Theocratic News

◆ Ireland reported a 5-percent increase in publishers over last year’s average, with 1,825 sharing in the field activity. They enjoyed distributing the new publication My Book of Bible Stories.

◆ Italy reported another new peak in publishers during December, with 73,430 active in Kingdom service. The publishers averaged 10.9 hours in the service and they rejoiced to see 822 baptized during the month.

◆ The brothers in Portugal were busy in Jehovah’s service during the month of December, with 20,073 sharing in the evangelizing work. A total of 862 shared in the auxiliary pioneer work, including 6 members of the Bethel family in Portugal.

◆ After spending 20 years in detention in the People’s Republic of China, a faithful sister, “bright, cheerful and full of faith,” was recently released.

◆ During December, international conventions were held in the cities of Accra and Kumasi, Ghana. At these conventions a total of 61,595 were in attendance and 737 were baptized. The total attendance was outstanding in that it was almost three times the average number of publishers in the country.