Memorial Season update

Back in February we talked about the zone visit. Recently we received an exciting update that despite having only about 24,000 publishers in the country we had over 34,000 in attendance for the Zone Visit, all either recieved the live broadcast or the recorded program later that same day.  Quickly following our Zone Visit we started preparations for the Memorial, Circuit Pioneer Meeting and Circuit Assembly.

2015 Memorial (Friday, April 3)

Stage for the Memorial 2015

What a joy to experience memorials in a land of growth.  We had almost triple our publisher base at the memorial.  We have about 85 publishers and we had 240 at our memorial.  Our Kingdom Hall only seats about 220 with chairs crammed in well beyond what safety regulations or common sense would dictate. We even had to move chairs to provide access to emergency exits.  The extra 20 people that couldn't fit in the main auditorium received the meeting by television / Skype hook up in the second school which is located behind the stage and accessed by walking outside, down the length of the Kingdom Hall and into a separate building. 

As punctuality is not one of the strengths here in Bolivia, we likely had more than the official count at our memorial.  For instance, as we were finishing handing the wine around in the second school someone showed up.  So, we went back to serve him.  It became obvious he was one who attended in response to the invitation and was not a study because he hung onto the wine glass not knowing what to do. I suppose he was thinking 'no one else has wine, I should wait until they are all served.' Being late he did not get the benefit of the Memorial Talk's clear explanation on who should partake.  Our Ministerial Servant quite humorously began to wrestle with him over the wineglass as he started raising it to his mouth and before he could take a sip.  Despite what seemed like an eternity of arm wrestling, nothing was spilled and we were able to return to the Kingdom Hall without incident.

We were happy to have 3 of our bible studies at the Memorial and we took them out for a late dinner afterwards.  What a joy to already see results in our ministry.  I even had the privilege of saying the prayer over the bread. Thanks be given to our neighbor who helped me get the wording right so I didn't say anything stumbling during our most special annual observance.

Full house at the Pioneer Meeting

Circuit Pioneer Meeting (Saturday, April 4)

The day after our Memorial we had the privilege of going to our first Circuit Pioneer Meeting in Bolivia. Again the Kingdom Hall was packed to bursting ... I believe the unofficial attendance was 210 regular pioneers and that was only part of our circuit. 

Demo at Pioneer Meeting

Statistics
2013 service year - 384 RPs in our Circuit (Sucre, Potosi, Oruro)
2014 service year - 456 RPs  (72 more in one year)

Sept 2014 - 1743 publishers
Mar 2015 - 1832 publishers (89 more publishers in 7 months)

A new congregation is formed every year in our circuit.  The circuit is growing so fast that it was announced that we would be forming a new circuit as of July 1, 2015.  For the first year the Pioneer Schools we be held in all 3 cities (Sucre, Potosi and Oruro) to help with the backlog of Pioneers waiting to go through the school for the first and second times.

Rachel and I even got to be in a demonstration at the Pioneer meeting.  I loved hamming up the "bad pioneer" bit.


Circuit Assembly (Sunday, April 5)

Rented arena set up for the Circuit Assembly

Immediately after the pioneer meeting ended we rushed home, gulped down some lunch and sprinted back to the Kingdom Hall to collect the cleaning supplies from the 'deposito' (or storage locker).  And then raced to the assembly site and we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more, until about 10:00 pm at night.  Rented facilities here are not handed over in good condition.  You could literally write your name in the dust that blanketed every nook and cranny of the facility.  We swept and washed the floors, we washed the lime stained, brick walls, we scrubbed and disinfected the washrooms, we covered the basketball floors with rubber carpets we rented - which of course had to be swept and washed clean of the confetti and spilled beer from the last event, we washed the windows, we removed bags of garbage from the outside lot ... the list is endless!  It was hard work and it was lovely to see the willing spirit of all the brothers that helped.

The assembly started. I relaxed into my chair in the cleaning department office and was just about to start taking notes when one of the brothers who was involved with the morning washroom clean came running into the room. "We're out of water in the washrooms!" he blurted out.  Well our department head was the morning program chairman and our first assistant was in the president's office waiting for his turn to give the 3rd talk of the morning. "Oh joy!" as 2nd assistant I get all the fun! That was the last moment I had to enjoy the program all day.  From that point on we were trucking barrels of water from a tap 500 meters away, quite appropriately situated in the middle of what seemed to be a small bog, to the convention site. Once there we carried them by bucket up to second floor washrooms where temporary hot-tub sized water drums were waiting to be filled.  From there brothers and sisters scooped water to flush toilets and wash hands. It wouldn't have been too bad except it started to pour in the early afternoon and the tap we were using to fill the barrels slowed to a mere trickle.  Thus we had to close 3 of the 4 washrooms by the late afternoon and we were soaked just keeping the 1 washroom supplied with water.

The clean up after the assembly was assisted by even more brothers.  We fortunately had the baptismal pool water we could use for cleaning.  Still we didn't get home until about 9:00 pm that night after finishing the final clean and making sure all the dinky little trucks used for trucking were loaded and dispatched to the 'deposito' once more. 

Rachel's interview during the Baptism Talk

So I'm looking forward to working in a different department next assembly!  ;-) (nudge, nudge, winky face to you know who).

During one of the times the barrels were being filled, I managed to sneak away and record Rachel being interviewed during the baptism talk.  It was wonderful to see her speaking Spanish before a large crowd of 1,300+ attendees.  It brought tears to my eyes!  It was either that or the sting of the salty sweat that was rolling down my face.  Either way my very shaky, overworked arms captured the worst quality recording you will ever be blessed to see.

Service Updates

We are up to 7 regular, sit-down style studies now.  We have about double that in studies but it is hard to keep them regular - whether because of our sicknesses (yes, I'm home sick in bed now and that is why you are getting an update) or cancellations on their part. 

For the first time a couple of weeks ago, the mother of a 20 year old that we study with sat in on the study.  The daughter was holding her baby in arms, her mother and 8 year old sister were seated beside her.  As we sat on chairs in the yard enjoying an outdoor study in the warmth of the sun, it was nice to reflect on the fact that we were helping 3 generations of that family draw close to Jehovah ... 4 if you count the cocoa chewing, Pachamama worshiping, grand-mother who was busily working in the yard pretending to ignore us.

