So April one is a big day for us.
It's been two years since we've met
in person at our Kingdom halls.
In fact, globally,
our Kingdom halls have been shut down
since the the early spring of 2020.
And here in the United States
since March 20th, 2020.
So it's been quite a two years and
to now look forward to getting
back to our meeting place,
getting back to in Person
Ministry in person meetings,
be being able to be together
as brothers and sisters again.
We kind of feel like Paul did
when he wrote to the Roman
congregation in Romans chapter one,
and he wrote to them, he said,
for I am longing to see you because
he wanted to impart a spiritual gift.
But he said, rather,
there'll be an interchange of
encouragement and and really,
that's that's what we're looking to do.
We're looking to get that
encouragement because really,
all of us need it right now,
especially after two years of
of being virtual.
When we first shut down our meeting
places here in the United States, March 2020.
I think it was a real shock to the system.
I think many of us wondered where
are we going to go with this?
How we going to worship?
How are we going to get together?
I mean we we do two meetings a week.
These aren't real meetings.
Jehovah's Witnesses take their
meetings very seriously.
It's sacred service we're we're
encouraged never to miss our music
keeps us strong he's just close to
our father and close to each other.
And so in those first few weeks,
I think it was dizzying.
But you know when the memorial came,
which is our holiest day of
the year in early April 2020,
and we were able to hold a global
memorial online and and and invite,
I think some 20 million people
actually came to that memorial.
We began to see this is possible.
In fact, in two years,
we've never missed a meeting that's amazing.
We've had two meetings a week.
They've been discussion based.
We've we've seen more people.
We've had more attendees than
perhaps ever before.
The average meeting attendance
each meeting during the pandemic
from March to November 2021.
It has been 1.5 million and and the
number of Jehovah's Witnesses in the
United States is fewer than 1.3 million.
So think about that delta almost 300,000
difference of those who might be interested.
Those who have perhaps returned
and reactivated themselves as
Jehovah's Witnesses.
Those who have long since left
the organization but come back
those newly interested.
We have those who have come to
become Jehovah's Witnesses, 400,000.
Over the course of the pandemic,
some of whom have never seen
the inside of a Kingdom hall.
Have never knocked on a door.
Have never been to a live convention.
That's March 2020.
That was unthinkable.
Today it's not only possible,
it's happened,
and So what we've seen is
spirituality is not about a building.
Spirituality is also not
about personal preference.
Yes, we would have preferred over
the last two years to be together.
Yes, we would have preferred
to be able to knock on doors.
But we've grown. Despite that,
notwithstanding our limitations,
we have been productive.
77 new translations of the Bible and new
languages in just two years during the
pandemic we've received them and it's
tributed them for free to the world.
We have spent 400 million hours in the United
States from March 2020 to November 2021,
/ 400 billion hours,
writing 10s of millions of letters,
making thousands of phone calls.
Having virtual or
videoconferencing Bible studies.
Jehovah's Witnesses have kept busy.
And we have learned as an organization.
That despite this significant problem
and crisis that the world faced.
We can still thrive not only as individuals,
but as a global brotherhood,
because that's exactly what has happened.
So my next question has to do with
the fact that you are reopening.
The question becomes why now is it because
this is the special time for Jehovah's
Witnesses with the memorial of Christ.
April one is a good time for us
and and there's a lot of reasons.
But first and foremost,
we feel that it is time to be able to.
Meet in person.
And also stay safe. You know,
we've learned a lot over the last two years,
and what we can say when we look
back in the wisdom of not opening
too quickly is that we can say that
that over the course of two years,
not one person.
Has contracted the disease
in one of our meeting places.
Not one person has spread the disease
through an in person ministry because
both of them have been shut down
and so that makes us feel good.
Because when you think about other
religious organizations which were
opening in the summer of 2020?
We thought that that it was going away.
We thought that the summer would would would.
