The title pretty much sums it up…It was a ‘DC’ December! The District Convention being the highlight since ‘Damp’ described the whole rest of the month! It was nice to receive some great new tools for the ministry – love the new tract format, the new brochure for parents to read to their little ones. And the new video ‘the Prodigal’ will hopefully prompt many to return to Jehovah! The dramas were amazing – the Esther one reminds us of how hopeless things may seem as we near the end, but how we can prepare our hearts now to face those times soon to be upon us!

Dion being interviewed and Bella nervously waiting her turn.

A few in our little congregation were privileged to be interviewed – our regular pioneers (the Falks) told of the joys they have had over their many years of pioneering together; young sister Isabella (she was soooo nervous but once she got going she was amazingly calm and her full bubbly personality and charm came pouring out as she described the things she can’t wait to do in the Paradise just ahead!), also Dion, Bella’s mom encouraged us all as she related how their family copes with the trials they face on a daily basis.

Our sister Diane had the great yet difficult privilege of being interviewed about how they coped with the sudden accidental death of their son at a young age… but this was made even tougher by the fact that she was asked to do this, not for the English convention, but for the two Creole conventions, and IN CREOLE! She was coached for over a month beforehand by sisters in our congregation to say all her answers in Creole! Apparently she did an amazing job!! Wish we could have gone to hear that – but! we are going to get to watch it on video though (Rich just told me that moments ago!)

Some of our Caye Caulker-ites – The Falks, Juana, Rosita & her boys Richard and Philipe

Well, the rest of the month was literally a ‘wash out’! Even though December usually marks the beginning of the ‘dry’ season here, it poured constantly!

Looks like we have waterfront property! Nope… just a flooded yard.

Well, except there was this ray of sunshine that arrived on Dec. 28th!

Then, on the last day of the month Rich and I both came down with a bad flu virus!

Stay tuned…

Time Stamp Nov 4 2013

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Wooohooo! what a month November was! Lots of fun… made some new friends and between the C.O. Visit coinciding with Kingdom News #38 and the invitation campaign for the upcoming District Convention in December we were kept very busy! On top of that Rich had the added bonus of rounding up attendants for the convention – all with one arm 🙂

On the 1st we went for our monthly trip to San Pedro to get our passport stamped, which is always a treat. Then, (my camera photo date stamps tell me) we went back again on the 4th which for the life of me I can’t recall the reason for now – but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time 🙂 Looks like it was a lovely sunny day anyway… probably one of the last for quite a while!
(just remembered… I think… must have been a doc’s appt.)

Next came the Circuit Overseer’s visit which was awesome and upbuilding despite the downpours of rain every service day and near flood conditions the morning of the public talk!

We’re so pleased to have Mike and Heather Lachinsky back again after we thought we had lost them to the District work! Lots of re-vamping going on in Central America right now with the merging of many English congregations into Spanish or Creole. We here in Central America are looked after by the Mexican branch and they are finding that there is not much interest in the English speaking field, so many who had gone to the Spanish speaking countries to help out are being asked to look for opportunities in English speaking countries where there is a need. Belize is one place being suggested for those presently serving in Mexico.

So, let’s see, this is the time of year when visitors start to come and we usually get to meet them all first because the first thing they do is find the Kingdom Hall and we can always tell when it’s brothers and sisters checking it out, taking photos of each other in front of it, etc. Often, we’ll lean out our door and greet them and sometimes we find we have mutual friends somewhere.

Masako & Jon

Well, one of these times happened on November 15th when we met Jon & Masako! At first all we knew was they were from Canada. We invited them in and the incredible-ness began to unfold. We ended up having an amazing list of brothers and sisters in common who have no relation in any way to each other and from one coast of Canada to the other. With each mention of yet another name we would shake our heads in disbelief. We had such a great time relating old stories about our mutual acquaintances that neither they nor we knew about. It started in our apartment and carried over through lunch at our favourite restaurant.

First, they knew very well (in fact had just had an email that morning from) a brother who was in our congregation in Hope, B.C. and who’s father (now passed away) was one of Richard’s dearest friends. They even let us read the email – sooo encouraging – it was all about their arrival in their new assignment in the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts! Then, we told the story of our trip across Canada when we moved out east and happened to mention the brother we knew at Bethel who had given us the tour who we could only remember the first name of… Kelly.  Well, turned out they also had known a ‘Kelly’ who had been in Bethel but who was now one of the elders in their congregation on Vancouver Island. yup… same Kelly! what are the chances!

We mentioned that Richard was born in Chilliwack, B.C. and wouldn’t you know, Jon knew a brother there too. Turned out it was brother Richard worked for once when we were living in Hope. The final and most incredible connection we discovered was that Jon is studying with Mark, the husband of a sister from our old congregation in Antigonish, but who are now living in Fort McMurray Alberta! And, they had also met Emma, our granddaughter at a meeting while she was out visiting her friend in Fort McMurray, Annie, Mark’s daughter!! Quite the coincidence!

Jon, Masako, Ginny, Rich

Still on the subject of ‘Fun and Friends’, on November 23rd Rick & Donna (our regular pioneer couple) threw their annual dual-congregration (English/Spanish) bash!! Once again they organized fun activities for the kids, a yummy BBQ and entertaining games for the young at heart. Here are some pictures of the great time that was had by all. (Remember to click on the pics to enlarge them and start the slideshow)

Before we knew it 30 days had gone by and it was time again to head over to San Pedro for yet another stamp in our passport (hope our residency comes through soon before all our passport pages are used up!

On the last day of November the wind shifted to the back of the island and the rains began! Tune in next month for December’s blog.