Use Initiative in the Ministry

Benin

Claude and his wife, Marie-Claire, have been enthusiastic missionaries for 27 years. In February, Marie-Claire slipped and fractured her foot. Two weeks later, while working in the missionary home, Claude fell and broke his foot. Both had casts, Marie-Claire on her right foot and Claude on his left. Claude wryly remarked, “We always like to do things together!”

Claude’s cast permitted some mobility, but Marie-Claire was confined to the home for weeks. Though she arranged to conduct 4 of her 12 Bible studies at the missionary home, she missed other aspects of the ministry. So she decided to sit in front of the missionary home at a table full of publications and speak to passersby. In March she spent 83 hours at her table. Did Jehovah bless her initiative? That month she placed 14 books, 452 brochures, 290 magazines, and more than 500 tracts.

Hungary

A sister regularly receives milk in bottles that are hung in a bag on her fence. One day, when sending back the empty bottles, she put the tract Would You Like to Know the Truth? into the bag. To her surprise, with the next delivery of fresh milk, the dairymaid attached a slip of paper with some questions regarding the tract and a request for a Bible. The sister immediately visited the dairymaid on the farm where she lived and started a Bible study with the help of the book What Does the Bible Really Teach? Beforehand, the woman had been searching for answers to her questions in different churches, but her spiritual hunger had not been satisfied. In fact, her search had raised even more questions in her mind. When one of her daughters also showed keen interest, the sister gave her the book Learn From the Great Teacher. The mother explained that the girl would often wake up at night because of nightmares. However, after reading some of the chapters in this book, the girl is less fearful and now sleeps peacefully at night. The Bible study continues, and the mother regularly attends the meetings on Sunday with her two daughters.

New Zealand

Two sisters called at a government-run family trust organization and arranged an appointment with the director. In preparation they put together a “family pack,” specially designed to include subjects that would be of interest to the director in her work with families. The pack consisted of the books The Secret of Family Happiness and Questions Young People Ask​—Answers That Work, along with the August 2007 issue of Awake! featuring the cover series “Seven Steps to Better Parenting” and the October 2007 issue featuring the series “Keep Your Children Safe!”

When making the visit, the sisters explained the voluntary nature of our work and said that we have deep interest in helping families, especially spiritually. They spent time showing the contents of the pack. The director listened, accepted the literature, and said she would like to share the information with all 35 employees. She added that the Awake! articles would benefit all 503 families listed in her records. The sisters managed to collect 557 copies of the Awake! magazines. Two weeks later, they received a phone call informing them that all the magazines had gone out to the families.