"This Is a Miracle!" - From June til Now

Allow me to begin with apologies. The blog has remained dormant for several weeks (oh, actually months. Oops) due to some major technical issues with my laptop.

(i.e. It didn't turn on)

However, those issues have now been resolved, and therefore updating can resume! So, here's the three major events that have happened since this blog's near-demise.

Arrival of the Ohio Boys

I have three friends who had been interested in coming down to visit Guyana for a while, so finally on June 3rd they were able to make the trip down.

And Queeneth. Because of course.

The boys from L-R are Jake Walsh from Pennsylvania (okay, so they're not all from Ohio. Whatever), Gavin Stallard from Athens Ohio (my hometown), myself, and Neil Rogenski from Marietta Ohio.

They were able to come and stay for two months in my current congregation, Orealla. Now in case the delay in blog updates has caused you to forget what the situation is here, allow me to remind you of why these guys' presence was a big deal.

Orealla has two elders and two ministerial servants. In addition to them, there's only three other baptized brothers. So obviously, everybody is extremely busy during each meeting. Now when you consider that most of these men spend much of the week working to provide for their families, you probably realize there isn't much support through the week for field service.

Enter Jake and Gavin and Neil. Three qualified baptized brothers, all either ministerial servants or regular pioneers. The first meeting for field service they attended, as the elder finished arranging the groups for service, he paused and had a strange look on his face.

We ask what's wrong, and he says "I don't know who to ask to say prayer for us! There's too many brothers to choose from! This is a miracle!"

So then came their first meeting. The local body of appointed brothers all agreed that we'd give them the first week off so they could settle in. Naturally, by time the meeting came, they were all handling assignments. Between them they read for the the Congregation Bible Study, did Bible Highlights, talk 3, ran mics and adjusted the ones on stage.

Welcome to Orealla guys!

All in all, I think they enjoyed themselves (or so I'm guessing). Many new experiences for them while there! Among them living without running water or electricity in my house, learning to cook the local delicacies (invite them over and make them cook for you!), and traveling by boat to reach our whole territory.

Traveling by boat? You know what that means! Siparuta trip!

Load up a small speedboat with literature, lunch, and as many people as are willing to go, and head down the river for an hour until you come across the next village. Astonishingly, with the group we had, we were able to cover the entire village of 300 homes by noon!

My three favorite experiences from the day: since I've been to the village of Siparuta a few times already, I've accumulated some return visits there, so while the rest of the brothers and sisters worked territory, Neil and I focused solely on reaching my calls. The first was a man named James who had first been contacted by a need-greater the year before, who then took me to meet James so I could follow up on the interest. So this visit, when Neil and I arrived I took him into the Bible Teach book we'd left him and covered a few points. But when we were preparing to go, the man said "I wish I could understand the Bible." Naturally I talk about how the Teach book can help to understand it, but he replies "No, the words in it. When you read out of your Bible, I understood what it was saying, but mine I can't understand at all." He brings out a King James and shows it to us. He then adds "Do you have any of those Bibles you can give me? The gray ones you have?" I pause for a moment before reply "Well..... the only one I have is this one. But, um, if you really want one..." Before I finish speaking the Bible is out of my hands and in his.

Don't worry, I'll be visiting again as soon as I can.

The second experience from the day was a pleasant surprise. As we were walking towards another of my calls, we passed the village library. I remembered having gone in there nearly five years before during my visit to Siparuta (read all about it here!) I distinctly remember going in and leaving a variety of literature, primarily a Bible Teach book. I wondered, might it still be....?

Bingo!

So seeing that was a huge deal for me. Never thought I'd be finding results of my effort, still, five years on.

Which leads us to the third, and best, experience.

Brief back story: Memorial season of 2014 we went to Siparuta to invite everyone to Memorial. During that trip, we met a man named Raymond who expressed a desire for one of our "gray Bibles" as well, preferably one with large print. These are in very short supply in Guyana, so we promised him he'd get one, but warned it may take a while.

