The Routine

I Preach on da beach!

I've now been here for nearly six weeks, and I have to say I'm feeling pretty good.  I haven't been robbed, gone broke, or been killed, so I must be doing something right:)  My weekly service routine is pretty much set, with long days on Monday's and Saturdays, and shorter days in the middle of the week.


I have my first official Bible study, and we've covered a few paragraphs in the Bible Teach book on the chapter that discusses family.  His name is Shehker, and he works at a jewelry shop in Ocho Rios, a tourist town that we visit every Saturday.  He was engaged a couple months before I arrived, and his bride-to-be is in India.  Carole and Jaime had given him a family book, and the first time I met him he seemed very concerned about getting good guidance to have a happy family life. Well you know, the Bible can help with that...


I'll have to get a picture of him so you all can see, but he is a very nice man who looks forward to his study.  In fact, our group had been unable to make it to Ocho Rios for a couple weekends in a row, and by the time I finally got back to him, he was wondering where we had been and if we forgot about him!  Since our territory is almost exclusively in shops, it is sometimes hard to preach if they have customers.  But it is slow season for tourism right now, and the jewelry shops especially are relatively slow.  So Shekher is always willing to stop for a 1/2 hour or so and catch up for a bit and study.


In the same shop, I call on a man named Sashee.  I gave him the Hindi NWT this past Saturday and he was very appreciative.  I hope to study with him out of the "Listen to God" brochure this coming Saturday.  Sister Vina went with me on the call 2 weeks ago and Sashee began pouring out his heart to us.  Apparently, he spent his entire life savings taking care of his father who had suffered a stroke.  It took him years to save all that money, but he spent it all on medical bills in less than a month.  Now it seems that he feels like less of a man because he doesn't have any savings and is worried about the future security of his family.  Of course, in my mind I was thinking that there was no better way for him to spend his savings than caring for his Dad, but Sister Vina says it's a very Indian thing to be ashamed if you lose your savings.  Anyway, he was glad to see us last week also.  He already has read the "Listen" brochure several times over, because he was sooo happy to see it in his language.


After service midweek, I can come home and do any studying and relax for a bit.  Sometimes in the evenings I'll go outside and stand on my balcony and watch the sun set.  The nights are generally cool, so sometimes I'll go outside with my headphones in and just look at the stars and feel the nightime breeze.  Life is peaceful here, and I'm looking forward to the next few months that I'm here.


Convention is just around the corner for us, July 6-8.  Hindi sessions!!!!

Final Byes + Circuit Overseer Visit

Last night with Carol and Jaime

Tuesday night began the visit of our Circuit Overseer and his wife, Brother and Sister Madden.  After an awesome talk on Tuesday, a group of us headed back to the house to say our last goodbyes to Carol and Jaime and help them pack and clean.  I thank them so much for adopting me as their brother and showing me the ropes these last couple weeks.  We stayed up late looking at pictures, talking and laughing, and just generally having an awesome time.  Be safe ladies! Fir Milenge! I’ll see you later!

Wednesday began the service week, and my first door-to-door work in English service in forever.  So of course my partner for the morning was none other than Brother Madden himself.  I told him that I was a bit nervous since not only was I preaching in English, but I was also preaching in another country.  His response? ‘Well, fortunately you have down the most important part.  You actually speak English.’

Yeah that's true.

Stephen and Liane Madden

It turned out that I had no reason to be nervous, because Jamaican people in general are friendly and willing to stop for several minutes and have a discussion.  They are also religious-minded people, so you have to be on your P’s and Q’s and be ready for intense Bible discussion at every door.  The contrast from preaching in English in the U.S. is huge; there is not so much pressure to ‘get to the point quickly’ and there are a lot of return visits and studies in the territory (not to mention the 15-20 interested ones that regularly attend the meetings).  I found myself getting worried on a few occasions thinking that we were overstaying our welcome, only to find that the householder didn’t want us to leave, and was not worried about us staying too long.  (Still working on not thinking like an American)

Overlooking Flankers. Airport and beach in the background

Much of the congregation territory is in a neighborhood called Flankers, the worst neighborhood in the entire city.  It also happens to be the home of our Kingdom Hall.  Mom, before you start panicking, just know that everyone in the area knows about the Kingdom Hall and they respect Jehovah’s Witnesses and so it’s safe enough for us.  As a matter of fact, quite a few of the English studies attending are from Flankers, and the territory overall has tons of potential.  (As a side note, the reports about how dangerous Jamaica is have been greatly exaggerated.  I’ve found that as long as you are friendly with passerby, stay close with the friends, and don’t draw unnecessary attention to yourself, everything is fine.  In fact, people here in general are very friendly and helpful.)