Rachel Public Witnessing at the AutoVenta

Just last week we got one of our irregular studies pinned down to an appointment.  Their 13 year old daughter has been haranguing them to get us over again (it was likely 2 months since our last visit). They were ones with whom I got irritated because they kept missing appointments and they live at the far end of our territory, 20 minutes away by bus and 5 minutes of walking.  So I uttered the words "they're dead to me."  Well, while we were walking down the street in service the other day, they drove by us, stopped the car and made another appointment.  We went back Thursday and had a study with the oldest daughter (17), mother and baby.  She stated her 13 year old daughter was heart-broken that she had school and couldn't be there for the study. So she begged us to come back on Saturday when the whole family could be there.  So Saturday we trudged back, half expecting they wouldn't be there, but - Lo and Behold - they were all there!  They even invited over a 20 year old niece for the hour-long study.  What a joy it was to study with a group of 5 eager students sitting around us on bricks and stumps.  If only we can keep them regular from this point forward!

And finally there is our public witnessing.  Just some quick stats - last month the totals placed at our literature cart - 469 mags, 137 brochures, 37 books and 165 tracts. We also placed about 20 DVDs with all the Caleb, White Board Animations and many other videos burned onto them for the numerous kids that frequent our stand. 

Demonstrating a study at Public Witnessing

What results do we get other than just placements?  In just 2 days we received 8 requests for bible studies.  Also, a 14 year old boy that frequents the stand came by 3 times in just one day last week. The second visit he brought his friend and her mother who also requested a bible study. With him he had one of the magazines with the coupon filled out on the back and asked where he should send it to get his free copy of the Bible Teach book.  So I gave him one from my service bag and showed him the Bible Study process.  The third visit he brought his little brother.  Now they were some of the children who received the DVD the month before. The wonderful effects of the videos on the young ones can be clearly seen.  We were elated hearing him and his brother say they wanted to be Jehovah's Witnesses when they grow up.  And the 2 of them stood there and sang along to the Caleb song that was playing on the tablet (we usually display videos while doing the public witnessing as it draws more attention).  They had already memorized the words and were singing along with the Bethel video song.  I would have taken a video if I could have done so discretely. We are currently trying to get his parents to allow him to study.

So our hearts are brimming with joy.  It even helps reflecting on some of the highlights of our past month or so while I lie here in bed.  Hopefully my improved mood will be curative for my health.

Steak and Ale pie at English Pub

Paperwork

Yes, we are still doing paperwork for living here.  We loved how in a recent Watchtower it talked about the conditions being just right for the expansion of the Good News in the First Century and how Paul would have traveled without needing to worry about immigration and customs.  How we LONG to live in such conditions. Last weekend we decided on a last minute trip to the Embassy in La Paz to procure a legalized copy of my passport.  Bank machines are changing here and many do not work with our bank cards. Thus the need to get the paperwork in place for online, international, electronic funds transfers. 

While in La Paz we gorged ourselves on traditional English food at the English Pub. What a wonderful treat!  It was a whirlwind 2 day trip and the likely cause of my current sickness, but it was a refreshing break from the everyday.

Lots of love from us to you.  We are missing and looking forward to visiting many of you on our return to Canada in July 8 - Aug 14.  If you have some free time, drop us an email and we can let you know our itinerary.  We would love to see you!

Wedding - Trip to Potosi - service update - everyday life

Wedding preparation

We got to enjoy our first Bolivian wedding last month.  Rachel, Yovi and Yolanda got the joy of preparing chocolate covered fruit platters, Bolivian meatballs and salsa, and deviled eggs (something Bolivians have never heard of) as appetizers.  There were 22 tables and 220 guests.  It was a hectic couple of days preparing but you can see the tasty results below.

Gorgeous wedding reception venue

Some of the appetizers

Sisters preparing appetizers

 Our trip to Potosi

Our friends from England recently found out they cannot renew their VISAs.  They will be returning home by the end of March.  Once again we our losing our friends.  Thus we decided to go to Potosi to bid them adieu, adios, farewell, sayonara, aufwiedersehen, ciao ... BUT ... it wasn't clear skies and beautiful scenery all the way there.

highway to Potosi

highway to Potosi

Hiking up to Potosi

Miners blockaded the highway

We hit a rock in the road ... or should I say many rocks ... as we got closer to Potosi.  In Bolivia it is common for disgruntled people with complaints to block the highways - called 'bloqueados'. On this occasion it was the miners who had a beef.  Fortunately, unlike the violent bloqueados of the past, there was no pelting with rocks of persons crossing the blockade. Perhaps it was the large police presence that deterred them?!?! Still it was quite the half hour hike up the hill, especially considering the 14,000 foot elevation!

After arriving and getting settled in we decided to take a mine tour of Cerro Rico, the infamous mountain of Potosi (g96 8/8 p20-21).  Legend says that they could build a bridge from Potosi to Spain with the silver they extracted. The horror of the story is that they could also build a bridge of the same span with the bones of all those who have died extracting the ore, mainly native indigenous and African slaves who were forced to work in the mines.

A custom for those visiting the mines is that they stop at local merchant shops to buy gifts for the miners.  The usual gifts are bottles of 96% alcohol, coco leaves, water, cigarettes and dynamite.  Miners don't eat while in the mines, they just chew coco leaves and drink alcohol for energy.  This reduces the need for washroom breaks. They also need to supply their own dynamite.  They only receive a pay check if they find valuable ore.  Thus it is understandable why it is customary for tourists to bring them gifts.

Potosi also happens to be one of the only areas (perhaps THE ONLY) where you can buy dynamite without a permit or providing any documentation or identification at all. Even children can buy dynamite. We couldn't resist the urge!  When will we get the opportunity to buy and detonate dynamite again?

One shocking surprise, as we sat in the 'tienda' our guide unwrapped a stick of dynamite and had us hold it. It felt like sticky play dough with a fish smell.  While we passed it around Marco lit a match and slid it along the dynamite in our hands!!!  Apparently a chemical reaction with the mercury in the blasting cap (or primer) is what causes the dynamite to explode.  It would have been nice to have that explained before the match was placed next to the stick of unwrapped dynamite!

ready to blow!

