“Word of Hope” Foundation Support Action

                                 “Word of Hope” Foundation

Word of Hope

It was when I was 24 that I first came into contact with Jehovah’s witnesses teachings. For ten years that followed I was fighting with my wife for “the truth of the Watchtower” for I was convinced that only Jehovah’s witnesses proclaimed the truth. After 10 years, my wife suddenly joined the ranks of the organization. I was spoken about as a man that received his wife from God as God’s witness to my perseverance.

I used to work full-time (without pay) for the Organization. At one meeting with the elders of Jehovah’s witnesses congregations I asked a few eschatological questions. It turned out that some of the elders had a different understanding of the Watchtower light and it was my job to sort this problem out. Therefore, right after the meeting, as soon as I got back home, I took the archive issues of the Watchtower publications of about 20 years back, and it turned out the so-called “new light of the Watchtower Organization” had been changed by up to 180 degrees.

As an unregenerate man, I could only see what "the slave of the Brooklyn Watchtower” wanted every preacher of the organization to see. Because I approached the teachings of the Organization very seriously I was firmly convinced that was the only road to follow. However, the incident with the doctrinal differences knocked me down. I was devastated. I did not know what to do. Where was the truth of the Bible if the truth in the Watchtower publications had been changing all the time?

I informed the Watchtower Society that I was unable to continue working for this organization because I did not know what was true and what was false in a given “Watchtower” issue. After a week I was no longer a part of the organization, as well as a dozen other people. Some of them were excluded only because they came to my house to ask what had prompted me to leave the organization in which I had been known as a zealous and fully devoted witness.

But this apparent freedom was a great unknown to us. If the Organization lied, what was the truth? We were afraid to take any religious publication in hand. We took hold of the Word of God and topic by topic explored the teachings of the Bible. It was not uneasy because only then did it turn out that as little as 6% of Jehovah’s witnesses’ doctrine was based on the Bible, e.g. idolatry, saints’ cult, etc. All the other Watchtower doctrines turned out to be made up, meticulously hidden lies that time had made obsolete.

Because I had been known to witnesses in many regions of Poland, many of them wrote to me asking to explain my new beliefs. It was year 1986 in Poland, when access to paper or typewriter to publish any pamphlet was out of the question. The Security Service fighting Solidarity recorded anyone who bought even one ream of paper. I answered those hundreds of letters by way of making manual copies with carbon paper. I came across an evangelical church that allowed me to use their copier, which gave me a little more time to write. I devoted a lot of time to preaching in the homes of Jehovah’s witnesses who had various questions and doubts. I spent many nights waiting for a train or sleeping at a railway station for lack of money for any better shelter.

After 6 years since leaving the Organization, one of the lawyers, a Christian, wrote me the Statute for the “Word of Hope” Foundation. At that time I had no clue how to run a foundation, but God has always sent me someone to help make at least a yearly balance sheet. The first year was closed with the amount of 536 zlotys. I was blessed to have a job with flexible working hours. From time to time I was able to buy a ream of paper because the “Spolem” company I worked for had its own stationer’s.

This is how I have been working for over 26 years, never knowing what the next year might bring. I have always used whatever I had at my disposal. All the work has been carried out free of charge. No one, me included, has ever taken a zloty for this work. With the help of God and His Saints we have managed to issue more than 400,000 periodicals entitled the “Word of Hope”. We could not afford to do more than print. At times we could not afford even that. Compilation and stitching was manual work. The compilation work for one issue comprised 40,000 sheets of paper. Most of this effort was made by my wife. Sometimes for two years, for lack of money, we were unable to publish anything. Former  witnesses are very suspicious and they feared we wanted to push them in some direction, so any financial support for this work was out of the question.

I have written a couple of books that sell almost like hot cakes. We cannot run a business because, according to the Polish law, we would have to hire an accountant who would take at least half of the proceeds that in 20 years total ab. 25,000-30,000 zlotys (approximately $7,000-10,000) per year, which is why we send books and brochures free of charge. For this reason, we are not allowed to issue invoices.

The brochures have really been doing good work for the Lord. I have been able to meet less than 5 percent of those who have left the ranks of the Organization. We know each other only from letters. At times a conference participant approached me saying: You helped me get out of the Organization.

I have visited many evangelical churches to gain volunteers who. in their places of their residence. might reach the present or former witnesses. It is not the kind of work that is easy because it means discussions topic by topic, which many Christians are not used to and get easily discouraged.

