00:00:01 Congo is certainly not among
00:00:03 the most popular travel destinations
00:00:05 for tourists around the world,
00:00:07 but it is definitely a preaching paradise.
00:00:11 In general, very few people have reservations
00:00:15 to discuss their personal spiritual convictions with strangers.
00:00:20 In addition, Jehovah’s Witnesses are well-known for their high moral standards
00:00:24 and their consistent Bible education.
00:00:28 It is not uncommon for non-Witness parents
00:00:31 to even solicit the services of a Witness Bible teacher
00:00:35 in order to help their children become better persons
00:00:39 and improve their performance in school.
00:00:42 As a result,
00:00:44 the number of Bible studies is about three times
00:00:47 the number of active Witnesses.
00:00:50 And Memorial attendance figures
00:00:52 amount to almost five times the number of publishers.
00:00:56 As you can imagine,
00:00:58 in a country where Internet connections are pretty unstable in urban areas
00:01:03 and almost unavailable in more remote places,
00:01:06 it was a tremendous challenge for the friends to adapt
00:01:10 to the alternative COVID-19 meeting and preaching methods.
00:01:15 Our branch benefited from many additional arrangements
00:01:20 that have been kindly put in place to assist these brothers and sisters
00:01:24 to keep up-to-date with spiritual food and stay active in the ministry,
00:01:28 such as the JW satellite TV channel,
00:01:33 the JW Box network,
00:01:35 and prerecorded public talks
00:01:38 broadcast on local radio stations.
00:01:42 In addition, publishers came up with some
00:01:45 very practical alternative preaching methods themselves.
00:01:49 For example,
00:01:51 in a rural congregation called Mpeshi deep in the interior,
00:01:56 the news of a worldwide pandemic costing hundreds of thousands of lives
00:02:01 hadn’t been perceived as more than background noise.
00:02:04 Still, a temporary special pioneer called Emmanuel
00:02:09 was determined to apply theocratic COVID-19 instructions.
00:02:14 But how could he continue to conduct his Bible studies
00:02:18 in a place with no Internet coverage
00:02:21 and with students who don’t even possess smartphones?
00:02:24 This is what he came up with:
00:02:27 As his house has a main entrance and a back door,
00:02:32 he advised his Bible students to come one by one
00:02:36 and enter through the back door,
00:02:38 which he left open
00:02:40 (each one with his own chair not touching anything in the room),
00:02:44 and sit down next to the closed door leading to the living room.
00:02:49 Emmanuel himself used the main door,
00:02:52 sat on the other side of that closed door in the living room,
00:02:55 and conducted his studies, so to speak, behind a closed door.
00:03:01 So let’s go back to the urban areas.
00:03:05 Here government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions
00:03:09 had a great impact
00:03:11 on thousands of our self-employed brothers and sisters
00:03:15 who overnight were cut off
00:03:17 from their already meager sources of income.
00:03:22 Our branch was authorized
00:03:24 to provide about 3,000 tons of staple food
00:03:27 for more than 200,000 beneficiaries.
00:03:31 One hundred thirteen Disaster Relief Committees
00:03:34 distributed this humanitarian aid
00:03:38 in only four months.
00:03:41 As food trucks pulled up at Kingdom Hall properties
00:03:46 and later hundreds of individuals left with care packages,
00:03:50 many onlookers were deeply impressed.
00:03:53 Once more, they realized how different Jehovah’s organization is
00:03:58 from all the other religious entities around them.
00:04:02 While many pastors and preachers urged their church members
00:04:07 to help them financially during the pandemic,
00:04:10 the Witnesses distributed free goods to needy ones in their community.
00:04:17 Definitely “the fields [in Congo] are white for harvesting,”
00:04:22 and the reapers rejoice.