A group of publishers

The neighborhood itself is in pretty bad shape, most of the houses are pretty run down and the roads are awful—filled with rocks and boulders, potholes, or impassable by car because of mud or overgrown by plant life.  I wanted to get more shots of the territory, but I didn’t want to draw too much attention in that neighborhood.  Another problem is that many families in the area are getting their electricity illegally, so it’s best not to be flashing the camera everywhere, in case they confuse us with public services.  In the words of Brother Madden, in this neighborhood it’s best to “smile, see no evil, and hear no evil.”  Even still, it’s such a beautiful city, taken as a whole.  I’m going to try to do English service once a month or so, just to be able to work with different friends and get into the heart of the city that I don’t see in Hindi service.

If Everyday is Like a Saturday…

When I first got here, I had a lot of trouble keeping track of what day it is.  I figured that this was as a result of not having a regular job.  All the days kind of merge into one long day of service-hanging out-service-hanging out.  In other words, like Jaime told me ‘while you’re here, every day is going to feel like a Saturday.’  To explain what I meant, I’m going to take you all through Monday May 7. (Short version, I promise)

On Mondays, our Hindi group heads to Negril.  On the way, we stopped in Lucea and studied with a Pakistani man named Ashok.  He actually has a Catholic background and has a solid foundation of Bible knowledge. It was a quite a chore trying to understand him sometimes; even though he speaks English he refused to speak to us in anything other than Urdu.  Guess I need to pick up the effort with my Hindi, since Carol is handing this study to me! We had a good discussion out of the Bible teach book, him in Urdu as I followed along in Hindi.

After spending most of the day in Negril in service, we went to Rick’s Café, a touristy restaurant set on a short cliff with places to dive into the ocean and a beautiful view of the sunset.  There we met an English family that Carol works with in England who were on vacation.  It proved to be a good witness, especially for the man, who was stunned that two English girls would meet with a Jamaican and an American and get along so well even though we’d known each other for such a short time.  We also met up with another Witness couple who are here for a few months from England.  They will be pioneering here for the summer, and may do a bit of Chinese while they are here.

After we left Rick’s, we stopped at another shop on the beach and talked to the Pakistani man there.  We then drove back to Lucea and met up with Ashok and his brother Putrus for a late dinner.  They fed us awesome Pakistani food, showed us some video of their parents 50^th wedding anniversary and generally chatted us up. By the time we were heading home, it was near 11 at night.  Good preaching, good food, good friends, what else can you ask for in a Saturday?:)

Lagaan? Plus We Say Goodbye

Carol and Jaime organized a cricket match and the entire congregation was invited.  The stakes weren’t quite as high as in Lagaan (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you need to watch this Bollywood classic), but I at first was not going to play.  I was content to sit and watch and try to figure out the rules.  Eventually I got talked into playing and it was pretty fun.  When I was batting they had to treat me like a little kid and bowl really soft.  When we were fielding, a ball got by me and I scrambled like a madman trying to get it back in the field.  After several runs scored due to my failure, an onlooker and his girl called out to me: “You Jamaican mon?” “No I’m American.” “Oh, that makes sense.” The two had a good laugh about that, and I couldn’t help but smile.


When I wasn't ruining my team's chance to win fielding or batting, I took a few videos of the action.  Here's one:

Later that night, we had a congregation going away party for Carol and Jaime.  We had dinner, a few of the brothers and sisters had some nice words for the girls, and after that we had a dance party.  Let me tell you, the Queens Drive congregation can GET DOWN!  

The girls are here for a couple more days, and then off to England they return.  I’ll miss them, but this was a fitting goodbye.

