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<\/p>\nLongtime Tulare County resident Jeanie Vollmer would knock on doors or chat with passersby at a local park in Lindsay as part of her volunteer ministry five days a week. That abruptly changed in the spring of 2020 when Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses suspended their in-person public ministry, meetings, and large conventions.<\/p>\n
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Two years later, Vollmer maintains her busy schedule in the ministry, but she has shifted to making telephone calls and teaching others about the Bible over the phone. \u201cWe\u2019re able to contact so many more people than we were before,\u201d Vollmer said.<\/p>\n
With this historic change, the number of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses grew 3 percent in the United States in 2021 alone, matching the most significant increase for the organization over the past decade and the second-largest percentage increase since 1990.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaying active in our ministry while remaining safe has had a powerful preserving effect on our congregants and communities,\u201d said Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesman for Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses. \u201cThe wise decision not to prematurely resume in-person activities has united us and protected lives while comforting many people in great need. The results speak for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
For congregants like Vollmer, who’s in her 70s, the pivot to virtual has meant getting more comfortable with technology. Although she uses Zoom, a tablet, and a smartphone almost daily now, her message of hope and comfort remains the same. \u201cI\u2019ve had individuals call me back or text me saying, \u2018Thank you for that message,\u2019\u201d Vollmer said. \u201cI really enjoy having those conversations about the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, the international organization reported all-time peaks in the number of people participating in their volunteer preaching work, increased attendance in Zoom meetings and more than 171,000 new believers baptized. In the past two years, more than 400,000 have been baptized worldwide.<\/p>\n
Some whose ministry or attendance at religious services had slowed because of age and poor health said they feel reenergized with the convenience of virtual meetings and a home-based ministry.<\/p>\n
Like many octogenarians, Sarah Fuoco, 88, deals with memory loss and diminished energy. Yet she and her 81-year-old husband, Joseph, have been given the nickname \u201cthe dynamic duo.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fuocos use Zoom to worship twice a week with their Hollis, N.H., congregation and regularly join online ministry groups to comfort neighbors and family through phone calls, letters, texts and emails.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat could have been quite a disadvantage, we\u2019ve made into an advantage,\u201d Joseph Fuoco said. \u201cThe fact that we can work right from home is a great advantage. I\u2019m happy with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
By sharing the Bible\u2019s hope remotely, the fewer than 3,000 Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses in Alaska can rapidly preach across the 586,000 square miles of their sparsely populated state. \u201cWe\u2019re talking to more people in a day than we did in a month,\u201d said Marlene Sadowski of Ketchikan.<\/p>\n
The official website of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, translated into more than 1,050 languages, has also helped the organization\u2019s outreach.<\/p>\n
After starting a free self-paced Bible course on\u00a0jw.org<\/a>\u00a0in December 2019, Lisa Owen requested a free, interactive Bible study over Zoom. She was one of nearly 20,000 baptized as one of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses last year in the United States in private settings, including backyard swimming pools, tubs and even rivers.<\/p>\n \u201cJW.ORG gave me somewhere to learn, somewhere to land, and to start living the way God wants me to. It taught me so much,\u201d said Owen of Moriarty, N.M.<\/p>\n