What Will This Memorial Season Bring?
1 Last year in the United States we had a marvelous blessing from Jehovah, with 836,058 present for the Memorial, 548,240 at the special talk and 374,878 publishers reporting during that month. Other countries had excellent attendances also. What will the Memorial season bring this year?
2 When we put forth a special effort to invite people to our meetings and to get new ones started in the ministry, we are doing what Jehovah delights in. Surely we can rejoice in such activity.
3 Take, for example, the public talk scheduled for Sunday, March 28. The subject of this special talk, “Restoration of All Things of Which God Spoke,” is indeed something delightful to contemplate and surely we will want to give special publicity to this discourse. Everyone should be invited to attend.
4 We should never underestimate the value of meetings and the impact they have on interested ones. In fact, attending just one meeting is sufficient to change a person’s entire outlook. On the isle of Madeira an interested man studied in spite of constant opposition from his wife. When invited to his first meeting he was determined to go and said that his wife would have to stay home alone if she did not want to accompany him. Living in an isolated area and being rather nervous, she was afraid to stay home alone, so she decided to accompany her husband. She could not resist the appealing message of truth, and this first meeting aroused her desire to study the Bible. After several months of study both husband and wife were baptized on the same day. Surely there are compelling reasons for inviting as many as possible to the special talk this year.
5 And what about the distribution of magazines during March? From Liberia comes an experience showing what one copy of a magazine can do. Indeed, it can produce dramatic changes in a person’s life. A man living in unassigned territory received a copy of Awake! and he was so impressed with the presentation “Finding an Answer to the Problem of Race” that he set out at once in search of a woman living in Monrovia, the capital, whom he knew to be one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Finding that she had died, he continued his search for the Kingdom Hall and finally found one. A study was arranged with him, and after a few weeks he came to engage in the field service, but it was then discovered that he had four wives! Unhesitatingly he started arrangements to send away three of his wives. With determination he put on the new personality, resigned his commission with the militia, legalized his marriage to his one remaining wife, and now that wife has joined her husband in the ministry. All this started with just one issue of Awake! Will you have a full share in distributing the magazines during March?
6 Will you be able perhaps to vacation pioneer during March or April? Be sure to read the heartwarming experience of one of our young brothers from the Solomon Islands paralyzed from the hips down from polio during his youth. (1971 Yearbook, p. 241) After he learned the truth he was determined to serve Jehovah as a full-time pioneer, if possible. You will find this experience moving and faith-strengthening. Truly Jehovah sustains those who cast their burdens on him in full faith.
7 Since the Memorial is the most important meeting of the entire year, certainly we want to invite everyone to attend. Surely we would all like to see a peak attendance at our Kingdom Halls on April 9. In one congregation in Ghana last year the brothers went all out to advertise the Memorial. This congregation of about 100 publishers was delighted to see 966 persons at the Memorial that evening!
8 If each one of us—servant, pioneer and publisher alike—makes this a matter of prayer and works diligently toward generating a spirit of enthusiasm and excitement for the Memorial season this year, surely untold blessings will flow to us and to those whom we encourage to associate with us.
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Make this the best Memorial season yet!