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A French Congregation Brings in the Sheep

IN France, where the work of Jehovah’s witnesses is definitely on the increase, the distance between their homes in some areas still remains a major problem in their ministry. For example, last year the group at Chauny in France was composed of thirty Witnesses, spread out over a distance of forty-five to fifty miles. They conducted home Bible studies with twenty-five persons of good will scattered through the villages. The problem was how to get them to the Kingdom Hall. But when time came for the Memorial of Christ’s death a special arrangement was made. A bus was chartered to make a round trip of more than a hundred miles to gather these persons and bring them to the hall.

Thus, on April 3 at 2:30 p.m., not the usual eighteen to twenty persons, but fifty-five were seated in the Kingdom Hall, some of whom were quite surprised to find that worldly acquaintances of theirs were likewise associating with the Witnesses. But the Memorial was not to be held until after sunset. What were these people now going to do? They were all invited to accompany Jehovah’s witnesses in their house-to-house ministry, and the Witnesses took the people with whom they had studied out into this field service.

The result? Ten new persons, including some who had been studying only a few weeks, became publishers of the good news of God’s kingdom, and then and there the congregation exceeded its goal of a 20-percent increase in Kingdom preachers for which it had been striving, and happily overcame the discouragement that its former transportation problem had produced.