• Iceland
    2005 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • A Need for Missionary Homes and Kingdom Halls

      When Nathan H. Knorr from the world headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses visited Iceland in 1968, he wanted to find a more suitable building for a branch office and for accommodating the missionaries. Before then, various homes were rented. Now the brothers started looking for land where they could erect a building that would contain a Kingdom Hall, a missionary home, and a branch office. Meanwhile, a suitable house at Hrefnugata 5 in Reykjavík was rented, and on October 1, 1968, the six missionaries moved into it. This building served as a center for the work in Iceland during the next five years. Later, the brothers acquired a well-situated plot of land at Sogavegur 71, Reykjavík. In the spring of 1972, construction on the new branch building got under way. This turned out to be a major challenge for the few brothers there, who had little knowledge of engineering and construction. There were no building contractors or masons among them, so it was necessary to hire contractors who were not Witnesses. These contractors showed great willingness to cooperate and allowed the brothers to work along with them on the project. The brothers rented part of an old house next to the building site as a shelter where they would eat. Sisters took turns cooking food in their homes and taking it to the building site to feed the workers.

      The building work served as a fine witness in the area. The contractors and the city authorities had good opportunity to become acquainted with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Others stopped by the site to see the progress. When the time came to do the inside plastering, a brother from Denmark who was a professional mason came to help. Also, sisters did much of the work. When some supervisors from the city came to visit the building site, they noticed that the sisters were using the cement mixer. One of the supervisors said: “I think the women in our church could learn something from this. It would certainly be more successful to build churches by working than by walking around with a collection box, begging for money.” The building was dedicated in May 1975, when Milton G. Henschel visited Iceland and delivered the dedication talk. The building served for many years as the main missionary home in the country as well as the Kingdom Hall for the congregations in Reykjavík. Now it serves as the branch office.

      By 1987 a new Kingdom Hall and missionary home was built in the town of Akureyri. The evidence of unity and international brotherhood existing among Jehovah’s people was obvious when more than 60 brothers and sisters from Finland and Sweden came to help the brothers in Iceland with that building project.