XPost: alt.religion.jehovahs-witn, talk.religion.misc   
   From: jabriol@sparta.org   
      
       About 400 people help build the Jehovah's Witnesses' Bucksport Kingdom   
   Hall in July. People from three states worked and finished the building in   
   three days. ----Bangor Daily News   
      
     Building the Kingdom In transforming a Bucksport pinewood lot into a   
   meeting house, 400 Jehovah's Witnesses share commitment and 'a willing   
   spirit' They came from places such as Grand Isle, Vt., and Coldbrook, N.H.   
   They arrived by the carload from Maine towns and villages such as Auburn,   
   Boothbay, Dexter and Ripley. More than 400 strong, they descended on a plot   
   of prime land in Bucksport overlooking Route 15 and the Penobscot River.   
   When they arrived, a bare concrete slab awaited them in a clearing amid the   
   pines. When they departed three days later, they left behind a completed   
   Kingdom Hall, ready for a congregation of their fellow Jehovah's Witnesses.   
   The organizational skills necessary to pull off such a feat were second only   
   to the _expression of faith nailed into every board, hammered upon every   
   shingle and glued down with every square foot of carpet laid. It was   
   reminiscent of an old-fashioned community barn raising, but for the   
   Witnesses it was infused with God's purpose rather than man's. Completion of   
   Bucksport's newest house of worship might have appeared unusual to people   
   driving by on Route 15 between July 17 and 19, but it was standard for men   
   like Stanley Davidson of Bridgton. He has worked on similar projects in   
   northern New England for almost 25 years. During that period, he estimates,   
   he has helped build 35 or 40 Kingdom Halls. In Maine, Jehovah's Witnesses   
   count some 18,000 active members and 194 congregations. Known for their   
   persistence, courage and discipline, the community stresses simplicity and   
   reverence in its meetings. The outpouring of help for construction of the   
   Kingdom Hall in Bucksport was typical. "This is part of our sacred   
   ministry," shouted Davidson over the noise of hundreds of swinging hammers   
   pounding nails last month. "It protects congregations from being   
   overburdened, and the savings is substantial. A spirit of self-sacrifice, a   
   willingness to help one's fellow man and a highly organized operation are   
   all that's required." Elders said they couldn't put a price tag on what the   
   Bucksport Kingdom Hall cost, but estimated the same project would have cost   
   $350,000 to $500,000 if it had been done commercially. "This isn't out of   
   the ordinary," Davidson said, gesturing at the constant activity that he   
   admitted looked like pandemonium. "Experience and a willing spirit make it   
   possible," he said. "Otherwise, it wouldn't work."   
      
   ---The Jehovah's Witnesses movement grew out of a Pittsburgh student Bible   
   association founded in 1872. Its driving force was Charles Taze Russell, the   
   son of Scots-Irish Presbyterians. By the time he was 20, Russell had left   
   various Congregational, Episcopal and Presbyterian churches because he could   
   not reconcile the idea of an eternal hell with God's mercy. A chance   
   encounter with an Adventist preacher introduced Russell to the idea that the   
   Bible could be used to predict God's plan of salvation, especially as it   
   related to the end of the world. In 1873, at the age of 21, Russell printed   
   about 50,000 copies of his booklet, "The Object and Manner of the Lord's   
   Return." Six years later, Russell began regularly publishing Zion's Watch   
   Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, which evolved into the Witnesses'   
   best-known publication, The Watchtower. Convinced of the need to promote   
   what he considered to be the truth of the Bible's message, Russell dissolved   
   his partnership in a clothing business and devoted his considerable fortune   
   to spreading his faith. He learned Hebrew and Greek so he could study the   
   Scriptures in the languages in which they were first written. Using complex   
   calculations, Russell preached from 1877 on that Christ's "invisible" return   
   had occurred in 1874, and he designated 1914 as the year of Christ's Second   
   Coming and the end of the "times of the gentiles." Russell, who was never   
   ordained, died at age 64 on a train in Texas while on a lecture tour of the   
   South and Midwest. His own books and booklets reached a circulation of 16   
   million copies in 35 languages, and 2,000 newspapers published his weekly   
   sermons. The name Jehovah's Witnesses was adopted in 1931 by Russell's   
   successor, Joseph Franklin Rutherford. A judge, he sought to reaffirm   
   Jehovah as the true name of God and to identify those who witness in   
   Jehovah's name as God's specially accredited followers. Rutherford gave   
   Witnesses portable phonographs to play his "sermonettes" on the front   
   porches and in the living rooms of potential converts. Today, the   
   organization is overseen by a governing body made up of Witnesses from all   
   over the world. Date setting and prophecy have given way to a more   
   contemporary analysis of modern life based on world events and what they   
   regard as signs of the times. ---After meeting in the nearby Verona Grange   
   Hall for almost four years, the congregation bought the Bucksport land last   
   year and began clearing the plot in April, according to lay leader Ed Bowden   
   of Orrington. The Witnesses from northern New England went to Bucksport to   
   work either on a portion of or the entire three-day project. They stayed   
   with family, friends, congregation members and in area motels. A few, with   
   recreational vehicles, stayed on site, where they could watch the   
   transformation up close. Workers, ranging in age from teen to senior, were   
   assigned to teams headed by experienced and, in some cases, licensed   
   tradesmen. One team installed the framing and put up the outside walls. Once   
   it was in place, the roofing was nailed down. As a section was completed   
   above, a team below stapled in the insulation. Behind it came a team with   
   hammers, nails and wallboard. Not every volunteer, however, worked   
   construction. Seth Mantsch, 23, and Sarah Mantsch, 24, a Bucksport husband   
   and wife, made supply runs for the crew and drove workers to and from their   
   cars parked in a field a few hundred yards away. A makeshift kitchen was set   
   up in a tent pitched in what would become the parking lot. Doing God's will   
   is hungry work, and all meals were provided. On Thursday, when the most   
   workers were needed, the kitchen crew fed 225 breakfasts and handed out 410   
   lunches in 15 minutes. By midafternoon, the head cook was napping in a   
   rocking chair while a half-dozen people prepared roast beef sandwiches for   
   the evening meal. Storage trailers parked on the perimeter kept vinyl   
   siding, ceiling tiles, lights, the building's sound system and other items   
   safely dry until they were needed. One contained large power tools such as   
   table saws; another was used as an office, complete with fax machine,   
      
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