Volunteers gather for Jehovah meet Oct. 18-20

BAGUIO CITY—A Filipino-American nurse in San Francisco, California, was at the peak of his career, earning money and enjoying a comfortable life when he responded to a call for volunteers to work at a leading publisher and distributor of Bibles and Bible-based literature in New York.

Brandon Pagobo, 28, said he sacrificed his lucrative job for a simple life so he could volunteer full time at the Brooklyn-based Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (WBTS), a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Jehovah’s Witnesses that is run primarily by thousands of volunteers around the world.

When Pagobo started work in one of WBTS facilities in Brooklyn in 2011, he was assigned as a waiter and cook.

“Volunteers need to have the mentality [to show] that they are willing to serve wherever there is a need,” he said.

Volunteers belong to different ethnic, social and professional backgrounds. Most are involved in the translation, production and distribution of bibles and other Bible-based literature.

Over the past 10 years, Jehovah’s Witnesses published 20 billion copies of Bible-based literature.

Pagobo is among at least 1,400 delegates from the United States, Taiwan and Indonesia who will attend the special Bible convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City on Oct. 18-20. Gobleth Moulic, Inquirer Northern Luzon