Dear Family,
I know its been a long time since I posted, but I decided that whenever I posted something it would be for an exciting event. Like the zone visit we had in Georgetown this weekend! Every one of Jehovah's Witnesses was invited. Also, the branch in Guyana will come under the Trinidad branch starting April 1st of this year. So this may be the last zone visit in Guyana. So with all these factors, it made for a very exciting weekend!
Dania Hermicar and myself packed up and headed for Georgetown. We were in a bus with the ASL group from Skeldon. It took about 3 hours to get to Georgetown, but in a bus with nothing but Jehovah's people, it seemed like only a few minutes!
When we got into Georgetown we got something to eat(curry chicken with roti, yum!) and then it was off to the Princess Hotel for swimming! For a small fee we were able to swim all day. Think of it, a pool, a large pool, a large CLEAN pool, and it was all ours! I forgot how refreshing swimming in a pool was! After a few hours the girls and I went to the house we were staying at, which was not far from where the branch office is. We stayed with Sister Ceres who lovingly took care of us. We had never met before, but she opened her home to 4 sisters! Its really amazing to experience the unity in Jehovah's organization.
After settling in we walked to Pizza Hut. It was us 4(which includes Sheminel) and a few others. Kristen and Travis joined us(who we call Kravis) for pizza. In fact, it was their idea! They are a married couple serving in Orealla. Kravis have been married for about 10 months, but are still serving where Jehovah wants them They are a good example of how young couples can do so much for Jehovah! We also had Sage in our group, a brother from Tennessee that we adopted as our little brother. With Sage was his roommate Josh who is from Ohio. After what seemed like a 12 hour hike through Georgetown, we reached our long awaited pizza! It tasted so good! Of course it wasn't as good as the association we all had(but it was pretty close). We met Sister Janet(who serves in Orealla with Kravis) and her granddaughter there and they decided to join us. After Pizza Hut we headed home to get a good nights rest!
Sunday morning we all got up early and started getting ready. Sister Ceres made us a delicious breakfast and we had our Morning Worship. Soon after that we headed off to the national stadium. It was such a privilege to see all of Jehovah's people in Guyana congregate together. The program started at 9:30. The first part was a summary of the Watchtower given by Brother Hazel. After him we had a talk "Where Are We?" given by Brother Hinds. As of April Guyana has 2,575 reporting publishers, 239 regular pioneers, 18 missionaries, and 36 self supporting missionaries. Brother Hinds described where we are to a trip. While driving, you may fall asleep(not while driving of course) and wake up in a unfamiliar place. Although unfamiliar, the place your at is still beautiful. Its like where Guyana is right now. We are in a very pleasant place when it comes to the fruitful ministry. But this is not the end of the journey! We still need to work hard before the end of this system comes! Then he addressed the change of branch locations. He said whenever he told someone about him and his wife moving to Trinidad and they said "Oh no!" he would respond "Oh yes!" Jehovah's organization is on the move, and we need to keep up with it. We aren't losing a branch, we are gaining one! And Jehovah will bless this move as he has done to other moves.
We then had the discourse "Are You Ready For Jehovah's Day?" given by our zone overseer Brother Manz. Brother Manz and his wife served as missionaries in Japan and now serve in Brooklyn Bethel. While giving his opening comments it started raining. He said that although he's been in Guyana for only 2 weeks, he can see why Guyana is called 'Land of Many Waters.' He discussed how Guyana received spiritual truth's in the early 1900's, and it is now flowing with 2,575 publishers! He discussed how we need to be ready for Jehovah's day. One way to see how prepared we are is to ask ourselves what kind of attitude we have toward Jehovah's day. We can either be satisfied with this system, or we can be in expectation.
He also talked about the gold mine fields in Guyana. Not literal ones, but spiritual! Many people move to either the States, Canada, or Europe to find work. Brother Manz asked that the brothers and sisters to look at their circumstances and try to stay in Guyana. They know the people and the culture. There is still a lot of need in the interior of Guyana.
He also addressed another need, to conduct Bible studies well. We can do this by keeping it simple, and asking good questions!
Another need in Guyana is the need for brothers. The congregations in Guyana need more elders and ministerial servants! In fact, there are some congregations that have no elders, and some that have no brothers. He encouraged those brothers to reach out and do more for Jehovah! The attendance was 5,325. That means EVERY one of Jehovah's Witnesses was there, including more! How happy Jehovah must have been to see all of his beautiful people!
After the zone visit, we changed and went bowling(it would be hard to bowl in saree's!). First we went to eat Chinese food and ice cream(which was awesome!). After that we went to Oasis, a coffee shop and Hermicar and I had an Americano. It was like having home in a cup! We all then piled into a taxi and drove to the bowling alley.
We had such a blast! After playing a game we played some pool. Then they started playing music, and we all started dancing! People must of thought we were crazy Americans, but I'd like to think they were jealous of our killer dance moves. After burning up all the calories we ate that weekend, we went home and stayed up for some "girl chat." I won't tell you the details of that, but it didn't last long cause we were all tired! The next day we ran all around Georgetown, and we finally left for home around 3:30. We were telling jokes, laughing loud, and of course singing! I'm sure everyone on that bus hated us, but we had to enjoy the time we had together. This was the last time we would all be hanging out with Sage, our little brother. We gave him our letters, and after a tearful goodbye, we dropped him and Josh off in Hopetown. A little later we were finally home!
We all had such a good weekend! And it was because Jehovah arranged for us all to be together. We should always take advantage of any opportunity to be with Jehovah and his people. I hope I didn't ramble on too much! If you have any questions, please ask! And please leave me a comment and let me know how your doing! I miss you all, and please take care of yourselves(and keep warm!).
p.s. I know I'll get complaints now about the lack of pictures. Don't worry, I am working on sending them to you via email.
