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I am reviewing JW figures and statistics from 2017 Sometimes we feel that personally we do not contribute much to the worldwide growth of publishers and yet the "figures" are just amazing! We had total of 284,212 baptized last year That's 778.6 publishers a day or 7 congregations added daily. Mexico is on fire... 32.408 baptized last year ...that's 88 publishers daily , so again almost a congregation a day. Happy to see amazing growth

Today is exactly 2years since I joined this wonderful forum and what a great privilege its been. First of all i want to thank Jehovah who led me to this beautiful family. I dont really remember how i bumped onto this platform coz all i remember is that i came across it. It wasnt anyone who introduced me here.(A sign of Jehovah's hand?? Sure) I also want to thank all the brothers and sisters here for the warm reception, wonderful posts, encouragements and responses. Especially anytime i post a question and open up this forum to see the length that brothers and sisters go to, sacrificing their time and energy to make research and bring their findings here, I cant help but to be in awe of all of you. Lastly I want to show my deep gratitude to the moderators for the good work they are constantly doing to keep this forum free of apostates and encourage healthy spiritual interactions between ourselves. May Jehovah help us all to continue serving him faithfully to the end especially in these perilous times we find ourselves. "Let us not give up in doing what is fine, for in due time we will reap if we do not tire out."

Spiritually, sometimes we fail. And sometimes we may fail badly. But may we remember this - “Never confuse a single failure with a final defeat.”

I can't see a greeting thread for this year so I thought I'd start one just to wish you all well and send my love to the brothers all over the world especially in Russia and the brothers in prison, Brother Christensen and his family, the brothers in Eritrea and South Korea (and I'm sure the faithful that have survived in NORTH Korea) that will be looking at the full moon and wishing the could meet with the brotherhood. One day we will all be free to worship together, until then MEMORIAL greetings from Paris, France: 24 hours and I will be in my way!

Our 2018 Memorial is now a history.. 151 in attendance and couple of invisible angels.

Here's a word document containing the transcript of the talk. Coping With the Plague of Your Heart.docx

Hanging out outside my house...

Have you ever pondered on why Jehovah would often select the name of an adult or a child ? - for example Abram (Genesis17:5 )and Isaac Genesis (17:19). Well, I got to thinking about it one day and the meaning of some of the names in isolation didn’t tell me too much. Sometimes they gave an indication of what the child/ adult would grow up to be or do - but not always. I started to look up the meanings of all the names of the Patriarchs from Adam down to Judah. . . and as I jotted them down in a line, something quite wonderful and faith strengthening came to light. Something that shows without question, that Jehovah is the one true author of both the bible and the Ransom - promised right from the Garden of Eden! I guess I am not the first to note this message (in BOLD letters reading down the page) but it is well worth sharing! Adam - A MAN Seth - APPOINTED Enosh - FRAIL; MORTAL; HUMAN Cainan - TREASURED POSESSION Mahalahleel - REFLECTION OF GOD Jared - TO DESCEND Enoch - TRAINED; DEDICATED Methuselah - ONE SENT Lamech - MADE LOW Noah - BRINGING COMFORT Shem - RENOWNED Arpashad - HEALER Cainaan - AQUIRES; PURCHASES Shelah - RELEASE FROM; FREEDOM Eber - ANGER; STRIFE Peleg - DIVIDES; SEPARATES Reu - FRIEND(s) OF GOD Serug - (From) BRANCH Nahor - DRY; BARREN Terah - WILD GOAT (s) Abraham - FATHER OF A GREAT MULTITUDE Isaac - HE WILL LAUGH; REJOICE Jacob - (when) GRIPPED BY THE HEEL Judah - TO THE GLORY OF GOD