Fast forward to March 2015. After the incredibly long delay, we made it back to Siparuta with a large print, revised New World Translation. Raymond's house is the first we visit, but are very disappointed to see no one's home. So we set out for a normal Siparuta preaching day, but as we're wrapping up and ready to head back home to Orealla, I decide to visit Raymond's house once more. As we're still walking up to his house, he approaches from another direction. I say hello and begin reminding him of our previous visit. He looks confused, but I press on, even pulling out the Bible and showing him. He still looks confused, but as I open the Bible and show him the large print, his eyes shoot open and he gets a large smile. He grabs the Bible out of my hands, hugs it to his chest, and says "Even when I forget what I've prayed for, Jehovah reminds me."

Fast forward to June 2015, the visit I've been speaking of. Neil and I approach Raymond's house once more, and see him laying in a hammock on his porch. He sees us and invites us up. After talking with him a while, he told us "I was supposed to go out to the bush today for work, but this morning I just didn't feel like going. I had a strong desire to just stay at home. Now I know why."

We talked a lot and built on what the brothers had discussed the first time, and what I had talked with him about the last time. He and his wife are fervently using Jehovah's name now, and his wife has asked for another Bible because hers doesn't use his name as much.

He also asked for someone to come and study regularly with them, but especially his 21 year old son. His son had apparently asked to speak in their church the previous day, so the church allowed him. Raymond said "He went up and began explaining the Scriptures in such a way that we'd never heard before. It was clear and made sense and we could tell it was the truth. We asked after where he'd gotten all this information from, and he told me it was in that little yellow book you'd given us."

So things are going really well with him, along with the four other studies I've been visiting on each trip. Things are looking up for Siparuta.

Boarding the boat to leave Siparuta :'(
Nice hat though!!

 The remaining two months with the guys was pretty much that. Busy in the congregation, learning to adjust to no running water and barely functional electric, going on studies and whatnot. Need-greater life.

Which brings us to the second major event.

Historic Guyana Convention

July 10-12 saw Guyana enjoying their first Regional Convention with video screens!

No pic of the screen yet. I'm going for "dramatic buildup"!

There was some (what's the word?) kerfuffle prior to the convention setup. For several years we've held all our assemblies and conventions at the same location, Kennard Memorial Turf Club. Suddenly, a mere week before convention began, Kennard's backed out on us. Fortunately the committee was able to quickly find another suitable venue for our convention. The only downside of this is that since this venue hadn't been used by the Witnesses for a very long time, certain aspects of the site weren't up to standards. To counter this, we spent three entire days doing convention cleaning, doing everything from repainting all the benches to building entirely new restrooms.

And, I dunno, leaning? Not sure.
Nice hat again!

Of course, all the effort was worthwhile, and the convention went off beautifully. Especially the incorporation of the video displays!

And apologies for some of the pictures being washed out. My phone
(especially the camera) was also beginning to poop out around this time.

The most tragic part came three days after the assembly. Reason being that three days later I left Guyana to return to the U.S. to work and earn money for another trip back to Guyana. Which brings us to major event #3!

Back to the United States

Since being back in the States (which has been just over one month now) I've been in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Virginia. Hey, you go where there's work.

The most substantial part of my time in the States has been in Virginia taking part in a huge college apartment painting job. A crew of 15 or so all huddled in a brother's basement and spent two straight weeks of 15 hour workdays painting. Basically we woke up, went to work, and went to bed. For two weeks straight. My back has never hurt so much in my life.

Yes, I'm a wimp. Deal with it.

Nice basement though! But no hats.... :(

Then there's been about two weeks spent at my parent's house in Ohio, doing any other assorted odd jobs I can find in the area. And some general goofing off with my family as well...

In my home, there is just one law: Silly hats ONLY!!

Including some Guyanese cooking classes from me to my mother. So far it's all turned out well.

Cook-up rice, mango curry with chicken, and cassava bread.

Aaaaand of course the biggest project of all. Fixing this laptop.

Piece of cake!

But all in all, decent trip back to the States. And short too, since just yesterday I bought my ticket back home! I'll be flying out September 21st/22nd, just in time for our next assembly on October 10th!

There may or may not be another update before then. We'll see how it goes.

