• Threats Did Not Stop Them From Serving Jehovah
    2017 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • Building Kingdom Halls Despite Opposition

      By 2001, a growing number of congregations needed suitable places to meet for worship. According to one estimate, some 70 Kingdom Halls were needed. Hence, a Kingdom Hall construction program was initiated despite the opposition in the country.​—Ezra 3:3.

      Soon a construction crew began remodeling a building that had previously been used by several congregations in Tbilisi. Two projects quickly followed​—one in Tbilisi and another in Chiatura, in western Georgia.

      A dilapidated Kingdom Hall, and the new Kingdom Hall that replaced it

      A Kingdom Hall in Tbilisi (left) was replaced with a new one (right)

      Brother Tamazi Khutsishvili, who worked on the project in Chiatura, remembers: “Fifteen of us worked on the site every day. Soon everybody in town knew we were building a new hall. At times we heard rumors that our opponents wanted to come and destroy the Kingdom Hall.”

      In view of such opposition, how successful could the construction project be? Tamazi says: “We continued our work and finished the Kingdom Hall in three months. Despite the threats, no opposers ever came.”a