Informant, February 1944

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“Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God.”—Ps. 143: 10

FEBRUARY, 1944

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

“Feed the Flock” Testimony Period

Begins Sixth Annual “Watchtower” Campaign!

Bring the Interested to the Watchtower Study

What a bountiful table the Lord has spread for his people at the present time! Surely it is a “feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined”. Such things as could never enter into the heart of man that God would have in store for those that love him! This feast he provides for all through his “faithful and wise servant”, whom he ‘has made ruler over all his goods’.

How can we best show our appreciation of this rich feast? By carrying this food to others. Having so freely (liberally) received, we are to freely (liberally) give. This being true, how appropriate is the name of the February campaign, “Feed the Flock” Testimony Period !

And where do we find this food that has brought us so much joy and the hope of life in the New World? The finest and richest food that Jehovah gives to his people comes to them through the medium of the Watchtower magazine. So that all may have the opportunity to obtain this choice food, the Lord, in his lovingkindness, has again arranged through his channel, the Society, for a Watchtower Campaign, the sixth one; and how fitting that the “Feed the Flock” Testimony Period should begin that campaign! During this Testimony Period all Kingdom publishers will present to the people the offer of the Watchtower magazine for one year, with the book “The Truth Shall Make You Free” and the booklet Freedom in the New World, on a contribution of one dollar. Where they already have subscribed for The Watchtower, the Consolation magazine may be offered on the same basis; likewise, if they have the latest bound book and booklet, others may be substituted. And remember, there are foreign-language magazines too.

Hunt and Fish

Where are the vast majority of the “other sheep” that need to be fed? No doubt they are still scattered abroad like lost sheep, fleeced and hungry, being robbed by the faithless false shepherds who feed themselves and give their flocks only the husks of religion. Before these sheep can be fed, however, they must first be found, and to find them we must “hunt” and “fish” for them by going from house to house. Therefore a 1 1 should thoroughly cover their territory with the special food the Lord has provided at this time.

Further, as a result of previous house-to-house work, each publisher, no doubt, has a list of back-call names of people living in his territory who have shown a measure of interest in the provision of the

Lord. All these should be called on and given the opportunity of taking advantage of the special offer. Also, the back-call servant should check on all names in territories not being worked, and make arrangements to have these called on. It is our privilege to point these to that which alone is really worth while, namely, the food that will enable them to live forever in the free New World of Jehovah’s building.

Demonstrations

So that all may be wise and gentle “pastors” in feeding these “other sheep”, it would be well to have demonstrations at the service meeting, showing how to present The Watchtower in the door-to-door work. Such could be had twice a month, one for each issue, calling attention to their outstanding points, so that all will be fully acquainted with the current issue and be able to intelligently and effectively discuss it.

The street and the route magazine work presents additional opportunities for obtaining subscriptions. Each magazine publisher should be prepared to take advantage of such opportunities and be on the lookout for them. Nor is this all. Each publisher should be on the alert when coming in contact with relatives, business acquaintances, etc. As opportunity affords give all these the privilege of feasting at the Lord’s table by means of the Watchtower magazine.

Due to bad weather, some companies may have permitted back issues of The Watchtower to accumulate. Now is the time to get these into the hands of the people. Use them freely. Be sure to leave one at each place where some interest was shown even though no subscription was obtained. Then call back and endeavor to awaken further interest in the Kingdom message.

Another thing: Company servants and pioneers living in the larger cities should see to it that the addresses sent in include the post office unit numbers. Having this information will enable the brethren here at headquarters to handle your subscriptions much more promptly. Also, care should be taken that all blanks are filled out neatly and legibly and are listed on the Subscription Record sheet which should always accompany the subscription blanks.

Your Quota

The goal for the United States is 100.000 new subscriptions. Each company publisher will strive for a quota of one subscription per month ; each full-time publisher, for a quota of one a week. By each one's doing his best, the goal will, doubtless, be far exceeded.

However, let no one think that his obligation to “feed the flock” has been fully discharged when he has made his quota of subscriptions. Far from it! In fact, his work has only begun! We must call back and aid them to understand The Watchtower. Show them how to study it with the help of the questions appearing at the bottom of each column and by looking up the Scripture citations. And, as called to our attention in the February poster, point out to them their need of attending the Watchtower study meeting, and arrange to bring them to it.

Jehovah God is the Creator and Husband of his organization. Through the columns of The Watchtower he has given us a wonderful vision of that organization and has shown us our privilege of co-operating with it to his honor and to our own good. By bringing The Watchtower to the “other sheep” we shall be giving them the same opportunity. All who love Jehovah and appreciate what he has done for them not only will pray, “Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God,” but will act in harmony with it by giving all diligence to do his will as he reveals it to them. He has revealed to his people his will for the month of February. Will you do your part?