Dynamite

Buying dynamite

  After a short bus ride to the base of Cerro Rico, reaching about 14,500 feet elevation, we were ready to enter the mine.  Pausing at the tunnel entrance, Marco explained that the dark staining above the mouth of the tunnel was llama blood.  The miners splash it there much in the same way the Israelites splashed sheeps blood on their doorposts during 'Pascua' or Passover.  He went on to explain that at the entrance is where the Catholic religion stops. From there forward the religion of the Pachamama rules. This is the indigenous peoples religion.

Not far inside the cave entrance is a large, human sized idol of 'Tio'. Tio is the Spanish word for uncle but it's origin in the case of the idol is from the Kechua peoples attempt to say the Spanish word for God, 'Dios'.  Apparently Kechua does not have a sound for D thus attempts to say Dios came out as Tio.  The Tio idol was a disgusting red devil with a giant penis. Upon entering the cave the customary way to appease his anger and have his blessing in making the mountain fertile is by putting coco leaves on the idol, pouring alcohol on it and lighting a cigarette and sticking it in his mouth.  As long as the cigarette is burning you have his permission to enter.  The people are a lot like their gods in their habits.  What a protection for our health that we worship the clean god!

Best looking mining crew in Potosi

rest tunnel with altar

 Inside the tunnels we ascended and descended to various parallel mine-shafts at different elevations.  The smooth clay lining the shafts made this a little dicey. At times we took turns helping place each others feet onto the rough hewn steps. Occasionally we would get distracted by the veins of minerals glistening above us, but only for a moment or two as we would end up tripping over the uneven muddy ground if we didn't pay constant attention to where we placed our feet.

A couple of times we stopped to rest in small, dead end, side tunnels.  The first time we stopped to get a lesson on how to place and pack dynamite.  The second time to safely wait in a side tunnel for the dynamite to be exploded. It was an eerie feeling to hear the 'thwump' of the explosion and have a rush of air push past us.  It reminded us of the impact tremors felt during Jurassic Park during the first scene with the T-Rex. Yes, this is an active mine that we were touring.

Waiting and conversing with the miners we got to find out many of the details of life as a Bolivian miner. It is definitely not a safe or easy job!  All along the walls of many tunnels there are small, crystalline, snow-flake like or fiberglass like coatings.  This, we found out, is arsenic.  Miners here don't wear protective breathing masks.  They sometimes can be seen pulling their sweaters up over their mouths when it is really dusty.  Thus one danger for miners is dying of silicosis, a lung disease from breathing the airborne arsenic and silica minerals. To test for bad air down the tunnels they throw a juicy orange.  They check it 4 or 5 hours later.  If it has dehydrated then they know air quality is dangerous and they avoid that tunnel.

Lesson on how to place dynamite

descending to a lower mineshaft proved a little sketchy

They also have to push the full ore carts weighing 2 tonnes out of the mine by hand.  As you can imagine this is labor intensive work.

Full ore cart - from the angle you can tell it "jumped track"

 One of the following days we took a small trip to the "Ojo del Inca", a natural hot spring the size of a small pond. It was apparently a cone shaped pond that was 22 meters deep at the center and heated by volcanic lava.  Don't worry we stayed near the edges ... most of the time.

Swimming at Ojo del Inca

Our friends whom we're going to miss!

Service Update

Just a small experience from our Public Witnessing Cart.  It has proven to be VERY effective for contacting people.  By the middle of March my placements (just mine and not Rachels), great thanks to our increased Public Witnessing, were 131 mags, 17 brochures and 217 tracts / invitations.  We try not to put books on our cart as they are placed just as fast as the other literature.  We keep them hidden at the back and offer them to people who request bible studies.

On that note, one of the Public Witnessing referrals we received was a family of 3 teenage girls who requested a study.  We have met 2 of the girls and from our first visit onward (once we found their house ... arrrgghhh) we have had a very nice, productive bible study in the Bible Teach book. It seems Jehovah is really blessing this form of the ministry here in Bolivia.

Sharing Caleb during a rest break

Getting mobbed while Public Witnessing - in a good way!

You may wonder how we get such success here (other than the fact that the average person has a deep respect for and interest in the bible)?  Well, it's because we show videos while we're Public Witnessing. Usually we show Caleb or whiteboard animations.  This draws crowds of kids.  Often, even if they don't stop, we hear them saying to their parents "look mom, it's Caleb".  This warms our hearts seeing how effective these videos are at reaching the young ones and how well known they are here in Oruro.  When the children come we often try to give them just a tract. Many won't leave until they get a magazine or brochure.  We keep a supply of old magazines for the children and limit them to one per family.  Often though, they will go away and get their parents to come back with them to request more literature and/or forms of literature that we don't allow children to take.  Yes, the videos sure are an effective tool and blessing from our dear brothers taking the lead in the organization!

Everyday Life

Everyday life still holds it's challenges.  Our recent battles have been with insects.  For the last few months sugar ants have slowly increased in numbers in our house.  We ignored them as we didn't know where to go to buy 'ant bait'. Then one day we noticed very fine saw dust under our bed.  Wanting to locate the source I lifted the mattress and box spring onto their side.  There was a lot of saw dust on the inside of fabric stapled to the bottom of our box spring.  Peeling that back revealed a colony of termites actively eating our bed right out from under us!

So that whole day was blown buying diesel (the recommended poison for termites here in Bolivia) and spreading it all over the wood support structure of our box spring, walking all over downtown looking for ant bait and cleaning up the mess made by it all.

Know what the worst part was???  We bought the mattress NEW!!!!  And we paid an exorbitant price!  This was literally the most expensive bed we have ever purchased.  Partly because they overcharge extranjeros (foreigners) and partly because Canadian style beds are still not common in Oruro (many still sleep on straw mattresses covered in the same material from which rice sacks are made).  And we are still sleeping with our mattress on the floor as our boxspring is banished to the hallway until the overpowering smell of diesel dissipates.  Oh well, as our friends often say; "TIB" (this is Bolivia).

The other challenge is the cold.  I'm not sure when summer was supposed to have arrived, but apparently it is over.  Last night was -3 Celsius and we were greeted by heavy rain during the morning.  Apparently the rains will dry up this month.  But with the reduced cloud cover the temperatures will continue to drop from the the balmy day time highs of 16 Celsius to the frigid barely above 0 Celsius that is our winter.  Of course, if we stand in the sun we can still get burnt! So there is a positive!

Well that's all for now.  Keep warm and well fed. Yes this has new meaning for us and we really wish that for all of you.  Lots of love.  Over and out.

