Announcements
◼ Literature offer for March: Knowledge That Leads to Everlasting Life. A special effort will be made to start Bible studies. April and May: The Watchtower and Awake! magazines. Publishers should inform householders that they may contribute to the worldwide work if they so desire. Where interest is shown, offer the Require brochure, making a special effort to start Bible studies. June: What Does God Require of Us? or Knowledge That Leads to Everlasting Life. When householders have these publications, offer an appropriate brochure that the congregation has in stock.
◼ Publishers who wish to serve as auxiliary pioneers in April should make their plans now and turn in their application early. This will help the elders to make necessary field service arrangements and have sufficient magazines and other literature on hand. The names of all who are approved to auxiliary pioneer should be announced to the congregation each month.
◼ The Memorial will be held on Thursday, March 28, 2002. If your congregation normally has meetings on Thursday, these are to be switched to another day of the week if the Kingdom Hall is available. If this is not possible and your Service Meeting is affected, the parts that are particularly applicable to your congregation may be incorporated into another Service Meeting.
◼ The branch office does not fill individual publisher’s requests for literature. The presiding overseer should arrange for an announcement to be made each month before the congregation monthly request for literature is sent to the branch so that all interested in obtaining personal literature items may advise the brother handling literature. Please keep in mind which publications are special-request items.
◼ It is important that groups of 20 or more persons planning to visit the branch office facilities first correspond by mail with the Central Tour Desk at 100 Watchtower Drive, Patterson, NY 12563-9204. The Central Tour Desk will care for groups that will be visiting the facilities at Brooklyn, Patterson, and Wallkill, New York, or the Assembly Hall at Jersey City, New Jersey. Please send information on the number coming and the dates and times for visiting each location. The branch office will provide a description of the tours that are available as well as a map giving directions to each location. LODGING INFORMATION HAS BEEN SENT TO THE CONGREGATION ELDERS AND MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE CONGREGATION SECRETARY. Before your visit, please review the March 1998 Our Kingdom Ministry Question Box regarding proper dress and grooming when visiting Bethel homes.
◼ A packet of legal material is available to assist publishers who are involved in lawsuits over child custody and visitation matters in which our religion is under attack. The packet should be requested by the body of elders only in a case in which it is evident that the publisher’s religious beliefs will be at issue. For those facing secular issues on child custody or visitation, helpful information can be found in Awake! of December 8, 1997, pages 3-12; in Awake! of October 22, 1988, pages 2-14; and on the chart found in Awake! of April 22, 1991, page 9.
◼ The Watchtower is now available as a large-print edition in Efik, Igbo, and Yoruba.
◼ All future publications in Azerbaijani will be published using Roman (or, Latin) script. For a time, some will still be available in Cyrillic.