Yearbook Consideration for February

That each publisher of The Theocracy may get a clearer perception and understanding of his position in relation to the great command of the Lord to “go ye therefore and teach all nations", and also to understand the steps the Lord’s organization is taking to meet the needs of the present and the future, each company publisher and pioneer should prayerfully consider the resolution adopted at the annual meeting of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society on pages 194-196 of the 1944 Yearbook.

That this matter may be brought clearly to the attention of all, the company servant will arrange for some capable brother in the company to consider this resolution at a service meeting in February, and particularly point out how the points contained therein apply to the local company organization. At least twenty-five minutes should be devoted to this consideration, and all the publishers are urged to study the resolution and come to the meeting prepared to take an active part in the discussion.

Have You Considered Being a Pioneer?

The Society is forwarding to each company a letter regarding the privilege of participating in the pioneer service. This letter should be read and discussed at a service meeting during February. It should be read at the first service meeting after it is received. At the following service meeting it should be read and discussed. In this way one

Open Pioneer Territory

The Informant is pleased to advise that, as a result of the information contained in the January Informant, we have received a number of requests from general pioneers for the territory that has not been witnessed to since 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937. There is still considerable of this territory open, and those brethren who would like to work it should apply immediately. In addition to that, we are showing in this Informant the counties that have not been witnessed to since 1938 and 1939. These are shown by year, state, and county. This territory is virgin territory for The Watchtower and the latest books and booklets. All of it is in the South, where it can be worked effectively in the wintertime as well as in the summer. We therefore recommend it for pioneers for the Watch tote er Campaign.

This is a serious problem. There is undoubtedly good-will interest in this territory, which should receive attention immediately. The obligation for working this type of territory rests primarily upon the general pioneers. Therefore, when considering whether or not you should apply for such an assignment, the deciding factor should be not merely your personal convenience, but rather that of properly discharging Kingdom responsibilities resting upon the general pioneer branch of the service. The question is, If you are equipped to work that territory thoroughly, why not do it? When applying make two or three selections, as others are also considering the same selections.

ALABAMA: Dallas, Lamar, Sumter. ARKANSAS: Cleveland, Phillips. FLORIDA: Hamilton, Okaloosa, Osceola. GEORGIA: Butts, Candler, Chattahoochee, Echols, Forsyth, Haralson. Meriwether, Pulaski, Putnam, Schley, Terrell, Treutlen.

KENTUCKY: Edmonson, Knott, Larue, Leslie, Logan, Metcalf, Ohio, Owen, Rock Castle, Rowan, Simpson.

LOUISIANA: Beauregard, Bienville, De Soto, Jackson, Natchitoches, Richland, Veimillon.

MISSISSIPPI: Calhoun, De Soto, Greene, Issaquena, Scott.

NORTH CAROLINA: Chowan, Graham, Hertford, Hyde, Jones, Macon, Watauga.

TENNESSEE: Benton, Campbell, Clay, De Kalb, Hardeman, Humphreys, Jackson, Macon, Marion, Perry, Scott.

TEXAS. Blanco, Camp, Delta, Edwards, Garza, Glasscock, Hemphill, Hood, Jeff Davis, Kenedy, Kent, Lipscomb, Somervell, Sterling,

VIRGINIA: Culpeper.

ALABAMA: Fayette, Greene, Winston. ARKANSAS: Faulkner, Howard. FLORIDA: Hernando.

GEORGIA; Bleckley, Burke, Charlton, Pike, Quitman, Screven, Union, Webster, Wheeler.

KENTUCKY: Boyle, Carroll, Clay, Clinton, Gallatin, Garrard, Jackson, Knox, Owsley, Whitley, LOUISIANA: St. Helena, St. John the Baptist, Tensas.

MISSISSIPPI: Copiah. Marshall, Rankin. NORTH CAROLINA: Avery, Gates, Perquimans, SOUTH CAROLINA: Dillon, Jasper, Saluda. TENNESSEE: Lake, Laudeidale, Morgan, Weakley. TEXAS: Austin, Bosque, Calhoun, Collin, Falls, Haitley, Hill, Jackson, Loving, Lynn, McCulloch, Mason, Milam, Newton, Walker, Wise.

VIRGINIA: Fluvanna, Giles, Goochland. Grayson, Lancaster, Louisa, Madison, Patrick, Rappahannock, Surry.

WEST VIRGINIA: Clay, Grant, Lewis, Pleasants.

week will intervene during which the brethren will have time to consider the desirability of devoting their entire time to the Lord's fulltime service before the discussion takes place.