More Service Experience and Commentaries

CAUTION! Long winded ramblings ahead! ;-)

How would you define 'a successful day' in the ministry?  Getting out of bed in the morning?  Making it out your front door fully dressed and having eaten?  Making it to the service group on time? Finding at least one person to talk to in the ministry? Starting a new RV? Starting a new BS? Teaching someone a new truth and seeing the light-bulb effect in their eyes?

The questions above used to be qualifiers for "success" when we were in Canada ... to be honest we still use the first few questions as measurements since our field service groups are at 8:30 am.  But our definition of a truly successful day in the ministry is changing. It was almost easier to be focused on RESULTS when you don't have a lot of successes, just like someone focused on earning money thinks their first million will make them happy. But success CANNOT really be measured by counting results.

Here, you can place literature with almost every person you talk with in the ministry.  Most will agree to having you come back for a return visit or a bible study.  Some of those bible studies will progress.  This certainly brings joy to our hearts.  But is it really success in the ministry?

More recently, despite my slightly skewed focus, the feeling of success has come from drawing close to and being available to be used by Jehovah. Some of the times I feel most successful in the ministry I have almost no measurable results at all.

For instance yesterday, despite relentless stomach problems I struggled out of bed and made it to the field service group on time with a fruit smoothie warming my soul.  (measurement #1 met). We started our day witnessing to small family businesses along one of the main avenidas in our territory.  You know the sort that are painted bright colors on the outside advertising the local cellular companies that are making money hand over fist down here in South America.  As we entered, the shop was so filled with goods that it was hard to stand anywhere without brushing into something. Because of the "results" we get in the ministry there is a constant literature shortage in our congregation.  I had no more magazines or books, just a few tracts and dog-eared 'Creation' brochures that have been in my case for a while as you don't really need to convince people here that god exists.  If our service groups met at the Kingdom Hall each day I would be able to replenish our supplies, but alas, we meet in the territory to reduce travel expenses on the brothers.  I opted to use the "Dejaremos de Sufrir" tract for my presentation. The lady gave me a few seconds to talk before she began to warm up her own vocal cords.  Once she got going I had trouble keeping up and understanding everything she was rattling off.  What I was able to understand was she was "happily Catholic" and even traveled some 6 hours one way each week to get to her favorite church in another city.  The very Canadian side of me kept trying to enter the now one-sided conversation but very adeptly was talked over by the approximately 55 year old, somewhat rotund shop owner. The 82 year old brother assisting me on the call decided to stop the barrage of words coming from the shop owner with his own 'A to Z' explanation of the bible, terminating the speech with "you should come to the meeting".  The shop owner, whose efficiently shortly cut, permed hair that made her look like a pear shaped Q-tip replied, "well I already go to church and all churches are the same. They all teach the bible."  Well ... something in me was awoken and sprung to life!  Leaving my deeply ingrained Canadian personality behind I barged into the conversation and stated in a voice loud enough to be heard above hers if she chose to try to talk over me again; "if you think all religious meetings are the same I am afraid you don't know what our meetings are like. I have a video I would like to show you."  Whipping out the tablet like a six-gun from a holster (yes I am getting fast with the tablet) I navigated to the correct video while trying to keep control of the conversation.  She watch with faint interest in her eyes, but she watched. It is sort of like when you're in a restaurant and you don't really want to watch the television but the conversation has lagged and you can't seem to tear your eyes away from it.  Then at about the one minute mark her eyes lit up and she interrupted the video with a question; "What? All your meetings are free? You mean you don't collect the 10% or pass a plate??" She went on to explain that even outside her church people target the attendees selling vegetables and this bothered her.  So I showed her Matthew 10:8 that we try to follow Jesus instructions to give free and I mentioned the account of Jesus throwing the money changers and merchants out of the temple. Now she was very animated.  She stated that was exactly how she felt and it always bothered her the way things were run in her church. She averred that she definitely would attend our 'church' on Sunday and asked for the directions.  The older brother, Andrés, helped me explain where it was located.  She even remembered seeing it before and stated again she would attend on Sunday.  Andrés made sure to mention she needed a bible study and Rachel and I would come back to teach her, but she declined.  She said she already reads the bible.  She also said she wanted to still attend her church as her whole family is Catholic, and looking at me with sort of pleading eyes she asked whether or not it was okay to go to both 'churches'.  A look of relief crossed her face as I said it is entirely her choice.  So we departed the shop.

To clarify the reason for that long, novel-like experience ... I only placed a tract (hardly measurable), she didn't want a study or a return visit, she is still strongly determined to be Catholic ... but I felt that was one of the most successful calls of the morning.  We were able to show her that Jehovah's organization is not like other organizations. I'm one of the few in our congregation who has a tablet to show videos. The video was one of the the only things that would have likely affected her as she was quiet and not talking over it. It felt that I was working alongside our heavenly father and defending him to one of the only openly non-interested persons in our territory, and it felt like we were being used by him. We may never see that lady again, but it sure felt like success.

Around the corner we called on a house that many publishers would have skipped. Here there are a lot of bad dogs and if there is a strong chance of being bitten the publishers just skip the house.  I HATE missing houses.  It bugs me that we don't keep not-at-homes here and thus we "miss" many houses each morning in the sense that no one is home and we don't go back again until the next time we do that territory.  So I knocked.  The dogs were nasty, but we have cases and umbrellas.  A young woman exited the house.  She correctly identified the hope for the dead in response to my question and added even more details that were all accurate.  I asked how she knew and she stated she used to study with Witnesses until her life got so busy with University and her conductor moved away.  So I offered to start her study again and she agreed. 

True, this time there were results but the 'successful feeling' came, not from starting the study, but from being the foolhardy person who doesn't yet know what its like to be bit by a dog and have to go to a hospital in a 3rd world country.  Because of this it felt like again we were used to find a lost sheep.

