7. In the years 47 C.E. and 1939, what similar situation existed regarding the Christian evangelizing work?

⁷ Nevertheless, the majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses at that time were concentrated in English-speaking Protestant countries. In fact, over 75 percent of the 73,000 Kingdom proclaimers were from Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. As was the case about 47 C.E., something was needed to encourage evangelizers to give more attention to the less worked countries of the earth.

8. By 1992, what had Gilead School accomplished?

⁸ Wartime restrictions and persecutions could not stop Jehovah’s powerful holy spirit from motivating his servants to prepare for greater expansion. In 1943, while World War II was at its height, God’s organization set up the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead with a view to spreading the good news more widely. By March 1992, this school had sent out 6,517 missionaries to 171 different countries. In addition, men were trained to care for branches of the Watch Tower Society in foreign lands. As of 1992, of the 97 Branch Committee coordinators, 75 were trained at Gilead.

9. What training programs have played a part in the progress of the evangelizing and disciple-making work?

⁹ Besides Gilead School, other training programs have equipped Jehovah’s people to expand and improve their evangelizing work. For example, the Theocratic Ministry School operates in the congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout the earth. This arrangement, along with the weekly Service Meeting, has trained millions of Kingdom publishers to be effective in the public ministry. There is also the Kingdom Ministry School, which provides valuable training to elders and ministerial servants so that these can better care for the growing congregations. The Pioneer Service School has helped many full-time evangelizers to become more effective in their preaching activity. More recently, the Ministerial Training School has operated in different countries to help unmarried elders and ministerial servants to become modern-day Timothys.

10. What has been the result of all the excellent training provided through God’s organization? (Include information in box.)

¹⁰ What has been the result of all this training? In 1991, Jehovah’s Witnesses had reached a peak of well over four million Kingdom proclaimers active in 212 countries. However, unlike the situation that existed in 1939, over 70 percent of these are from Catholic, Orthodox, non-Christian, or other lands, where English is not the predominant language.​—See box “Expansion Since 1939.”

[Box on page 19]

Expansion Since 1939

Consider examples from three continents where Gilead-trained missionaries were sent. Back in 1939 there were only 636 Kingdom proclaimers who reported from West Africa. By 1991 this number had increased to over 200,000 in 12 countries of West Africa. Missionaries have also contributed to phenomenal increases in countries of South America. One is Brazil, which increased from 114 Kingdom proclaimers in 1939 to 335,039 in April 1992. Similar growth followed the arrival of missionaries in countries of Asia. During World War II, the small number of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan were severely persecuted, and their work came to a standstill. Then, in 1949, 13 missionaries arrived to help reorganize the work. That service year, fewer than ten native publishers reported field service for the whole of Japan, whereas in April 1992 the grand total of publishers reached 167,370.