Perhaps we were at Inator and we thought
maybe maybe this will this will.
This won't come back so many started up,
Sir, as we didn't.
I'm sure that it was thought about,
but remember in the fall the fall brought us.
DD was devastating and killed so many
people infected so many of our loved
ones and even among Jehovah's Witnesses,
even though we weren't going to meetings,
we still had a life.
So thousands were sick.
Some died and then and then again
we reached the nadir in the summer
of in the summer fall of 2021.
And So what we did as an organization,
I think this was very, very wise.
As we began to pilot in just locations,
just some limited congregations
in Puerto Rico in Connecticut,
where it was a low infection rate
and a high vaccination rate,
we piloted some meetings over weeks,
and we learned what it means to
do odd meeting and and it taught
us a lot of lessons when Omicron
began to rear its ugly head,
we shut them down immediately
when did not restart them.
But today we're in a different position,
right?
There's a high vaccination rate,
especially among Jehovah's Witnesses.
We know that that masks work,
and we know what the right masks are.
We know that not all masks are created equal.
We know how to deal with
the disease or hospitals,
understand it,
or doctors understand the disease better.
And there are also therapeutics
to deal with the disease,
so that if you do get it vaccinated or not,
and reduce its.
It's severity on us to simply a
sickness or maybe a a mild flu.
And so with all of that in mind,
we recognize that that there's
still level of danger out there,
but it's mitigated by the personal
choices that an individual is
making and and we respect the
personal choices that they make.
So if they choose not to be vaccinated,
they know what kind of other
mitigating factors they have to take
in order not to contract the disease.
In fact, they will have.
The option not to go to the Kingdom hall.
They can stay home and can.
They can use the video conferencing
option and that video conferencing
option is very powerful because
our meetings are not like based,
it would have been easy for us
to take 120,000 congregations
and put them live stream,
stream them on YouTube that would not
have been a Jehovah's Witness meeting
because our meetings are interactive.
We want to see and we want to hear our.
Congregants,
we want them to participate,
and so April one is a beautiful
time to really see how what
decision people are going to make.
And and those who decide to come
back to the Kingdom Hall will have
the pleasure of being able to
see their brothers and sisters,
their fellow congregants once again.
A secondary positive point about
April 1 is that it's our most
cherished time of year now.
It doesn't always come in April,
but right around this time of
year we have two special global
events as Jehovah's Witnesses.
It's the most important moment
on the Christian calendar,
and that's first of all the memorial.
The celebration or commemoration
of death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We call it the memorial or
the Lords Evening Meal.
Some call it the Lord supper.
But what we know about the Lord
suffer or Lords evening meal was in.
Luke 2219 Jesus got together with his
eleven faithful apostles and said,
when he instituted this commemoration,
he said,
keep doing this in remembrance of
me and Jehovah's Witnesses have
been doing that and practicing
that on an annual basis.
Just before that we always have a
special lecture global as well,
and this year the theme on April
10th right before the memorial,
which will be on April 15th on
April 10th in most congregations,
or the 9th could be a Saturday.
We will be having a beautiful lecture
entitled where can you find real hope?
And there couldn't be a better theme
after two years in a pandemic when
so many have been reft of hope and
and have lost their hope in the
institutions that have served them
well for many years but have failed
them over the last especially two years.
And so this this goes into some
beautiful points about why are we
suffering while he's got to allow it?
What is the hope for the future and
why can we trust that hope and what
what we can do about it personally?
So we're looking forward to
these two beautiful events.
April 10th, April 15th.
Our special talk,
our special lecture and our
celebration or commemoration of
the of Christ death on April 15th.
Will Jehovah's Witnesses be
seen in neighborhoods anytime
soon, going door to door.
At this point in the foreseeable future,
we don't see a recommencing
of the ministry yet,
but that could come in anytime we're
we're cognizant of one thing, however.
That there is still a level of
uneasiness in our communities,
and that's understandable.
