SPECIAL ASSEMBLY DAY

On Oct 11 2009 we had our very first assembly to attend. It was the Special Assembly Day to be held in Punta Gorda, Belize. Punta Gorda is a seaside town just above the Guatemalan border.

We went down the day before to help with cleaning and setting up of the stage and seats etc. We had such a blast. There were brothers and sisters from all over who came to help and the atmosphere of love and unity was thick.

The COBE of Dangriga congo was given the assignment of painting the sign that held the theme scripture for the programme. This brother was struggling a little with this and when I asked him if he would like some help he was ever so grateful. So I went along after him making the edges straight and realigning the letters slightly so that it was as uniform as possible. We had to do the whole sign by free hand as there were no stencils or rulers or tape to use. I have to say it came out pretty well. The brother later told me that when he was asked to do the sign he was freaking out as he didn’t really know what he was doing, so had a quick prayer to Jehovah for help. With that I came along and offered him help, how Jehovah provides aye.

The building itself starts at the ground with tin and then thatching above that, then a small gap with nothings covering it and then the roof which is also tin. As you can imagine it can get very hot in there. Weeeel, hot it was! The day of the Assembly the sun was fierce, it beat down upon that building melting all that were within. The poor brothers with their long pants and jackets (for the stage parts) were dead on their feet. It was not a strange thing to see one go past with not a dry patch on his shirt. There were even brothers that did not have speaking parts that were wearing light colored pants, this was not a good idea as even the butts of the brothers were soaking wet from sweat. You could not tell this with the brothers with the dark pants on, but the light pants, oh dear!

The speakers were all very good and the interviews and demos were wonderful. I have videoed 90% of these so I can share some of the experiences with you all. There were a number of ones from our congo that were interviewed so it will be nice to show you them too. Kind of an introduction of sorts.

The night before the Assembly we went out to dinner with some of the brothers and sisters. The place we went sit out over the water and in the distance you can see lights from both Guatemala and Honduras! This night there was a massive storm and the thunder was shaking the building we were in! No kidding either. The rain was so heavy you could have sworn someone was out side dropping buckets of water on the roof. One of the brothers was saying that back in his hotel room, when the lightening would flash it would arch inside the room over the walls where the appliances were! Hmmmm how safe that is I don’t even want to wonder! Don’t tell Marlene about that part!

All in all, we had a wonderful time. It really shows that even though we are on the other side of the world, Jehovahs organization is exactly the same. We were taught the same things we used the same books, even the program was exactly the same! Don’t think you can say that about many other religions.

This has given us a little taste to keep us going for a while again and we cant wait until we go to Ladyville in Jan for the District Convention. I don’t think I will have to paint any signs for that one, well not yet anyway.