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‘Making Disciples’ by Leaps and Bounds in Brazil

EVERY hour, on the average, someone in Brazil becomes a baptized witness of Jehovah. In the ten months ending June 30 of this year 7,170 new students of the Bible offered themselves for baptism in evidence of their dedication to God. This means, on the average, almost 24 persons are being baptized every single day of the year, compared with last year’s 17!

Back in 1945 the work of making true disciples of Jesus Christ had scarcely begun in Brazil. There were only 344 active ministers of Jehovah’s witnesses. Today there are more than 60,000. They are organized in 1,080 congregations and 250 isolated groups. Truly the work of making disciples and baptizing them, as Jesus commanded, is going ahead by leaps and bounds in Brazil.​—Matt. 28:19.

PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP

How timely this discipling campaign! In Brazil many are sorely confused in religious matters. Elderly people will say: “Before, everything was sinful. Now, nothing is sinful anymore. Nobody knows what to do.” It is also quite common to hear Catholics say: “I believe in God, but I don’t like the priests.” One lady, accepting Bible literature, declared: “Since this business of ‘rock ’n’ roll’ mass began, I do not go to church. I say my prayers at home.”

The belated move by some priests to clear out image worship plus the pope’s downgrading of a number of the church’s “saints” are having repercussions. In Rio de Janeiro a Catholic woman said: “The pope can impeach whoever he wants. As for me, I will keep my little saints.” And a farmer in Campo Alegre, Santa Catarina, was heard to threaten: “Our priest is trying to remove all images from our church. Why, that’s all we have left! The day that happens, we will charge the church, take off his frock and throw him out of our city.”

In Rio de Janeiro, a young Methodist woman said: ‘In my church people speak a lot about morals and love, but they do not practice it.’ An elderly Baptist lady affirmed: ‘The only time our preacher spoke with enthusiasm was when he called those who didn’t pay their tithes “thieves.”’ Tired of paying for nothing, she accepted a free home Bible study from Jehovah’s witnesses.

In Rio Branco, deep in the Amazon jungle, an elderly woman, who hated the Witnesses and always called them bad names, happened to see her priest throwing church images in the garbage can. When the next Witness called on her, she readily accepted the provision of a Bible study in her home. When invited to the Kingdom Hall, she said: “How can I go there, after calling them all kinds of names?” However, she went and was received like an old friend. She has not missed a meeting since.

HELPING THE PEOPLE

In the cities particularly, the discipling work goes on apace. São Paulo, for example, has 130 congregations, one Witness for about every 500 of its population of six million. Still, many persons in isolated areas are yet to be helped to learn ‘all the things that Jesus commanded.’ (Matt. 28:20) Just as was the situation in the first century of our Common Era, strong Christian congregations are sending workers to preach farther afield. One congregation in Salvador, Bahia, even rented and eventually purchased a house in Irará, some one hundred miles away. They furnished a large room with sixty chairs, and put ten beds and thirty straw mattresses in other rooms. Every week a group of Witnesses travels to Irará to conduct Bible studies and meetings for interested persons; and once in a while the entire congregation goes there. At one of their latest public meetings, 110 persons were present. Now they have eleven persons sharing the good news, some already baptized. Some gladly walk twelve miles or more to attend these meetings.

In one month, April 1970, the Witnesses spent 961,819 hours in helping others to learn and observe the commands of the Lord Jesus. Many of these hours were spent conducting 53,591 Bible studies with interested persons. They also placed 632,650 copies of the magazines The Watchtower and Awake!, these journals greatly aiding people to become conscious of their spiritual needs.

Seeing the urgent need to help others to learn the commands of Christ, many Witnesses have increased their time for the discipling work. For example, of the 62,740 who engaged in the public ministry in April 1970, nearly 6 percent were at it full time. Missionaries and special pioneers, totaling 829, devote 150 hours per month in discipling. And 1,635 Witnesses devoted between 75 and 100 hours to public teaching of the Bible during April; another 1,200, as regular pioneer ministers, spent 100 or more hours in the ministry.

The combined efforts of all Witnesses in Brazil resulted in a vast distribution of Bible literature during the past ten months​—350,000 Bibles and hardbound Bible study aids and more than 40,000 new subscriptions for the Watchtower and Awake! magazines.