Teaching Amerindians

* Warning: Few photos in this blog entry *

Witnessing in a territory like Orealla is very unique. For one thing, the village itself is fairly small, so we can work the entire village during the Circuit Overseer's visit (we do have more territory, but Orealla village gets worked most frequently). But despite how much this village gets worked, you still get an incredible response from the people. Literally every single door you can place magazines, and the only times people will turn down a Bible Study is if they're not usually home (working on the river or any such thing) or if they're already studying the Bible with another church or another Witness.

So if that's the response, what challenges are there if any?

Simple: language and culture barrier. We'll take the language barrier first...

It may sound strange to say that seeing as they speak English just like we do. But the way they learned it makes it unusual. See, this village originally spoke Arawak, but over time they were taught English by missionaries and whatnot. But rather than learning English from scratch, they mostly learned word-for-word substitutions, so their sentence structure is typically the same as Arawak, and additionally if there was not a word for a certain thing in Arawak, they wouldn't learn the English version.

So take for example Psalms 37:11. Pretty commonly used in the ministry, and mostly self-explanatory right? Now here, when we shared that verse we assumed "exquisite" would be a word maybe they weren't familiar with so we would explain it (I say "We" because around the time I was discovering this we had Dustin Reynolds and Zandile with us as well, so we were all experiencing this together). But we noticed over and over that people still weren't understanding what the scripture meant.

What we eventually realized was the problem was the word "delight". That was a word most of them had never encountered before in their lives. We asked them why no one had ever brought that up, and it's because they're so used to English literature using words and phrases they're not accustomed to that they don't bother bringing it up anymore.

So this left us with a problem. How do you explain "delight" to someone?

Dustin had the best answer. "Imagine the happiest you've ever been in your life," he'd tell them "Maybe it's the day you got married. Maybe it's when your first child was born, or you built your own house, anything. Think of that." When he could tell they'd definitely begun picturing that moment, he added "Now imagine being even happier than that."

Without fail, that did the trick.

But now we come to what was the second problem in teaching Amerindians. The culture barrier. To illustrate how this can be a problem, I'll continue using Psalm 37:11....

So we've covered the language barrier explaining "exquisite delight", but what about "in the abundance of peace"? They know what peace is, but here's the culture barrier... they already live in peace. They know peace as being the absence of war and crime and hatred. But they live in Orealla! A place with an absence of war and crime and hatred. They feel so secure here that many homes don't have locks. Some don't even have four walls!

So the scripture you're reading to them is about happy people leaving in peaceful conditions on Earth. Isn't that what they're already doing? There's the culture barrier. What do they have to be in fear of?

Wild animals, that's what.

So while I grew up sharing Psalm 37:11 with people and emphasizing that we won't be in fear of men, in Orealla you must focus on it in a different way. Here's what (again) Dustin came up with to explain that verse in terms that's meaningful to them.

"Would you just decide to suddenly walk out into the jungle? Alone? Without carrying a cutlass, or a bow, or anything like that?"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"The jaguars would get to me if I walked too far away from the village." (other answers have been snakes, tigers, boar, etc. All of which keep far away from the village, don't worry. Just in case you, say. happen to have a son preparing to come here or something)

Dustin continues "But that's what this verse is telling you. There will be a time, on this very Earth, when you can just jump up and say 'Hey, I want to walk to Kwakwani!' And you can just up and go. You won't need to worry about any wild animals attacking you. You won't need to worry about troubling any snakes. You won't even need to take a mosquito netting. Because this verse is promising you that. We will have peace."


Of course, I still have lots of learning to do. In an assignment like this, you must always keep aware of the need to continue learning from the people you're around just as much as they're learning from you.

Best Life Ever?

By this time we're all very familiar with the "Best Life Ever" expression. But sometimes I worry when things and expressions get used excessively, they can lose meaning. So I'm going to take a few minutes and talk about the impact "Best Life Ever" had on us in Guyana.

If you'll remember, that was originally the title of a video wherein they interviewed a sister who had up to that point been spending her life as a need-greater. It was backed by the Best Life Ever song which emphasized the points being made in the video. Of course, everybody around here immediately loved the video. Emails went around to nearly everyone ensuring everybody knew about the video and watched it. You can see it instantly got a link placed on my blog, which has remained to this day. Why? Because the lifestyle we'd spent so much time telling all our friends about (and anyone who would listen whatsoever) was getting heavy advertisement on jw.org. This video showed how incredible this lifestyle can be, and now it wasn't just us saying it. Because seriously, we want everybody to experience this.

