Shirley Lowery

Hello to all my Spiritual Brothers and Sisters! It's been a very unusual year for all of us!  We only have 18 more days left in this year of 2020!  How can I summarize this year?  First of all, in the months of January and  February, we were able to go door to door, now, because of the Pandemic, starting in the month of March, we have to do letter writing or telephone witnessing, to count our Field Service time!   Our midweek meetings, and Sunday meetings are on Zoom now!  Our circuit assemblies are now held on JW Stream by an invitation, we receive in our emails!  Little did anyone know, we were facing a Corona Virus, or Covid19, since December of 2019, but then it started in Italy, Spain, and China, lots of people who contracted the Virus were dying!  Sadly, somehow the virus made it's way into The United States, if we would have known to wear a mask then, maybe  so many people wouldn't have died, because these last 10 months, we found out that this virus was air-borne, and one person who had the virus could infect two people by just coughing, or sneezing, through droplets spraying  out invisibly  from their mouth!  Even talking to another person face to face spread droplets to that person!  We received instructions from the Governing Body, to start disinfecting our seats in our beautiful Kingdom halls, then to keep us safe, we were given instructions again,  from The Governing Body to stop attending our meetings at our Kingdomhalls!  This was our first year that we had to hold our Memorial Celebration held annually, in our own homes, Worldwide that sacred night! Then our "ALWAYS REJOICE" 3 day Convention, which is normally held in different countries, had to be viewed on JW Stream on different days for us to receive our Spiritual Food at the proper time, also on Saturday, was a very special day, everyone who wanted to get baptized, had to be baptized, either in a river, a swimming pool, a horse trough, at various locations in their homes! They will always remember that special day, when they dedicated their lives to Jehovah!  We were read a letter on Zoom, instructions from the Governing Body how to stay safe, disinfect our homes, to keep from getting Covid19!  So, now were conducting our personal  Bible Studies on Zoom, and contacting our Return Visits by phone, to keep us and our loved ones safe! Sadly, last I heard, 5,000 of our Spiritual Family have passed away from Covid19! We will see them again in the upcoming resurrection, as Jehovah has promised us!  Jehovah, through his holy spirit is always protecting us, and our precious Governing Body, send us their love, and their prayers! New Bibles were released in different languages, so many Brothers and Sisters cried receiving their own personal copies of the Bible in their language! What a wonderful blessing from Jehovah!  In the month of  November, a letter from the Governing Body announced  that in  November, a Special Worldwide Campaign would begin!  So many copies of our No.2 2020, Watchtower entitled: "What Is God's Kingdom?"  were printed for each Publisher, our Regular Pioneers, and our Auxiliary Pioneers, and we had to pick up their 16 issues from the brother wearing a mask at our Kingdom hall! We had 35 Auxiliary Pioneers for the month of November,  in my Congregation, which Jehovah was so proud of!  Now , we have 18 more days  left in the month of December,  and I read on JW. ORG, how so many Government officials are making wonderful comments about our No. 2 2020, Watchtower, "What Is God's Kingdom?" Also to see Jehovah intervene with the releasing of 26 Brothers and 2 sisters from Eritrea, was a wonderful blessing from Jehovah, sadly there are still 24 left in prison, but with all our prayers to Jehovah, hopefully soon, they will be released too! We finished our publication, JESUS ,THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFe in November!  The month of  December we started  studying in our Congregation Bible study, our  released in 2018, publication,  PURE WORSHIP OF JEHOVAH RESTORED AT LAST! which was released at our 2018, "BE COURAGEOUS"  REGIONAL CONVENTION!  I hope all you Spiritual Brothers and Sisters, are staying safe, staying well, as we always know in our hearts, that Jehovah, is our Great Protector, and the God of Comfort!  The new year 2021 is coming soon, let's see what Jehovah has in store for us! It's always exciting to me personally, to start a new year, a new year text, and  for us to keep up the preaching work, no matter what the new year brings! Always trust in Jehovah, as we all should, I send all of you my Agape Love, Shirley!!!!