Final Four crowds attracting Jehovah's Witnesses

[Brother_Bliss]

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

 

[Bob]

We truly go where people can be found, doing what Jesus said. Thanks for sharing!

[Brother_Bliss]

My RSS feed has been clogged with disheartening articles as of late, so this one was refreshing.

 

And yes, go where the people are. I like seeing this large organized witnessing cart efforts. I have done my bit of pre-training for the cart, but haven't got to work with them yet. Our territory has very little opportunities for cart witnessing.

[hatcheckgirl]

3 minutes ago, Dismal_Bliss said:

Our territory has very little opportunities for cart witnessing.

 

Ours is like that too.  No through traffic areas or places where people congregate such as transport hubs.  The malls are no-go zones too.  But hearing about others' experiences is great, cause we all contribute to the witness.

[Omoyeme]

1 hour ago, Bob said:

We truly go where people can be found, doing what Jesus said.

 

Yes, we are everywhere...except Antartica! 

[Staypositiveto]

Thanks Brother for sharing this as we here in New England are preparing for the Boston Marathon Public Witnessing initiative. on April 16


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[onBoard17]

The Boston Marathon event will last three days (April 15-17) and is among 15 different large-scale events the US Branch will have a significant cart presence at for the 2018 calendar year!