Increase in Jakobshavn

Something similar happened at Jakobshavn, about 200 miles [300 km] north of the Arctic Circle. In the winter of 1985/86, a special pioneer couple, Bo and Helen Christiansen, began holding Greenlandic meetings there. In the space of one year, about 50 individuals came to the Kingdom Hall​—most of them just once, but a small, faithful core came regularly.

Things really got growing when the truth took root in one small family and spread from there. Right from the start, Sara understood that this was the truth; her husband and three children showed curiosity at first. Later, however, Niels, the husband, witnessed to his sister, Naja, in a nearby village. Naja’s husband was away on a fishing trawler, so she moved to Jakobshavn to stay with Niels and Sara and began attending meetings with them.

In the meantime, Naja’s husband, Thele, stuck on his trawler, was reading his “New Testament.” He had heard that his wife was studying the Bible, and being a religious man, he was determined to prove the teachings of the Witnesses wrong. He also threatened her with divorce; in fact, the separation papers had already been mailed. When he signed off his boat, he went straight to his wife and brought her back to their own village. But after a long discussion, he realized that he just did not know enough of the Bible to refute the things she told him.

Resolutely, both traveled back to Jakobshavn and moved in with Niels and Sara. Thele called the special pioneers, asking them to come and teach him the Bible. He admitted that he had been on the wrong track. He began attending meetings, stopped smoking, and resigned from the church. A week later he asked if he could become a publisher! He faithfully attended meetings and came to the convention held in Godthåb two months later. On the journey home, he asked: “May I now become a publisher?” He could. In the summer of 1990, he and Naja were baptized, along with Niels. About a year later, Naja joined the regular pioneer ranks. “So far nine have been baptized,” rejoices Brother Christiansen. “It is fantastic to see what happens when Jehovah calls sincere people.”

The case of Ane, from Jakobshavn, serves to illustrate this. In the spring of 1990, Ane was hospitalized with an extrauterine pregnancy. It was an emergency! She and her husband, both newly baptized, were suddenly thrown into a controversy about the use of blood in medicine. They explained to the doctor that their Christian view of ‘abstaining from blood’ included not accepting blood transfusions. (Acts 15:29) The doctor agreed to operate without blood. Ane, however, did not expect to survive the operation. As she was being wheeled into the operating room, though of good courage, she promised her husband: “We’ll meet in the new world.” Happily, the operation was successful, and they embraced the very next day. But Ane, now hungry, had to face the blood issue from a new angle. The hospital served only Greenlandic food, meat not properly bled, so in order to eat, she had to wait for her husband to bring food from their home.