Uvita English Group

Last Sunday we went to our first meeting as a family. There were 22 present for the talk and Watchtower study. The brother who gave our talk drove from about 50 minutes away where they are also short on elders and brothers. The brother gave a great talk about not letting recreation distract you from spiritual pursuits. It was so neat to have the same material in another country. Wherever you live, we all have the same things to deal with. He did mention that although this isn't a really big problem in Costa Rica, everyone  loses focus on occasion.  He also mentioned that he knew most of us in the audience had probably made huge changes in our lives just to be here in Costa Rica. That was nice because looking at the audience..he was right, we are ALL living much different lives here then where we came from. Regardless of that, people are grateful to be here and happy to be helping right along with Jehovahs purpose.

The Watchtower study was great. You can imagine how hard that is for the conductor with only 22 in attendance, 8 of those being kids. But the Watchtower conductor was awesome. He had little points to share on each paragraph that really helped you to understand things better, like the definition of being gentle or kind in the insight book. He also had additional questions that really made you think about how the article applied to the people we meet in the ministry. He really kept things moving along.  Now in this situation you do find yourself keeping track of who answered when so that you know when it's your "turn. Just getting into town the day before and tired as can be, I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked to be for meeting but I still wanted to do my part. The  point is..answering and participating at meeting is just a must. It's like everyone is relying on everyone to really make the study meaningful, and it is! Tyler ran the 1 microphone so he was happy( and sweaty:) to be put to work right away. The kids here..I underestimated them, they answered just as much as the adults and gave awesome comments! It warmed my heart after meeting to have Peyton say to me," Mom, I love this meeting"! Okay,  it was probably due to the neighboring puppy who comes over to the Kingdom Hall every meeting and plays with the kids (He was promptly uninvited when he tried to sit in), or the fact that they go outside of the kingdom hall and look at bugs and have races before and after meeting. Whatever the reason the kids seem to be liking it here in Costa Rica.

This week will be an adventure (we have dubbed everything challenging, an adventure now..it just sounds better). Our midweek meeting will be in Spanish and we aren't quit sure how the kids will react to this. We are going to try some different techniques for study so we will keep you updated on how that goes. We have seen the kids interact with some little Ticos and its amazing! Kids can just play together even if they don't speak the same language. I was so glad to see that they weren't getting frustrated by not being able to understand each other.

Additionally, Im not sure how long we will even continue to have a Sunday meeting in english.  This is something that has been a challenge for the brothers here, for instance, we have no speaker for the next 3 Sundays. When that happens local brothers have to give the talks and we only have 3 elders. To get speakers we often have to send a brother out,  that means they are constantly giving talks.  The brothers here are working tirelessly and really need more brothers. Our territory has changed tremendously.  it is much smaller now making the need for pioneers less of an issue. The real need is for brothers... lots and lots of them:)

Going to all of the meetings in Spanish is not something that we had prepared ourselves for, but we are here to help and that means doing whatever Jehovah directs the congregations to do. There have been some other changes here as well. The spanish have 24 publishers with only 1 elder so this brother is so happy to have the help of the english friends.  One brother we know has given at least 4 parts, all in Spanish in the last 8 weeks and he speaks hardly any spanish! He writes it out in spanish and then corrects it the best he can. Then he gets on stage and reads it! Of course he has already had a few blunders, but he says "it's going to happen, it's all part of the learning process." He spends so much time translating his talks. This brother also has a wife and 2 kids and runs a business in the states. After the first part he gave, the only elder in spanish came up and gave him a huge hug. This particular elder usually gives every part on the service meeting , conducts the school and conducts the Watchtower. Oh yeah.. and shepherds the flock:) This brother was moved to this hall so this isn't his home congregation.. but it is now. I can't imagine the way that elder feels having so much help now! And that right there really is the reward, knowing that as a united brotherhood you are helping support the congregations in anyway that you can. Your helping your brothers and sisters just meet together to worship Jehovah. Here the friends work 6 days a week and they work hard, in the heat. Those meetings bring to them a whole new level of refreshment that I have never realized. It has helped me to see that whatever you are doing to support the congregation here, or where you are, means so much! The most important thing you can do is be there, because being there leads to all other good things. Well It's getting hot here so were headed to the beach!!!! I love getting emails from you all it's the highlight of my day so keep in touch!  Love you all!