While Brother Henschel was thus serving the brothers in Sierra Leone, I was with the brothers in the neighboring country, the Republic of Liberia. A succeeding issue of The Watchtower will carry this report.

Expansion of True Worship in Nigeria

THE work of Jehovah’s witnesses has been very fruitful in the Gold Coast and Nigeria, and leaders of the many missionary organizations in those colonies are feeling the pressure as thousands are forsaking them to become Jehovah’s witnesses. Without doubt this was why the Watchtower Society learned through Washington that it “seemed to be” the policy that no representative of the Watchtower would be admitted in those territories. Just to what extent the work has been fruitful in one of these places, Nigeria, will appear from a perusal of the following experiences, which were related at the assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Freetown, Sierra Leone, by two Watchtower missionaries who had worked in Nigeria, as reported by M. G. Henschel, secretary to the president of the Society.

“Jehovah’s witnesses in Nigeria have zeal and determination. The majority of them are poor and have but few material possessions. They live in mud huts. Their diet is simple—cassava and yams, with occasional bits of fish or meat. But they have the truth and they love it. They know they must preach it and they love to preach. They have faithfully preached and let their light shine. Result: the truth has spread into over 400 towns and villages, where congregations have been organized, as well as into scores of isolated places. There are over 12,600 ministers there now. Jehovah’s witnesses are seen in every part of Nigeria and even in the British Cameroons.

“One thing that has helped the brothers to advance to maturity as God’s ministers is the holding of assemblies. These require much work, since everything must be built by the brothers, there being no halls. Assembly time sees all the brothers on the move, by lorry (bus), cycle and foot. Some walk for two days, others pull a canoe on a river for three days to get there.

“On Sunday morning while everyone is still asleep they use Gideon’s method of converging into the village from all sides, announcing the public lecture as they come. Very few people have watches, so the early morning announcement must be followed up by a final announcement just before the meeting is about to begin. A group of brothers sing songs and go in one direction and then in another, telling the people the talk is about to start. How effective this method is can be seen from what took place at Abiriba. There, although only three hundred brothers were present, the final announcement was so stirring that the entire population of 1,734 streamed down to the assembly grounds!

“To illustrate the effect the holding of an assembly has on a village, let us turn to Akwete, a town where there were none of Jehovah’s witnesses. From twenty miles away the witnesses came to make preparations.