Je­ho­vah's Wit­ness­es had pow­er­ful rea­sons to re­joice at their 2009 Keep on the Watch! In­ter­na­tion­al Con­ven­tion. They were de­light­ed to note many in the com­mu­ni­ty chose to at­tend ses­sions of this spe­cial four-day event. The at­ten­dance of more than 20,000 in­clud­ed Wit­ness­es from some 27 dif­fer­ent coun­tries, among them mis­sion­ar­ies from var­i­ous parts of the world, and non-Wit­ness­es from through­out T&T.

A boy is bap­tised at the Keep on the Watch con­ven­tion.

They came to the Queen's Park Oval for a con­ven­tion pro­gramme that fo­cused on the need to heed what the Wit­ness­es say is the Bible's ur­gent mes­sage con­cern­ing the end of wicked­ness. The Pub­lic Ad­dress: "How Can You Sur­vive the End of the World?" high­light­ed that the end of the world, from the Bible's per­spec­tive, does not mean the de­struc­tion of plan­et earth. "Rather," the speak­er em­pha­sised, "it means the end of all wicked­ness, death, suf­fer­ing and pain.

"On­ly those, like the an­cient man Noah, whose walk with God will sur­vive this im­pend­ing in­ter­ven­tion," he added. The four-day event end­ed Sun­day at 4.30 pm. At the con­clu­sion, the au­di­ence broke out in spon­ta­neous pro­longed ap­plause and gave ev­i­dence of be­ing de­ter­mined to fol­low through with the ur­gent ap­peal to Keep on the Watch.

TOP: Latin Amer­i­can del­e­gates raise their hands in cel­e­bra­tion.

ABOVE: At­ten­dees from French Guyana with their ban­ner.

Pho­tos: An­drea De Sil­va