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Hello, everyone.
For this update, I’d like to talk
about what you dear brothers and sisters
have accomplished during the past few months.
Jehovah must be very proud of you
—your obedience, your zeal!
In spite of all the obstacles,
you haven’t let up in your service.
On the contrary, we’re receiving reports
from one country after another
of peaks in the number of publishers,
placements, regular pioneers,
Bible studies, and meeting attendance.
Well done, faithful servants of Jehovah!
Of course, all of us are anxious
to get back in the door-to-door work
and doing public witnessing.
And if we’re limited to doing
letter writing and telephone witnessing,
we might feel
that we aren’t accomplishing much.
If that’s the way you feel,
remember what we’re told
at Revelation 14:6.
I’d like you to follow along as I read this.
It says: “And I saw another angel
“flying in midheaven,
“and he had everlasting good news to declare
“to those who dwell on the earth,
“to every nation and tribe
and tongue and people.”
So an angel or a group of angels
are supervising the preaching work.
Now, just think: Because of our limitations,
the angels may be busier than ever,
making sure that the Kingdom message
reaches the right people.
Otherwise, how would you explain
the increases we are seeing?
You write a letter, and send it out.
The recipient reads it, but isn’t interested.
What have you accomplished?
You’ve given a witness,
maybe the most thorough witness
that person has ever received.
Some people are never home when we call,
or they never answer the door,
so they have no idea what we believe
—until—
until they receive that letter.
But suppose someone else in the household
would be interested.
The angels might see to it
that that person reads the letter.
You’ve given the angels
something to work with!
Or you dial the wrong number
that turns out to be the right number.
Were the angels involved
in any of the following experiences?
You be the judge.
A sister in South America
was doing telephone witnessing,
and she wasn’t having much success,
but she didn’t give up.
She called another number,
and a man answered the phone.
The sister explained that she was calling
to encourage her neighbors
who were suffering because of the pandemic.
And she read Jeremiah 29:11,
which says that Jehovah is offering us
“a future and a hope.”
Then the man said:
“This phone call was no coincidence
—it was from God.”
He explained that the sister
had called a radio station
and that she was on the air.
A lot of people were listening to her
at that very moment.
They had just been talking
about the pandemic.
The sister quickly prayed for strength
and then shared
a number of encouraging scriptures
with the radio audience.
She also told them about our website.
The host took note of the scriptures
and enthusiastically encouraged his listeners
to visit the website.
What a witness!
Now, ask yourself, ‘Would the sister
have dialed that number
if she had known she’d be talking
to a radio audience?’
Another sister in the United States
was ordering a dress over the phone.
And she had prayed to Jehovah for the courage
to give a witness
when the transaction was completed.
She followed through on her prayer.
First, she commended
the customer service agent for her kindness
and then asked if she could read
a scripture from the Bible.
The young lady agreed.
It turns out that she had studied
the Bible years earlier,
but she had stopped
because she had a lot going on in her life.
A study was started in the Teach Us book,
and the young lady attended
the Zoom meeting the very next Sunday.
What about this one: A brother in Japan
wrote to 100 of his former schoolmates.
Now in their 30’s, many of them
were facing problems in the workplace
and had concerns about how to raise
their children properly.
When a talk on family life was given
in the congregation,
29 of his former classmates attended.
Now he’s studying with 18 of them.
A sister in Brazil
called a woman on the phone.
It turns out that the phone rang
just as the woman was about to take her life.
She had a lot of problems,
but that call convinced her
that God is interested in her.
She accepted a study
and is making great progress.
Another sister living on an island
under the France branch
had an appointment with a doctor.
After talking about her own health problems
for a while,
she asked the doctor how he was doing.
He was surprised.
He said his patients rarely showed
personal interest in him.
This opened the way for the sister
to give a witness.
It turns out that the doctor never answered
the door when the Witnesses called.
At the end of the conversation,
the doctor said
that for the next appointment,
he’d schedule the sister
at the end of the day
so that they could continue their discussion.
An 80-year-old sister
lives in a rural area in France.
She called a woman
living in an isolated village
and talked about the model prayer.
That turned out to be just the right subject.
The woman said
that she had been raised by nuns
but had never understood the model prayer.
A Bible study is being conducted each week,
and the woman is attending
our Zoom meetings.
Now, what does each of these experiences
have in common?
Someone wrote a letter,
dialed the phone, or spoke up.
The brothers and sisters did what they could
and gave the angels something to work with.
So put the angels to work.
Take advantage of opportunities
to witness to schoolmates,
medical personnel, deliverymen, shopkeepers.
A simple way to start any conversation
is to say,
“I’d like to tell you about a website
where millions have found
encouraging information.”
Speaking of our website,
a real effort is being made
to provide up-to-date information on jw.org.
Let’s listen as Brother Herman van Selm,
a helper to the Writing Committee,
tells us about it.
Something remarkable happened
in January of last year.
What was it?
The Writing Committee
together with the Coordinators’ Committee
decided that the home page of our website
should feature articles
that are relevant to current events,
grab the viewers’ attention,
and provide the Bible’s explanation
and advice.
Now, how did that decision made in January
prove to be timely?
Well, just a few months later,
the pandemic began.
So the Writing Department
immediately began to develop articles
that would address key questions or issues
on the minds of people.
However, the challenge was
that normally preparing one issue
of Awake! or Watchtower
can take more than 18 months.
So we had to find a way
to prepare articles for the home page
in a much shorter time.
Gladly, with Jehovah’s help
and with the help of the brothers and sisters
in various departments,
the total time for preparing and publishing
one new article for the home page
has been reduced to five weeks.
We are grateful that a good number
of home page articles
already have been published
on topics related to the pandemic.
Which of these six articles do you think
received the most visitors on our home page?
The number one article was
“What Does the Bible Say
About Pandemics?”
Now, what does that show?
People want to know
how current events are related to the Bible.
And our website explains in clear language
how world conditions
are fulfilling Bible prophecy.
That makes the information on our website
different from what people
may find elsewhere.
Brothers and sisters around the world
also find the articles helpful.
To give one example,
a couple with teenage children wrote:
“Just when we as parents feel at a loss
“about how to deal with the pandemic,
“isolation, stress, and social unrest,
“an article appears
that gives clear Scriptural guidance
“on how to handle what we are dealing with.
“We appreciate so much
“how quickly the faithful slave provides us
with exactly what we need.”
Now, many have expressed
how the home page articles
help them in their ministry.
Here are some of their comments:
From Spain: “They are eye-catching.
The language is simple but powerful.”
Benin: “Publishers are impressed
“with how in tune the articles are
with current events.”
Netherlands: “They are helping publishers
“to stay enthusiastic in the ministry
during the pandemic.”
Scandinavia: “Publishers check the home page
before starting phone witnessing.”
Britain: “It’s exactly the right thing
for our current form of ministry.”
These recent developments
with the home page
are a faith-strengthening example
of how the faithful and discreet slave
is providing wholesome spiritual food
at the proper time.
In closing, we would like to commend
all of you once again
for your resourcefulness and zeal
during this pandemic.
Keep up the good work, brothers and sisters,
and may Jehovah bless you richly!
From the World Headquarters
of Jehovah’s Witnesses,
this is JW Broadcasting®.

2021 Governing Body Update #1