00:01 Brother Thomas Kalimeris,
00:03 who serves at the United States branch,
00:05 together with his wife,
00:07 has spent close to four decades supporting various aspects
00:10 of the organization’s construction projects.
00:14 What has that experience taught him?
00:16 That the work is not run by us.
00:24 Throughout history, men have built many beautiful and impressive buildings.
00:30 These structures have usually brought glory to men,
00:32 not to God.
00:34 But those men are long gone,
00:36 and even many of the structures no longer exist.
00:41 How true is the scripture at Psalm 127:1:
00:45 “Unless Jehovah builds the house,
00:48 it is in vain that its builders work hard on it.”
00:53 In our time too, Jehovah is using his people to build.
00:57 We’re working hard to build spirituality in interested ones,
01:01 and also we build structures
01:03 in order to help individuals to learn
01:06 about Jehovah and serve him.
01:08 In this type of construction
01:11 —both spiritual and physical construction—
01:13 I’ve been involved for most of my life.
01:15 I was born in Greece.
01:18 Our family came into contact with the truth in the early sixties.
01:23 I was baptized when I was in high school.
01:26 I left school to get some practical training in architecture,
01:30 but I made pioneering my career.
01:33 In 1973, I married my dear wife, Margaret,
01:36 and together we enjoyed many assignments.
01:39 We pioneered —special pioneering.
01:41 We went to Gilead.
01:44 We were invited to Bethel
01:47 in 1979 to work in the Engineering Department.
01:50 We worked on designing new branches,
01:54 Assembly Halls, Kingdom Halls,
01:57 renovation of existing branches
02:00 and remote translation offices.
02:05 Before we came to Bethel, we had seen how Jehovah provided for us individually.
02:09 But now we had the opportunity
02:12 to see how Jehovah provided for the needs of his organization globally.
02:18 By the year 2000, it became apparent that the present facility
02:22 of the Britain branch was not meeting their needs.
02:27 So a site was located
50 miles (80 km) north of London
02:29 to relocate the branch there.
02:32 However,
02:34 the Governing Body decided to cancel the project.
02:37 So in 2008,
02:39 the Governing Body wrote that now is the time
02:43 —Jehovah’s time— to find property
02:46 closer to London.
02:48 So a project team was formed,
02:50 and a few years went by, and a number of properties were searched,
02:53 and one was located closer to London.
02:56 If something we plan falls through,
02:59 it could mean that Jehovah has something else
03:02 —or better— in mind to meet the needs of his organization.
03:06 While working in the Haiti branch, we learned a lesson:
03:10 not to compromise on safety.
03:14 The Brooklyn Engineering Department did the drawings for the branch,
03:18 and a local contractor was hired
03:22 to build the structural work.
03:24 Now, the contractor, when he reviewed the drawings,
03:25 told the Branch Committee: “Really, this is overdesigned.
03:29 You’re wasting a lot of money by putting all the steel in the building.”
03:33 So we wrote back and said: “No, the drawings are OK.
03:38 “The branch is designed according to the seismic zone that it’s in.
03:41 And the contractor is to go ahead with the plans as drawn.”
03:46 In 2010, when the earthquake came to Haiti,
03:50 hundreds of thousands of people died
03:54 because of inferior materials and methods of construction.
03:58 However,
04:00 the branch did not suffer any damage,
04:03 and many people went there to find refuge.
04:07 We’re so glad that Jehovah did not allow us
04:10 to be swayed in this case.
04:13 Jehovah continues to direct a great physical building work
04:17 and a spiritual work.
04:19 Jehovah trains his people how to work together
04:22 for the work just ahead of us
04:24 —the beautification of this earth to a paradise.
04:30 It is so important that we ‘trust in Jehovah
04:32 and not to lean upon our own understanding.’
04:36 A life of building with Jehovah
04:38 has shown me the wisdom of Psalm 127:1.
04:42 If we keep building our lives with Jehovah,
04:45 our building work will never be in vain.