Our reasons for witnessing are 2 fold. The first and foremost reason is to to 'teach and make diciples'. But we would only do this if people ask us to teach them. We offer a free home bible study to do that and we visit them on a regular basis and provide them with study aids and a bible if they dont have one. The goal is obviously to help them gain enough bible knowledge for them to make an informed decision about becoming a JW, so i guess you could call it conversion....but its a conversion based on knowledge rather then an emotional conversion that we see in some church's. To become a JW may take several years for some people. A person must make any needed changes in their life. If they are a smoker, they need to stop smoking, if they have addictions, they must get out of those addictions. They also need to conform their life to the standards of the bible, unmarried couples need to become married etc etc ...so it could take a very long time for some to make those decisions.
Thanks Berenice!
Can I ask another question. What is the "aim" of witnessing? I have read here that contrary to popular belief JW's don't actually try to convert people. Do you report your witnessing activities to anyone, e.g. brother, church elder? If so, what do you say?
The second reason is to 'preach', that is spread the message that Jesus wanted his followers to spread. That message is that God has established a kingdom that will soon resolve all of mankinds troubles and all mankind must know this message. They dont have to accept it of course but they all have to hear it because God wants all people to have the choice. This is why we keep coming back...even when the householder isnt interested.
We do report our activity. Every month each publisher puts a report of how many hours we spent and how many magazines or books we placed...and of course how many bible studies we are currently conducting (if any). Each congregation gathers that information from each of its members and sends the totals into Bethel located in NSW. From there the information from the entire country is sent to Bethel in America, along with every other country where JW's are located and the worldwide data is released once a year.
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