Now obviously, the video, the song, and the eventual hashtag that has come of it doesn't apply solely to the need-greater life. But we still want you to give it serious thought. Go ahead and keep using the #bestlifeever hashtag on all your field service related stuff, but don't overlook how amazing of an experience it can be to move where the need is greater, to move to a foreign field, anything like that. Sure, it's a leap of faith. But that's why we get this message in Malachi 3:10...

"Test me out, please, in this regard," Jehovah of armies says, "to see whether I will not open to you the floodgates of the heavens and pour out on you a blessing until there is nothing lacking."

So here's the proposition I'm making. Come to Guyana. Come spend, if nothing else, just one week in Orealla. One morning we'll wake up at 5 AM and walk to our neighboring village Siparuta. We'll spend the entire day preaching nonstop to every single person we meet. You'll use your Bible more than you've ever used it before. You may even place your personal Bible. Finally before it begins getting dark, we'll walk back to Orealla. We'll arrive between 5-6 PM, and we'll march straight to one of the village's white sand beaches. You'll jump in the river and swim (or if you can't swim, wade) until all the soreness and aching is gone from you, then you'll go back home and collapse and sleep the sweetest sleep you've ever experienced. Then the rest of the week we'll spend doing whatever you want to do.

Wander through the savanna?

Play in the mud?

Hike the craziest hills you've ever seen?

Rather spend your time doing more field service? Which would you like to do most? 1) Start a Bible Study on the initial call at every single door (or tree)...

... 2) Have an entire family gather around to watch as you show the Why Study the Bible? video...

... or 3) Play the dramas and various other audio productions for older ones who can't see well anymore?

Hmm, I suppose you could do all three....


But all this... it sounds fun, but is it worth it? If you're not convinced, ask my last roommate Dustin Reynolds if his time here was worth it. Or ask my roommate before that, Charlie Brohard. Or ask my first roommate Micaiah Young. Or the couple that got me here, Michael and Lara Alston. Or Tom and Michelle Sanches. Or Sam, or Dan, or Cortny, or Melanie, Olivia, Carys, Isaac, Dan, Levi, Steve and Emma, Chris and Fern, Dale, Amy, Faith, Abbi, Lisa, Jackie, Yvonne, Sarah, Felicia, John and Janet, Dania, Hermicar, Luke and Laura, DC and Sarah, Grace, Cassandra, or any of the other bazillion awesome I've met since starting this lifestyle. Ask any single one of them if it was worth it.

There's your invitation. As the song says, "Come with me. You'll see. This is the best life ever."

Updates on the Work Camp

Been a while since I've given you all news about the guys at the work camp. So here goes...

After a couple visits out there, the holiday season rolled around. We had Phagwah (Hindu holiday) followed shortly thereafter by Easter. Due to these, most of the men were sent back home for a time. Only one man, Wazim the boss, was left behind to keep an eye on everything. So we kept returning to see him alone.

The only picture for this blog entry. Sorry.

Finally, the holidays passed. So after all the hullabaloo (holidays, Dustin's departure, Memorial, Circuit Assembly) on a Wednesday afternoon I made the trek out there alone to see Wazim and find out when the groups of workers were returning. I get out there and find a new man, alone in the place. I introduce myself and he tells me his name is Byron. I ask if Wazim is around, but he says "Wazim is gone. He's been sent to another place. I'm the new boss."

So I briefly explain what we do out there, how we come and talk to the workers and they take a few minutes (or more accurately, an hour) out of their day, stop working, and listen. I check with the new boss Byron if it's okay if I keep coming and doing this, and he mumbles an allowance, turns away, and continues what he was doing before I came.

Taking this an an indication of "I'm busy" I left. But my spirits were high. Even if this Byron doesn't seem too excited, he's still going to allow me to come preach to the guys that are interested!

