Once again there has been a lot going on here on the small peninsula since we last updated, we had our district convention as well as a visit from the Circuit Overseer, Keith also made it back to Placencia a few weeks ago! There were 3 district conventions held in Belize and the one our group attended had 1,053 in attendance for the sunday program. Now a couple experiences from the ministry.

This one's from Derrick:

"There is one study we have neglected to mention in the blog so far that has been making great progress his name is Anthony. Anthony was found by brother Pollard back when we had the article on how to quit smoking. Anthony was just praying to God for help to stop smoking and a few moments later Brother Pollard approached Anthony in the door to door work and presented the magazine on how to quit smoking with Anthony. Anthony said from that point on I knew it was the Truth. Ever since then Anthony has been regular at the meetings and is progressing well. At the last meeting he attended he couldn't stop smiling so I went up to him and asked him how he was doing, he said "Man this is it, being at the meetings man it makes you feel like your really living." I told him well thats good and that the meetings were just a fraction of what the real life will be in the future he said, "Man I can not wait for that!"

This one's from Keith:

"Im now back in placencia and after being away for a few month it feels good to be back. The group is doing well and now with everyone having there convention and a recent co visit the atmosphere is zealous and hopeful. I was encouraged after the very first day of being back in the ministry. While in the door to door service I meet a young man working, doing some minor construction work. Though he was apprehensive at first, he and his two other friends became very interested with many outstanding questions. They kept attentive throughout my whole visit. To my surprise they all pulled out a note pad and pen and had begun writhing down notes, and keeping track of the scriptures i was reading to them! There questions all varied but they all loved the november watchtower. They all wanted to be happier. "We work hard, all the time" they said, "but we never seem to get happier". After a long while I said good bye and promised to return. So needless to say the encouragement goes both ways and seeing people in these last days listening to the good news is a great feeling."

We do hope that these experiences bring you encouragement in these last days. If you or anyone would be interested in serving where there is a greater need please speak to your local body of elders and the Circuit Overseer to see if you have the circumstances to expand your ministry in this way!

It has been a little while since we posted on the blog, as many of you know many of us working with the group returned in August and several other brothers and sisters went home for a visit during September to October time but now many of us are now back in Belize in the Placencia group. On the return to Placencia within a week we faced a hurricane that was heading south towards Placencia that some were worried about but began to head north as it was heading closer to shore so we experienced no damage or injuries on the peninsula. Where the hurricane hit the worst some brothers and sisters houses were damaged with 3 foot of flooding and roofs being blown off and at least 2 houses were destroyed but the RBC is already taken action to repair the homes and rebuild the brothers houses. As of now we have no reports of injury or death, thanks for your continued prayers for the brothers and sisters that were affected by the hurricane here in Belize.

Since I have not updated the blog for a while I figured it would be a good idea to include some information regarding the group to keep all those posted who read the blog as well an experience about our meetings.

This last Tuesday about 2 hours before meeting we found out that the community center that we are renting for our meetings was going to be used for preparation for the upcoming Halloween festivities for the week, so as an alternate meeting place we sent out a text to all the bible students and publishers that we will be having the meeting at brother and sister Kafka's patio. Almost all of the regular bible students were able to make the adjustment and proved the importance of the words found at Hebrews 10:24,25.

As for the group, the biggest news is that Gino and Olga are now unbaptized publishers and are enjoying every minute of the ministry. There next goal is baptism and they both look forward to continuing to develop there relationship with Jehovah. Since brother Hoban had to leave due to health problems a few months back a special pioneer couple has moved in to help with the group there names are Steve and Telma. We also have another family that moved here to serve for a year, there names are Angelo, Melanie and there two sons are Chandler who is 14 and Spencer who is 16 they will be a great help here as the group continues to grow. I hope that this blog continues to encourage those that are reading it and I will try to update more regularly as many have requested I do so, next week there will also be more experiences from the ministry.

So things here in Placencia are still really busy and we are sorry its been so long since we have written a post. A lot of things have happened since we last wrote so we will try to fill you all in. First thing is that we have 2 new sisters from the territory and they have been mentioned in the blog before there names are Dashan and Carroll and they got baptized at the circuit assembly in March. Also, we are now holding all meetings here in Placencia where as before we were only holding the Sunday meetings. We also had our Memorial here in Placencia and had 75 in attendance. Lastly, we had to say goodbye to a few brothers and sisters that have been serving in Belize for a while now, the Hobans who have been here for over a year and a half had to return to the states due to some health problems they were a huge help here for the growing group as he was the only assigned elder here we will miss them very much. We also had to say goodbye to Seth and Keith (Keith will be returning for sure in a few months) with them also leaving the same week as the Hobans all of them have reached home safely and are doing well. We also have 2 new brothers that will be here for about 2 months and they are Timmy and Brandon! Things are growing here in Placencia and we will try to keep you posted more regularly, so now here are a few experiences.

