In the years we have been pioneering, it has always felt like July and August were the “wind down” months. Especially in August (the last month of the service year), it seem as though our ministry would slow down a bit. Not so this year! It has been our prayer all year that Jehovah sustain us here in our assignment so that we can stay in Guyana as long as possible before having to return home to work. Well Jehovah has surely kept us busy. We wanted to share a few outstanding experiences with you.
As you may know we live in the city of Bartica, but specifically in the neighborhood called 4 mile. This is because we live 4 miles outside of the central part of the city. Here we have a huge housing scheme that typically only gets worked during special campaigns. Well for the past two Saturdays Bj and I have worked it in door to door and have met with super success! So far we have about 15 return visits and out of that number 11 of them are potential studies!
Today we came to a house where 4 children ranging from about 7-11 were gathered on the verandah. We shared the new magazine on how to harness bad habits with 3 of them admitting they had bad habits such as biting their nails, eating too much junk food, etc. After that they enjoyed watching the Caleb video on being truthful and each one took turns sharing what they learned from the video. Afterwards I showed them the Listen to God brochure and asked if they wanted one. They each said yes! So I gave them each a copy and they said I can come back Wednesday to start lesson 1 and show them another Caleb video.
Just down the road from them was a young lady named Maria who was just reaching her house at the same time we were. Again I shared the presentation on Habits and she reached for the magazine saying how much she liked reading our journals. She then said “when is the convention?” We were shocked by her question but sadly had to tell her she had missed it, as it was July 15th-17th. But we told her about the upcoming circuit assembly in October and I plan to return to her in a few days to offer her a study.
Bj has been successful too in finding men at home, right here in our housing scheme. So far he has 4 potential students. He had an amazing study on Wednesday this week. A man named Orlando who is a barber and had enjoyed previous visits by witnesses in other parts of Guyana has settled down here in Bartica and agreed to a study. A few times Bj tried to pin him down to a study and it seemed the man was avoiding him. Finally, this week he told Bj to come by Wednesday evening at 5:30. When Bj arrived he was shocked to see the entire family sitting and ready for the study. This included Orlando’s two children ages 9 and 11 and his girlfriend and her young son. They all participated in the study of the first ten paragraphs of chapter 1 in the Teach Us book.
Sometimes our very own publishers in our congregation help us to have great service days! Bj was working in service with one of our new publishers, Jamela, who is seven years old. First of all, ever since she became a publisher she has been in service (with or without her mom) at least 2-3 times a week. One of those times she made a very bold confession to Bj:
Jamela: Brudda Bj, I don’t wanna have no kids!
BJ: Why don’t you want children?
Jamela: I don’t want them crying in my ears! I gan be like you and Sister Fe and not have no children!
BJ: What things do you see kids doing?
Jamela: Running out, behaving bad, doing all sorts of madness!
BJ: When will you have children?
Jamela: IN THE PARADISE EARTH!!!
Bj captured this hilarious exchange on video so if you have whatsapp, feel free to ask him for the video. You will absolutely adore her.
Another experience I had this week is a study I have with a lady named Lisa. Lisa loves the bible, but she cannot read. So we started studying the Listen to God brochure. As always, I have invited her to join us at the meetings but she has never been able to attend. About three weeks ago when I called on her she told me how she finally was able to get to the hall on Sunday morning but it was closed and no one was there. I told her we were all at the convention that day in Leonora, Guyana. She was very disappointed. Anyways yesterday I came for her study and we did two whole lessons in the brochure and then she said “I really want to come to the Kingdom Hall on Sunday.” So she asked me if I could call her at 9am tomorrow to remind her to get ready because many times she is busy caring for her children and washing and loses track of the time. So I am very anxious and excited to see if she will finally make it tomorrow.
One more experience to share happened to me yesterday, I was able to give a great witness to a woman I am already studying with, named Nikita. At one point in our conversation yesterday I mentioned going “home” to the U.S. She gave me a weird look and asked “you not Guyanese?” I replied, “No, I’m from America.” She asks, “Yes, but you not born here?” I replied, “No, Nikita, I was born in Chicago…in the U.S.” She then says, “Oh, but your husband, he from here?” I shook my head and laughed “No, Nikita, we are both American, born and raised.” She then wanted to know why we have been here for so long then. So I explained that we are here to help people learn more from the Bible. I told her how we are happy that this year we were granted a 5 year visa so that we can come and go to Guyana freely for the next 5 years. I explained that the only reason we would go, though, is when we need to go home and make more money. She asked why would we need to go get more money and asked if our “church” wouldn’t pay for us to stay here. And this is when my loving partner, my friend Arlene interrupted and said “This sister and her husband don’t get paid to come here! They work and save their own money and pay their own expense to come here and help people like you learn the Bible! Don’t you see how much they love people! They pay their own rent and food and even their plane tickets here and everything they will need to live here for a year! They don’t work when they are here because they are too busy studying the bible with people!” I paused Arlene’s passionate reply to calmly explain how Bj and I sold everything we owned and came here. I explained that so far in 2014 and in 2015 we returned home a for a few months to save up our money and to buy supplies like toothpaste, shower gel and other needs for the home and that once we have enough money we commit to staying here in this country so we can help people. Nikita’s mouth hung open and she said “Wow, that really make me appreciate your hard work. All this time I thought you get paid. I never knew anyone to do something like this with their own money.”
We keep saying just how much work there is to do here, so many parts of our city that we can’t even get to. And there are even parts of our territory that would require a boat to go across the river to preach to those there. We are so thrilled to be here and to have so much to keep us busy. The other publishers in our congregation support us as best as they can. It is our hope and prayer that other friends will come and visit and spend some time here so they can also experience this fruitful ministry. Think about it, pray it about it, and feel free to contact us via email or whatsapp and ask whatever questions you want answers too…maybe soon we will have more publishers/pioneers to share all these potential studies with!
Love,
Bj and Fe