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<\/p>\nAndrea Jacobs was not one to write a letter or call people she didn\u2019t know. \u201cIt just wasn\u2019t my thing,\u201d she said. But she loved to visit neighbors door-to-door with an encouraging thought. That abruptly changed in the spring of 2020 when Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses suspended their in-person public ministry, meetings and conventions.<\/p>\n
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Two years later, the Toledo resident regularly contacts people by phone and letter. \u201cIf this is the only way to reach people, it\u2019s what we have to do,\u201d she explained. In addition to fulfilling a mission to share comfort with others, she found a source of joy during the pandemic. \u201cWhen people want to discuss or study the Bible, it\u2019s the highlight of our day!\u201d<\/p>\n
With this historic change, the number of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses grew 3% 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 Jacobs, the virtual ministry helps her keep grounded and focused. She regularly shares scriptures with the local community and conducts free Bible courses over the phone or on Zoom. She describes her ministry as one of the \u201cbig rocks\u201d in her jar of life priorities. \u201cThe ministry, prayer, Bible reading \u2014 all of those are like rocks. They are most important and take up the largest space. Other things like entertainment are like pebbles that can fit around but not displace the most important things.\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 re-energized with the convenience of virtual meetings and a home-based ministry.<\/p>\n
Despite dealing with memory loss and diminished energy, Joseph Fuoco, 81, and his wife Sarah, 88, are now nicknamed \u201cthe dynamic duo.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fuocos use Zoom to worship twice a week with their Hollis, New Hampshire, congregation and regularly join online ministry groups to comfort neighbors and family through phone calls, letters, texts and email.<\/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 1,000 languages, has also leveraged 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