Time to Say Goodbye

Hi everybody!

First of all, we are ever so sorry for the delay of this blog post. Things have been prettttty mental since we last posted. Where do we start? Its been a real whirlwind of a weekend getting back just in time for the convention. And what a convention it was!! I think we were all blown away by it. Jehovah is so wonderful to us, isn't he? 

We feel that even more so after the trip that we have had. One of the hardest things to do is put your feelings into words...it just does not do it justice! But we felt we must say that all four of us feel strongly that these three months have changed our relationship with Jehovah in a way that we could not have imagined. When you are completely out of your comfort zone, you have no choice but to rely on Jehovah entirely. Doing this has shown us that you can accomplish anything if you make sacrifices for Jehovah. He never ever let us down on this trip. So our resolve is to continue pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone, so that we will have more opportunities to rely on Jehovah and see his strength towards us.  

Here are a few photos of the last few days of our trip....

Our final bus journey to our final meeting! 

And what a busy meeting we had!

Here we are with some of our wonderful friends. We have spent many a hilarious boat day with some of these girls, they are the best!

This is Jerusha, a pioneer who moved in at the same time as us.

Molly looked after Vashtein's study whilst her conductor was away, and helped her to prepare her first ever talk on the school. She is ever so lovely!

Sister Ali, who lives alone, as her husband died and her children live in Venezuela. She works five days a week but manages to regular pioneer, doing her ministry in the evenings and weekends. She gives the very best hugs!

Renae and her mum, Viola, who pioneers and drives her own boat!

Carlyn, who has been in the truth only five years and pioneers with three young children. One of her sons is Josh, who did the bible reading (see other blog)

Brother and Sister Marks. They are as fantastic as their smiles show they are :) 

Sister Gilly, (see previous blogs!) who is probably the best teacher we know. She has taught us many things!

Renatte, who got baptised at the convention recently! Her husband is not in the truth , but she does a grand job of bringing her two young boys to the meetings.

Cassidy and Krystal.

Daisy and Naomi studied with these two girls, who regularly come to the meetings with their little brother. Since we Have come back, we heard that their mum came to the meeting on sunday and asked to start her study again! So now they all are studying and attending the meetings as a family. 

So it was a lovely last meeting. It was hard to say goodbye to them all as they have become a part of our lives now. Its not easy to stay in touch as we would like to either, because not very many have the internet. But we know that the memories we have made with them will last forever :) 

We left Charity really early Saturday morning, and got on the speed boat as you can see below...

We had a ridiculous amount of luggage! But we managed it all by ourselves, being practically Guyanese now!

We stayed in New York with Michelle and Brandon (the couple we met in Charity) which was a real treat. They knew what it was like to come back from Guyana and crave every kind of food you haven't had for three months. So they had prepared a feast for us! We cannot explain to you how good it was to have a warm shower and a duvet!

                                                
                                                   Even in our jet lagged form, we managed to find some of the best pastries we have tasted...


                                
                           ....and bagels! You can't go to New York and not try a bagel!

Our last meal together in New York. 

The flight home was brilliant because they were international delegates on it coming for the Twickenham international convention. It was really exciting! When we got off the plane, there were loads of brothers with banners welcoming the delegates! What an experience :) 

So that draws us to the end of our trip. We hope you have enjoyed reading about it as much as we have enjoyed writing about it. How wonderful it will be in Paradise when we can all travel and visit our brothers and sisters to our hearts content, and bump into each other along the way! Keep your eyes out for our brothers and sisters in Charity that you have read about. They are the loveliest people and they will have many wonderful experiences to tell you. 

So....until next time....

Lots of love,

The girls x

Jehovah-Jireh

So here we are nearly at the end of our journey. And what a journey it has been! We fly to New York on Saturday, and spend a couple of days with Michelle and Brandon (see earlier blogs) our lovely new friends that we met here. Can't wait to catch up with them! Then we arrive back in England on Tuesday. So when we see you at the convention that weekend, we might not be quite with it... Please blame the jet lag!

Our lovely studies who fed us lunch :) 

The title of our blog, Jehovah-Jireh, means 'Jehovah Provides' or 'Jehovah Sees To It', and this really 

reflects not only the past three months, but particularly the last few days. Being the typical 

blondes/afro that you know we are, we accidentally forgot to assess our kitty money earlier, so we 

had somewhat of a revelation when we counted out what we had left for our last week in Guyana...let's just say tight! There is no bank for two hours so we don't have access to anymore funds. It reached a real low when we were all sat round the kitchen table rationing eggs and brain storming meal ideas to eat with rice. Isn't it true though, that it's times like these when you really see Jehovah's hand in matters. 

