Kissimmee sees return of Jehovah’s Witnesses conventions after COVID forced them online

Days before COVID-19 causes businesses to shutter or stop certain services in March 2020, Stephanie Harkins started a new job in health care after moving to the Tampa area from Pennsylvania only months before.

She felt isolated.

So when she received a letter from one of Jehovah’s Witnesses acknowledging her isolation and telling her that God cared for her, she was hopeful.

She shared the letter with a woman who she learned was a Witness when she was able to go back to work.

“I was searching for answers on how to read the Bible; I couldn’t understand it,” said Harkins, who was raised in the Catholic religion but had been attending a nondenominational church on Zoom. “The priest would read from the Old and New testament [in the Bible] but it wasn’t helpful. Nothing was said at Sunday services that I could apply to my life today.”

Harkins, 63, started attending meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses on Zoom and accepted a Bible study using the study aid, “Enjoy Life Forever.”

“Starting my Bible study in October [2020] was very comforting because I was doing it with someone who had spent her whole life doing it,” Harkins said.

She will be one of dozens who will be baptized during the 2023 Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Osceola Heritage Park’s Silver Spurs Arena this summer. Harkins will attend the next “Exercise Patience!” program in English from Friday to Sunday. It will also be her first in-person convention. She remembers watching others getting baptized in backyard pools on Zoom during the pandemic.

She arrives from Tampa-area suburb Holiday on Thursday and will stay in a hotel with her Bible instructor and other friends. For the three days, some attendees will stay in hotels near the convention site, while others will commute across several Florida counties.

The conventions, which were one of Kissimmee’s mainstay series since 2005, return this summer to Silver Spurs Arena after a three-year in-person hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

About 65,000 delegates and visitors will attend the 2023 convention series, six of which remain in English and Spanish until the Sept. 8-10 weekend. All told 44 conventions will be held throughout Florida. There are about 136,000 baptized Witnesses living in the state.

Osceola Heritage Park General Manager Robb Larson says the Jehovah’s Witnesses conventions have been coming to the Silver Spurs Arena for about 20 years, stopped only by the pandemic. While the arena hosts various events annually, Larson noted that when you have 6,000 to 7,000 people every weekend in the summer in the arena, it makes a significant impact.

“The witnesses are good partners,” Larson said. “The arena is filled and area restaurants and hotels are filled.”

It’s the first time the group will hold its annual regional convention in person since 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, conventions have been via streaming, though the group returned to in-person meetings and its public ministry last year.

The conventions return after it was predicted that the tourist tax collected during hotel night stays in Osceola County would be down about 11% on average each month this year when compared to last year.

Harry Hirst, local spokesperson for the regional conventions in Kissimmee, said Jehovah’s Witnesses are one of the largest convention organizations in the world. The Kissimmee conventions are estimated to use 11,253 hotel nights in six hotels, at a value of $975,000.

It was through the public ministry that 64-year-old David Crawford reconnected with Jehovah’s Witnesses after leaving for almost 35 years. “It stayed with me. It was time to come back,” Crawford said.

Last March, he spotted Jehovah’s Witnesses and a cart with Bible-based literature in front of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses on Palm Springs Drive in Altamonte Springs. He stopped and struck up a conversation. On Saturday, he will be baptized. Baptism is one of the convention’s signature programs.

Jehovah’s Witnesses try to closely follow examples set by Jesus Christ, God’s son, who engaged in a public ministry while he was on Earth. They endeavor to use Bible principles to draw closer to God, build strong families, and to be productive and honest citizens. Baptism, by water immersion, takes place after people have an understanding of the Bible.

Other highlights of the program include a two-part dramatic feature-length movie, “Commit Your Way to Jehovah,” which will air on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday morning, a Bible-based talk designed for the public entitled “Will God Act on Your Behalf?” answers the question of whether God answers your prayers, said Hirst.

All are welcomed, said Hirst. There are no fees and no collections are taken. To find out more, visit JW.org.