Source: https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Final-Four-crowds-attracting-Jehovah-s-Witnesses-12792006.php If you’re downtown during the Final Four games, chances are you may run into a Jehovah’s Witness, a member of an international Christian organization known for sharing, or witnessing, their beliefs in public, usually by way of literature. As many as 3,900 of them will be at 110 “literature stations” placed throughout the downtown area during a two-week project called San Antonio Public Witnessing, local spokesman Michael Detroy said. The campaign, developed by the denomination’s New York headquarters, is run by local leaders with the help of volunteers, Detroy said. It’s a well-honed operation that has been successfully used in other cities during big sporting events such as the Olympics in Seoul and Rio de Janeiro and Super Bowls in Houston and Minneapolis, he said. Detroy said crews work in shifts around the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, the Grand Hyatt and other public spaces where sports fans, tourists and locals congregate. They will not ask people to become members or solicit funds during the campaign. “Our goal is to provide Bible-based literature that addresses many common problems of life in a practical way,” the campaign’s press release said. “Our publications focus on family life, economic challenges, dealing with anxiety, and other areas of public interest.” Ray Parr, 53, has helped staff a location since Monday in front of a convention center entrance and said people have been friendly toward the volunteers, “for the most part.” He said the group had been asked to move literature stations from only a couple of locations. “Everything has been fantastic,” Parr said. During the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Jehovah’s Witnesses manned 288 literature stations, handing out 85,000 pamphlets in more than 10 languages, Detroy said. At the Super Bowl in Houston, he said, 3,100 volunteers participated in the witnessing campaign, and thousands stopped at literature stations and took 6,100 pamphlets. Elaine Ayala is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | eayala@express-news.net | @ElaineAyala

JWB April 2018 Transcript: JWB April 2018.pdf

I just shot this one 5 min ago ...so hard to catch them ..they are so fast!

Nice one!! Seems only hours since the last one ... we have so many spiritual events in the up coming four weeks ... we'll all be in the New System before we know it with how time is flying! Even if its some years away the time will go so fast. Will be interesting to see what the topic is this month.

Here is my new Navajo tie!

I enjoyed the marriage interviews and how frank and honest the couples were. I also liked the song very much. I also enjoyed Br Sanderson's morning worship. I will try and remember his comment on 1 Per 5:8 "Stand firm! You cannot out run a lion - you will only die tired"

I'm rejoicing in the hope!

This is me to my Bible students and return visits before practically every Memorial :

Made a formatted pdf file using the subtitles so I can have the talk on my iPad. Here's the pdf file for any who may like a hard copy of the talk. Following Directions Saves Lives - Christopher Mavor.pdf

https://www.jw.org/en/whats-new/faith-in-god-section/ The jw.org website now features a section under “Bible Teachings” called “Faith in God.” The new section includes the series “Imitate Their Faith,” previously published in The Watchtower. https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/faith-in-god/

10 min ago outside my house

We are are about to leave for our memorial in half an hour. One of the first, if not the first memorial for this season will begin at 6:45 pm ... in one hour 20 mins from this post. (The ONLY country that may pip us at the post is Kiribati) ... they turned their clocks forward one hour in the year 2000 but being single congregation/s they will likely begin later than ours anyway) I send Greetings from New Zealand (A part of Russia is also in our timezone) and I wish all a lovely memorial evening in all seriousness and in all joy for what Jesus has done for us. I also wish that many interested ones will be in attendance. And so, it begins ... With much love - Mandi (I hopefully will post a photo or six hundred nahh kidding in Rocket's thread). 6 pm means there will be a wait for the emblems to be passed around as the sun has to set - 6.45 pm is the earliest we can do to make sure the emblems are passed after sunset.

NEW BOOK RELEASED!!!! https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/in-gods-love/

A Kingdom hall in the Netherlands it used to be a church, redesigned on the inside and no mor cross on top of the building

Next Week! The first Monday of the month is April 2nd...

