Jehovah’s Witnesses Around the World​—Poland

IN THE fall of 1989, the Communist governments from the Baltic to the Black Sea began to crumble. As the Iron Curtain was being torn apart, nations in Eastern Europe began seeking their own directions. Among them was Poland, a country covered with rolling hills, flat plains, and rugged mountains.a

The Polish people are hard workers, and Poland has produced some of the world’s noted artists and scientists. More than that, though, there now is a growing army of proclaimers of the good news of God’s Kingdom.

Bold in Exposing Falsehood

In Poland there are many who would like to learn the truth from the Bible. But some are deterred by their relatives or neighbors. For example, in the vicinity of Wrocław, an interested woman stopped studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses when family and friends put pressure on her. Nevertheless, her teenage daughter read a series of Watchtower articles exposing false religion. These sparked her interest in the truth.

After six months of Bible study, this young person decided to break all her ties with false religion. She visited the clergyman of her church to inform him of her decision. He told her to write the following: “I, K​——​ P​——, renounce the Catholic faith.”

On the following Sunday, this statement was read in church. The girl’s grandfather fainted, and her grandmother burst into tears. However, other parishioners were impressed and remarked: “At last, someone is brave enough to say that there is a lot of falsehood in our church.” This courageous teenager is now a baptized spiritual sister and has started seven Bible studies in her village.

‘By Their Fruits’

The weekly Kujawy i Pomorze published the report “You Will Recognize Them by Their Fruit.” In part, the article said that worshipers in Christendom “in reality do not treat very seriously the religious principles they have accepted. They stand in sharp contrast with Jehovah’s Witnesses who act as they say, and they say what the Bible commands.”

After contrasting the appearance of the Witnesses with that of nominal Christians, the report continued: “The latter most likely do not know, and far too often do not apply, the essential truths and principles of their faith. . . . By their attitude, Jehovah’s Witnesses manifest the harmony of their words and actions, thus proving they are not the ‘false prophets,’ rather, they can be recognized by their fruits. ‘Never do people gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they?’ (Matthew 7:15-20).”

One woman wrote a letter to the Przyjaciółka weekly, lamenting that her son left the Catholic Church and became one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. What was the editor’s advice? “If your son came to associate with Jehovah’s Witnesses, learned and accepted their faith, it is all his own decision, which is to be recognized and respected. . . . This religious group is characterized by many beautiful and socially desirable features, such as their unusual solidarity and profound group ties, great honesty and close following of the accepted rules of community life, and finally, ability to live in harmony with their truth, accomplishing in practice the professed values. These are precious virtues.”

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 9]

COUNTRY PROFILE

1993 Service Year

PEAK NUMBER WITNESSING: 113,551

RATIO: 1 Witness to 339

MEMORIAL ATTENDANCE: 235,642

AVERAGE PIONEER PUBLISHERS: 7,961

AVERAGE BIBLE STUDIES: 79,131

NUMBER BAPTIZED: 8,164

NUMBER OF CONGREGATIONS: 1,397

BRANCH OFFICE: Nadarzyn

[Picture on page 9]

Poland branch office in Lodz in 1948

[Picture on page 9]

Placard work, June 1948, in former East Prussia

[Picture on page 9]

Seventy-two members of the Poland Bethel staff, January 1993

[Picture on page 9]

The new branch in Nadarzyn