The day after this (Thursday), a group arrived to do renovations on the Kingdom Hall and the Pioneer House right behind it. Naturally many from the local congregation have been doing what they can to assist. So one night as we were collecting sand from the beach for concrete mixing, I was pushing one of the wheelbarrows back to the Hall when I heard a man crying out "White man! White man!" I assumed it was a drunk man or something, so I continued. But I heard footsteps running behind me, so I turned to see if this was actually something important. To my surprise, I saw Byron.

He says "After you left I was looking through the house, and I found a book that Wazim had left behind. I began reading, and immediately I thought 'I have to learn more about this!' Can you come talk with me and teach me more about the Bible?"

"Um," I reply "Sure! When do you want me to come?"

"Tomorrow! Anytime. I'll be there all day." He went on to tell me that while he'd been reading the book, he'd gotten a call from his daughter who had attended the Memorial, and was telling him how much she enjoyed it and indicating to him that he should go there sometime.

So Friday morning, I set out for the work camp again. When I finally reach, Byron is nowhere to be seen, but there's another new man. He tells me Byron had gotten a call and had to run out, so he (this new guy, named Trayvon) had been left to keep an eye on the place. So I begin preaching to him, and he agrees to a Bible study. After a while there, I asked when I could come back and talk with both of them, Trayvon and Byron both. He says "Tomorrow!"

Saturday: I hike out to the work camp again. I get out there, and rather than seeing Byron or Trayvon, I see the man who first asked us to come out and preach to them. He and the other workers were back! So I begin talking with him for a while, before eventually asking about Byron and Trayvon. He says they've gone out, but if I come back later I'm sure to find them. I ask when, and he says "Later today! At 1 or 2!"

Therefore, after going back home, eating lunch, all that good stuff, I hiked out again, for the fifth time in four days. Upon arriving, I learn the two guys still haven't returned, but the other workers tell me "We have a new guy with us who just arrived. You need to go talk with him too!" I head over to where they're pointing and meet a new guy, the youngest one of the lot. I begin showing the magazines I have and whatnot, but he stops me and says "I don't really like reading very much. Can you just teach me and I'll listen?"

I begin explaining the subject of God's Kingdom and its relation to the Lord's Prayer and all, and just as I finish Trayvon arrives. So I talk with him again for a good little while. Finally when I finish, I ask when I can return. They say "Monday!'

So in addition to all the guys already out there, we've added three more studies to the mix. This little field continues to be my favorite part of the ministry here. For obvious reasons.

Memorial and Circuit Assembly

Wow. Quite a weekend for us. Here's what happened....

Of course the Memorial this year fell on Friday, April 3rd. The unusual thing is that our Circuit Assembly this year was scheduled for Sunday, April 5th, which meant the Pioneer Meeting was April 4th. This presented a difficulty for us since boats only go to and from Orealla two days a week.... Thursday and Monday. So it seemed as though we only had two options.

1) Leave Thursday to attend the Memorial in a different congregation on Friday, which meant we wouldn't be having the Memorial in Orealla at all. Obviously this is not a good option.

2) Have the Memorial in Orealla on Friday, and then simply miss the Assembly and Pioneer meeting. Obviously this was also not a good option.

Happily, an option 3 was presented to us. There's a man named Clement who owns a large boat that's used for shipping lumber from Orealla up to the coast in Skeldon, and we were able to arrange a deal wherein we hired his entire boat to take us all Friday night after the Memorial was finished. The timing would be really, really tight, but it would work.

So with those arrangements out of the way, we were free to focus on the others things we needed to get ready for the Memorial (Kingdom Hall cleaning, etc) for the week. We also got an elder from Georgetown and his family to come in to deliver our Memorial talk. They arrived Thursday afternoon and had some time to settle in and even help with some final Hall cleaning.

All this of course led us to Friday. On the upside, we had a great turnout of 90. On the downside, the boat plans didn't go quite as they were supposed to....

The only picture I had time to get...

See, the boat was supposed to be at the dock and waiting for us before the Memorial began. This way we could all throw our bags onto the boat, and then head to the Kingdom Hall for Memorial, socialize afterward and talk to all the invited ones who came, and not have to rush.