About things that won't matter in a hundred years. Many of you may have heard this before, and some may have even employed this as one of their go-to statements to put things into perspective. I wanted to focus on this quote/quip on its own because it has more merit than one would initially think. I remember growing up in a small town - it is called Featherston and it was really windy!! But the other thing small towns have other than weird weather - is the small town mentality - of being in each others pockets. I think there are pros and cons to this - pros being if you are in trouble there is always someone to help out. The cons are though - is everyone gets to know your business and because we are forced to 'associate' or deal with a smaller pool of personalities we find those we clash with much easier. This can happen in congregations too, more readily in smaller congregations, but also in larger congregations because after all even in larger communities there are organized smaller groups within and quite simply, in the truth, those smallers groups aren't compiled with just those we get on the most easily with naturally but some require much work. It can also happen in a forum such as this - well honestly this is the only forum I'm interested in ... but how can we apply the opening quote to everday relationships ... the questions I ask myself - are should I avoid assocation with brothers or sisters if I simply don't agree with or even on ocassion strongly disagree with? Or should I look for the qualities that Jehovah sees and the whole reason HE drew that person to the truth. Now, what I'm saying is not new ... we all know that. But what if we employ this quote: Don't worry about things that won't matter in a a year, or a hundred years or even a thousand years? What doesn't matter? - Differences of opinions don't matter. Little niggles don't matter. (Bigger ones will be dealt with through the right channels). What matters? Two things really. One: Jehovah's sanctification and vindication of his name and of his sovereingty - But that is a given really - because nothing can stop that from happening. Two: Is that every brother and sister, whether it be in our family, extended family, congregation or outside communities like this forum - makes it through to the New System. I just love this quote because it helps me focus on what is important. I love every one of you on this forum, those too I've not yet met and those I don't always agree with. Just wanted to put this quote out there as it will be as helpful to you as it is to me. I know in the days/months/years ahead we need each other so much ... we need to be united in whatever aspect of our service. If you have other little quotes you've found helpful - we would all love to hear them.

Yep. There's an app for that. And if the police are coming, you can quickly uninstall the app. And when they leave, just reinstall the app

Due to some in-house changes we are making at JWTalk Forums, the Daily Text being delivered to your email will probably cease. We've been providing this service since 2013 in a roundabout way using a service called FeedBurner, which reads the RSS feed for this forum and sends it's contents to those who have subscribed. To date, we have just 635 email subscribers, which is the same amount we've had since 2013. In other words, for over 5 years hardly anyone has joined the list. And this actually makes perfect sense. With our Watchtower CD-Rom, JW Library App, and wol.jw.org - reading the days text straight from the source is easy to do, not to mention that many people ignore emails these days anyway with the popular rise of mobile notifications and messenger apps. We WILL keep posting the Daily Text though. So if you have been reading it here at JWTalk, you don't have to worry. However, we are considering making the following changes: Instead of a dedicated Daily Text forum, we will have a Daily Text thread pinned in the Interchange of Encouragement & Worldwide Brotherhood forum, which is also visible to the public. By having the Daily Text as a topic pinned in a more popular forum, we hope to see more comments and participation from other members, perhaps even incorporating the somewhat popular 'summed up in 3 words' game. At the end of the year, we will unpin the topic and start a new topic for the year ahead. We're working to keep JWTalk sensible and well-organized by creating new forums where needed, and eliminating dead forums that don't draw much interest. We believe the Daily Text is important and deserves more attention and participation than it has been getting, and we hope these changes will help do that. Your brother, - Bob

Hello from cochabamba, Bolivia

Imagine how those who are resurrected will feel when one moment they were dying and the next they are restored to perfect bodies in a paradise earth - like this one hanging on a stake next to Jesus (Luke 23:43) . Amazing! My last memory of my dad is that awful breathing sound he made while lying in a hospital bed with morphine dripping into him and then the breathing stopped. The next time I see him he will be fully restored and better. For him it will seem instantaneous. What an awesome day today is as we remember the sacrifices that made all that possible. Enjoy this day and may it be our last memorial. If not, may we have the strength to endure to the last one and see all of these things come about.

I don’t ever remember us ever using tv stations to advertise our conventions! (I may be wrong!) but this is interesting. On jw.org https://www.jw.org/finder?wtlocale=E&docid=502018809&srcid=share

I did the math a year or so ago and I got this: 7,499 hours & 3 min - of total preaching time per every new baptism. Avg number of hours per publisher per month: 20 Avg number of hours per publisher per year: 243 It takes an average of 30 publishers preaching an average of 20 hours a month to yield one newly baptized person. Even if it seems like the hours we put in are insignificant compared to the 7,500 required to get someone baptized, we are all out going door to door, filtering. You just never know which one of us is going to fin the next sheep. Think of how much longer it would take to find someone if all the people who've never studied with someone to baptism decided not to go preaching. That number would more than double! AND we'd have less people to do it. We all play an important part of the ingathering. Even if we never study with someone or get them to the point of baptism, we are part of the process of in-gathering and filtering.