We will just list a few things that have happened since our budget count on Thursday.....

• We even had to work out our bus money but I think we have only got two bus journeys since Thursday as brothers and sisters have been passing just at the right time and offered us lifts. It has even given us bonus treat money to buy rocky road ingredients (a real essential here!!)

• Amy went outside to pick a mango from our tree, and unfortunately there were none. Literally five minutes later, her study popped round with a huge bag of mangoes and loads of other treats.
• We were so so hungry and there was nowhere to get any lunch, we were toying with the idea of cancelling our last study to go home and get food, but we thought wed power through with Jehovah's help. When we got there, the study only went and prepared us lunch!!
• We have been invited out for tea twice this week, plus we really wanted an avocado but didn't manage to get one, then a brother just randomly gave us two HUGE avocados, enough to feed us several times!
• One day, it was 10.30am and we had a whole day of studies and walking in the intense heat, and the prospect of it seemed a bit overwhelming. Anyway, we managed to do it and finished at 7, later than we anticipated! Jehovah gives the tired one power!

So as you can see, Jehovah really does provide when you need it the most.

Here is some more of our week:

We had a fab trip to the lakes with our lovely next door neighbour and their family, and our studies :)

The new jw.org sign outside our hall, exciting times!

Usually we are on the river on Tuesdays but when we arrived at the dock we found there was only us 'novices' and no one who could really drive the boat. But rather than be deterred, brother Paresram said to us we will just walk down the river side instead- where there's a will! We had a brilliant day showing many people who barely get reached the Bible Study videos and the campaign leaflet. 

Here's Amy and Daisy braving the very wobbly bridge, probably the worst one we have seen so far. Amy and Daisy have a bit of a thrill factor when it comes to things like this. They would rather try it and fall in than not try it at all! 

Here are two little girls who really enjoyed the video. They told us afterwards that they remembered us coming to visit their school a few weeks ago! 

It has been a lovely privilege for us all to help out on the school whilst we've been here. It's been a great way to get to know the sisters better.

Here is the lovely Joelle. She will be following in her mum's footsteps, a future pioneer in the making :) 

This is Andre. Daisy and Naomi study with his two sisters, and Andre had his own little study with Amy for the first time this week. Andre, and his sisters who are 14 and 15, come to the meetings all by themselves. The oldest girl has just asked to go on the school.

Finally, look what we found in Charity! You have to look quite closely at the sign above the door.....

Thank you so much once more for taking the time to read and keeping up with our adventures. We are going to do one more blog post before we leave so you can meet some of the wonderful brothers  and sisters in our hall. So keep checking :):) 

A Beginner's Guide: Speaking Guyanese

So here we are in our last month of being in Guyana. Where has the time gone?! We arrive home on the Tuesday before our convention, so we look forward to seeing you all there and catching up with you all. We hope the campaign is going well for you! Day one of our campaign consisted of a full on thunder storm so we weren't able to get out.

We realised shortly after coming to Guyana that coming to an English speaking country doesn't necessarily mean speaking English as we know it! We started off not getting much of what people say, as their accent is strong and they talk so quickly, but we are becoming better at it now! We are almost there now with speaking fluent Guyanese.  Here are a few examples....

Don't be fooled by the words 'just now' they are not quite of the same meaning as we are used to. So

if we are to hear the words 'just now' we expect to see the fulfilment of those words straight away,
right? Like if you ask for a bag of flour and somebody says 'I will get it for you just now', we expect
to have the bag of flour in our hands right away. Not so in Guyana, we can replace the words 'just
now', for 'in a while' or 'later on'. For example when asking how far away we were from a place, the reply was 'just now', on becoming Guyana savvy we questioned the answer further, it turns out our destination was over an hour away!

'Me no see she' .... A Guyanese alternative to 'I haven't seen her!'

We don't use 'him' or 'her' over here, instead 'he' and 'she' are used.

E.g. 'She got some bread for him' would be 'She got some bread for he'

Confusing eh?

Colewego (coh-leh-we-go)

This basically means 'come on, let's go!' It is often said very fast!

'Gaffing' is another word for talking. We all like to have a good old gaff don't we! We find that a lot of people use 'and so' at the end of their sentences too, which we quite enjoy and are trying to use ourselves.

So if a person is slightly overweight, they have no problem with labelling him fat. They are no longer

 called by their name, but nicknamed 'fat boy' or 'white girl'', depending on what feature stands out the most! They also like to ask us if we've ever been fat. After we had come back from our holiday in Baganara, we were labelled 'robust'....which we are going to take as a compliment! 