Unfortunately (see how that weasels in, like, every time?) the guy got hired to do something else earlier that day. He thought he would be able to make it back in time to get us. Turns out he was running pretty late, so he didn't get to us until about 9.

So fast forward to Saturday morning. We arrive at the coast at 5 in the morning. I was able to run to a brother's house, have breakfast, and get dressed for the Pioneer meeting. I rushed out, and was able to make it in time, so very happy about that.

I must say, this circuit is doing an incredible job of promoting pioneering. Well over 1 in 10 of the publishers are regular pioneering. The attendance at the pioneer meeting was 135, which I believe is the best we've ever had.

(wow, shoulda done some fact checking before writing this. Sorry!)

One thing we quite appreciated though: in the closing prayer, the circuit overseer specifically thanked Jehovah for the "pioneers from Orealla and Lethem congregations being able to make it in time" to attend.

-----------------
Brief digress: two excellent experiences I heard at the pioneer meeting!

One comes from a sister talking about the "Who Are Doing Jehovah's Will Today?" brochure. Admittedly, I've never yet used it, so I was glad to hear her experiences. She talked about what approach she uses for it (briefly covering a point from it at the end of each study) and how she focuses on showing the worldwide unity of Jehovah's Witnesses. When asked how many students she's used this brochure with, she said "Eight." When asked how many studies she has attending meetings, she said "Eight." Man, I've gotta get my act in gear.

The second comes from a brother to whom I was talking to about living in an Amerindian village. He told me they actually have an Indian village in their territory, but they can't get to it because it's up a river. I asked how they're able to work it, and he says "We always set up a public witnessing cart in the marketplaces around, and we began noticing the Amerindians will come out of their village to shop in the market on occasion. However, since the cart has been there so long, they know to look for it, and they've actually begun coming to the cart first, and then doing their shopping. In fact, just this morning I was working with the cart before coming here. I was beginning to pack it all up, had the case over it and everything, when a group of Indians rushed up. They asked if they could still get some books, and said they'd rowed out from their village that morning just to come for the cart!"

We now return you to our regularly scheduled program...
-------------------

So after that lovely bit of relaxation and catching up with friends, I left and spent the night with Micaiah and Jessica, again. Which I cannot overstate how great that was. After having been constantly rushing from 4 PM on Friday until 7 PM on Saturday, I finally got a shower, a bed, and sleep. I was even awake at 6:30 the next morning! Unheard of!

Which led to the actual Assembly. Which was awesome. It was the same program I had heard in October in Ohio, so I always enjoy hearing how different brothers are able to develop and deliver the same material.

Orealla congregation arrives!

Stairs to the upper seating area.

View of the parking lot from the aforementioned above seating area.

And it's also great to hear this material in company with an entirely different set of people as well. And how I said that the pioneer ranks are growing in our circuit? It seems that growth isn't just amongst the pioneers. Our total attendance was 1,306! We didn't have that many for our conventions when I first came to Guyana in 2010. Can't wait to see how our Regional goes in July!


It's happened again. I've gotten to the end of my story but lack a powerful conclusion. Ah well, an occasional shaggy dog story never hurt anyone.

Trinidad Zone Visit / A New House

So you know how there was a big buzz about the U.S. Zone Visit this year? How all the Kingdom Halls were supposed to get internet access and a projector and all that fancy stuff so we could all be tied in together and see the Zone Visit (Branch Representative Visit? Regional circuit convention? I'm too far out of the loop on these things) and all get the same information at the same time, and it was awesome?

Well, turns out we weren't alone in that. All the congregations in Guyana got the exact same memo. Get connected to the internet and get a projector so we could all watch the visit for the Trinidad branch territory.

Now as incredibly exciting as all this was, this clearly presented a bit of an issue for us in Orealla, seeing as how I can barely even look at image files on the internet, let alone stream video. Nonetheless, we were told to test it out and see if it would possible for us to get this video stream. Despite some intense efforts on the part of our elders (and some very nearly successful attempts) we eventually realized the video would be out of our reach. However, a brother who was aiding many of the congregations in this told us that we could do a phone hook-up and at the very least hear the program.

