“Let God’s Name Be Sanctified”

2012 Two Day Assembly  

2012 Annual Pioneer Meeting

The pioneer meeting has always been a highlight of my year and the one in DR was no exception! Our attendance was 443 with an increase of 5% from last year. Staggering numbers huh? As always the information was timely and encouraging and it was so nice to see pioneers from all over the island! There were so many great points! One of my favorites was taken from 2 Timothy 4:2 which talks about the art of teaching. Our attention was drawn to the word art, defined as a skill attained by study, practice and observation. The brother encouraged us to study and observe carefully the examples of effective teachers and than to put in to practice what we observe. It made me think about how I could really improve my teaching. The other point I really liked was from our circuit overseer, who told us, a need greater had once told him, "we didn't come here to do great things, we came here to do things with great love." I hope its something I don't forget.

Beautiful Constanza!

So as soon as Cassandra left, the very next day I went to visit Constanza . . .couldn't stand the empty house by myself! :) Anyhow, I had been trying to get to Constanza to visit a friend of mine serving there. So I took advantage of having a few days before I had to get back home. We had a jam packed couple of days! Between service and meeting, visiting friends and going to the waterfalls, it was a pretty nice weekend. Constanza is an hour away from where I live in Jarabacoa and is known for being mostly agricultural. The town itself sits in a low valley surrounded by mountains. Driving in you see the land divided by crops, like an all natural checkerboard sprinkled accross the mountains. It's beautiful! Service is spanish in this country is pretty amazing and Constanza was no exception. Almost every door invites you to come in and everyone allows you to share a scripture or leave literature. By the third door I was out of placements! My favorite experience was of a lady we talked to at a colmado, a local neighborhood store. She knew the witnesses and realized that it was really time to make some changes in her life but because of owning a colmado it has been hard for her to study or attend meetings. So we shared Isaiah 48:17, 18, reasoned with her about how Jehovah said her peace would become like the waves of the sea and all in all spent about thirty minutes talking with her. It was a very exciting morning! Anyhow, hope you enjoy the pictures!

Kreyol Concregation Santiago, Dominican Republic

Update

Okay So remember how I told you about the experience at the jeweler store, with Nicole from New York? I had to update you on the return visit as soon as I could! So I went back and took the Bible Teach book as I promised. Right away we started discussing it and I asked her what chapter she found most interesting . . . she picked Living in a way that pleases God. So right away I was intrigued, not the chapter you would expect picked by a teenager. When I asked her why she picked that particular chapter it led right into her whole story. She was raised in New York, of course, and moved to DR with her parents about three years ago. So she is completely American, born to Dominican parents but raised in New York. We even talked about getting used to the country and things like hot water and power access, things only foreigners are concerned with! Anyhow, she told me that she has always been concerned with spiritual things, that out of both of her siblings, she was the one who realized its importance the most. She was Catholic in the States, had even finisihed Catechism, but because she doesn't speak Spanish so well she hadn't found a church here that she felt comfortable in. When I was showing her how the Bible Teach book works, she was excited to see the scriptures quoted, but when I asked her if she had a Bible she said no. Her spiritualy hunger was so great that she had bought one and made it all the way through Genesis but had given up because she just couldn't understand it in Spanish! When I promised to bring her one back she thanked me profusely! She was so excited at the prospect of having her own Bible in a language she could actually understand. She went on to thank me for coming and told me that I had no idea how happy she was and that she had been really feeling kind of lost, and that I had no idea how much she needed this! I couldn't believe my ears! She was so excited about the study. I invited her to the meetings but she said she will have to clear it with her mom first so I am really praying that she will be able to come! What makes me so excited about this whole thing is that I was so puzzled when I found her because we work our town so thoroughly with English speakers and most of the sisters know about this jewelery store because its where we take all of our guests to see Larimar, a stone unique to the Dominican Republic, so I couldn't understand how no one had talked to this girl. Well, it turns out that she lives in the campos, far out in the middle of nowhere and only travels to Jarabacoa to work one day a week. Now is that Jehovah's direction or Jehovah's direction? I know Satan will not make it easy for her because you can see how hungry she is spiritually but I can't wait to see how this goes. So please keep her in your prayers!

 

 

We have fun too!

Shoe shoppping in La Vega with laundry runs . . .all stuffed in the trunk.

Good times!

Just a normal day in the Dominican Republic

So when out in service we get used to seeing a lot of crazy things, washing machines on motos, chickens carried in people's shirts, fifteen people stuffed in the car but yesterday we had the rather interesting experience of hearing something foreign as oppose to seeing it . . .we heard a pig being murdered. Now I know that's a strong word but if you have ever heard a pig being killed you understand, they scream bloody murder. It has got to be one of the worst sounds I have ever heard in my life! It went on and on for about five to ten minutes, which doesn't sound like a lot but it was a pig screaming . . .it seemed like it went on forever! Of course one of our dear sisters was with us who was familiar with the entire process so she offered a rather unsolicitated insight into the process. She described how they first tie the pig up and than cut its throat and let it bleed out. . . and here I thought this whole time they just wack it over the head and than start the process! So our sister tells us that she actually would like to have her kids learn the process . . .from capturing to killing to cooking and that she we need to have a party to show everyone how to do it! I believe at that point the horrified look at my face couldn't have been pried off with a crowbar! In case anyone is interested we taped the sound because I don't think anyone could quite imagine how horrible it sounded. Think of bad and it was so, so much worse! On the positive side, someone is going to eat well tonight! Well, always fun here in the Dominican Republic!  

My pork comes from the meat market in nice wrapped plastic!

Alert to All English Speakers!

Jarabacoa is a very tourist town. Known for its beautiful mountains and awesome waterfalls, there are many people who travel to visit, from Europeans backpackers to Dominicans who come for the weekend from the Capitol. This means it is always important to be on the look out for English speakers when out and about around town. We find many many English speakers at the markets, restaurants, and local sites like the coffee plantation. This means being prepared to talk to anyone at a moment's notice and it takes some practice to be able to do so! At any rate, since we live in a predominately Spanish area looking for English speakers we have to modify the way we accomplish our ministry . . .either with strategic plans to find them or specific approaches to talk to visitors. The other day I happened to host three girls who were serving in Alta Mira, a small town about an hour and a half from Jarabacoa. One day while we were shopping we walked into a jewelry store and a little girl started pulling out the merchandise and asked in perfect English what we were looking for. I asked her where she learned English and she told me she had grown up in the States but her family was Dominican. During our browsing I asked her if she had ever been to the Kingdom Hall. She told me she had seen it but never been to visit. So I asked her if she knew that we had an English congregation and if she would like to study the Bible in English, to which she said yes. So we set up to bring her the Bible Teach book and demonstrate the study this weekend! I am so excited! Living in a touristy place has its advantages . . .a new place just opened up with awesome hamburgers, which is quite the rarity around here! :) Fully expect we will be starting friendly conversations with all other American food seeking English speakers! Watch out here we come!