Facts about Guyana and Brighton

From Left to Right: Hermicar, Trisha, me, Rosalee(C.O.'s wife), Shannon(C.O.), Dania and Amy.

Dear Family,

       Greetings from Guyana! I'm doing great down here. I've finally adjusted to the heat, and I am getting better at understanding the accent here. The ministry is awesome. Today I met two women in the ministry. Both of them picked out the last question on happiness in the 'Would You Like To Know The Truth?'. I was able to share two scirptures(one actually read a scripture for me) and made arrangements to go back next week.

      I was also able to work with Sister Panchum. She is one of the 11 pioneers in the Brighton Congregation. She was baptized in 2000 and had been associated with the truth 4 years before that. Before becoming a Witness, she was Hindu. She said she loved what she was learning. She is just another example of how the truth can set people free. 

     We also have the C.O. this week. Brother Shannon Rainny and his wife Rosalee. Brother Rainny gave an excellent talk on why we must keep on the watch. He said how we should be so appreciative of the faithful and discreet slave and its governing body providing food at the proper time. He compared Jehovah's Witnesses to Christindom. While Jehovah's people are constatnly keeping on the watch, Christindom is compared to the watchmen described at Isaiah 56:10 who are described as "blind", "speechless dogs", and "loving to slumber." Yes, how happy we can be that Jehovah keeps us on the watch! How can we show we appreciate this? By putting Jehovah's will first in our life. Satan uses 3 tactics to distract us; Spiritual Apathy, Spiritual Sleep, and our own Imperfect Flesh. Instead of caving into any of these three tactics, we should feel as John did in Revelation 22:20(I won't quote it, I'm gonna make you look it up :). 

     Let me tell you a little bit about Guyana and the Brighton Congregation. Guyana has 47 congregtions(including 1 foreign language). There is one area named Cado(i think that's how its spelled). In that area there is only 2 sisters(for a long time there was one) and one unbaptized publisher. Despite having no brothers, they continue to conduct meetings and preach! 

      The Brighton congregation is about 5 minutes from our house in Bushlot. It has about 50 publishers and 11 pioneers(like I mentioned earlier). 2 of the pioneers are in the ASL field(Trisha and Amy). We also have a missionary couple and 2 permanent need greater couples. So between the pioneers and the publishers, we have a wealth of expirence! 

       What else is going on? I'm learning how to cook(I know!). There's no McDonalds or Subway to go to if your hungry and don't feel like cooking. We do have a Chinese resturant down the street, but you can only eat so much Chinese. Monday is my day to cook. I'm going to make Honey Curry Chicken with rice and bora. Instead of telling you how it turns out, I'll let my roommates tell you.

       Besides the circuit overseer visit we also have a zone visit in February in Georgetown. We are going early so we can go to a local pool and go swimming! At the end of this month we are planning on taking a trip in the interior to preach with the congregation in Oregala. And in March we are planning on taking a trip to Suriname which is the neighboring country to Guyana. From what Meeka has told us, it sounds like a lot of fun!

     I hope you all are doing well, I miss you a lot! Please keep in touch!!

Why isn't this working?

Dear Family,
       I AM NOT DEAD! Just wanted to put your minds at ease :) Dania and I are doing wonderful here in Guyana. Our flight here and the first week was a little difficult, but its just adjusting to the life of a need-greater. Let me tell you a little bit about our fist week here.
        Our flight was suppose to take off at 12:05 am and didn't take off until 3:30 am! With all the delay's JFK was a nightmare. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep on the airplane! When I woke up the sun was rising and it was BEAUTIFUL! The pictures I took doesn't do it justice. We landed in Guyana at 11:00 and it was off to customs. We filled out our paper work on the plane and handed it in. The customs officer wanted to know who was picking us up and who we would be living with. It was a little scary! But then another officer came and was a little more friendly. We got our 3 month visa and it was off to the branch office.
           Brother Sing picked us up and told us little bit about Guyana. For instance, Guyana means "Land of Many Waters." Most people are Christian, Muslim, or Hindu. But whoever you talk to has respect for the Bible and will listen to you. We were welcomed with smiles and a key to our room. Dania and I changed into proper clothing(we both showed up to Bethel in jeans and sneakers!), and has some much needed lunch. We met two sisters that were preparing breakfast for the next day. After lunch(which was delicious, but what would you expect from Bethel?) we took a much needed nap! Later that evening we went to meeting with Brother and Sister Hinds. Come to find out they knew a couple that we knew that is serving in Bethel! We enjoyed spending time with them so much.
          The next day we joined the Georgetown Bethel family in morning worship. The Guyana Bethel family has 8 members(3 couples and 2 brothers). Brother Hinds took the lead and we then read some of the yearbook. We then ended with a prayer and the family was dismissed. After we ate breakfast we took a tour of the branch. We visited Brother Hinds who is in charge of the Service Department. In fact we saw the very same fax machine that received our letter of interest! He showed us a map of Guyana with all the congregations. There is one foreign language group that is indigenous to Guyana. The congregation has 60 publishers but has well over 1,000 for memorial! They also have over 200 in attendance for Sunday meeting. Just more evidence that the fields are white for harvesting. We then visited Brother Hazel who is in charge of maintaining the facilities at Bethel. He is also in charge of making any changes to the Kingdom Ministry. For example, in the United States we may have an article titled "What will you do this summer?". Since the Caribbean doesn't have a summer they may have to change the title to "What will you do with your time?".
             After our tour Hermicar(our roommate) picked us up with the Adam's family. And about 3 hours later we were in Bushlot. The next day we worked out in service. The ministry is incredible here. So many people want to talk. Its very easy to keep the Bible as your topic. After service we went home and sent our roommate off to Suriname. She had to go renew her visa so Dania and I learned a lot in our first few days here. For example, our propane ran out so we had to go and buy another tank. When Sheminel(a young pioneer sister that stayed with us a night) tried to hook it up, it wouldn't fit. So we took it back and got another one. Well, that one didn't fit either! Brother&Sister Hollenbeck(missionary couple) sent over one of their Bible studies to help us out. He couldn't fix it so Dania and him and his son went back. When they came back to the house the owner came as well. After all that work we finally got it to work! When everyone left I told Dania to relax and get a shower. Then our water ran out. And we didn't know how to pump it. We decided to go to bed and worry about it the next day. The next day we called Brother Sanches who told us how to pump the water.
               I also started dealing with homesickness. I had went from talking to Mikey everyday and seeing my mom and dad everyday to no communication for a week! That's when I really learned how to rely on Jehovah. I remembered why I am here, and how Jehovah knows my needs before I even ask Him. Thankfully Dania let me call my mom Thursday and I was able to talk to her for 5 minutes. That day Hermicar came back and we told her of our adventures. That night we got internet! So I was able to talk to my mom and Mikey this morning.
       Today was market day. Everything was fresh! If you never had a fresh pineapple or fresh banana, your missing out! Despite all of the problems, I'm still having a blast here! We have our circuit overseer visit next week and we have a zone visit in February. Okay, I think I took up enough of your time. Please leave a message and let me know how your doing. I know you wanna see pictures, but the upload here takes a long time. But don't worry, I'll be sure to put some up.