So with our meetings our congregants
and our invited guests have a choice
they can choose to come or not.
They can choose to come in person
or stay on a zoom platform.
But when we go to somebody's
door and we knock on it and
we're not giving them the choice,
we're we're knocking on there and
and we recognize that some will
be uneasy and and it may never
be the right time to go back.
We will certainly recommence our
public ministry in the future and for
some they never be the right time,
but at this time at this point it
doesn't seem like it is the right
time for us to make that move,
so it may be done progressively.
We have not only shut down our
knock on doors.
But we also shut down our cart,
witnessing in the Buffalo City and on
the rails and in areas in communities
around Western New York about.
We also shut down our in person
Bible studies and our in person
return visits on people we know.
So no doubt will progressively go
back into the in person ministry,
perhaps starting with people that we
know to visit them at their homes,
which we aren't doing right now.
Perhaps it's with the cart
witnessing in the cities and and
the and the towns and villages.
We'll see now that is yet to be decided,
but for sure the first beautiful step for us
is getting back to our in person meetings.
It truly is a modern day miracle
to see an organization that
has remained not only united,
but we're closer than ever.
To be able to say OK,
120,000 congregations shut down.
Shut down their Kingdom, shut down,
their their their meeting places.
Who can do that?
And then to be able to come out
of it and say if you can restart
your meetings if it's if government
will allow you to do that,
regulations will allow you to do that.
Go at it. And and everybody is doing it.
We're preparing Kingdom halls around
the world, we're cleaning them,
we're equipping them with with
touchless faucets.
And and with the right equipment
that we need so that we can minimize
any contraction of the disease.
And and you think about the work
that's going in the the excited
attitude that people have, the oneness.
It reminds us of what Jesus said
in John 1335.
He said you will know by disciples.
If you have among yourselves,
that's what you're seeing today.
You're seeing a miracle of Unity 139 lands.
Which because of love,
we have peace because of peace.
We have unity and the Bible says that
the love is the perfect bond of union.
The other thing that that has
brought us together is going
through this crisis together.
You know, anytime you go go to war with
somebody and your bunker with them,
you'll never forget that experience.
You're closer because of it.
You know each other better.
You've seen them under the worst
conditions we have seen our organization,
our brothers,
our congregations under the worst
conditions that I've seen in my lifetime,
the most challenging conditions.
And we have come out better for it.
And not only have we come out better,
we've come out closer.
We our bonds are stronger than ever.
And I think that that is a a testimony
to the kind of organization that we
have and the kind of God we serve
as you know, the world is so fixated on
what's happening with Russia and Ukraine.
Why is the message of this special talk
really hitting home with people as they're
thinking about war and their safety?
When you look at people around the world,
not only in Russia and Ukraine,
where there's and and that that part of
Eastern Europe where there is significant.
Problems that they're facing.
It's not just there that
people have lost hope.
It's it's everywhere.
And it's in the most basic of institutions
we've lost hope in our government.
In many ways. We've lost hope in people.
We've lost hope.
Many have lost hope in in education,
whether it's higher education,
the institutions. Many of many
feel that like they've failed them.
And so we need hope.
You know, hope is what got us
through this last two years.
Hope is that light at the end
of the tunnel that that you,
you know things we're bad now.
It's dark now, but things can get better.
And so this is the most appropriate.
Whether there was war or not,
war is making it all the more.
All the more acute in our own mind and
heart that that that we need to talk
about that because man without hope.
Is really someone who who can?
It can all sorts of things
a person without hope.
It's a very bad place to be and and so
being able to talk about this this theme.
Explore it from a biblical
standpoint from God standpoint can
hopefully engender a level of hope
and that faith in that promise.
As people move forward,
we want people to walk away from this
special lecture and this special time
feeling as if they can live one more day.
One more week more year.
As they hope.
Things get better.
That's our that's our wish and our prayer.