privilege to serve in this way to advance the interests of God’s kingdom.