In Poland, from 1992 to 2012 as many as over 70,000 Jehovah’s witnesses’ preachers were baptized. However, the number of the members has increased by only one thousand in 20 years. The organization hopes that one percent may have died, but we are still left with more than 60,000 former witnesses. Some of them, under the pressure of the witnesses or family give up and even undertake suicide. After years of such work, as soon as I get letters from such former witnesses, I am left with no other choice but get on the train and try to save them. I have failed to reach a few of them because they succeeded in taking their life just a few days before my arrival.

I answer a few thousand letters a year. I send the Word of Hope newsletter and books, but I am getting weaker, and the need to reach out to these lost people is growing. Evangelical churches are absolutely uninterested in eschatology, which is the reason why they are incapable of communicate. Former Jehovah’s Witnesses have joined a variety of churches.

We desire with God’s and Your help, dear Brothers and Sisters, to save many souls (Proverbs 24: 11-12), and it does not involve much. Open your mouth. Tell a Jehovah’s witness at least your testimony, and this may be a turning point for him or her. A few thousand people have left the ranks of the Organization of Jehovah’s witnesses thanks to the work spoken of in here. Some of them used to be in this Organization for 30-40 years (Romans 10: 9-10).

Every year a few hundred people give up further contacts with the Organization just because they have been warned in time. Some of them were to be baptized in a few days’ or weeks’ time. We are happy they managed to change their decision, but these people are in need of spiritual support. They keep writing to us, we visit them, but the number of the people who need support goes beyond our physical or financial potential.

Most frequent questions:

     Who finances you? The whole circulation of the “Word of Hope” is sent free of charge since the cost of sending one issue would exceed 6zl. The money coming to our account can only be spent on new issues of the “Word of Hope”, books, and postage expenses, office equipment, etc.

    <!--[endif]-->How can I support you financially? Every year our office receives and sends a few thousand letters a year. Since the arrival of the Internet, more than 80% of them come by email. I answer thousands of telephone inquieries about various JW’s doctrines. We are incapable of answering every letter due to insufficient financial back up. If you desire to support our work, you could send a set amount of money a month so that we could hire at least one person to run the office, update the data, answer the letters. (If you get no response from us within a month, know this is not our laziness, but a lack of strength and capability to do that.)

     <!--[endif]-->How can I meet those who have left the Organization? We do not share any addresses or telephone numbers without a prior written consent of the person in question. We retain complete discretion on our readers’ data.

     What church does the Word of Hope Foundation belong to? This foundation is not a religious organization and we act interdenominationally. We do not direct anyone to any particular church. We leave such a decision with the reader. It is our goal to help our reader to return to his or her spiritual balance by way of showing to him how inconsistent a given teaching is. We trust you want to support us in this difficult but blessed work.

What more can one do?

Perhaps you have been sent as a son of comfort or a preacher of the true gospel to a witness. We infrequently see the fruit of our work in the form of a witness that has come to Christ as saviour, but is it not written:  one sows, another waters, but God makes it grow? (I Cor. 3: 1-8).

Where are the other former witnesses? What are they doing? Their letters reveal they are lost and abandoned. They need your brotherly hand so that you are not indifferent to saving those who need a human reflex of love, understanding and empathy. A decided majority of JW’s witnesses knows nothing about our Foundation. They do not know our address so that we may get in touch with them.

Oh, how heartening are the letters from those who write that someone gave them an issue of the Word of Hope, which was the beginning of their end in the Organization. We have decided to tighten this net of the Gospel with your assistance. This is the reason why we are addressing you here, as co-workers in the Lord’s field. Set as your goal to:

-  <!--[endif]-->be a distributor of the Word of Hope In your area

- <!--[endif]-->look for new workers by sharing your experience and joy gained in the Lord’s work.

- pray for the workers (Luke 10: 2)

It is our goal to:

• set up missions in Poland
• support former Jehovah’s witnesses
• setting up Christian kindergartens and primary schools all over Poland, in cooperation with the School of David from Poznan overseen by a Christian school from the UK.

http://www.sn.org.pl/

Word of Hope foundation

BIC CODE (SWIFT) BPKOPLPW  PL15 1020 1853 0000 9102 0177 2607

*Dear Brothers, if a Jehovah’s witness knocks at your door, do not close it, but preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus!

* Please, send this letter to the Brothers you know!