New World Ambassadors to the Homes

Call Back; Cease Not to Teach in Every House

The Calendar shows us that the theme of activity for the month of March is “New World Ambassadors to the Homes”. It has been clearly revealed to the servants of the New World through The Watchtower that their ambassadorship in a ‘strange country, which they are not of’, is not in palatial halls where are gathered the distinguished personages of this old world, but at the homes of the poor and needy where their message is welcomed by those within.

As New World ambassadors continue in March they hold forth the “bread of life” represented in the clear and forceful message concerning the New World as expressed in The Watchtoioer. The offer is a year’s subscription for The Watchtower at the regular rate, with the premium of the book “The Truth Shall Make You Free" and the booklet Freedom in the New World. By March all publishers should have obtained at least one subscription and should be able to give to the people a brief and complete presentation of the Watch tower magazine that will arouse their interest. March should mark a definite upward trend in the number of subscriptions.

How Are Your Quotas?

This will be the second month of the Watchtower Campaign. The quota of 100,000 Watchtower subscriptions should be at least one-third gained by now. Each company should cheek its quota against the number of subscriptions obtained, and then take practical steps to overcome any deficiency. If you find you are abreast or ahead of your quota, still push on and help make up the deficiencies of others who are not so fortunate. Regardless of how the comparison

Successful Service

Proper Study of Informant Articles

In the January (1944) Informant, under the article “How to Plan a Service Meeting”, we find this statement : “The main thing around which a service meeting should be centered is, of course, the Informant. All articles appearing in the Informant should be carefully studied at the service meeting.” Calling to mind, then, that the service meeting is a meeting for consideration of “service”, a discussion of ways and means of doing the Lord’s work in the assigned territory, all studies and discussions of Informant articles should closely adhere to the practical side of the service work and all Scriptural arguments should be in support of the matter under consideration. However, in the process of considering an article, it is better to bring in a few appropriate scriptures that tie in coherently with the subject, add weight to the argument, and forcibly back it up, than to try to fortify the argument by citing scripture after scripture and, in the limited time allotted, spend the majority of time quoting scriptures and thus skim over or completely miss the points that -were carefully prepared at headquarters and printed in the Informant.

Remember, the service meeting is a meeting for the servants of the Lord and the people of good-will. Never should it be gloomy, dull and dead; but, rather, it should be cheerful, interesting and alive, and will be so if all the brethren will stands, put forth every effort to make tills the greatest Watchtower Campaign ever, for the benefit of those of good-will.

Cease Not to Teach

Having received a subscription from the people. Is that the extent of your obligation? Is the rest of the responsibility for ministering to the subscribers placed upon the inanimate Watchtower magazine calling on them twice a month? Such is certainly not the case. Consider the text for March, which says concerning the New World ambassadors in the days of the apostles, “And daily in the temple, and IN EVERY HOUSE, they CEASED NOT to teach and preach.” Obtaining the subscription is merely the first step toward reaching the ultimate aim of teaching the people.

Call back on those who gave you their subscriptions during February. Quicken their interest by discussing interesting points from the magazine. Of course, you must be personally prepared for this, having studied carefully the latest issue of The Watchtower, so that you are able to engage intelligently in conversation with those persons.

Be faithful to your ambassadorship. Remember the proverb, “A faithful ambassador bringeth healing.” (Leeser) Contact the people, present to them the health-giving truths of The Watchtower, and follow that through endeavoring to start book studies with the people and thus bring healing to them. There can be no real healing until they learn to serve the Lord themselves. Show them how to do this. One campaign follows another, no one campaign accomplishing all the witness work; but the cumulative effect of all will result in the witness’ being given. As long as there are houses with people in them your assignment as a New World ambassador to the homes stands.

Meetings Require

carefully study their individual copy of the Informant beforehand, asking themselves the question, “How can I apply this information to my individual territory?” and then come to the service meeting prepared to take an active part and thereby contribute or communicate “good things” to the educational Instructiveness of the meeting. It is essential that the publishers attending service meetings be given opportunity to participate in service discussions. Service meetings should not be merely three or four discourses, but there should always be some discussions by publishers, to make the meetings most interesting to everyone. In addition, if the brethren appointed to be on the program will handle their assignment in a Theocratic manner, speaking not just “to be heard”, but rather putting weight behind every word by preparing carefully beforehand, using the Knowledge gained through their attendance at and participation in the “Course in Theocratic Ministry”, they will thereby call the attention of those in attendance to the absolute need of harmoniously following through Informant instruction by “works”, Theocratic service activity in each one's own individual territory.

