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. 

A Trip to Paradise!

Hey everybody, we hope you are good..and enjoying your heat wave :) so nice to hear your stories of things happening at home. I know we've said it before but your support and just hearing from you is really nice, it spurs us on, so thank you!
We have had quite a lovely week off. We went to Baganara for a couple of days. It is a beautiful island in the middle of the Essequibo River. We were the only people there, so we thoroughly enjoyed being looked after and having all our meals cooked for us. We have done some sunbathing, chilling out in the hammocks and reading which was absolutely lovely.....

Isn't it beautiful!?

 

We even tried our hand at a bit of kayaking. We had so much fun. We were told not many people make it around the whole island... It took us two hours granted, but we made it. Amy and Naomi were in one boat, and Molly and Daisy in the other. Here we are before we got in....

On Thursday, we went to see Kaieteur Falls..something that everyone had even telling us to do. It absolutely blew our minds!

Here is the tiny 13 seater plane that picked us up from the island.

The plane was packed! But the views were stunning, especially for Molly who was sat in the cockpit alongside the driver. We must admit we were a little scared!! But the views were completely worth it. Kaieteur Falls is the tallest single drop in the world, five times the size of Niagara Falls. So to call it 'amazing' is a huge understatement. We even had to take a guided tour through the jungle to get to the falls. We also went to see Orinduik Falls (spellcheck!) which are some rapids in the border of Guyana and Brazil. So it was quite a day...one that we will always remember!

We could write a lot more about how we felt seeing this, but pictures speak louder than words, don't they? All we can say is it really brought Jehovah's power to life for us. It was an incredible experience.

 

We hope you've enjoyed looking at our pictures! They don't do it justice but at least it's a taster. We would definitely recommend a visit in Paradise. Imagine how much more awe inspiring it will be then :)

We are enjoying being back in Charity now and seeing our studies and the brothers and sisters. We will be sad to see this next month go by quickly! Oh and by the way, we are having an absolute heat wave here!! ;) 

Oh and also the bugs are ever thriving! 

We found a slipper was a fairly effective method of combatting this particular cockroach.

Naomi is our chief bug lady, with Amy coming close up second (apart from with rats.) Molly still screams a lot but is becoming braver (see above..) and Daisy still cant go anywhere near the bugs, dead or alive!! 

Convention time (don't worry, no spoilers!)

Hey! So we are just writing this blog from a beach lounger on a beautiful deserted island with the river less than a metre away, and the jungle opposite us....well...not quite, we are there, but it's overcast and a bit drizzly! But it is stunning and it's been really hot today so we have really enjoyed chilling out, sleeping in the hammocks and soaking up some rays. We are only here a couple of days and then we go back to Charity, but it's been an amazing few days. We've been to the regional convention in Georgetown, which is the capital of Guyana. It has been brilliant...best one yet actually.

So it was at the National Park, which is all open air. The seating was wooden benches with no backs, so good job somebody warned us. We came equipped with pillows! The journey from Charity to Georgetown took us about 5 hours. We were picked up in a crammed bus, which got more and more loaded with people the further we went. We had pillows and all our cases, and there were other witnesses on board too who had all their luggage. Several people were on each other's knees.  The long journey took its toll...

Then we got on a huge ferry which was and got the convention spirit going, as there were loads of witnesses on there. The ferry took 1.5 hours, then we got a taxi. Five of us in one car, plus the driver! We actually got stopped by the police! And would you believe it, because we were white, the police let the taxi driver off scot free! Only in Guyana ;)  

When we finally reached our hotel, we were so tired! But we were incredibly happy because we had hot water AND American tv AND air conditoning!!! It's hard to convey our joy at this. Having bucket showers and Guyanese obituary channels and black outs stopping our fan usage for the past two months have made us really appreciate these things! Isn't it true that you appreciate luxuries far more when they aren't conveniences anymore?

Anyway, day one of the convention....

    It was lovely to see some of the girls from our hall, and some new friends too :)

In the afternoon, Molly sat in the American Sign Language section. There were 22 deaf there, with varying comprehensions of sign language. One study knew 6 different sign languages and some have no language at all. A challenge for the small team of interpreters! Jehovah is clearly blessing their efforts and hard work. Some of them travelled for days to get to the convention and some aren't even having a study yet! The fact that provisions are made for the deaf in a country which largely neglects the deaf is a true demonstration of Jehovah's keen interest and love in them. Here are some of the deaf: 

The brothers were really prepared and ready to help. The team of interpreters was very small but each one knew exactly their parts and had clearly prepared well. All of the demos, interviews, dramas and talks were covered brilliantly. It's even harder signing in the heat! Any extra movement s tough so their sacrifice and love shines through! 

Day 2 of the convention was even better than the first day! Here is Joelle, her family were all concentrating so well throughout the whole programme and had saved up for a long time to get there. Adorable, enthusiastic family! 

The baptism was fantastic. We welcomed 66 new brothers and sisters into our family. They all walked out in single file and we thought the line wouldn't never stop, there were so many of them. As we sat and waited in our seats in true British form, we saw our Guyanese brothers and sisters all crowding excitedly around the blow up pool. Cameras up and ready, they were so joyful to welcome our new family. It added to the thrill of the occasion. 3 from got baptised too. 

Day Three of the convention:

Sorry to mention it again but it was so so hot!! The talks were mostly done by missionaries, special pioneers, circuit overseers and others in full time service. We were so grateful that the talks were so lively and engaging because concentration could've been tough otherwise due to the intense heat. 

This is Amy and Sister Fitzallen, from our hall. She has been visiting family in Charity for a few months but after the convention she will be moving back to the interior so we won't see her anymore. But hopefully we will in Paradise :) 

This is Sarah, a deaf girl from Georgetown. She is a spirited, confident little girl- unlike the majority of the deaf children here. They really enjoyed chatting and having a laugh together! 

 

 

After the convention, we went out for a Brazilian meal with a group of need greaters from All over America, Mexico, Brazil,  and different parts of Europe. It was lovely to learn from their experiences...very inspiring! 

They carve the meat at the table, fresh from the BBQ! Delicious! 

We went for some fresh cocktails on a rooftop terrace after as well! Piña colada tastes so good with fresh pineapple and coconut! 

Wish we could tell you more about the convention because it was brilliant but we don't want to spoil it for you! All we can say is that it gave us goosebumps and it wasn't because it was cold!! Enjoy your conventions everyone at home, Jehovah has prepared a treat for us all!