A couple of weeks ago, on Sunday, May 20th, we travelled to the mainland to attend the English Special Assembly Day. Had to rise bright and early to catch the first water taxi at 7AM so we could be in Ladyville in time.
An interesting ‘1st’ for Belize was a Special Assembly Day in Creole, from now on to be a regular feature. Creole used to be shunned at meetings, but now they are starting up Creole congregations and now assemblies. They’ve realized that even though the official language of Belize is English, the language so many speak within the household is Creole, so they are more comfortable with it. Thus, as usual, Jehovah’s organization is making adjustments … ‘tweaking’ how things are done… all for the best interests of Jehovah’s sheep.
Things are happening on Caye Caulker!
Since we moved here exactly 2 months ago, we’ve had a family of four move here from Mississippi, a young couple with a boy and a girl. Then today, a couple about our age moved in. He is a MS so that will sure be helpful. Plus, they are both regular pioneers… he for 2 years and her for 11! So, before we arrived there was only 1 elder (Larry) and no MS. Now there are 2 elders and 1 MS!
A cute little coincidence with names: The elder and his wife who live above us here are ‘Larry & Dianne’. I mentioned to them just last night that our long-time dear friends in Nova Scotia were ‘Larry & Donna’. Then today we were introduced to the new couple that just arrived… their names: Richard & Donna … so weird.
- I now have 5 established bible studies and today, using the example of how to start studies on the first Saturday in June, I started 2 more!
- Last week I followed up on a young lady who Rich found door to door. She said she would like to start learning the Bible right then, so she invited me into her tiny 1-room ‘shack’ and we began. After a couple of paragraphs her sister arrived with a baby carriage which we helped her pull up into the room. She then began leaning over her sister’s shoulder to see the book we were studying in, then grabbed it from her, read a paragraph or two, asked me if we were studying the bible with her sister, then said “Can you come every week? I want to study too”. The following Wednesday it was a downpour so I couldn’t go. I felt really bad, but the next day was nice so I decided to go see if they were home. Along the way I met up with the one with the baby and I asked if she was heading home. “Yes”, she said. We walked on a bit together and I said “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it yesterday… would you like to have the study now?” Then she replied in a surprised tone “Yes, I thought that’s what we were doing.” Ended up having a really nice study with the two of them again and it looks very promising!
- Our meeting day for the Theocratic school and Cong. Book Study have been changed, thankfully! They have been on Saturday at 4pm. Now they’ve been moved to Wednesday evening at 7pm. Yayy!
- Our District Convention will be in September, apparently the hottest, wettest time of the year. As you can see from the picture above of the Special Assembly Day, the assembly hall is open-sided, but covered. So, of course, no air conditioning, but at least protected from the rain, unless it’s really windy, then it would blow in from the sides!
Well, all the news I can think of for now. Keep coming back.. and please feel free to comment. We’d sure like to hear from you! I have been adding pictures to the Gallery, so be sure to check them out.