New Publications

Religion: Italian

Fighting for Liberty on the

Home Front: Polish

Peace—Can it Last?: Portuguese

Hope: Slovak

Use of House to House Record Form

One of the Kingdom publisher’s greatest aids in giving a thorough witness in his territory’ is the House to House Record form. When properly used it enables the publisher to give a thorough witness in every home in his territory, and is a great aid in locating the “sheep”.

This House to House Record should be used in all types of territory, from thickly populated cities to sparsely settled rurals. When necessary you may adopt your own system of numbering the homes in towns and rural areas where there are no house numbers, by starting and numbering the houses from a given location. Always fill out this form completely, giving territory number, street, house number and apartment number, and show the results of your call (placements made, reception, and reasons for further attention), after you call on each residence.

All Publishers Should Use It

It should be used by every publisher in his individual territory and in group witnessing. In going back to that same territory the following week the publisher will have a record of those homes where literature was placed and a back-call is to be made. He has a record of those who were not at home and who were busy the previous week, so that those homes may be called on again and a good witness given.

For Publisher’s Personal Use

The House to House Record form is not intended as a permanent record for the files of the company. It is the publisher's own personal record of what he found in the territory. Permanent information will be transferred to the Back-Call records in the usual way. There is, however, no objection to a publisher’s keeping this information and using it the next time he w’orks the territory, if he so desires. A different publisher will have a different approach; and to try to con-, form to the details of someone else’s i approach will invariably hinder rather than help him when working the same territory. This form is not to be used to take the place of the Back-Call slips. Every person who shows interest after the first back-call should have a Back-Call slip made out, and subsequent back-calls are to be made from it and not from the House to House Record form. The purpose of the House to House Record form is to see that every home is contacted and completely witnessed to each time the

I territory is covered.

Previous All-Time Peaks

Company Pubs. Pioneers

Pubs. 66,079 April '43 6,761 July ’43 Av. Hrs. 20.3 June ’40 138.2 July

Av. B-C 4.6 Oct. ’40 39.3 April’42

Dec. 1943 Dec.

Pubs. Av. Av. Av. Av.

Hrs. B-C Hrs.

Company 53,408 12.0 3.2 12.5

Pioneers 5,905 118.0 33.7 104.1

Semiannual Inventory

As outlined in Organization Instructions, each company should take a physical inventory of their stock twice a year. Once at the beginning of the year, September 1; the original of this inventory should be sent to the Society as directed. The second inventory should be taken on March 1. It is not necessary to send this to the Society, but it should be retained in the company files and a check be made against the company account to see

Keeping Proper Record of Associated

Every company of Jehovah’s witnesses should keep a permanent, accurate and complete record of those individuals associated with the company. This is taken care of by the assistant company servant. The following is the procedure:

Each company has, or should have, an alphabetical file of Publisher’s Record cards, which are to be filled out completely with the information required. It is noted that many companies are careless as to keeping these records properly. All information requested on this form is important. See that the publisher’s name, address, number of years in the truth, date of birth, and other information called for on this card, are each shown thereon. The “years in truth” should be from the date the party became associated regularly with the company by attending headquarters Watchtower and/or service meetings.

It is suggested that, in addition to the information requested on the current card, the date of immersion of the publisher be placed at the top of the card. The later 1944-1945 cards will have space provided for this information. All information should be transferred to each subsequent card used, as time goes on. When the cards are full, file them away in a permanent (but accessible) file. When you need them order new cards from the Society, which provide for the current, up-to-date information. When ordering any office supplies, bemem-beb: Do not order by symbol number; order by name of form only. Use regular order blank for all orders.

In this manner a complete record can be kept, and, in time to come, information needed by brethren can be easily obtained from the company’s records.

Determining “Associated”

Obviously, the company will have on file a Publisher’s Record card for every publisher. However, the number of associated includes all those who regularly attend headquarters Watchtower and/or service meetings. How may this be kept? When a newly interested person, for whom there is no card, attends headquarters Watchtower and/or service meetings on the average of two or more times a month, a memorandum slip or card of the same size as the Publisher’s Record card should be made out with the name of the person and the date he started associating with the company. This should be filed in its proper place with the Publisher’s Record cards. As long as this party attends with a degree of regularity the card should be kept in the file.

When such newly interested ones start reporting as publishers, a Publisher’s Record card will then be made out. The “years in truth” will be determined from the date on the memorandum slip showing when they became associated. All other information should then be obtained and placed on the Publisher’s Record card. This will replace the memorandum card.

Then, to determine the number associated with the company, all that Is necessary is to check the file of cards. The total of the Publisher's Record cards and the memorandum cards should be the number associated with the company.

that there is sufficient literature on hand to at least cover the company’s indebtedness to the Society. If this should not be the ease, immediate steps should be taken to reduce and eliminate any deficit that exists.