On the Hip Strip

View of the Hip Strip

It may not seem like it from my posts, but actually I have spent most of my time actually in service.  On Friday’s we do a section of Montego Bay called the Hip Strip.  It’s the section of town that has the highest concentration of Indians because they own several of the souvenir shops along the walkways and plazas. As with all our territory, we work this strip every week.  That bothered me at first, but there doesn’t seem to be any such thing as coming too often.  Here, they won’t run from you if you come every week.  People are willing to spend time with you.  The men at the shops will stop and talk to us for several minutes at a time as long as the shop isn’t too busy. (In fact, some say they like us to come, because us coming always leads to more customers coming into the shop just a few minutes after we get there.  They think more customers is evidence of God’s blessing.) 

Avette Pinnock along with a Bible Study

Since she has been working the territory for years, Sister Vina, our only native speaker, has been able to start studies with a few of the locals along the strip, including this man and his wife.  Not only did he go to the Hindi convention in New Jersey last year, he also intends on going to the Hindi sessions of the convention again this year here in MoBay.  For the most part, right now we are not necessarily conducting progressive studies with a lot of the Indians here, but we are developing friendships with them and there is tons of potential.

Negril

On Monday we went to Negrill, about an 1 ½ hour drive from MoBay.  Negrill is another tourist attraction because the cruise boats stop there.  Quite a few of the shops are owned by Indians in the area.  Included are some of sister Vina’s studies.  We went into a posh area of shops called Times Square and studied with a couple there out of the Listen to God brochure.  They have two shops that they run and had to study separately for 15 minutes at a time. The man, Chris, (yes he is Indian, sorry don’t have the pictures to prove it) is an especially interesting case.  He initially opposed his wife studying for a few reasons, not the least of which is that he was worried she would spend too much time studying and not enough time with the customers.  He soon came around though, and he seemed more mentally involved in his study then even his wife did in hers.

 It rained heavily that day, and I was left looking dirty and soaked like a dumb American who didn’t know what he was doing.  I found myself really regretting not bringing an umbrella with me to the island.  I figured I could just get one here for cheaper.  I could.  It’s just that the quality was cheaper as well. All I had was this broken one I'm holding that I got at a souvenir shop. O well, I had a good laugh, and the friends are going to take me to a department store in downtown MoBay where I can find a good umbrella.

Ackee Fruit

The ride back was the ride of my life.  We packed 6 people into the 5 seater and drove in the rain through windy hills at about 30 miles per hour.  In the car, one of the sisters, Doreen, said that she wished she could have a camera and take a picture of me everytime I saw or ate something that was new to me.  (Apparently, everybody gets a kick out my facial expressionsJ) I saw or tried several fruits I’d never heard of, including starfruit and ackee. (Can’t find those at those at the local stores I bet)  The fruits here are yummy and fresh. We stopped briefly at Witness family’s house to drop something off, and there I got to try Grated Cake for the first time. (I think that’s what it’s called, still having trouble with the accentJ) Check them out laughing at me before I try it:

On the drive back, cramped, wet, eating fruit and laughing it up with the friends, thanked Jehovah that no matter where we live, or how different the culture is that we live in, everywhere us Witnesses still know how to enjoy each others company in field service.

First Days

On Tuesday when I finally arrived at the branch, it was hard to believe that I only had been here five days.  Sister Andrea Holt picked me up from the bus station and the first order of business was to take me to the grocery store and get some food for my house!  Here is the picture of the house.

My House

It is one house with 3 apartments.  Sylvester and Andrea Holt live next door to me and own the house.  2 sisters from England, Carol Pollard and Jamie Gray live in the apartment downstairs.  They have been here for 6 months with the Hindi group and will be leaving to return to England at the beginning of May.  They took me under their wings and showed me the ropes. Going forward, I'll probably just refer to them as "the girls":)  More on them later.  

The house is on a hill and you get a view of the green hills and when its clear, you can actually see the ocean.  But enough about the outside, lets go see inside:

I quickly unpacked and got ready for the meeting that night.  The congregation is called Queens Drive English, and in addition to sponsoring our Hindi group, there is also a Spanish group that meets at out congregation.  The other congregation that meets at our hall sponsors the 6 member Chinese group, including Cathy Chai, who some of you know.  

