By 1961 families from Denmark began moving to Greenland to serve where the need for Witnesses was greater. They put forth admirable effort to learn the extremely difficult Greenlandic language and to endure isolation from fellow believers. They held meetings regularly and kept strong in their faith and Christian activity. Their labors were surely not in vain. That year the first two congregations were established in Greenland, one in the capital Nûk (Godthåb) and the other in Qaqortoq (Julianehåb), to the south.

Today, 117 Kingdom proclaimers serve in seven congregations and one isolated group, scattered throughout this land of ice and snow. Let’s meet some of these hard workers.

Visiting the Greenlandic Field

A good place to start is the southernmost congregation, in Qaqortoq (Julianehåb). Five families have come up from Denmark to serve there. Some of them have worked hard at learning Greenlandic so that they can witness to the Greenlanders who do not understand Danish. Flemming, a family man and a pioneer (a full-time Kingdom proclaimer) in this congregation, says: “Our territory is extensive. It includes many fishing villages and sheep-farming stations snuggled in the complex of fjords along the southern coast.” Using their own motorboats, the Witnesses make trips as long as 400 miles [640 km] to call on the people living in these out-of-the-way places.

After traveling three hours by boat through the picturesque fjords, we come to the next congregation, at Narsaq. Living here is a lone family of four Kingdom publishers. Though isolated, they are able to encourage and build one another up spiritually through healthy study habits and by regularly sharing in meetings and field ministry.

Now we board the coastal passenger ship that comes here weekly during the summer months. This 24-hour trip takes us to Paamiut (Frederikshåb), where there are ten Witnesses. But at the halfway point, we pass a village where there are two isolated publishers. One of them, Ane Marie, has a son in Nûk who learned the truth a few years ago and began witnessing to her by telephone and letter. She appreciated what he told her. By reading everything available in Greenlandic and listening to tapes of Greenlandic Witnesses relating their experiences, Ane Marie has taken her stand for the truth. At over 60 years of age and without the support of a local congregation, she succeeded in breaking her 50-year-long smoking habit, stopped celebrating Christmas and birthdays, and started witnessing to the whole village. As a result of her patient effort and good example, about ten interested ones gather regularly to study the Bible and to listen to the recorded meetings.

Leaving Paamiut, a 14-hour boat trip on the rough open sea takes us to Nûk. In this capital city of 13,000, there are 43 publishers in the congregation, and over a third of them are Greenlanders. The weekly meetings are a mixture of Danish and Greenlandic, certainly a challenge for both language groups.

Back on the coastal passenger ship again, an eight-hour journey takes us to Maniitsoq (Sukkertoppen). Here, four families from Denmark work along with a few local Kingdom publishers. They have covered the territory in town so thoroughly and have placed so much Bible literature that every other household has a copy of My Book of Bible Stories in Greenlandic. By means of their motorboats, they also arrange regular witnessing trips to the outlying villages.

Continuing northward, our next stop is ten hours away, at Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg). Five Danish families and a few local publishers make up the congregation here. A special-pioneer couple from here make periodic visits to the east coast. This involves a half-hour helicopter ride to the airport, a two-hour plane trip across the central ice cap, and another short hop by helicopter across the bay to Ammassalik on the east coast. The scenery there is truly impressive​—rugged mountains towering above and glaciers filling the hollows below. The people are quite receptive to the Kingdom message, but few have yet taken a stand for the truth.

After flying back across the ice cap, we make our last stop in Ilulissat (Jakobshavn), the northernmost congregation. Ilulissat is Greenlandic for “icebergs,” and it is an appropriate name. Nearby is the most productive glacier in the Northern Hemisphere, and icebergs float all over the bay and fjords, making the scenery quite enthralling. Six families from Denmark and a couple of Greenlanders make up this very active congregation.

Many Greenlanders have learned the Danish language in order to benefit from congregation meetings. However, an increasing number of meetings are being held in Greenlandic, making it possible for more to share in the spiritual feeding.

For example, although the 1988 “Divine Justice” District Convention program was presented in Danish at Nûk, about a third of the talks were translated into Greenlandic. A total of 163 attended. Delegates from the northernmost congregation at Ilulissat and the southernmost congregation at Qaqortoq had to travel as much as two days each way.