Unfortunately, the name 'fat boy' sticks for life, until you lose a bit of weight. Then you are 'fiiiiiiiiiine boy!' which means skinny! 

Also, when you ask how someone is, many people reply 'trying, trying' which to us means 'I'm alright thanks'. 

So we've mentioned in some of our previous blogs a bit about the special pioneer couple in our hall, 

David and Gilly. They have a wealth of experience, they have been all over the country as circuit overseers, taking pioneer schools, head of construction and chairman for the conventions etc etc, so as you can imagine, we are eager to learn from them! 

We went round to their house for tea the other night, and had a brilliant time hearing some of their amazing stories- one of which we'd like to share with you. . . 

So before they were married Sister Gilly served as a pioneer in the deep interior of Guyana,a place called Baramita, which is extremely remote with very basic living conditions. This is a picture of her in the home made shower that the brothers made for her. Notice the big smile on her face that is never missing! 

This is the kind of territory they were used to doing. Brother David came as the circuit overseer to Baramita, and that's where he met Sister Gilly, living on her own in the jungle conducting 120 studies. She lived in a home very similar to the one on this picture. So no walls, no door, no bedroom. She slept in the kitchen...the same place that the meetings were conducted at. Brother David always took a box of dry snacks on his visits because some of the food deep into the jungle was not good, let's just say!

Many times, the brothers would cook bush meat for him, but before eating, 'they had to remove the rank from the meat because it was so bad'. Needless to say it wasn't pleasant. They said that the joy far outweighed any of the challenges however.

Before Sister Gilly arrived at Baramita, the tribe had no English, no clothes, no civilisation basically. This amazing sister, with Jehovah's help, civilised the whole tribe, making clothes for them,  teaching them how to speak, read and write English, learning their language herself, and then teaching them the truth. She used to hold language classes. She even staying up late at night to translate the literature into their mother tongue with a native girl's help. 

This is Brother David giving the co talk.

Here is Sister Gilly on the way to Baramita. On that little boat, she had her bed, her food and her clothes...her essentials ready for the jungle. She spent three and a half years there, some of the hardest but best times of her life. At one point, she lived on bitter greens (karela...which is this gross stuff we drink pounded up with water for parasite prevention) and she used to collect the very tiny bit of rain water on a piece of tin on her roof and tilt it, so that it slowly dripped into her cup, providing the only water she would drink for that day. How she managed to live over three years in those conditions comes down only to Jehovah! She has brought well over 40 people into the truth over her time. She is the most amazing story teller and often has us absolutely captivated.

They have now been in Charity for about 9 months, and their zeal and love for Jehovah and the brothers continues to shine! They are forever hard working despite some severe health problems. It has been such a joy to work along with them and learn from them. Sometimes we literally take out 

our notebook just so we don't forget everything they say.

We also recommend that you go in the 2005 yearbook which is about Guyana, and check out Brother Frederick McAlman's life story. He is a stalwart elder in our hall who is just brilliant. 

We hope you've enjoyed reading a few of the experiences as much as we have enjoyed listening to them. It really is an eye opener to see the lengths brothers and sisters go in order to spread the good news throughout Guyana!

Song 95...

Hey everyone, how ya do? (We're trying to be more Guyanese, this is a typical greeting!)

It's been a really great week, it's reached new levels of heat and humidity though! But the ministry has been so so brilliant, it's definitely worth the heat/bugs/bites. We've come head to head with a new type of bug this week...sand flies. They are about as big as a pin head, and you can kill them with your fingertip....but when they bite it seriously stings! They come out when it's wet and humid, which it was on Friday. We have countless bites all up our arms and legs!

Did you wonder about the title of this blog? Well the words of this song really sum up the feelings we have had over this past week.
Because of the intensity of the heat this week (even the locals say it's especially hot!) we have lacked a lot of energy...but Jehovah has always given us extra strength and holy spirit needed to conduct our studies. When planning our week, we counted that between us we would have 32 studies this week! What a privilege! We finish each day feeling exhausted but truly happy.

We apologise in advance for the essay below! A lot has happened this week.
Here's a little snippet...

 )


Here's Daisy and Naomi getting a lift back home in a lorry today!

 They were so tired and had a long walk to their last studies house. As they arrived, they whispered to each other 'wouldn't it be lovely if they gave us a lift back?'. Anyway, they had a great study, and as they started walking back, the study and her mum came to fetch them in the car. They were soooo thankful. It's a long way back to our house so we told them to drop us at the bus stop. Then the guy 

that we get our veg from came by in his lorry and gave us a lift home for free! Our budget is running a little low.....it's amazing how many free lifts we are getting recently. 

