Finland

June 13, 1992, started out as an unusually warm summer day in Vantaa, Finland. Branch office expansion had been going on for 15 months. Dedication time had now arrived! The 99 members of the Bethel family, over 100 temporary construction workers, and all the traveling overseers in the country were invited. A total of 559 persons gathered together in the Kingdom Hall, in the dining room, and in other areas of the new facilities to hear the dedication program.

Since the Bethel Home was first constructed, it has been enlarged seven times. Robert Tracy, who visited Scandinavia as the zone overseer, said the following in his dedication talk: “In Sweden, your next-door neighbor, they said that in Finland you are always building.” The original area has a modern printing plant, a bindery, a mailing department, offices, and residences. The new five-story wing of 77,000 square feet [7,200 sq m] consists of 39 Bethel rooms, also health-care facilities, saunas, and storage areas. This new addition is the largest that has ever been made to the branch facility. The entire complex now has 232,000 square feet [21,600 sq m] of space.

Finland is a neighbor of Russia, and for decades it was a gateway between the Western world and the former Soviet Union. So, besides producing literature in Finnish, the Finland branch also prints The Watchtower in Estonian and, in addition, publications in Lithuanian and Latvian. The 18,316 publishers in Finland are so happy that Jehovah has now rewarded his servants with such privileges in supporting his work in Eastern Europe. The new addition to the Bethel Home is a great blessing, and it will benefit all of Jehovah’s Witnesses in that area.

[Pictures on page 28, 29]

Finland

A large addition to the Finland branch was dedicated on June 13, 1992