Stimulus for Growth

For many years, the congregations of Jehovah’s people in Taiwan used rented halls for their meetings. The need for a more suitable meeting place was brought to the attention of the elders in one congregation when an interested person remarked: “If you have the truth, what are you doing in such a place as this? Why don’t you have a permanent meeting place?” So with reliance on Jehovah, that congregation started looking for a suitable location for a Kingdom Hall. Finally, they purchased two adjoining apartments in a large building, and now they have a fine Kingdom Hall.

In the last six years, 11 Kingdom Halls have been built or purchased in Taiwan. In each case, this has resulted in an increased harvest and a large meeting attendance. One example was the congregation in the southern city of Tainan. In 1981 this large city of 600,000 people had only one small congregation of 44 Kingdom publishers. Out of necessity this group decided to build their own Kingdom Hall. With faith that Jehovah would bless them, the brothers and sisters pushed ahead with the project even though the hall would cost about $200,000. Some contributed their dowry gold; others postponed overseas trips. Everyone in the congregation gave full support. When the brothers at the Watch Tower Society’s branch office learned of this project, they decided to build a missionary home over the Kingdom Hall, thus sharing half the cost. The hall was completed within two years. The result? By the time the Kingdom Hall was finished, the total number of publishers had reached 74! At the present time, two congregations, with a total of 160 publishers, are using that hall, and the weekly meeting attendance averages about 250. The two congregations are now planning to build a second Kingdom Hall.

[Pictures]

A Kingdom Hall recently built on the east coast of Taiwan