They had another lovely experience when they were walking to another study on Wednesday. A car drove past them, and then reversed back to come and pick them up. The man said he doesn't usually pick people up but he felt like he should this time...for some reason. Anyway he asked who we were,

 so we were able to give a witness to him. He was so interested, and asked why God doesn't destroy 

Satan. We were able to answer his questions as he drove us along, and we had a really good 

discussion on many subjects. He told us that he gets an invite through his door for the Memorial each year, and he always tells himself he must go, but he has never managed to. As we pulled up, we offered him the Bible Teach book, explaining that it would answer many of his questions in a very easy way to understand. His response: 'I must have picked you up today for a reason. I have no qualifications and I need something easy to understand. How would you have been able to know that? It must have been God that made me pick you up today.'

So one of the studies we have been looking after is two teenage girls who started off very shy and found it hard to express themselves on the study. But we tried to draw them out and befriend them, we invited them over to our house for family worship and before they came we asked them to write a 'paradise list' of all the things they would like to do in paradise (see photo above). We were really moved by the effort they had put in and how much more expressive they have become, they ask some fantastic questions and really think things through. It's so nice to see such young people taking a stand for Jehovah and making progress, it's been a real privilege to study with them. 

Here we are with a few of our studies on our teen afternoon :)

On Tuesday it was just us four and Brother Ken on boat witnessing for a change! We had a really lovely day. Naomi went back on Marina, her study who lives way down river. It's only the third time she has had a study but she is so thirsty for the truth when we arrived she came out with her teach book in hand ready to start. She said that since she has been studying she realised that she had been praying wrong because God has a name and so she has started using Jehovah's name in her prayers, and she's even started praying through Jesus even though we have not covered that part in the book yet (she's so eager she's reading ahead!) She also told us how she has already been applying what she has learnt by praying to Jehovah when her daughter was sick and refusing to let a faith healer come to her daughter because 'that would be listening to Satan'. There's no better feeling than hearing 

someone applying what they learn and growing in love for Jehovah, we always come away buzzing!

On Wednesday, Amy's study Amrita invited us all over for lunch. They cooked Dahl and rice, fried fresh fish, callaloo, followed by peanut fudge and fresh coconut water with milk. Just what we needed after a hot but lovely morning on the ministry. Then they finished off with a really lovely study in the good news brochure, which Amrita had prepared and written notes in a little notebook. The week that we leave Amrita's Mum told us she will make us a special treat... glazed chicken feet, fresh from the chickens running around in the yard, Amy can't say that she is particularly excited about this delicacy.  

This is Molly on one of her studies called Delia. She told Molly during the study that her brothers have all been pressuring her to stop studying the bible with Jehovah's Witnesses. Rather than give in she tells them every week what she has learnt and what she has been pre-studying. She tells them that the witnesses always teach the truth from the bible about Jehovah because they love people. What a joy to hear the people express their appreciation for what they are learning so early on. Later, when discussing the meetings, she said that she has attended before but had recently had to stop for 

financial reasons. After encouraging her to pray about it if she has the desire, the discussion moved on. Before the closing prayer, Molly asked her if there was anything she wanted to be included in the prayer; worries, concerns or thanks. She thought for a long time and finally getting eye contact she shyly said "Please ask Jehovah to help me get the courage to come back to meetings because I really want to speed up my learning about Him." Molly commended her for expressing how she felt and  

promised to save her a seat. "That would be really nice," Delia said, "because we could sit together 

and that would really help me." 

This is Josh doing his first Bible reading on Thursday. His mum and dad, Carlyn and Orvil, are so adorable and they work incredibly hard to bring up their three children to love Jehovah. They used to be in the world and had a lot to do with drink, but they started studying, made big changes, and they even got baptised on the same day as each other! Their son Josh has a stammer and vowed he would never ever get up on the platform. He managed to do the reading without a single stammer, and when he got off, he cried because he was so happy that he was able to do it. The whole family are so so humble.

This is an amazing little boy called Alex. He is only 9, and yet he is so zealous with meeting attendance. He comes mostly by himself. The meeting is at 4.15. We asked him how he knows when to get ready for, and he says he looks at the clock and when it turns 3.30, he just comes. He is always early and always stands outside to greet everybody. We managed to get this picture of him as we were in a bus on our way to the meeting.

It is so special to be experiencing the love and power of Jehovah and his organisation in this part of the world. However, it does not come without its challenges! It's certainly hard to live here and requires a lot of sacrifices. But the joy and satisfaction that we have felt over the past few months have made it more than worth it.