A week earlier we had witnessed to a man at the public witnessing stand and received his address for follow up. Upon trying to follow up we knocked on about 30 doors.  Why?  No one has numbers on their houses and the direction was 'this street and that street'.  Was it on the corner?  Was it on "this street" or was it on "that street"?  Impossible to know, so we kept knocking.  After talking to about 8 people the next lady said, 'well there is a phone number why don't you call him'?  Feeling foolish I said 'because my Spanish is bad and I have a hard time understanding people on the phone.'  She offered to call for me and we found out that he lives about 4 streets away and had put down that intersection because it is well known and easy to find.  Anyways, I ignored the rising irritation in my soul and focused on giving a witness to the kind lady who helped us.  I explained why we were looking for the man and she invited us into her house. We studied a lesson in the good news brochure. As we got her talking she thanked us for coming and getting her back to reading her bible as she hadn't done that for a while. We tried to set up for a return visit but she declined.  She stated that she was an Adventist.  She then said thanks to Jehovah's Witnesses she started studying the bible. One sister studied with her for about a year and she realized she needed to make changes so she prayed to god to help her find the truth and know what was the true religion.  That was when an Adventist approached her and she has been an Adventist ever since.  Again pushing aside my Canadian  timidity I asked her to grab a pen and paper and we went through the "how to identify the true religion" lesson of the the Good News brochure. I asked her to write down all the scriptures and to read them from her own bible and to meditate on them.  I even got her to note down the subheadings that related to each characteristic of the true religion.  Then we left.

No placements, no return visit, no bible study, no measurable results.  But we by chance talked to a good-hearted, helpful person who had once studied with Witnesses and since stopped.  By her own admission she usually is not at home at that hour and is hard to find because she works a lot.  And we felt motivated to speak out boldly contrary to the nature of our personalities.  Will the scriptures affect her viewpoint?  Who knows!!!  But it felt like we were used by Jehovah to provide another opportunity to a potential sheep.  Regardless of results, it felt like a successful call in the ministry!

To sum up - we are starting to measure success in the ministry by intangibles;
- endurance; faithfully, regularly going out despite illness or setbacks
- availability; being used by Jehovah to accomplish even unfavorable tasks because we are there and we are willing
- boldness; success at overcoming our personality limitations and being more Christ-like and bold when the situation calls for it

It truly feels like success when we can work alongside our loving heavenly father (1 Cor. 3:9) and feel like he is there with us, guiding, directing and using us for favorable or unfavorable work.  Having said that, I now fear the repercussions.  I assume more unfavorable work will be on the horizon. Oh well, I'm available.

Thanks for reading, hope you were AT LEAST entertained. That's all for now. Until next time.

Overdue update

LONG OVERDUE UPDATE

• Branch / Zone Visit
• New Public Witnessing Cart Results
• A visit to Cochabamba
• Goodbye to Dear Friends
• Finding online work
• Service Experiences
 

Our Kingdom Hall was filled for Geoffrey Jackson's talk

Branch / Zone Visit

What a treat it was to have Geoffrey Jackson visit Bolivia. It was a historical meeting for Bolivia!  Why? In preparation for the visit the branch required every Kingdom Hall hook up internet and acquire (borrow, rent or buy) a projector or television.  Then when Br. Jackson came, there was a 3 hour mini-assembly at the Assembly Hall site in Santa Cruz that was broadcast all across the country. Over 17,000 were tied into the morning broadcast (other congregations would receive the recorded program later in the day during their regularly scheduled meeting times).  Br. Jackson's many and colorful illustrations captured everyone's attention and made for a delightful program. The best part ... his talk was in English and translated into Spanish so we understood every single word!  Something new too, he even prayed in English and had that translated. What a treasure having such encouraging spiritual food "at the right time."

New Public Witnessing Cart Results

We finally got our new public witnessing carts last month. On our first time out with the cart last month, during just 3 hours, we placed 23 books, 23 magazines and 15 brochures.  Plus we got nine names and addresses requesting follow ups.

A Visit to Cochabamba

Various vistas of the Palacio Portales

We decided to take a short vacation in Cochabamba.  Friends from Calgary that we met at the English Convention (William, Heidi and Sabrina) invited us to enjoy a change of climate and scenery.  What a wonderful time it was.

The first thing we noticed was the temperature change.  I forgot to bring my shorts and paid the price.  We managed to get quite burnt the few days we were there.

The pictures to the right are of the Palacio Portales - It was built in the early 1900s by a Bolivian millionaire known as the "Tin Baron". It was designed by a French architect and the gardens were designed to resemble those of the Versailles Palace in Paris.

Cochabamba's Cristo Rey teleferico

 Cochabamba had a beautiful viewpoint. It is accessed by a "teleferico" or gondola style cable lift that you can see in the picture to the left.

Nothing tests your level of "bravery" like getting in a rickety Bolivian gondola.  Even one of the windows was broken. 

View from the top - Cochabamba

Here we are at the top (to the right). From up there we could see the whole city sprawled in the valley.  It certainly is larger than Oruro.  It has a population of around 600,000 in the city limits and almost 2 million if you include the surrounding areas, which are so closely intertwined with the city it's hard to tell where one ends and the other starts.

The mountains around it are snow-capped despite the summer weather.  We found out there are mountain climbing expeditions to the higher peaks and large archaeological ruins that can be visited by day trips from the city.  Maybe next time.

Rachel with children at the local orphanage

While there Rachel got the joy of going on Bible Studies with Sabrina.  When one of the bible studies wasn't available they visited the local orphanage to drop off Caleb videos that were requested on Sabrina's last visit.The children are very affectionate and call all visitors "mom" or "dad", using the power of suggestion (little manipulators).

The children were mainly cute and adorable, except one little naughty girl who tried to steal Rachel's tablet. When Rachel took it back she smacked Rachel on the bum.  Her chances for adoption went WAY down.

Rachel, Sabrina, Heidi and William

After that we went to the Botanical Gardens. They were gorgeous.  And so were our hosts for the week!

From left to right in the picture on the right - Rachel, Sabrina, Heidi and William.

Below you can see the vastness and tropical nature of the gardens.

Enjoying real summer in Cochabamba's Botanical Gardens

Bringing art to life!

We took an artistic moment. Rachel wanted to get naked for this but I refused. Just kidding!! (Rachel made me write "just kidding" - as if you didn't already know that!!).

Householder in Cochabamba

 While in Cochabamba Rachel even got to be a last-minute householder for Heidi's talk.  This was Rachel's second time being involved with a Spanish talk.  Despite her natural stage fright and struggles with the language she did amazing.  She said one thing that helped her was knowing she wasn't the only "guera / gringa". It was nice being in a congregation that had 3 other families serving as need greaters.

