Serving where the need is great in a foreign country or even a distant town in one's own country is not always possible for everyone who would like to do this as many are held back by health, economic, family or other problems. However, there is another field in which one can serve where the need is great--telephone witnessing! One may become a "needgreater, in the true sense of the word, by sharing in working the hundreds of telephone witnessing territories in which thousands of people who could not otherwise hear the Truth can be witnessed to! \
Our Kingdom Ministry, February 2001, on page 5, paragraphs 1 & 2, had this to say:"Our objective as Jehovah’s Witnesses is not merely to engage in preaching the good news but also to reach everyone possible with the Kingdom message...While the house-to-house work continues to be the principal way to reach people, we realize that not even by this systematic method do we contact everyone. So to ‘fully accomplish our ministry,’ we are using other methods—including telephone witnessing—to find sheeplike individuals...
"In many places, people live in high-security apartments, multi-family complexes, or gated communities, where it is difficult to engage in our traditional door-to-door method of reaching people. Even in territories where we can work from house to house, a substantial number of people are not at home. However, many publishers are having excellent success in reaching these residents by telephone. In a morning of house-to-house work, one married couple had nine not-at-homes. After returning to the Kingdom Hall, they looked these up in a reverse directory that lists telephone numbers by addresses. They called the numbers and found eight of the householders at home!"
For suggestions on how to organize for telephone witnessing, presentations to use, and what to say, read the rest of the article, Successful Telephone Witnessing, in the Our Kingdom Ministry, February 2001, pages 5 & 6 and also the suggestions in Our Kingdom Ministry, December 2001, page 8. Check Watchtower Library CD for current articles.
THE REST OF THIS WEB PAGE IS PRESENTLY BEING UPDATED.
PAST EXPERIENCES
HAWAII, Honolulu:
In this area, some 50% of the territory is inaccessible because of persons living in high-security apartment buildings and condominiums.
One Kingdom Hall has a basement with 40 telephones in booths, to help reach all this territory. The congregation thought they could make 20 calls an hour, and thereby cover their territory in a year by doing this on a regular basis.But what they found out was that most of the calls lasted about 15 minutes each because the people wanted to talk and the brothers had greater success than they'd ever imagined!
One introduction used by these brothers and sisters was:
"Hello, I'm a minister calling those who may not have opportunity to go to church often.
Do you have any Bible questions that I can answer for you?"Publishers in that area actually went through training programs to do this telephone-witnessing, viewing videos and having one-on-one training. Only adults were used, but teenagers were often used to do the delivery of the literature requested during such calls.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. San Cristobal.
Andersi Matos was 11 years old, and had been baptized since she was nine years old and had even served as an auxiliary pioneer on four occasions. At one of the meetings during the visit of Circuit Overseer, his Thursday night talk highlighted telephone preaching and there was a demonstration on how to do it.The next day Andersi decided to try the method that was demonstrated at the Kingdom Hall. She got her Bible, Kingdom Ministry, the book that was being offered that month, a pencil and a notepad. Then she dialed a telephone number and a man answered. She introduced herself, explained the purpose of her call and then proceeded to give one of the presentations suggested in the Kingdom Ministry. She then offered the book to the man who promptly accepted the offer. She took down his address and phone number and promised that she would call on him.
That weekend her father accompanied her when she went to the address she had written down. However, the number of the house was incorrectly noted and they were unable to find the man's house. In order to find the house, they decided to telephone the man from a small family store that was on the corner. When the father asked to call that number the storekeeper responded that it was his telephone number. Yes, they had found the man! The man remembered the call from the young sister, and her promise to bring him the book.
Andersi proceeded to present the book to him, which he accepted and arrangements were made to call on him again. He was very appreciative of the call since he had never had time to listen to Jehovah's witnesses before when he was contacted in the door to door ministry. However, because of Andersi's following the suggestions given by the Faithful and Discreet Slave Class, this man was contacted in a way that was beneficial for him to learn the truth!
SOUTH AFRICA, Johannesburg.
The following experience further emphasizes that there is a need to do telephone-witnessing. At Bethel the brothers received a call from a computer company who was checking on the address for a delivery to the branch. The woman from the computer company asked: "What is Watchtower?" The brother wasn't sure if the woman knew who Jehovah's Witnesses were, so he asked: "Do you know of or have you seen persons in the street talking to people about the Bible?" That sounded familiar to her. So the brother took a few minutes to give her a brief witness and after that told her that Jehovah's witnesses have a book that is compiled with all the common questions people ask about God and the Bible and he asked the woman: "May I mail it to you as a gift?" She accepted and the book was sent.
Five months later, Bethelites at a special assembly day in Chicago, met her and found out that she had become an unbaptized publisher!
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, Samana.
Telephone witnessing territories were made up for a faithful older sister who was no longer able to go house to house or do street witnessing. She was now 84 years old and was encouraged by her "new territory" and being able to continue to speak the Truth with others!
At set times, sisters came and "went on calls with her" by assisting her as she did telephone-witnessing. Since the sister had difficulty reading the small numbers in the "territory", they would write down the telephone numbers and names of the persons being called in large letters so she could read them . When she made the call, the sisters would then write in her "return visit book", the name and telephone number of the person she called along with the Bible subject & texts discussed and any significant comments about or from the person called.
From the information written in her "return visit book", Celeste would then make her "return visits" the following week. Often she would make as many as nine return visits in an hour.
Many people expressed their appreciation for what she was doing when she telephoned them and would often say to the brothers and sisters going house to house, "Oh, yes I know about you people...! Celeste telephones and talks with me!"
Wonderful experiences are being reported from all around the world by brothers & sisters doing telephone-witnessing. The following are but a few of these experiences that can be found by using the Watchtower Library CD and Watchtower Indexes.
Iceland: 2005 Yearbook, Pages 239-242, "Studies by Telephone"
Italy: 2005 Yearbook, Page 57-58, September 1, page 25
Brazil: 2003 Watchtower, Nov.15, pg. 21, par.12 "Preach to Make Disciples"
Denmark: 2003 Watchtower, Nov. 15, pg. 22, par. 14
Australia: 2002 Yearbook, Page 63
Ethiopia: 2003 Watchtower, Nov. 15, page 21
Chile: 2000 Watchtower, Sept. 1, page 25Doing research & reading the many encouraging experiences of persons who have learned the Truth through telephone witnessing is very motivating and helpful to any who would like to participate in serving where the need is great in this particular field.
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