NAMPA, Idaho — Jehovah's Witnesses expected to have nearly 20,000 people at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa for a conference.
However, back in April, they decided to cancel these conferences and move them to an online format, they also closed their places of worship and their public ministry during the pandemic.
Last year 14 million people attended these conferences in 247 countries all over the world.
Jehovah's Witnesses used two of their guiding principles sanctity of life and love thy neighbor as the reasons they made their decisions.
"We thought it was an act of love to stop our public ministry, stop going to people's doors and knocking on them, and cease all public gatherings," said Robert Hendriks. "
So Jehovah's Witnesses took on the massive undertaking of transferring conference online, they translated their message into 511 different languages.
"It is a modern-day miracle, and itself is an act of love that we feel is a gift to the world," said Hendriks. "The theme of this year's convention is always rejoice."
Hendriks told us they didn't want to miss an opportunity to spread their message with so many people trying to figure out how to deal with the pandemic.
"All the things they thought could bring them joy got taken away like that as we saw a world brought to its knees by a pandemic in three weeks," said Hendricks. "To be able to have inner joy based on our faith, our relationship with our creator, our relationship with our neighbor, and our families that is true joy that can be sustained."
For more information on Jehovah's Witnesses and for ways to attend their online convention, click here.