After the meeting we went up and enjoyed beers on the apartment rooftop patio with one of the families from the US. The parents and their 3 children (17, 15 and 11 yrs old) sold everything and moved to Cochabamba.  They chose a city where the family could be comfortable and adjust to their new life. They even found a brewery that delivers beer right to their door.  It was so nice associating with new friends and enjoying a stout on a warm summer evening under the stars.

Goodbye to Dear Friends

On a sad note, our Cochabamba friends are returning to Canada for health reasons. We will miss them dearly.  Anyone from Calgary who may be reading, take good care of them for us, they're precious!

And the 'chaps' that invited us to their 'flat' and made us feel so welcome when we arrived in Oruro, our British need-greater friends Chris and Rebecca, have now moved to Potosi at the CO's request - a 6 hour bus ride away. That's 'brilliantly bad!'  ... Sorry ... just need to wallow in self pity for a moment ... okay, I'm fine now.

My new office

Finding Online Work

It is amazing how Jehovah provides. From a friend of a friend we heard about a job opportunity teaching English online. Just what we needed to help pay the bills.

It involved moving the office out of the bedroom as I will be starting about 5:30 am, but I got a nice office set up now - it makes me happy.

showing videos in service

Service Experiences

I was a big skeptic of the use of tablets before coming to Bolivia. I resisted purchasing one because I already had a laptop and a smart phone. It seemed like over-consumption bordering on materialism. But ... this may be the only time I will utter these words ... I was wrong!

Almost everyday in the ministry we are showing videos - why study the bible, what are our bible study courses, what are our meetings, Caleb etc ... Add to that the need to show videos in Aymara, Quechua and Bolivian Sign and our tablets are our most used ministry tools here in Oruro.

In the picture on the right I'm showing the why study the bible video to a young woman and her family.

Besides showing videos we get lots of opportunity to witness and have bible studies. It is so heartwarming to show up at a studies home and to hear the young children come running and greeting me "Hermano Troy, Hermano Troy" (Brother Troy, Brother Troy).

On one such study my heart almost got ripped out of my chest and run over by a stampede of wild buffalos (not literally). As we were about to leave after a doorstep study with a girl about 18, the adorable little 8 year old sister asked us to pray for their family.  She thought because she had bad thoughts sometimes that maybe God would be angry with her.  And she asked that we beg God not to let her parents fight anymore because it scared her, especially when her father hit her mother.  She even knew that they fought over money.

I told her that Jehovah listens to little girls just as much as he listens to me and that she could pray to him whenever she was scared or felt that she was bad.  I gave her the brochure about Your Family can be Happy and urged her to tell her parents how she felt and to give the brochure to them to read together. It's so easy to get emotionally attached to studies.

There are so many more experiences we could share but I risk having bored you to death already with the length of this update.  So we will go. Adios amigos. Thanks for reading.

Contact form success

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

It seems that should be the name of our blog as I'm always trying to 'tweak' it.

It started as a way to keep family and friends updated first on our life in Mexico and then in Bolivia.  But recently we noticed visitors from all over the world (US, Canada, Argentina, UK, Bolivia, St. Kitts, France, Spain, Indonesia, Ireland, Costa Rica, Russia, China, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia and more). It dawned on me that when we were researching different countries before reaching out where the need was greater, in addition to reading WT articles and jw.org postings, we visited many different need-greater blogs.  They inspired, motivated and educated us.  We even communicated with some of the brothers in other countries by means of their blogs (many thanks to Justin and Stephanie for giving us contacts and excellent advice about Bolivia).

Recently I decided to 'pay it forward' by making our blog open to feedback. I put a contact form in the margin.  Within the first couple weeks we had our first inquiry from a family interested in moving to Bolivia. We were able to share some details about the cost of living and travel in our area.

We may not be able to do much to help our brothers, but the little we can do feels good!

Thus, please feel free to contact us if you are considering moving to Bolivia.  We haven't been here long and may not be able to help with too many answers, but we can try!

Look forward to talking to you soon!

Only in Bolivia, Potosi and Coincidences

As part of the best educational program that exists in the world, last weekend we went to Potosi for the elder's school. Even though it was entirely in Spanish (barring one word - "windows") I was able to understand and benefit from the program.

interesting stone fences

Along the way we got to see wonderful scenery.
Almost everywhere they had these interesting stone fences dividing up the landscape.  Most of them seemed unused and falling down.

We didn't know why they built them. Were they to serve as pens for the llamas, were they to separate farmers fields?  Finally we concluded they must have built them as they were clearing rock from the soil for their growing fields and they would have had the dual purpose of helping keep animals out of the fields.  Just our guess.

llamas everywhere

We also had an experience you could likely only have in Bolivia - we ran into a llama!  Yes, a llama. The brothers drivers side bumper and headlight took the brunt of the damage.  The llama's rear hindquarters took the other half.  I don't think the llama walked away from that  accident, but we didn't stop to see as the roads don't have shoulders to pull off.

They were everywhere along our route.

Utah like rock formation - very red soil

 Along the way the scenery reminded us of driving through Utah and Nevada - huge canyons with red soil and interesting rock formations.


We didn't get as many pictures of the great formations as we would have liked, we forgot to bring our camera again thus we had to use our tablets and cell phones.

Huge valleys, rolling hills

 The valleys and rolling hills went on for miles.  It also had some rich growing conditions with many fields of quinoa.











The town of Potosi is at about 4000 meters (15,500 feet) above sea level and was once a booming mining town.  In the mid 1600s it was one of the largest cities in the world with a population of about 200,000. Legend has it they could have built a bridge made of silver from Potosi to Spain with all the silver they extracted from 'Cerro Rico' (the rich hill).

In Potosi you can take mine tours.  The mining practices have not changed in the last couple hundred years. The miners are paid relatively well (compared to other occupations in Bolivia) but because of lack of protective equipment and poor safety regulations they have very short lifespans dying at 40 - 50 years of age because accidents or silicosis. Some brothers in our congregation used to work in the mines, starting at the age 12 years old!!!

typical Potosi Centro street

One of the interesting bell towers

Because of the history and wealth of the city, it is a lot more beautiful than Oruro and we saw many tourists.


The food choices are wonderful.  We ate at a pizza place with a brick, wood fired oven.  The pizza was the first good pizza we had in Bolivia (that Rachel didn't need to make).



A couple from England that have been in Oruro for the last year have been asked to move Potosi to help fill a need for elders.  The congregations there are large, still growing and need to split - but don't have enough servants in the congregations.  One special pioneer couple have contributed greatly to this growth.  Currently the wife (Rachel) has 20 studies and her husband (Ricky) has 9 studies.

