NEW BRANCH FACILITIES

The other timely provision from Jehovah was the building of a fine new three-story Bethel home. During his visit in 1971, Brother Knorr gave many hours of attention to our need for a more spacious home and branch office. At the time of his visit, several members of the Bethel family were living in nearby apartments, and the office and shipping facilities were woefully inadequate. Since 1953 we had been living in a single-story house with only five bedrooms. In fact, at the time of Brother Knorr’s visit three of these bedrooms had been converted into offices. So it was decided that new facilities should be sought.

After several fruitless attempts to get permission to build just what we wanted somewhere else, it was decided to tear down our old home and build new facilities on the spot. This building project began in December 1972. Ten months later we moved in. What a happy occasion that was!

While this construction was not one of the “two-day wonders” seen nowadays in the construction of Kingdom Halls, it certainly was something that was talked about in the neighborhood. Indeed, a fine witness was given, both to local officials and to people in the surrounding area. The fact that hundreds of people, male and female, little children and old men, were helping in some way was a cause for much comment.

One who commented favorably was the municipal building inspector. Although at first he was quite cool, gradually he warmed up to the friendliness of everyone. His comment was: “You’re making good progress. You’ve got some good labor there. You wouldn’t get that if you were paying for it.” Another man, a building contractor working across the road, said: “It is good to know that there are still people who believe strongly enough in something to do something like that.” Actually our fine building was constructed almost 100 percent either by volunteer labor or under the direction of such volunteers.

While it would be impossible to mention by name all those who showed such willingness and self-sacrifice, we do think that mention should be made of some outstanding examples. Take, for instance, Peter Drewett. He left his secular employment and came to the city with his wife and daughter to live in a trailer for the duration of the whole project. Then there was Noel Ellerman who, with his wife and two children, moved their tiny trailer right onto the dusty site. There they lived, right in the middle of things, for about eight months. We must also mention Eric Cargill, a businessman who not only provided essential building equipment and some of his own labor force but also spent half his time every day on the project until it was completed.

[Picture on page 164]

Zimbabwe branch office, completed in 1973