Jehovah’s Witnesses return to knocking on doors, bringing ‘good news’ in Central Fla.

Marielle Parra has been knocking on her neighbors’ doors since she was 3 years old. Back then, she would accompany her parents when they lived in Caracas, Venezuela.

A Jehovah’s Witness since September 2006, Parra is now married and was knocking on doors until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The Altamonte Springs resident was back knocking on doors Thursday, now that Jehovah’s Witnesses have restarted their door-to-door ministry after more than two and a half years on hiatus.

“That’s what God wants us to do,” Parra said Saturday. “He wants us to bring good news to people because people are in need of hope.”

Parra said no one answered the doors on which she knocked but she was ready.

“It was a bit nerve-wracking going back because it was a hard situation for everyone, but it was very enjoyable,” she said. “We are doing it because we love people and we love Jehovah. Sometimes you may feel a little bit scared... to talk to people you do not know but you know the reason why you are doing it is because of love and that motivates you, and you know that Jehovah is going to be helping you to do it.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses consider good news “all the truths about which Jesus spoke and his disciples wrote,” a 2011 edition of their magazine, The Watchtower, read.

From coast to coast, members of the Christian denomination fanned out in cities and towns Thursday to share literature and converse about God for the first time since March 2020. In Florida, 1,100 congregations activated for this form of public witnessing.

Cheryl Weeks knocked on many doors in the 57 years she has been a Jehovah’s Witness. Weeks started her ministry early on Thursday, greeting people who disembarked from public transportation. Then she joined a group to visit their Altamonte Springs neighbors.

“I was nervous at first and then I was scared because you don’t know how people will react to you but they were very nice,” Weeks said. “People knew who we were but people were afraid because of the mask thing so to be cautious we had our masks. By the third door someone did [answer].”

They were pleasant and they took a religious flyer she offered, she said.

Jehovah’s Witnesses suspended door-knocking in the early days of the pandemic’s onset in the United States, just as much of the rest of society went into lockdown, too. The organization also ended all public meetings at its 13,000 congregations nationwide and canceled 5,600 annual gatherings worldwide — an unprecedented move not taken even during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, which killed 50 million people worldwide.

Witnesses continued their ministry by writing letters and making phone calls, but it wasn’t the same because it lacked a personal touch, said Robert Hendriks, national spokesperson for the denomination.

“To us, going door to door is an expression of our God’s impartiality,” he said. “We go to everyone and let them choose whether they want to hear us or not.”

Even in pre-pandemic times, door-knocking ministry came with anxiety because Witnesses never knew how they would be received at any given home. In 2022 that’s even more the case, and evangelizers are being advised to be mindful that lives and attitudes have changed.

“It’s going to take an additional level of courage,” Hendriks said.

The organization is not mandating masks or social distancing, leaving those decisions to each individual.

The group has cautiously been rebooting other activities: In April it reopened congregations for in-person gatherings, and in June it resumed public ministry in locations such as bus stops and subway stations.

Getting back to door-knocking, considered not just a core belief but also an effective ministry, is a big step toward “a return to normal,” Hendriks said.

Angelo Montes, who lives in Winter Springs, said the door-to-door ministry gives him a purpose in life. He is looking forward to knocking on his first door on Sunday. He is planning to visit someone he hasn’t seen in two years who needs comfort after the death of a sibling.

“I am looking forward to going door to door. It will be a joy. It will be around the world and in the congregation locally,” Montes said. “This is most important work.”