How do we judge 'success'?

I'll be honest. Sometimes we get discouraged if we aren't seeing the ... results... we may have imagined before we came down. We may individually feel like we wished we could open the Bible more when we talk to people. But what does the congregation meeting attendance show?

On a recent Sunday, I did a count. We had 32 in attendance, total. Of that, seven were visiting from other areas, so we had 25 local folks. Of that, five were visiting as Bible students or people we had invited. So look at those numbers... five out of 25 were interested parties! One-fifth, or 20%, were students or interested ones!

Imagine your congregation. Do you have maybe 150 attending? What if 30 of those were your guests? Wouldn't you consider that an amazing success?

So, if we here in Pana occasionally get discouraged because our ministry isn't all we wish... it's OK. We do all we can, we love people and do all we can to help, and leave it in Jehovah's hands to draw people.