We have received some information from our Russian friends in Denmark. As the brothers are not allowed to preach, they still take their literature cart and walk around with it. the carts are empty. people can’t help but ask, what are you doing?? What happened to your magazines? ........ do I treasure my privilege of freely serving Jehovah....? those brothers are not just loyal and faithful but creative as well

On their needgreater assignment in Asia, a local man boarded the bus and cried: "Hey, there's white people on board!" My son-in-law hollered "White people! Where?" It put the place in stitches and he got to witness to the fellow, who shared the brochure given with all onboard. photo by flequi

Wow, just wow on the marriage portions of the program. That was some serious business there. One thing it told me is that Witnesses are people at the end of the day, and that marriage does require work to maintain. Our marriages are not immune from the stuff that plagues non-witness marriages. The difference is that we have an advantage that they don't -- that third cord, and we are blessed to have an organization that views marriage as Jehovah does. And I am happy we got the frank experiences. I would love to tell those brothers and sisters how happy I am that they were willingly to expose some very serious issues, especially the second couple, for the benefit of us all. Those were DEEPLY personal. It took courage, because instead of having the relative anonymity that comes with being published in a WT article, they put their identities on display, not just for us to see, but for those in the outside world. And also, some of those details could have been embarrassing, but Jehovah clearly helped them through it. THANK YOU! The song is something we are going to cruise to this summer, on a warm night, while eating icecream...my wife and I. It was really soothing and encouraging. Great program!

Thank you very much! But I don't think I should tell anything about it online. The Constitution allows me to keep silent :-)

Please do not use my name in vain, thank you.

Greetings everyone. 10 minutes to go. Look forward to hearing from you all how it went. Going 'off-air' now. Agape Older {still waiting for the 'Wiser'}

Fake news or not, many catholics are believing it. It's a preview as to how shaken they are going to be when religion is done away with soon.

Last week I called you good lookin, but now I wish to retract that statement...

Time flies, doesn't it? I remembered that today (21 March 2017) marks one full year since the FDS's urgent call went out through jw.org to over 8,000,000 Jehovah's Witnesses to lend support for our spiritual family in Russia via a global letter-writing campaign. Notably, this campaign also served to inform the RFederation and its' authorities that they/we are not extremists as well as to express our deep concern over the then-pending - and now implemented - ban of our faith. Needless to say, the unjust treatment, relentless harassment, physical violence, confiscation of Branch/LRO property and on-going persecution perpetrated towards our spiritual brothers and sisters in Russia quickly ensued thereafter and continues 'til this day. For those of us on the "outside looking in" during the past year, Jehovah's servants the world over have indeed run the gamut of emotions: many expressing feelings of hurt and indignation while others have cried out for justice, and yet others have shed tears mixed with anxiety. I venture to say... Well, no! I'm confident in saying that the majority of JW's have fervently prayed in all earnestness to our Heavenly Father Jehovah that - first and foremost - HIS will be done in this matter (Matt. 6:10) as well as asked for His holy spirit to be with our Russian family throughout their trials and tribulations. Happily, His spirit has been with His people and continues to do so. How do we know? A few examples come to mind: Jehovah has made our Russian family fully aware that the global letter-writing campaign was, in part, to show, a unified force of our brotherhood; (Ps: 133:1) that we genuinely care for them and that they're loved by the throng of witnesses around the world. (John 13:34, 35) In my opinion, no other group - religious or secular - can organize and accomplish an impressive feat on such a massive scale. (No need to wonder why the RF nor anyone else in the media will spotlight this unique quality of unity that is sorely lacking elsewhere.) Jehovah's holy spirit has given our family courage through persecutions heat - inside and outside the "kangaroo" courtroom(s) - as well as calmness of heart and fearlessness in the face of prosecutorial and police harassment and unjust incarceration. (read: Brother Christensen and Arkady Hakobyan.) They are showing us how to endure when large scale persecution comes our way in the very near future. (Josh. 1:9; Matt.6:18). Many there have returned to the Jehovah over the past year "rekindling the love they had at first"; something that only His spirit could have accomplished. (Rev. 2:4) The persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia has garnered worldwide media attention. Regardless of whether the news channels, online articles, internet sites, blogs, and the like portray us in a favorable light or with a critical eye, the name of our God Jehovah is unquestionably being declared in ALL THE EARTH! (Exodus 9:16b). At present, it remains to be seen whether the RFederation will comply with ECHR's forthcoming review of the unjust ban and submit a response to their questions as the deadline is 23 March 2018. Or will they - being on the extreme side of the haughty meter - continue to believe as their Russian Human Rights Commissioner once stated: that the "ECHR does not meet our view on justice; our system is more perfect than the European one." Sadly, their shenanigans have ultimately led to the banning of our website, our literature, God's Holy Word, the local LRO's and Administrative Center. These actions have been resoundingly condemned by USCIRF, the European Union and the U.S. Department of State along with other respected organizations. (But I remain cautiously optimistic.) In the end, it's ultimately Jehovah, our God and Father, who is maneuvering matters and it is He alone who will determine the final outcome. (Psalms 83:18). May His great name continued to be praised!

