November: Fun, Friends & Frenzy

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.