Reaching Those Hard to Reach

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES strive to contact everyone they can with the Kingdom message.  At times, it takes an extraordinary effort to reach those who are seldom at home.  (Mark 13:10) In this regard, a special pioneer minister in a South American country relates the following experience.

"One day I became aware that the state government would be visiting the territory to which my wife and I are assigned.  Since he was obviously one of those who are rarely at home, I wrote a letter to him and enclosed several Bible publications, including the brochure What Does God Require of Us?  And the Books Mankind's Search  for God and Knowledge That Leads to Everlasting Life.  My letter explained the purpose of each of these publications.

Because I was interested in finding out his reaction to the literature, I requested a meeting with him.  Some weeks later I was granted a meeting, and I took along a copy of the video Jehovah Witnesses -The Organization Behind the Name.  The meeting lasted about two hours.  After watching the video with the governor, I asked him what he thought of it.  He replied: 'There is no other organization on earth like yours.  I wish I had people like you who could help me complete my government projects!'  Then he asked if I had ever been to the world headquarters of our  organization.  I told him that although it had been my goal since I was 14 years old, I had not the opportunity to visit our world headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.  It was one of those hard-to-reach goals.  He looked at me intently for a moment.  Then he said that he wanted me  to have that opportunity.  He took care of our legal permits and gave  us the airplane tickets as a gift!

"The governor now regularly receives the Watchtower and Awake magazines.  We hope that soon we will be able  to start a Bible study with him."

Next time: What Does It Mean to Be LOYAL?

Watchtower, 2001