My mother just called wondering if she should open her home to a family coming to Canada from Venezuela. I enthusiastically said yes knowing how difficult our spiritual family in Venezuela are having. Another family will be sponsoring them and getting them work. We don't know who they are or what their names are but like one of our songs says - Although we've never met you, we love you. May we always put our trust in Jehovah and look for his blessing on all things.

I make it a point never to get into a conversation about spiritual things online. It's been my experience that religious conversations on social media are inherently no-win-scenarios. JWTalk is my only exception to this. The whole internet is practically designed to give trolls a megaphone. Good luck, but I wouldn't get into explaining point-for-point with the internet. There simply isn't time.

https://www.jw.org/en/news/jw/#newsAlerts RELEASED!

In September 2017 China passed "new regulations" regarding "Christian" (more crackdown) religions and it looks like they are start enforcing it. Here are five countries where owning a Bible is dangerous. North Korea – In this totalitarian state, the only thing that North Koreans are permitted to worship is the nation's leader, Kim Jong-un. Bibles are banned and those found in possession of one face imprisonment, torture and even death – as do up to three generations of their family. Somalia – Christians residing in Somalia face constant persecution from radical Islamists and government officials. The prevalence of the Islamic extremist group, al-Shabaab means that believers often practise their faith in extreme secrecy and cannot own Bibles. Maldives – The Maldives have a reputation for being a luxurious idyll but a Bible can get you into trouble in this paradise. Under the country's strict Islamic laws, importing a Bible is forbidden. There is currently no complete translation of the Bible into Dhivehi, the official language of the tropical nation. Morocco – It's against the law to carry a Bible translated into Arabic in Morocco. Reports of overt Christian persecution are few but Christian children are not given a religious education. Libya – Like Morocco, Libya has laws against bringing Bibles in the Arabic language into the country. The distribution of Bibles and evangelism is illegal. Uzbekistan – In this Central Asian dictatorship, high penalties are imposed on those who own Bibles. Authorities are known to detain Christians found in possession of the holy book for "keeping and storing extremist materials with the purpose of further distribution." https://www.christiantoday.com/article/6-countries-where-owning-a-bible-is-dangerous/84497.htm

2.36 pm ...now Our Memorial is at 8.30 pm ... have a privilege to say prayer over wine... contemplating and meditating now.

That talk was incredible. Really good points made about self worth and about being peaceable. I liked how he brought out that Paul didn’t keep his confrontation with Peter private. Peter could’ve held a grudge against Paul for writing about it but he gained the proper point of view. I found it interesting when he mentioned that feelings of worthlessness are really Satan’s projections of his situation. He can’t benefit from the ransom, he has no prospect of everlasting life, he can never enjoy Jehovah’s friendship and love. He wants us to feel the same way as him. That was powerful. Never thought about it that way before. I’ve heard talks from Brother Aljian before and his way of explaining of things is simple and reaches the heart. I heard him at a CA once and you could hear a pin drop in that auditorium. Everyone was really glued to the talk. His way of speaking reminds me of a local brother who gives talks in a similar manner and his brother does as well. Their speaking styles are very similar and enjoyable.