Oceania

Emily, 12 years old, lives in Australia. One day her schoolteacher talked to her class about the importance of choosing good friends. This prompted Emily to show her teacher the whiteboard animation video What’s a Real Friend? When the teacher later showed the video to the class, the students paid rapt attention. Afterward, they spent an hour discussing it. The teacher also showed the video to several other classes. Emily then introduced her teacher and classmates to jw.org. “Jehovah gave me the courage to share the website with hundreds of students,” says Emily. “He really blessed me.”

Five publishers traveled nine hours over rough mountain roads to set up a literature stand at a trade fair in Suai, Timor-Leste. Visitors to the stand were astonished to see Bible literature in 12 local languages, since most of those languages have little or no reading material published in them. One woman saw the title of a brochure and exclaimed, “That’s my language!” It was the first time she had read any printed literature in her mother tongue, Bunak. In just four days, the publishers distributed 4,571 pieces of literature and received numerous requests to visit people at their homes. Most interested ones had never met Jehovah’s Witnesses before. Children sat for hours watching videos from the series Become Jehovah’s Friend in the Tetun Dili language. Some children even memorized the words of the songs in this series and sang them happily.

Missionaries Brian and Roxanne requested permission to set up a literature cart at the college on the island of Palau. They met with the college president and showed him a video on jw.org about our public witnessing. They also left samples of the literature that they planned to display on the cart. The president told Brian and Roxanne that they needed to meet with the director of student relations. After that meeting, they were told to have yet another meeting, this time with the dean of the college.

“We had a good discussion with the dean,” Brian said, “but he referred us back to the president’s office, where we were instructed to write a letter requesting permission to set up our literature cart. We seemed to be getting the runaround and were a bit discouraged, but we wrote the letter anyway.”

To follow up on their letter, Brian and Roxanne visited the dean a second time, fully expecting him to deny their request. “We were very surprised,” Brian relates, “when the dean said that he had read the books we provided and thought they were excellent. He said that they were just what the students needed.” Yes, permission was granted!

Brian continues: “Then the director of student relations informed us that students who live in dormitories could be driven to the church of their choice on Sundays. ‘If they want to go to your church,’ he said, ‘we can take them there.’ Roxanne and I were stunned. Instead of denying our request, the college was offering to take students to the Kingdom Hall!”

The first day Brian and Roxanne set up a literature cart on campus, they placed 65 books, 8 magazines, and 11 brochures. They also had many good conversations with the students. Both the dean and the director of student relations encouraged them to return.

Lipson, a Bethel family member, was returning to the Solomon Islands branch after a morning of preaching. As he walked along, he heard a Kingdom song coming from inside a store. Curious, he decided to go inside. To his surprise, he saw a crowd of both children and adults looking at a television that was playing the video of song number 55, “Life Without End​—At Last!,” from the Become Jehovah’s Friend series. When the song finished playing, the store owner told the group, “I have another video I want you to see.” He then played the animated video Stealing Is Bad. After this video ended, he admonished all not to steal from his store.

Because many others had come into the store while the video was playing, the store owner said to them, “I want you all to hear my favorite song.” He then played song number 55 again. Next, the store owner decided to show the videos Why Study the Bible? and What Happens at a Bible Study? in Solomon Islands Pidgin.

Few Solomon Islanders have Internet access because of its high cost and limited availability. However, this store owner, who is not one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, is helping to plant seeds of truth by showing our videos to those who come into his store.

Each Monday, a young couple enjoy using a mobile literature cart in an area of Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia. One day, a woman shyly approached the cart and without a word took the book What Does the Bible Really Teach? Half an hour later, she returned, book in hand. She said to the couple, “Have you seen this?” She opened the book and pointed out Jehovah’s name. “That’s God’s name!” she said. “I have been doing research for weeks at the library to grasp the truth about God. But then I took your book and got in my car. When I opened the book, the first thing I saw was God’s name, Jehovah. I thought I ought to come back and thank you.” The couple had a pleasant discussion with this woman and directed her to the entry “The Divine Name​—Its Use and Its Meaning” in the appendix of the Bible Teach book. The woman explained that she wanted to pursue her research at the library first, but she now knows where the cart is every Monday!