We walked into the hall just a few minutes before the meeting started, and I nervously say "Namaste" to everyone, only to be stopped by a smiling Indian Sister who gives a me a giant hug. "Namaste Bhaiya! Welcome!" This of course, is Vina Thacker, a Jamaican missionary of Gujarati descent, and the only native speaker in the group.

Imagine my surprise when brother Maurice Pinock, the conductor, walks up to me 2 minutes before the meeting is to start and asks me to read for the Bible Study!  I hadn't read in Hindi for the study in almost 3 years! I told him where I come from, only the real Indians read for the study and pointed at Sis Thacker "sure." I prayed, calmed my nerves, and everyone told me I did a good job. 

I was a bit overwhelmed after the meeting attempting to meet everyone and decipher their names, I'm still having trouble with the accent.  I'm about ready to take post-it notes and have everybody write out their names

From left to right: Jaime Gray, Carol Pollard, Loren McDonald 

The next day the girls took me to the beach and showed me around town a bit.  It's a nice town, right on the ocean, and it caters toward tourists.  On the shopping strip is a place called the "Pelican Restaurant", which is owned and ran by a brother in the congregation. We walked to a spot along the beach that borders the the airport.  It is set up in such a way so that you can look at the runway and planes fly directly overhead so you nearly go deaf.  We were literally just a few feet from the runway, but Jaime told me that if I actually ventured onto the runway (past the barbed wire) I would be shot.  Sounds like the end of a game of 'Truth or Dare.'

Later that night, we went to the home of brother and sister Pinock, who are Special pioneers in the Hindi group and who hold weekly informal Hindi learning classes.  The group has only been in existence officially since January, so most are very new, but are still working so hard.  I look forward to working with the friends and getting out in service. More pics and experiences to come soon!  

The Branch Office!

Hello All!

My first day I landed in Kingston Jamaica and the heat and humidity hit me like a wall.  I was sweating so much I was afraid that I would just melt into a little mud puddle before I got to meet anybody.  Fortunately, the brother picked me up from the airport before I melted, and we took the 1 1/2 drive to the branch office. Wish I could say more about the drive, but I was basically asleep the whole time. First impressions?  Crazy drivers, driving on the other side of the road and not exactly what I would call friendly to pedestrians.  O well, I woke up just in time to feel the bumpy road on the way to the branch.

I didn't get a good picture of the office itself, but this pic above is the Kingdom Hall that is on the branch property, also where the Bethel family meets on Monday nights for Watchtower study.  There is also a beautiful outdoor Assembly hall for the congregations in the area. 

On the tour, I was told that the branch has about 40 regular members and another 20 commuters come by 2-3 times a week to assist with some of the caring for the family and maintenance on the buildings.  On the tour, we met a family visiting from France.  It was a sister about my age and her aunt and uncle. (Left side of the table)  I could have sworn that the two sisters were Indian, but before I had the chance to ask, I found out that they were actually natives of Madagascar! The other Jamaican sister was Sister Nelson, who took her nephew with her on the tour.  She is encouraging him to get reactivated in the truth, and he was very impressed by the tour.  The light-skinned sister at the far end of the table is Abigail, the Bethelite that guided us on the tour. She is originally from Los Angeles.  The first time I met her was when she was housekeeping.  When I told her I would be here for 4 months, she said 'you are just going to die from this heat.'


Oh boy.


Fortunately, my room was air-conditioned, so when I couldn't stand the heat, I just flipped on the a/c and cooled the room down.  Speaking of my room, check this out:

Monday was awesome.  I met with Brother Woody Corbin, a brother who is a native of California and had been assigned to Jamaica 20 years ago after graduating from MTS. (He is the brother who first encouraged me to write to the Jamaican Branch about Hindi) Along with another brother from the Service Department, they gave me some good counsel and encouragement for my assignment.


Later that evening was Watchtower study with the Bethel family, which was pretty cool because unlike at the U.S branch, where brothers are given weekly assignments to comment, here anyone in the audience can participate.  After the Watchtower, Brother Georges, who was originally a member of the Brooklyn Bethel family, gave a lecture called "Your Brother Will Rise", a beautiful talk based on the resurrection of Lazarus.  There was hardly a dry eye in the audience when it was done.


Tuesday I took the 4 hour bus ride to Montego Bay, where I would start my preaching and congregation activity.  So exciting!