Back To Suriname/1 Or 2 Other Things

This past week has proved interesting. The two brothers staying with me and Micaiah wanted to cross over into Suriname to see what it was like.

We arrived Sunday, and as of Tuesday afternoon we're still here, planning to stay until Thursday morning.

While I have been taking plenty of pictures, I forgot to bring the cable that allows you to move the pics onto the computer. So here's the deal: I'll fill this space with other stuff, and write in detail about this Suriname trip later.

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What I wanted to do here, basically, is recruit need-greaters.
Well, not quite. I want to make information available to help you decide if this is something you may be interested in trying.
For instance, ASL is a huge need in Guyana. There are many, many deaf people here because health care is lacking in most areas. This means that if someone gets an ear infection or some similar illness, chances are very high that it will damage or completely eliminate their ability to hear.
So this is the condition the country is faced with. In spite of all that, there is only one ASL congregation in the whole country. As far as I know, there are three different groups attempting to get established, but they're having a very hard time of it. Why? Not enough support for the ASL field. There are simply not enough need-greaters coming in to help out.
Now, I only know of three groups, but odds are there's many more trying to get started.

Also, Guyana has a huge Chinese population, the majority of whom either can't speak English, or don't speak it well. There are whole neighborhoods of nothing but Chinese-speaking people. But despite this, there is not one single Chinese congregation or group.

In fact, there are no foreign-language congregations in the entire country. There's many language groups among the Guyanese population, but no one to preach to them.

It's not just foreign language fields that are in need of help! I know brothers and sisters who have come from Spain, Russia, Holland, and Chile, and who learned English simply to come help in Guyana.
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The last time I was at the branch, the District Overseer told me about all of this, but you know what he said after this?
"Surprisingly, that isn't where we have the greatest need in this country. What we need more than anything else is.................

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PEOPLE SKILLED IN KINGDOM HALL CONSTRUCTION!"

There are at this point 14 congregations that need a new Kingdom Hall. That list is not including halls that need repaired or remodeled. For instance, our Kingdom Hall was built it the 1970's when the average meeting attendance was 30. At the last Sunday meeting, we had 150 show up. Imagine trying to fit that many people into a space about the size of the Library/Utility room in the North Athens hall. That is what the brothers and sisters in Hopetown have been dealing with for years.

In addition to Kingdom Halls, the branch has purchased land to build Guyana's first Assembly Hall. They've had the land for over 5 years now. But it hasn't been built. Why?
Not enough brothers experienced in construction. They've got the money for it, but not the hands.

Now, all this isn't even mentioning the help Suriname needs (in the fields of Chinese, Portugese, Sranan Tonga, Surimese Sign Language, ect.)


That's it for today. But I hope this information helps. There are so many ways you can help in not only this country, but anywhere. Just ask.

It's not that hard....