• Norway
    1977 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • THE ZEALOUS WORK OF THE PIONEERS

      Even though the congregations in Norway did what they could to spread the truth, there were numerous places in the country that they could not reach. Many cities had no congregations. Furthermore, around 60 percent of the population​—about two million people—​then lived in the rural districts in the eastern part of Norway. In the western and northern portions of the country, many farms, groups of houses and rural settlements were practically isolated from the rest of the world. There were road connections to only 10 percent of the fjords, and to many islands there were no ferry connections. There the colporteurs, or pioneers, worked.

      From the middle of the 1920’s Norwegian colporteurs numbered around ten, including auxiliary colporteurs who did not use all their time in the service. As the number of Kingdom publishers grew to 430 in 1938, the pioneers and auxiliaries rose to fifty. Hence, the work of the pioneers really began to show up.

      At that time the pioneers concentrated on placing literature. They did not put so much emphasis on return visits and did not conduct home Bible studies. Therefore, they did not stay very long at one place, but visited the district with literature and left.

      Many of the pioneers worked very hard. For example, consider Brother Bernhard Risberg, who was a pioneer in the 1930’s. After preaching all day, he asked people for accommodations, and they often showed him hospitality, letting him sleep in a bed or in the barn. For two years his territory was the Sogne Fjord, one of the longest fjords in the world. In this fjord, with its many arms and steep mountainsides, he traveled on foot with the good news, carrying his two book bags.

      After two years, Brother Risberg was able to buy an old bicycle. Now it became easier for him to get around. Soon he bought a delivery bicycle, tent and sleeping bag. He was able to carry three or four cartons of books on the bicycle. With this equipment he went around with the Kingdom message.

      Brother Risberg would start witnessing at five or six o’clock in the morning in the barns and continue throughout the day and long into the night, with just short breaks for meals. For one month he reported 400 hours, an average of over 13 hours a day! In the wintertime he did not devote as much time to the field service, but he would often spend between 200 and 250 hours in telling the good news. In this way Brother Risberg and other zealous pioneers used the best years of their lives in the service of Jehovah God.

      After 1930, there were also six or seven foreign pioneers in Norway for some time. These included a retired English couple who traveled around the country with a car and trailer. Some said that it was the first trailer seen in Norway. Brother and Sister Hollis were among the first pioneers forbidden by the police to place their literature with the people without a license. The background for this was a new commercial law. At that time (1932) the two pioneers worked with the booklet The Kingdom, the Hope of the World. When the police interfered, the pioneers ordered several thousand booklets from the Society and delivered them free. The police also forbade them to give the booklets away, but by then this work was nearly done.

      Many of the pioneers experienced difficulties of that kind. One policeman was also sent to the Society’s local representative in Oslo to make him stop the pioneers. However, after some time the issue was settled without legal action and the pioneers continued their work. At times they were questioned by the police when some religious fanatics, who wanted to stop the Kingdom-preaching work, reported them to the authorities.

      ALONG THE COAST BY BOAT

      Some pioneers traveled along the coast by boat, spreading the good news. In 1928 the Society bought a small pilot boat and remodeled it for two brothers who were doing colporteur work from Oslo and along the coast in the southern part of the country. The brothers started in December and went along the west side of the Oslo Fjord in the small boat “Elihu,” even though the fjord was full of ice. During the first month they visited many cities and densely populated areas and placed around 800 books and booklets. However, on a dark, stormy night in February, “Elihu” was smashed to pieces on the coast. The boat was ruined, but the brothers came ashore safely.

      In 1931 the Society bought a new motorboat. It was named “Esther.” It was around 40 feet (12 meters) in length and had room for three pioneers, although it was more practical to have only two. “Esther” was used on the west coast and in north Norway until 1938, when it was replaced by the 32-foot (10-meter) motorboat “Ruth.” “Ruth” also had two brothers on board and was used mostly in north Norway.

      The brothers on these boats did very good work along Norway’s coast. In one year they could place as many as 10,000 to 15,000 books and booklets. They visited many small islands and lighthouses where people were living, as well as talking to the Lapps in the north. Carrying their book bags, phonographs and rucksacks, they proclaimed the good news at isolated places in the mountains. They did a lot of traveling, as houses were spread over a great area. On some days these brothers were able to visit only a few homes. They also had some accidents. The boats were wrecked several times. However, the brothers survived, and the boats were repaired.

      Once the two brothers on “Esther” visited a place in north Norway where the people were said to ‘live in harmony with Russell’s and Rutherford’s books.’ Over half of the population was interested in the truth. The churches stood empty and about 95 percent of the population had read some of the Society’s publications.