I’ve been looking at the numbers here and there for a few hours and I must say that I am fascinated by what I am finding.
For instance, here is the congregation of St-André Avelin in Québec. This congregation used to have a Kingdom Hall that had become too small for their needs. Therefore, plans were made and brothers and sisters brought their resources together to build a new hall, much to the appreciation of the local brothers who saw that the hand of Jehovah was not too short to help them out.
Now, what the numbers show:
- The old Kingdom Hall was sold for 162,000 $
- Before the construction project, there was 40,000 $ in the bank.
- The new Hall is now worth 241 000$
- Labour was free.
Trying to get a sense of how much was paid for the new hall (Knowing the labour was free), lets say they paid 70% of its actual worth; that is, 170 000 $. So, before the construction project, the locale congregation had 202 000$ in the bank, thus, an excess of 32,000 $ in regards to the actual cost. And yet, now, they are back to 3 000$ in the bank and the same as usual “occupancy cost” they will need to pay.
Now, the following is interpretation, but it looks like the society has played with the number with this congregation and a few others to achieve the following result: Take the proceeds of the sale and the money in the account and send back 177 000$ of that money back to the congregation at interest so that now, the local brothers and sisters are paying interest on their own money! And as for the 30,000$ Looks like it was used to fund some other renovation projects in other halls.
If I was not still a Jehovah’s Witness, I think I would bring this up to the attention of Revenue Canada and ask some questions about it.
