Statistics
2016 Jehovah’s Witness average publishers 808,710. Congregations: 2012. Baptisms: 32,978. Memorial Attendance: 1,799,512. Preaching hours: 182.26 million.
Early Contacts
Sarah Bellona Ferguson, an American who had emigrated to Brazil from the United States in 1867 with her family, subscribed to the English-language Watchtower magazine in the late nineteenth century after reading literature that her brother had brought from the United States (Yearbook 1997). Ferguson wrote to Watchtower Society founder Charles Taze Russell about her conversion to the Bible student movement and attempted to share these beliefs with others. Thousands of Portuguese translations of the tracts Where Are the Dead? were sent to São Paulo in 1912. Bellona Ferguson in Brazil received the Watchtower Society’s publications by mail since 1899 and stated in 1911 that her case was “a positive, living proof that there are none too far away to be reached.”
Additional converts were made in approximately 1920...
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References
1997 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses (1997) Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, pp 125–208
2010 Brazil Census. Tables 1.4.1 and 1.4.6. Instituto Brasiliero de Geografia e Estatistica, Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics. https://ww2.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/censo2010/caracteristicas_religiao_deficiencia/caracteristicas_religiao_deficiencia_tab_xls.shtm. Accessed 26 Nov 2017
2011 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses (2011) Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, pp 40–47
2017 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses (2017) Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, New York, pp 178–186
Bruder H (2002) We stuck to our assignment. Watchtower, November 1, 2002. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, New York, pp 20–21
Guest D (2017, February) We experienced God’s undeserved kindness in many ways. Watchtower, Simplified Edition. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, pp 27–30
Jehovah’s Witnesses – Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom (1993) Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, New York, 750 p
Rocha de Souza M (2006, 1 July) Perseverance Brings Joy, Watchtower, pp 8–9
Valentino LD (2001, May 1) Pressing on in Jehovah’s way is our strength and joy. Watchtower. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, pp 24–28
They are ‘Hearing’ the Kingdom Message in Brazil. Watchtower, 1 February 2003, p 24
Watchtower (2014) There is more harvest work to be done. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, New York, pp 31–32
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Stewart, D.G. (2019). Jehovah’s Witnesses in Brazil. In: Gooren, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_441-1
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