Casa de Moneda (Money House - Mint)

At the elder's meeting I got talking to a few of the foreign brothers in the class.  I started out the day talking to a brother that has been in Sucre for the last five months.  After brief introductions I realized I know his brother and sister - and so will many of you!  His name is Mark Noble. Rachel went through pioneer school in Queretaro, Mexico with his brother (Colin Noble) and their sister currently lives on Salt Spring Island - Shawn Repp.  (the Salt Spring connection continues around the world).

As well, we had talked with Steve Allison before leaving for Bolivia and heard that his son was serving in Bolivia.  So we finally had the pleasure of meeting Keith too.

It is amazing how small the world in Jehovah's organization!

some of the singers

Before going away to Potosi we enjoyed having 3 groups of brothers over for practicing the new songs.  Not everyone here has internet or computers.  Thus, we ended up printing about 60 copies of the songs and inviting about 20 different brothers over to our house.  We were so happy at the last service meeting when everyone sung so loud and so well.

That was the meeting where Rachel had her first student talk (she nailed it!) and I had my first bible highlights.

That's all for now.

The Love of the Brothers, Circuit Assembly and Service Experiences

Welcome Party

A few weekends ago we were given a surprise welcome party.  We were told it was going to be a congregation get-together. It was scheduled to start at 7:00 pm on Sunday evening.  One brother warned us not to bother coming until 7:30 pm as they usually start late.  I'm glad he did warn us as only 6 brothers were there when we arrived at 7:30 pm - and they were still working on getting a light source in the large, windowless room being used for the party.  By 9:00 pm most of the brothers had arrived.

I was sick that night with a bronchial type cough that was triggered every time I started to talk or whenever I got up to dance.  Thus we were thinking of not attending at all but we decided we would attend because we didn't want to be rude and then leave by about 9:00 pm.  Our plans were spoiled with the late start. But were we ever happy we attended.

The surprise came at about 9:30 pm when the MC announced that the party had been arranged to say goodbye to a brother that had just completed MTS and was being sent to another assignment and to welcome us to the congregation (we had gotten our 1 year VISA and now were official in the country and thus official in the congregation too).  We were invited up to give speeches.  They even made Rachel go up to say a few words.  Of course with her level of Spanish she was too afraid to speak audibly so instead she put to use her new found sign-language skills.  We share the K.Hall with a sign-language group and when you can't understand Spanish very well watching the signers helps a lot.  So she signed a few words to one of the brothers who translated into the mic.  Everyone was very impressed.

After that two sisters sang us a welcome song.  It was beautiful!  Don't ask me what it was about ... but it was beautiful.  Now that I think about it maybe they were singing to the single brother that was leaving - it does sound like a 'broken heart' song!  Then the dancing started.  We stayed for about 45 minutes more.  At that point I was starting to explode.  My lungs were becoming an external organ.  It was totally my fault, I couldn't stay off the dance floor.  I especially loved the Bolivian version of the Bird Song which is the "Gorilla Song".  The dance that goes along with it is a LOT more entertaining than the bird song.  I didn't have the presence of mind to record it as I was laughing too hard, but I promise that at the next get-together I will remember.  As we were trying to escape at about 10:30 pm we got stopped by one of the sisters.  She had prepared a special dish for us which they hadn't had a chance to offer us as the meal hadn't been served yet. She wanted us to take some to go along with many other treats.  I may have been half dead and missed the next few days of service recovering but our hearts were overflowing from the love the brothers showed. 

Circuit Assembly - 1350 attendance - 11 baptized

Me and my gang.

This assembly was a lot more difficult than the last, for a few reasons.  One, this was my first time with an assignment. I was an assistant overseer in the cleaning department.  Here the brothers do a LOT of cleaning for an assembly. Let me give you an idea of what they do here;

As it is common for them to run out of water they have four large water tanks outside each of the four sets of washroom locations. When there are water shortages the idea is you take buckets of water from the tanks to flush the toilets. We were fortunate this time that the arena had running water for MOST of the time we were there (from 8:00 am until 9:15 am the day of the assembly there was no running water).  Upon arriving to clean the day before the assembly, we realized the patrons of sporting events used the water tanks as trash receptacles for leftover food and food packaging.  Thus we had to drain the blackened, scummy water out, remove the trash, scrub them clean and refill the water tanks.

The washrooms are SCARY when we first arrive. To give an idea of the condition of the washrooms, they don't flush toilet paper here (common in Mexico, Central and South America) and yet the management does not provide trash bins for all the washrooms.  Thus the odor when we arrive is quite pungent.  The brothers and sisters are amazing. Using the most rudimentary cleaning equipment (squeegee on a broom handle, a rag the size of a doormat and a bucket of water with cleaning solution) they go to work cleaning the filth.  They don't even have proper mops so they need to soak the rag in the bucket, wrap it around the floor squeegee, scrub the floors and then rinse it and wring it out by hand.  I know!!!!  It's disgusting.  Yet they put on gloves and willing throw themselves into the work.

As part of the process of making the arena suitable for the brothers, the cleaning department bought nine (9) toilet seats to install in the women's washrooms so that MOST of the women's toilets would have seats ('MOST' only because of budget constraints).  The men's washrooms we didn't worry about putting toilet seats, whatever were there was good enough. The cleaning department also bought 20 garbage cans to make up for what the facility did not provide.  We needed 36 garbage cans.  Thus in the remaining 16 stalls we taped garbage bags to the walls.

They don't have paper towel or toilet paper dispensers, so we put a piece of packaging (box) tape through the center of a toilet paper roll, twist it a few times and attach it to the wall of the bathroom stall. This creates a makeshift dispenser. We would do the same with the hand towels but our cleaning budget is very small.  Thus throughout the entire day 5 shifts of 2 sister / brothers are assigned to each washroom to hand out paper towel (1 piece per person) and reattach new rolls of toilet paper and keep the floor clean and dry.

In addition, on the pre-assembly clean the brothers scrape gum off of seats and floors, remove trash from between the concrete benches and the wood slats bolted on top of them, sweep and wash seats and floors throughout the entire arena, paint over the many foul language graffiti slogans, etc, etc, etc. And here is the kicker, apparently the brothers have to PAY to rent the facility the day before the program begins so that we can clean it!!!!

