This was especially impressed upon me when my husband and I were privileged to be among the guests attending the dedication of the new branch facilities of Jehovah’s Witnesses near Lviv, Ukraine, on May 19, 2001. There I met other Witnesses who had been members of the Communist youth organization Young Pioneers. These had hoped, as I had, that Communism would bring true peace and unity among all mankind. Vladimir Grigoriev, who now serves with his wife at the branch office in Russia, was one who had also been a Young Pioneer.

Now it seemed ironic that here at a location that had served as a summer camp for Young Pioneers, Jehovah’s Witnesses had constructed their new branch. Because of limited space at the branch, only 839 persons from 35 countries could be accommodated for the dedication program. However, the following morning 30,881 assembled at a soccer stadium in Lviv to hear a review of the previous day’s program.a Some of these had traveled up to six hours or more from distant places to be present.

Yet, when these people learned of the provision to tour their new branch facilities, they boarded the scores of buses by which they had come to the stadium. By mid-afternoon the buses began arriving at the branch—where my husband and I were privileged to have been overnight guests—for their walking tour through the facilities. By that evening, well over 16,000 of these dear fellow believers had completed their tour, boarded their buses, and begun what for many was a long trip home!

[Picture on page 16, 17]

Over 30,000 listened to a review of the dedication program

[Picture on page 17]

More than 16,000 visited the branch facilities