Seed Sown in Gold Coast Yields Ninetyfold

IN HIS illustration of the sower Jesus foretold that the seed that fell on the right kind of soil would yield thirtyfold, sixtyfold and some even a hundred. (Mark 4:20) Telling of Kingdom seed that yielded more than ninetyfold within two years, as well as the effect that the truth concerning Jehovah and his kingdom had on an African chieftain and a queen, is the following letter from a Watch Tower missionary in the Gold Coast, Africa:

“About two years ago a lone Christian minister of Jehovah who lives in the village of Edubiase here in the Gold Coast walked two and a half miles to the village of Akrofuom for a day of preaching the good news. He happened to be calling at the homes across the street from the leading church of the village as the minister was delivering his sermon. Noticing the witness the minister pointed at him and warned his flock not to listen to that false prophet. One man in the congregation, displeased with this charge, asked the minister how the witness could be a false prophet since he read continually from the Bible to prove his points, and said that to say he was false was to say the Bible was false.

“After the sermon was over the witness approached the people coming out of church and several gathered around him to hear what he had to say. The minister, although urged by his members to stay and join in the discussion, they also having prepared a fine meal for him, left in great haste. This increased the interest in the Kingdom message and fourteen signed up for Bible study in their homes. The following week the minister returned to the village and succeeded in causing some of them to go from their village to the one in, which the witness lived to have their names removed from the list.

“In a few days, however, the witness again went to Akrofuom and well over fourteen others signed up for Bible study. Telling them of an assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses to be held in Konongo, eight decided to ‘spy’ out the workings of the witness organization and to report back to their fellow villagers. Before long the attendance of the leading church in Akrofuom began to dwindle. In six months the newly interested ones hired a truck, which served as a bus, to go to the next assembly, and many were convinced that the Christian ministers of Jehovah had the true organization. Then came the national convention of the witnesses in Accra last November; and again the interested and enthusiastic villagers hired a truck to make the 300-mile trip.

“Now the leading church building in Akrofuom has been enlarged and painted white on the inside. Why? Because on the outside now appears the sign KINGDOM HALL OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES. At present upward of ninety ministers are regularly preaching the good news of the Kingdom where two years ago there was not even one. With very few exceptions all the villagers are associated with the witnesses. You can imagine their joy and my great delight to find practically the entire village Jehovah’s witnesses. It greatly enrages their former minister to see his onetime ‘elders’ now taking the lead in preaching the good news of the Kingdom in the neighboring villages.

“So encouraging has been their course and preaching that a very old queen mother, who all her life had been attached to juju, demon magic and royalty (idolatry), left her stool of rulership over her people in a nearby village. Her people tried to persuade her to remain, but she refused and gave a good witness explaining her reasons and that she could not serve two masters. When asked to appoint a royal to take her place she said, ‘If I know juju is demonism and to sit on the stool is wrong before Jehovah God, how can I ask anyone else to do it?’ Because of her testimony no one is occupying the stool seat of authority, the villagers fearing to appoint another.

“The former minister, actually a catechist, of Akrofuom, finding his pastures despoiled, has been concentrating his efforts in Akrokerri, but there also the villagers are taking an interest in the Kingdom message as brought to them by the Akrofuom witnesses only two and a half miles away. One of the most prominent church members there, a well-educated chief who himself used to direct mobs against Jehovah’s witnesses and otherwise seek to oppose their work, has left his church, one of the strong ones in the village, and is studying the Bible with a witness right at the palace, and he is warning his former religious associates against being led by the ‘blind’.

“This chief used the palace drums to call his villagers to the public lecture I was to give. As a result 249 came and heard the talk. After the lecture one of the royals stood up and asked: ‘We know we are wrong and what you have said is true, but what do you want us to do, leave our churches and join you?’ Several spoke out from the audience that that question was foolish, as the questioner had admitted he was wrong. Others joined the questioner in wanting an answer, and so they were told, ‘If you were in a lorry and the driver was drunk and likely to take you all into the ditch, would you remain inside or would you drop down? And after coming to know the markings and the ring of true currency, would you still be willing to accept counterfeit coins?’ The obvious answer quieted everyone for the moment and then many Bible discussions put Jehovah’s witnesses present to work in many small groups; eager searchers were delighted with the answers and went off to tell other bystanders what they had learned. Others quenched their thirst for truth by going from group to group listening in on a wide range of subjects.

“I spent three hours witnessing to the chief, he verifying everything by looking up the scriptures in his Bible. He subscribed for The Watchtower, and as I departed he was engaged in an earnest discussion with one of his former religious associates. As I watched him thumb through the Bible for answers, standing there in his long flowing royal robes with the standard bearer at his side and a servant holding the large regal umbrella over his head, it made me think of King David.

“Your joy at reading this report cannot compare with my delight in experiencing these things. My heart overflows with gratitude to Jehovah our God. Love and Christian greetings from all of us over here in the Gold Coast.”

And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, . . . and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.—Mic. 4:2, AS.