In addition to the workload during the Assembly, what made the Assembly even more difficult was that our cleaning station was situated in an alcove.  Because of the concrete construction this alcove was like a reverberating chamber, an echo tunnel.  We struggle at the best of times to understand the assembly programs as the different brothers have slightly different accents, they speak quicker to try to include more material or they don't enunciate clearly because of nervousness.  Thus, whenever I wasn't running to bring supplies to the different washrooms, I resigned myself to trying to understand and note down the scriptures used during the program.  Even that proved to be difficult.  Thank goodness for the provision of the Assembly audio recordings from the sound department - one of the many wonderful changes our organization has implemented in recent years!

Service Experiences

Recently we decided to cull RVs from our digital 'book of life'.  We were up to 61 RVs that we had placed literature and set up for a study in the Good News brochure.  The problem was we could never find some of them at home again and we were doing way too much traveling around. Another issue was we were not scheduling a specific date and time to return for most of the calls but just waiting until we were in that area in the ministry again.  This was too haphazard and inefficient.  So we took a few hours one evening to map out all our calls and make specific times to return.  With the ones that are never there we left notes with their family or in their doors giving them our contact information and putting the onus on them to contact us if they wanted to study.  Then we deleted them until we receive further contact.  We have really seen blessings from arranging our calls this way.

Finding sheep in the ministry!

Yesterday (Sunday) is an example of our recent service experiences using this method.  We started off expecting one of our new calls at the meeting.  He didn't show so after the meeting we scheduled a visit to him later in the week.

Rachel had worked hard and cooked a meal the night before so we went home and enjoyed a meal with a couple and 2 single sisters from our Hall.  We were able to enjoy a nice relaxed meal and some association, clean up and do dishes, rest for a bit and then get out in service by 2:30 pm (the benefits of a 9:30 am meeting).


We had 8 potential studies scheduled for that afternoon.  The first call was not at home.  Two days earlier we had contacted her in the ministry and she had poured out her heart about all the problems she was having in her family.  We had offered to return with the new brochure "Your Family Can be Happy", so we left it in the door with a note.  The next call was a no show as well.  We left our contact card with his family and informed them if he wanted a study he would need to call as we would not be returning otherwise.  At that point we phoned our 3rd study (always a good idea to get phone numbers).  He said he was happy to hear from us and would wait for our arrival.

This was our first real visit with him since the initial contact.  Upon our arrival he asked us to pray for him.  Thankfully this wasn't the first time we encountered this so we used the suggestion from the 'reasoning book' showing that we like to follow Jesus instructions for preaching (Matt 10 - which we read with him) and we don't pray with people at the doors like other religions. He wasn't offended at all but appreciated the biblical answer. He invited us in and told us his life story for the first 15 - 20 minutes. Then we started talking about the subject 'are all religions pleasing to God.'  He brought out his bible and we used ours without any other publications for the discussion.  At the end of the study he invited us back and confessed that he felt God had helped us meet.  We met him while witnessing on the minibus on our way to another study about a month earlier.  We ended up being there for almost one and a half hours as he kept asking questions - not good seeing as we had 5 more calls! As we left he walked us to the bus stop, asking questions all along the way. He helped us get on the correct minibus to go to the next call.

Finally on our way we decided to reschedule our next appointment as we were already very late.  Fortunately the appointment after that wasn't home either. I say 'fortunately' as this allowed us to arrive at our 6th call just on time.  This time we got the young man we had originally called on in the ministry, rather than his brother whom we had been studying with regularly at that house.  Grover was appreciative to see us again and mentioned that his brother had been sharing the points from the studies with him. So we continued the study with Grover rather than his brother.  He accepted the teachings a lot more readily than his brother and asked many questions.  So many that we were 30 minutes late for our next study.  After an hour there we peeled ourselves away. We had to cancel one more study for that day as it was now 6:30 pm and we were supposed to be back at the K.Hall for an appointment at 7:00 pm.

The last call of the afternoon, ended up being with 2 teenage girls. The original interest was with their mother but when she isn't available her daughters are happy to study and relay the information to her later.  This time their younger sister, about 8 years old, also came out. The first thing she did was start petting and pulling on my arm hair and the brochure.  Rachel tried to distract her while I conducted the study. This little, precocious girl was non-stop questions. She started with why were we so white, why did Rachel have blue eyes, why was her hair so short, where are our parents, where does god live, is he friends with Santa Claus, do we know the words to Feliz Navidad?... Through all this Rachel didn't think the girl was listening to me conduct the study but when I asked the other girls what hope is there for bad people when they die, based on John 5:28,29, she turned and shouted, "infierno" (hell)! She she was shocked when I said 'no'.  She didn't quite get the point of the study but she was sort of paying attention. We were only planning on staying 15 minutes but a half hour flew by and we had to go as it was already 7:05 pm and we were still 10 - 15 minutes from the K. Hall.

We caught a minibus and went straight to the Hall where new CUSHIONED chairs were being delivered.  We helped bring them in and unwrap them. What a treat to have nice cushioned seats. Our pampered, sore, Canadian butts thank the brothers that decided to get better chairs. We are sure the existing chairs had been designed as some form of torture device. Only 80 chairs were delivered to our hall.  We usually have about 110 in attendance at our meetings.  Am I ever glad most are late for the meetings as it means we will easily get the good seats by arriving early, or even just on time.

We left for home by 7:45 pm, picking up a 13 Bs ($2) KFC style fried chicken dinner for one which we shared.  A glass of wine, deep fried chicken and french fries - what a wonderful way to cap a full and rewarding afternoon in the ministry.

Since Mexico I haven't felt such excitement in my ministry, the surge of holy spirit that comes with having study after study of willing, eager students.  It's something I always want to be able to enjoy in this system. We got home after 4.5 hours of Sunday service and it took about an hour to 'come down' from the spiritual high - to use a crudely inadequate metaphor.  As King David sang in Psalms 27:4 - we too want nothing more than to be able to dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of our lives, to gaze upon the pleasantness of Jehovah - what a kind and loving father he is! And we would add, we want to always be able to enjoy the privilege of serving his kingdom interests full-time in such a rewarding assignment such as Bolivia.

Thanks for reading.  Until next time may the blessings of Psalms 20:1-4 be upon all of you!
(Yes, I'm in Psalms for my daily bible reading).