Our VERY FIRST Regional Convention….in Guyana!

We are about 3 months shy of being here in Bartica, for 3 years! Of course, around this time in 2013, we were only thinking we would do this need greater thing for about a year…..well…here we are in 2016. Time really does fly when you are having fun. Each year we have been here we have become more and more convinced that this is where Jehovah wants us to be. A lot goes into being here though. A lot of back and forth. Pioneering here in Guyana for 70% of the year and then traveling back to Milwaukee during the summer to work and make more money to return back to Guyana. There are some advantages to coming “home” for the summer…

1. Seeing all our family and friends

2.Indulging in our favorite foods

3. Being able to do a little shopping

4. Attending the Regional Convention

So that is what we have been doing since the summer of 2014……until…….

Sooooo because we have never attended a convention here, we have been missing out on some things. Well this time when we came in November 2015, we prayed that our money would stretch so that we could maybe, just maybe, be able to attend a convention with our congregation. Well, Jehovah heard our pleas…

Now, we know majority of our friends and our families won’t attend their convention until next month, so relax, there will be no spoilers here…lol.

But we wanted to share some photos of our experience here.

Our convention was held outdoors at the Leonora Track and Field. 

What were our seats like? I’m glad you asked….lol

So as you see here, the facility is equipped with wooden benches. Many friends had portable stadium chairs as you can see pictured here, but the great majority  sat on some pillows and still enjoyed the convention! 

We were so excited to see our friends from our congregation! Many of them have saved all year for this. Bartica is an hour boat ride and then a 20 minute bus ride to Leonora. But as with all transportation here in Guyana, there are no schedules. So several friends woke up Friday morning at 3 or 4am in order to be on a 6am boat to arrive on time. 

These two troopers (pictured above) made that early morning sacrifice to be present!

To the left is our new SISTER TINA CLEMENTSON! She was baptized this weekend, and on my other side is Sis. Layne. Both of these sisters also traveled with 4 little ones…3 of which are pictured below with their beloved “brudda beeejay”

Pictured below is my young friend, Nickolita  Blair, a regular pioneer in East Ruimveldt Congregation. 

At one point during the weekend, we thought the rain was gonna get us, but it sprinkled just a few minutes and then it was finished.

Pictured below in the top left corner are us together with Dionne and Andrew Jordan, Daniel Samuels, and Yohan and Kadesha Letran…all special pioneers serving in Mahdia, Charity, and Linden.The bottom left photo is me reunited with my girls, Joanna and Analisa. I studied with them in Bartica last year before they relocated to Haslington. What a treat to see them since their assigned convention was 2 weeks ago in Berbice. On the right you will see Bj reunited with Akeela….his little friend we met while serving in Mahdia back in April.

Here I am with my height twin, Prudence. We met at an annual pioneer mtg in 2014.

We found Alan Burnett and his family during lunch….Sharda didn’t want to share with me 😁

Finally got a picture of one of my Bartica besties, Arlene and her husband Erwin. Arlene graciously sewed two comfy pillows for me and Bj to sit on for this weekend!

Samantha…my precious sister and her two babies! Samantha and I message each other every morning to discuss the days text. I love this girl so much!

I was FINALLY in the same place at the same time with my two favorite sisters. Dionne and Shellon. Shellon actually did my hair for the weekend and Dionne and her husband let us stay at their place and ride with them each day.

Hopefully you can tell from the smiles on our faces how much we enjoyed this convention here in Guyana. We have 2 more special events to look forward to in less than a month. Our 13th wedding anniversary is on August 1st and since this will be our first time celebrating our anniversary while staying in Guyana, we are gonna do something different. …stay tuned for that blog post. As well as one for Bj’s pioneer school which he is excited for. Second time around for him and he gets to experience it here in Guyana. 

We love all of you back home and appreciate all the emotional, financial, and spiritual support you have given us especially this year as we have endeavored to be here in our assignment as long as possible without interruption to leave.