ANYONE who happens to be in E-Mall or the Robinsons Fuente area in Cebu City this week may notice that a pre-pandemic fixture is back on the sidewalks: Smiling faces standing next to colorful carts featuring a positive message and free Bible-based literature.
Thousands of these carts will be rolling down the streets of communities in the major commercial areas in Central and Eastern Visayas and all across the world in the weeks to come as Jehovah’s Witnesses recommence their global public preaching work some 24 months after putting it on pause due to the pandemic.
“I am personally thrilled with the latest instruction to ‘go out’ again in the public, specifically in the Metropolitan Areas,” said Rolando delos Santos Jr., a regular volunteer in public witnessing from Cebu City. “It is definitely an added encouragement not just for us but also for the people in our areas.”
The Christian organization will return to its public ministry for the first time since March 2020, when all in-person forms of their volunteer work were suspended out of concern for the health and safety of the community.
In response to the global decision, 15 congregations in Cebu are now beginning to reopen their cart locations like in E-Mall and Robinsons Fuente area in Cebu City and in other commercial or public market areas in Central and Eastern Visayas.
The local congregations will also resume free in-person Bible studies along with personal visits to those who have invited them back to their homes. This comes two months after the organization began gathering at their Kingdom Halls once again for in-person meetings.
“While we understand that the pandemic is not over, we are entering into a phase of learning to live with Covid,” said James Morales, spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses. “We are sensitive to the risks that still face our communities and our volunteers, which is why we will not resume door-to-door ministry at this time.
Mobile displays of Bible-based literature have been part of Jehovah’s Witnesses' public ministry in the U.S. since 2011. While “cart witnessing” began in large metropolitan areas around the world, they quickly spread to the tens of thousands of smaller communities, becoming a fixture in rail and bus stations, airports, harbors and main streets.
Imelda Moreno, an elderly volunteer from Tacloban City, said that she is very grateful to Jehovah that she can now continue sharing the good news of God’s Kingdom in public with careful consideration of existing health protocols. She is convinced that it is important to share with other people what God has promised, as recorded in 2 Peter 3:13 and Isaiah 65:17. She will do her best to have a full share in the public witnessing.
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