"Fishing" in Ports

Cruise liners stop at the numerous ports of the Aegean islands every summer, bringing loads of visiting vacationers.  Thus, Jehovah's Witnesses have a unique opportunity to reach people of many nations and tongues.  The congregations keep in stock Bible literature in many different languages, and the publishers place thousands of magazines with tourists. Some cruise ships visit the same ports each week, which affords the brothers excellent opportunities to make return visits and even to conduct Bible studies withe some of the ships' crew members.  

In the summer of 1996, a sister who is a full-time preacher on Rhodes witnessed to a young Jamaican man who worked on a cruise liner that visited that port every Friday.  The next Friday the man was invited to attend  a district convention to be held on the island. English Bible in hand, the pioneer  sister helped him to understand some of the Bible truths presented on the program.  The young man was deeply impressed by the love and warmth shown by the Witnesses at the convention. The following Friday, he invited  two pioneers onto the ship.  The pioneers took with them literature in English and Spanish.  Their witnessing bags were emptied  in less than an hour!  The young Jamaican studied the Bible every Friday until the end of summer.  The next summer he was back, ready to resume his study. This time, though, he decided to change his job in order to be able to make spiritual progress. Then off he went again. How happy the brothers in Rhodes were to learn that this young man was baptized in early 1998!

Next time: Catching Migratory "Fish" 

From the Watchtower magazine, 2000