Unfortunately (there's always one little 'unfortunately' in these stories) I was going out to the coast for various reasons the week beforehand. This really isn't an issue, aside from the fact that the boats here only run two days a week. So I would go back on the boat before the visit, right?

Nope! Turns out there was a Hindu holiday on the very day the boat was supposed to go, so I wound up being stranded on the coast until the day after the visit. On the plus side though, I was able to attend the visit with my original Guyana congregation (all together now!!) Brighton.

See? Wasn't joking about all the congregations getting projectors.

In case you all have forgotten what this place looks like....

The two Ashleys were upset I left them out of the picture, so they made me get another one to ensure equal consideration was given to all Ashleykind.

There Ashley, I got the picture. Satisfied? How about you Ashley?

It was a great program. A few interesting points I was able to jot down in my notes....

There are 164 congregations in the Trinidad branch territory, all of whom (they believe) were tied in to the program. 46 of these congregations are in Guyana, which has 3 circuits and 2,999 publishers (as the Branch Representative said "We're anxiously awaiting #3,000. Any moment now."). Amongst these 2,999 publishers Guyana has 364 regular pioneers, 54 special pioneers, 17 missionaries, and 54 need-greaters. The representative singled Guyana out as a country in great need of assistance, as evidenced by the amount of missionaries and such that are being sent in. He also highlighted the great rewards of serving here, such as the fact that Guyana is reporting over 4,000 Bible Studies each month, which of course averages out to every single publisher in the nation conducting at least one study.

He analyzed a few interesting features of Guyana as well, particularly the foreign language fields which have been blossoming lately. For example, there's the Baramita congregation, which is Carib language. They face a unique challenge in that there is no written form of Carib, so the branch has actually created a written version, so the publishers there must first teach interested ones how to read this language, even as they try to teach them the truth. However, things have been working out amazingly for them. For a congregation of only 68 publishers, two elders and two ministerial servants, they have an average of 226 attending the midweek meeting, with 225 coming for the weekend meeting. And for this last Memorial? Over 1,300!

Also blossoming has been the Chinese field in the Georgetown (capitol city) area, and the American Sign Language field which is scattered all throughout the country. Reminding everyone of the importance of supporting these growing fields, the representative read 1 Timothy 2:3,4 "This is fine and acceptable in the sight of our Savior, God, whose will is that all sorts of people should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth." Really, all sorts of people should obviously include the Chinese, the Amerindians, the deaf, etc.

Due to the growing foreign language fields, the ever present need for more publishers and pioneers to conduct studies with the English speakers, the huge need for appointed brothers to help build and strengthen the congregations, the representative made repeated pleas for as many as possible to come join us in the work here in Guyana. Many times in our publications and yearbooks, Guyana is referred to as "the pioneer's paradise". He encouraged everyone able to come here and see for themselves why it's called that.


Again, amazing program, and I'm glad I got to see it live. Also glad Orealla at least got to hear the program.


After I finally managed to get back to Orealla, I then set about on my new project, namely: move out of the Special Pioneer house and into my own place. Turns out, when you're living life as a need-greater, you don't really own much stuff. "Moving house" is more of "packing my one suitcase and chucking it onto a wheelbarrow". So in about 15 minutes, I was finished.

All my worldly possessions, minus clothes and books.

This house came with a TV. WITH A TV!! No DVD player though... :'(

Outside shot! No idea why there's a door leading to nowhere.

And a gorgeous expanse beneath to hang hammocks and laundry, even in the rain!! Huzzah!

The only slight learning curve with the new place (besides not having running water) is that now I have to rely on the village generator to provide electricity, which usually only runs for a few hours each evening. At the other house we have solar panels, so anytime you're struck with the fancy to turn on power you can. Now it's rather limited to just those few hours.

Or sometimes not at all, as I learned one evening while preparing a public talk...


But again, that's not too much of an issue, one gets used to it pretty quick. Okay, so the lack of running water is the issue then. I'll have to address that soon.


A rather fun event which came up this past week was, after having been in this house for only four days, a group from Rosignol congregation on the coast came in to spend the weekend. Unfortunately (there it is again, that pesky 'unfortunately') the place they'd originally arranged to stay turned out to be unavailable, two days before they arrived. So Dustin and I offered to let them stay by us for the duration of their trip. However, shortly after making that offer, we slowly realized "This is a two bedroom house. There's four of them coming in. Easy enough to fit them here, but.... where are we going to sleep??"