DISCIPLING PEOPLE OF ALL KINDS

People in great variety are being discipled. One young woman in Campo Alegre, Santa Catarina, for ten years the local priest’s “right hand,” showed interest in the Kingdom message. On his deathbed the priest admitted to her: “We know we are wrong, but it is too late now to change everything.” She is now an enthusiastic Witness.

Many are searching for the true organization of Christ’s followers. One man traveled a long way from Indaiatuba, São Paulo, for the purpose of finding the branch office of the Watch Tower Society in Rio de Janeiro, only to learn that it had been moved. Meantime he kept watching for a newer issue of Awake! magazine in which, as he eagerly hoped, he would find the new address. When he did visit the branch for literature he forgot to inquire about the address of a Kingdom Hall in his own neighborhood. In vain he inquired of the police, his workmates and others. Finally, he obtained the address through the telephone company. When he arrived at the Hall, it so happened that the large sign had been removed temporarily for repairs. However, he waited anyway, until some Witnesses showed up. From that time he has been a regular attender, and after three weeks he even began sharing in the discipling of others.

In Cabedelo, Paráiba, a Witness, in the house-to-house ministry, met a man who practiced voodooism. The Witness saw spiritistic images of all kinds on the walls of this man’s house, and there was also a big altar full of such images. A Bible study was started, and the subject “Worshiping God ‘with Spirit and Truth’” was considered. After the study, the man said he was going to follow the Bible’s teachings. He destroyed one image, as he said, ‘to see what would happen.’ Next week they considered the topic “Keep Free from Every Form of Spiritism.” Afterwards, the man said he would destroy all his images at the next study, with the help of the Witness. However, by the time the Witness arrived that next week, the job had been thoroughly done. Now the man is attending all meetings of the local Witnesses.

A young Witness in the full-time preaching work was refused permission to visit the occupants of an apartment building. Apparently annoyed, the porter would not even allow her to leave magazines for the tenants. When she asked what he had against the Witnesses, he replied: “You did not understand me, Miss. You have the truth. Everything the magazines say is right. They are just too good for these people. The last time you left magazines I collected them all from the garbage cans and kept them in my home.” He readily agreed to having a Bible study conducted in his home.

People from all walks of life are being discipled in Brazil. Most of them are ordinary people, but they were heretofore the cream of all false religions. (1 Cor. 1:26-29) At the recent “Peace on Earth” District Assembly in Fortaleza, Ceará, for example, candidates for immersion included many housewives, a fisherman, a weaver, a mechanic, a shoemaker, an office worker, a radio telegraphist, a former sailor, a teacher, a university student, and a chemist.

MEETINGS OF WITNESSES APPRECIATED

Appreciating the need for meeting together to study God’s Word, the Witnesses in Brazil spare no effort to provide adequate meeting places. In Salvador, Bahia, two congregations were using the same hall, and it was quite inadequate. Men of responsibility in the congregations urged the Witnesses to pool their resources, selling everything superfluous. Items of all kinds came out of trunks and other storage places. Among the items were wedding gowns, dresses, suits, scrap iron, antique figurines, and so forth. With the proceeds they built a fine Kingdom Hall.

Meetings at Kingdom Halls in Brazil often have an attendance 100 percent more than the number of local Witnesses. At sixteen district assemblies in 1969, there was a combined attendance of 114,927. The annual celebration of the Lord’s Evening Meal, too, is outstanding for its excellent attendance. This year one congregation in Fortaleza, with 85 Witnesses, had 285 persons present. In the extreme south, at Rio Grande, a congregation with 110 Witnesses had 345 persons attend; another congregation, with 45 Witnesses, had 195 in attendance. The total attendance at the Lord’s Evening Meal mounted to 164,436​—nearly two other persons for each Witness present!

In view of all this, the magazine Realidade, in an eight-page report in its June issue, was moved to exclaim about the discipling organization of Jehovah’s witnesses: “A perfect organization . . . they are not selfish: they know the world is going to end and want everybody to be saved”​—at least, everybody who loves the true God and seeks His righteousness. Truly, the discipling work in Brazil goes forward by leaps and bounds.