Wednesday, January, 30, 2013
Rise and shine! The gang met again at the DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast. Tori and Corianda from Wisconsin decided to join us today for the ministry. They thought that it would be an awesome experience, and it turned out to be just that.
Today, was an interesting day because we had to take tenders from the ship...which was in the middle of the ocean I might add, to the shore line. The first boat that we boarded didn’t have much ventilation and was a little bit rickety. Poor Nailah was getting sick and had to go to the back of the boat. While we were there we met a sister and her husband from Texas. That was very exciting. We then docked and I had the opportunity to witness to one of workers from the tender named Kermit.
This was a sister that we met on the tender ride to shore. She is from Texas with her husband.
Tori is giving an impression of how Nailah was feeling at this point! LOL
Look in the background and you will see where our ships had to set anchor and the distance that we had to come to get to shore....
There appeared to be chaos when we left the tender area, trying to figure out where to meet the brother who was going to take us in the ministry and how to get to him. Here at this port, we found a brother on the internet who owneed a tour company and asked if he could make arrangements for us to go in the ministry. He was so excited and said that he would take care of us. His name was Allan Dawson. He then put Gordon in touch with a brother by the name of Marc Sharron. So we’re off to find Mark. As we were walking through the shops that led us out of the cruise terminal who do we run into...Dave Kelley! It was so weird! He was on a totally different cruise ship and we ran into him in a foreign country! It was too funny! We then went outside, and this whole time I’m praying to Jehovah for him to help us find our contact person. I guess we looked really lost, because a policewoman stopped us and asked who we were looking for. Gordon spoke to her and she called Allan for us saying “You’re people are looking for you!” LOL It was too funny! She sent us the right direction and we had the opportunity to meet Allan. Well, our number increased from eight to ten due to Tori and Cori being with us, but Allan said that it worked out well because we would need a bigger van and his Bible student Gilbert could now drive us.
We met Gilbert and his assistant David and took off for the ministry.
The congregation had the visit of two circuit overseers this week. We had the opportunity to meet Mike and Heather from the States, and Kathy who was the circuit overseer’s wife from Belize. Did I mention that it super duper ruper hot! Did I say that? If I didn’t, let me say it now! I was super duper ruper hot! Umbrellas were very much needed for protection from the sun. We were dropped off in the territory and went to work. This was a different type of territory. It was city, but still definitely poor.
I tried to steal some shade! It was short lived! Even my lips got a tan! LOL!
Curtis was working with Cori, and as they were walking to a house Cori stepped in a whole bunch of mud as she was trying to great the householder. I looked back and noticed Curtis helping her out! The householder was so kind that she stopped washing her laundry and washed Cori’s foot and shoe. Cori didn’t miss a beat, she continued to witness to the young lady and leave magazines with her.
Gordon and Tierra had a very successful conversation with a young man by the name of Winston. He was able to place a What Does the Bible Really Teach? book with him. Gordon was very touched because Winston wanted Gordon and Tierra to write their name in the back of the book so that he can remember who brought him such a gift. Later, Gordon then brought Mark back to meet Winston so that he could make arrangements to return. Winston had in that short period of time already read the first chapter of the book, and said that he had many questions. Gordon told him that he would inquire to see how he was progressing.
Later we met a man by the name of Franz, who was working at someone’s home. We couldn’t speak long, but he did allow Tierra to leave him with some literature that he said he would read. Tori had never had a fresh coconut, so Marc asked Franz if she could have one, and he obliged. It shows how laid back things are down in Belize.
Marc, Curtis and Charne joined in on the coconut fun!
As we were walking back to continue, there were several little girls who were walking in school uniforms. Tierra stopped the one girl and asked her what she learned in school that day! It was so funny! It put her on the spot, so we just laughed together. Then as we were walking further, two young girls went by and said something that we couldn’t make out. Marc then said that they said that we were beautiful..we yelled back..”thank you!” They were so adorable.
Mikalyn and Gordon also had a very interesting conversation with a young woman by the name of Vanessa. She had studied before, and found out that Mikalyn was recently baptized and that kind of piqued her curiosity. Gordon explained to her how easy it is to get away from one’s studies and then go back to some bad habits and feel guilty and ashamed. She could definitely relate. So they encouraged her to seek to continue her Bible study. It was an awesome conversation!
Charne and I had a very interesting conversation with two older gentlemen. The first was Shedreck McCoy. He was washing clothes and was very apologetic that he couldn’t invite us in at the time. He asked how long we would be there and we told him only for the day. He said, “that’s not long enough!” He very much wanted us to come back. Instead he spoke with us for a time and we were able to share some scriptural thoughts with him. He was stating how much young ones and people in general are so engrossed with money and stuff. That was an interesting thought, that even in such a poor country materialism can still plague you. We then spoke to a man by the name of Norman. He invited us in, he lived in very humble means. His bathroom facilities included two five-gallon buckets, but he loved talking about the Bible. He already had literature that someone had left him, but we still had an encouraging conversation. When we ready to leave, I stuck out my hand to shake and he shook it, but he wanted to give me some advice. He said, “My hands are clean, but you never know what someone has been doing with their hands. So don’t stick your hand out to shake everyone’s hand. It’s respectful to give someone a (and he gave a pounding gesture). You never know what a man has done with his hands.” It was profound and true and I appreciated his wisdom.
We also had the opportunity to meet Henry. He is a young man that Marc has the priviledge of studying the Bible with. We had the opportunity to share with him the fact that we were able to come from the U.S. to a different country (yes Belize is a country and not an island...interesting fact) a meet with our brothers and share in the same work of preaching. He said that's why he chose this organization because of the love. He even let me take a pic of him!
After a wonderful, but hot day in Belize, we then headed to a restaurant for lunch. It was delicious. There was a brother who worked as a manager there, and he and his staff took very good care of us.
I think we took pictures of just about everything we ate! LOL!!!
I guess Tierra ate too much...she found a place to chill...
It was interesting that right next to the restaurant was the location that they use to have their conventions.
We then headed to the local Kingdom Hall that had I can’t even remember how many different languages congregations meeting there. There is also two apartments for the Circuit Overseers.
After we did a little shopping and said good-bye to our hosts Gilbert and our brother Marc. As we continued to shop we continued to witness. Gordon had a young lady ask if he was a Witness and she later expressed that her mother was. She then introduced us to a few other ladies whose family were Witnesses. There was a man harassing the mess out of me (LOL) to buy some wooden statue from him, but then when he saw Gordon whip out the magazines he asked if he could have the Awake magazine because, “I love Watching the World.” It was awesome.
Nailah, Mikalyn and Dave were standing near a man who was selling some necklaces and of course he tried to get them to make a purchase. One necklace had a cross on it, and Mikalyn said that she didn’t like it. A conversation then ensued. Nailah and Dave were able to give a fine witness and offer him something to read.
We then continued to shop, buying of lots and lots and lots of purses, and then bored the tender and headed back to the ship.
Once again we were exhausted by an exciting long hot day, and headed to bed pretty early that night!
Another big day tomorrow!
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