Turns out, that expanse under the house comes in handy even more than we'd expected!

And then the jaguars came....

 So it was a fun two days with the group. Had some delightful times swapping Guyana tales. Horror stories blended with positive experiences.

"And then Josh was all like 'AAAIGH GET THIS JAGUAR OFF OF ME!!'"

Then after two days, we shipped them back off to their homes. Which gives us all of tomorrow to relax and have some quiet before we head off for another Siparuta trip on Tuesday. Stay tuned to hear how that goes!

Goodbye, Other Mom & Dad

Odd title for a blog entry, I know. I'll explain it soon enough.

First off though, the Circuit Overseer visit! Visitors into Orealla are always a big deal for us since we're so secluded from most of the country, so traveling overseers are especially exciting for us. This was reflected in the meetings for field service through the week.

Wednesday: 18
Thursday: 14
Friday: 12
Saturday: 20

For a congregation of 23, it'd be hard to ask for better. Seemed like nothing could stop the brothers from going in service. Public witnessing when the rain begins? Just take shelter and keep at it!

"If you could seeee / What I seeee...."

In fact, we had such good support that we were able to work our entire village in just the one week! Obviously this led to everyone getting invited to the public talk on Sunday, which led to an amazing turnout of 67!

Yes, all my KH pics are from the same angle. Every time.

Of course, all the Bible Studies and Return Visits everyone had got invited as well. None of mine were able to make it, though the wife and daughter of one of my studies came.

Look at that evil little glare.

After the visit was finished, the C.O. couple got taken back out to the coast early Monday morning on a speedboat. Kindly, they let a few of us from the congregation go along with them...

VERY early in the morning.

I was eager for the chance since it provides me with a final chance to stay with Tom & Michelle Sanches. If you've read this blog before at all you've read about Tom and Michelle. They're the ones whom I first stayed with upon arriving in Guyana. Picked me up at the airport, provided me with housing for a month, helped me acclimate to entirely new surroundings, etc. They're my other mom and dad. I think I could go on forever about how they've helped me.

But anyway, they recently received a new assignment, one which is outside of Guyana. They'll be departing by sometime in April, so they invited me out to stay with them for a week as a final hurrah of sorts. I'll still be seeing them again soon at our Circuit Assembly, April 5th, but this is my final chance to stay with them in their home. So, taking advantage of it.

Naturally, there's been some interesting stuff happening so far. For one, they've been redoing the landscaping in front of their Kingdom Hall in time for the Memorial, so I got to help out with that. Of course, I'm utterly useless with that kind of thing, but at the very least it was a ton of fun to watch and listen to them all, in their manner of polite bickering and faux fighting with one another as they worked.

A rare moment of peace at the work day.

Now since we were uprooting a fair amount of grass and assorted plants in the yard, this did attract some unwanted attention from the neighbors. And when I say neighbors, I of course mean...

Insert your own puns here.

After that all got finished (sorry, no pics of the finished result. Maybe Thursday) I got to go in field service with the Brighton congregation the following day. However, we weren't working a standard territory. See, Brighton has a large section called "Black Bush", a name spoken in hushed tones by many a pioneer that's served in this area. Allow me to give you a glimpse of why...

I'm not talking about the pink shirt. I mean the mud.

Absolutely ridiculously psycho amounts of mud are everywhere in this territory. This pic was taken in the nice part. I tried taking pictures of the bad part, but my corneas kept frying from the true horror that lay below. Needless to say, your shoes get utterly caked in the stuff, with each step getting heavier and heavier, until finally your shoes fall off under duress from the weight of mud.

It was so much fun.

And since this territory rests so far from the main road, the only way to get there is for everyone to pile into one or two vehicles, which winds up looking like this.

In case you can't accurately see, there's eleven people in that car. Only two of which are in the front seat, the rest are in the photograph.

So as you can see, I've had a great week thus far, and certainly expect it to continue getting better. I mean, every morning I wake up to this....

Drat. I'm going to miss these two.