With Armageddon drawing ever nearer, how encouraging for young people is the following from one of Jehovah’s Witnesses who has been a faithful missionary for many years. She states:
“I was born in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II. My parents felt that Armageddon would be right on its heels, so we children were encouraged from our very tender years to use our time wisely in this dying old system in Jehovah’s service. From the year the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead opened, when I was only four years old, my mother would talk to me about it and to have it as my goal. At the age of six years, after my first school term, I vacation pioneered. Each succeeding summer vacation I pioneered until I graduated from high school at which time I entered the pioneer service. Another thing that contributed to my formation was that, during my teenage years, my father arranged his work schedule so that he could be a regular pioneer, setting a good example for us children.
1982 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1981. p. 16
By the year 1949 there were 25 missionaries working in Chile. The results of their work could be seen in that there were 211 publishers in the country. This was a fine increase from the 65 publishers in 1945 when the first missionaries arrived. But there was still only one Witness for every 20,000 persons, a clear indication of the desperate need for help. The big question in the minds of the brothers was not, “When will Armageddon come?” but “How are we going to get the ‘good news’ preached to all the people before the end comes?”
1982 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1981. p. 60