*** yb05 pp. 48-55 Worldwide Report *** ▪ THE AMERICAS Number of lands: 56 Population: 868,871,739 Number of publishers: 3,165,925 Number of Bible studies: 3,089,453 Marie from Guadeloupe reports: “On the beach by the hotel where I work, a few customers called to my attention that some clothes and shoes had been left on a rock for two days. I collected the items with the idea of finding information that might identify the owner. What I found was a purse that contained 1,067 euros [$1,372 U.S.]! Several bystanders urged me to keep part of the money and to share the rest with them. Right away, I told them that I am one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and that my conscience compells me to be honest. So I took everything to the reception desk of the hotel. The employees there were also astonished that I did not keep the money. Again I explained my position. When I went back to the beach, some of the people there were eager to know more about our beliefs. Using the Bible, I witnessed to them. Among them was a woman who said, ‘I will employ only Jehovah’s Witnesses to work for me.’” Since then, the owner has been found, and the police congratulated the sister for her honesty. Antonio is a Bethelite in Mexico who takes advantage of every opportunity to speak to people about the truth. Recently, while traveling by bus to a congregation meeting, he placed a tract with a well-dressed man and woman. A pleasant conversation ensued. “I said good-bye to them at my bus stop,” said Antonio, “but to my surprise, they wanted to get off with me to continue the conversation, even though it was not their stop. After getting off, we talked a little more, and again I said good-bye. They asked, ‘Where are you going?’ ‘To a meeting with my congregation,’ I answered. They looked at each other and then asked, ‘May we go with you?’ ‘I will be happy to take you!’ I replied.” Both the young woman, who is a lawyer, and her nephew, who is a university student, had heard the message of truth some years before but did not pursue it because of family opposition. While they accompanied Antonio to the meeting, they expressed the hope of seeing the person who had first spoken to them about the Bible. What a pleasant surprise it was for them to meet her there! They were delighted at having attended and were eager to study the Bible. “It was Jehovah who guided us here, and from now on we will continue to come,” said the young woman. Arrangements were made for a study, which is being conducted twice a week. In Haiti, Jacqueline, a circuit overseer’s wife, was accompanying a pioneer sister in the preaching work when they saw a young woman sitting alone along the roadside and crying. The sisters approached her and asked why she was so distressed. At first, the young woman refused to answer, but in response to gentle insistence, she replied, “I have done what I wanted to do.” Immediately discerning that she had taken poison, Jacqueline asked her and received a confirming nod. The sisters quickly rushed her to a hospital for treatment. The following week, the pioneer sister returned to visit and encourage her. A Bible study was started. At the checkout at a supermarket in Paraguay, Lourdes was shocked to learn that she was paying with a counterfeit bill. The cashier immediately called security. Lourdes and Ingrid, her five-year-old daughter, were taken to a small room to await the police. The manager of the supermarket and the security guard demanded that the sister tell them where she had got the counterfeit bill. Lourdes could not remember where she had got it and told them that she did not know that it was counterfeit. Upset, Ingrid looked at the manager and the security guard and said: “You are treating us like thieves. My mother is not a thief. We are Jehovah’s Witnesses, and we do not lie to people.” The manager asked Lourdes if she was a Witness, and she said yes. A phone call to the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses finally convinced the men that Lourdes was indeed a Witness. They apologized to Lourdes and Ingrid for the inconvenience and let them go. Young Ingrid later said that the worst thing about the whole situation was that they were unable to buy the bag of popcorn that she wanted so much. A brother was preaching in Costa Rica and decided to approach his Catholic neighbor to witness to him. The brother was fearful because the man did not like the Witnesses; he had even been abusive toward them. To the brother’s surprise, the man invited him inside and explained his change of attitude. A friend of his had invited him to visit a distant community to attend an Evangelical church. Once there, the man was invited to give his personal “testimony.” He just said that he was Catholic. The people did not like that and ordered him out of the church, telling the friend that he risked being condemned because he associated with a Catholic. The man left the church, but since he was far from home in an unfamiliar area, he did not know where he would spend the night. He called at a house and explained what had happened, and he was invited in. There he was fed, and a place was offered for him to spend the night. The owners of the house also preached to this man. Yes, they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. What an impact it had on this man to find out that the Witnesses truly love their neighbor! Now he is studying the Bible with the Witnesses. A sister in Trinidad writes: “While I was doing street witnessing, a woman approached me and asked for the latest magazines. After placing several magazines with her, I offered her a free home Bible study. The woman said that she had studied before but had recently moved into the area. I asked for her name and address, but the woman refused, saying that if we really serve the true God, he would show me where she lived. The next day while in the door-to-door ministry, I knocked on a door, and the same woman answered. On seeing my partner and me, she laughed in astonishment and said, ‘How did you find me so quickly?’ I asked if she remembered what she told me the previous day. She invited us into her home, and a study was started. Now the woman is an unbaptized publisher.” ▪ ASIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST Number of lands: 47 Population: 3,971,703,969 Number of publishers: 574,927 Number of Bible studies: 444,717 Ghanshyam is a regular pioneer in Nepal. He makes his living driving a taxicab. In his work he meets people of many backgrounds and finds that most of them are in a hurry, even during the night, and have little time for conversation. Still, he makes a conscientious effort to initiate a conversation. Whenever possible, he gives his passengers an appropriate tract and the address of the nearest Kingdom Hall. Many passengers have expressed their appreciation. Five of them now study the Bible with Ghanshyam. In Taiwan a sister’s husband often used his powerful voice to berate his wife, especially when she was about to go to a Christian meeting. Then one day he had a stroke. He was paralyzed and confined to a hospital. The sister patiently cared for him and tactfully used his rehabilitation period to help him appreciate Bible truth. She said: “You need to exercise your brain, so I will give you some information, and you try to remember it, OK?” He knew that he had to think, so he agreed. The sister used information from various brochures to teach him some basic truths, such as God’s name and attributes and the theme of the Bible. Additionally, many of the brothers visited him and showed him kindness. This moved him so much that on returning home from the hospital, he agreed to have a Bible study. He has now started attending meetings in a wheelchair and is using his powerful voice to comment. Rohana, a special pioneer working in a rural area of Sri Lanka, faced opposition from a man who operates a pedicab—a tricycle with a two-seat passenger compartment. On seeing Rohana in the ministry, he would shout abuse. Once he threatened Rohana that if he did not stop preaching in the area, he might be stabbed. Rohana reacted with mildness. Later, the man met with an accident and was hospitalized with severe injuries. Rohana visited him in the hospital and brought him a gift. When the man saw who had come to visit him, he began to cry and asked Rohana’s forgiveness for all the abusive treatment that he had given him. “Sir, because of the way I treated you, it would have been better for you to hit me with a pole than to come all this way to comfort me,” the man said. Now he is out of the hospital and continues his pedicab service. He also regularly reads our magazines. A large number of foreigners come to Hong Kong to work as domestic helpers. One such woman had begun studying the brochure What Does God Require of Us? in the Philippines and wanted to continue her Bible study. However, she did not know how to find the Witnesses, so she prayed for help in finding them. On her day off, she traveled across the harbor to the main business district and central park area where many Filipinos gather on weekends. She searched but did not see anyone whom she could identify as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, though they regularly witness in the park on the weekends. Nevertheless, she did see a Require brochure thrown in a trash bin. The woman picked up the brochure and saw that it had a phone number written on it. The number was that of the sister who had originally placed the brochure. The woman was greatly surprised and overjoyed to learn that the sister worked in the same housing complex that she did. She resumed her Bible study and is attending meetings. A circuit overseer and another elder in the Republic of Korea made a shepherding call at just the right time. They visited a sister who had been inactive for ten years. Her husband, an atheist, had decided to attend church after he underwent an operation. When the brothers visited, they met her husband, who after a friendly conversation accepted the Require brochure. The elder encouraged the sister as he studied with the husband. The husband accepted an invitation to attend the district convention, after which he stopped attending church and became regular at meetings. The sister also progressed and asked that visits be made to their four sons and daughters living in another city. As a result, this sister’s husband, her eldest daughter and her husband, and her youngest daughter have been baptized. Later, her eldest son and his wife were also baptized, making a total of six new Witnesses. Yuki, a high school student in Japan, found it difficult to tell her classmates that she was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Aware that she should give a witness, she realized that she would have to take the initiative, since her classmates never brought up the subject of religion. She decided to let her friends see her offer a prayer at lunchtime. All morning, she prayed earnestly for courage. Then, instead of racing through her lunchtime prayer so that no one would notice, she bowed her head and prayed a little longer. When she finished, a classmate asked her if she was feeling all right. However, Yuki was unable to witness. Feeling very bad about it, she later apologized to Jehovah in prayer and again asked for courage. The next day, after Yuki prayed, her classmate again asked her how she was, and Yuki thought, ‘It has to be now!’ She explained that she is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. At first her classmate was surprised, but then she bombarded Yuki with questions—What do you pray for? What is God’s name? Who was Jesus? and so on. Yuki was thrilled. In Kupang, Indonesia, Glenn was known as a drunkard and a drug addict. People would hire him to threaten or beat up others. He was staying with his parents when two of Jehovah’s Witnesses called and discussed the Bible with them. Soon Glenn accepted a Bible study and with great effort began to break free from his unwholesome habits. One day a shop owner advanced him a huge sum of money to beat up a certain man. Glenn thought about the offer but decided not to accept such jobs anymore. He returned the money and refused the job. Later when Glenn went to a different shop, that owner was afraid that he had come to beat him up. Glenn convinced the owner that now he studies the Bible and lives a peaceful life. The shop owner accepted a Bible study and also gave him a job at the shop. At the district convention last year, Glenn was baptized, and the shop owner was present.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 02:32:35 +0000
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