A CHANGE BENEFITS THE FIELD

The Governing Body directed that from the year 2000, all congregations in South Africa would come under the arrangement of distributing literature without charge to all who show genuine interest. Publishers would invite individuals to make a small donation toward our worldwide evangelizing work.

This voluntary donation arrangement has proved beneficial not only to those in the field but also to the brothers. Formerly, many could not afford to pay for publications used for the Watchtower Study and the Congregation Book Study. In some congregations of 100 publishers, only about 10 had their own copies of The Watchtower. Now everyone can have a personal copy.

Since the donation arrangement was implemented, the demand for literature has greatly increased. Magazine production in South Africa has jumped from one million to 4.4 million per month. Literature orders have climbed to 3,800 tons per year, compared to 200 tons in 1999.