This ones from Derrick:

My experience starts off with me going with Seth on one of his Studies. Seth was heading to his study Gubida but was not able to find him home so as we were leaving his house a man by the name of Claud was coming home (he lives with Gubida) we just said our hellos and goodbyes and left. Seth then said why dont you go offer him a study. I thought well might as well to see if he is interested. So we went up to me and asked Claud if he would be interested in studying the Bible. He said enthusiastically, "Oh man of course man I would Love a study thanks so much for coming by and asking!" He was so excited to have someone come up and offer him a study, he told us he would like to study so he can be a better person and help him to quit doing some of the things he knows God disapproves of. So we set up a time to meet and I meet him over at his work right when he gets off and we study. So far we have had 4 studies and he is showing a good appreciation for them.

This ones from Seth

Well, there has been much going on in the time here in Belize. So many things to relate, and near impossible to remember all of them. I'll do a little summary of neat experiences that I think have happened. First we'll start with some younger ones, who have a special place in my heart. My study Zerrick (10) and his brother Julius (7) have recently rehearsed all of their Bible books from Genesis to Revelation in order, without any need of consulting the the Table of Contents. It has helped them tremendously when they are looking for scriptures in there Bible. Next when we were in Seine Bight, I saw some kids there we study with, and noticed that they were getting made fun off, mostly due to the fact they were associating with the witnesses. At there study I asked them how they felt about this, the younger study named Davinci said, "It makes me feel bad!" I looked at his older brother and he got a big smile on his face and said, "I dont! I Just raise my hand and say 'THANK YOU! I'm proud to be a Wittness!'" That instantly brought an attitude change to his little brother, and really made my heart rejoice. I then shared with them some experiences of Jesus, and that he got made fun of too. The young ones are just so impressive, and i'll miss them a lot. To go on with other experiences, I was on my way to deliver a Bible to my study, I saw him on the road so I gave it to him there. Just as I was handing the Bible to him, the garbage truck was driving past. Then it suddenly stopped, and I saw the driver popping out of the huge truck and said, "Hey! Can i get one of those?" "Of course," I said. Then last month when we were offering the Watch Tower, "Has God Left Us?" we found a lady who was astounded when she read the title and said, "I was just wondering that question!" We had a nice conversation, and she gave us some free mango's. When I was coming out of a Bible Study there was a group of Rastafarians there waiting, stopped us. "Man we appreciate you guys a lot! Spreading the word! You guys aren't partial, and neither is God!" After thanking him for the compliment we were about to leave because it was late, and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. As we were leaving one of the three said, "Hey man, do you think you could leave us with a Proverb?" He started to recite one he had already been familiar with, and Brandon knew exactly where that verse was, so we opened up there and read him the whole thing. All of them had such big smiles on their faces, and as we were reading other Proverbs, one smiled to me and said, "We really appreciate this man!" After that they introduced themselves, again showing their appreciation with many kind words. My other Bible students are doing well, and the meetings are getting more lively with local comments.

As you can see there is a lot that happens, and unfortunately it can happen so often that you take it for-granted. But what I appreciate, and what I think all Kingdom Proclaimers can appreciate is that there is a reason why the end has not yet arrived. I will miss Belize, and look forward to seeing you all very soon!

Picture of the Memorial & those in attendance

It has been a few months since we have left Belize but we are all back and couldn’t be happier. There have been a few exciting things that have happened since our return, the first is that the meeting place for Sunday has changed again, to the community center and last week we had 57 in attendance. The second is that we are now recognized as an official group, which means we have a lot of work ahead of us. Here are a few experiences we have had in the few weeks we have been here.

This one’s from Derrick:

The ministry in Belize is just how I remember it, amazing! The people of Belize are excited to study the Bible and love getting their copies of the Watchtower and Awake, many of them coming up and asking us for them. But we have also rekindled many of the studies we studied with and one of those studies was Davinci and his brother Quincy. We typically go over the My Book of Bible Stories and then go over there Watchtowers to find a few comments for the them since they love to comment at the meeting. Well we went to their house and told them to get out their Watchtowers and it was already studied before we got there! I thought wow these kids really love Jehovah, we went over a few paragraphs and they underlined everything correctly. Well the wind started to pick up and blow the pages of the Watchtower over I then noticed more markings and underlines. I then took their watchtowers and looked threw it, they had the next three weeks already pre-studied and underlined! I asked them, “Who helped you do your Watchtower?” And they told me “nobody.” I couldn’t believe that they studied 3 weeks ahead on their own! Seth then asked them if they would ever like to give a talk in front of the kingdom hall and they both smiled at each other and said, “Yea!” Almost as if they thought that was something they could never do but were so excited to find out they could. We told them that soon Thursday meeting would be in Placencia were they could read the Bible in front of everyone and they couldn’t stop smiling they were so happy! It just goes to show no matter how old you are there is always room to love Jehovah with your whole heart.

This ones from Keith:

Being back in belize is like coming back to Jehovah's "big spiritual food table". There's just so much here and Its so exciting to see the progress of the group, and yes, I mean GROUP! Thats because as of a week or so ago Placencia is now an official group. We have our public talk at the community center here in Placencia and for the time being we still have to travel across the lagoon to independence for the other meetings, but here soon will be having it here in Placencia. Its all great news for the students and publishers who are witnessing the progression of Jehovah's group. It certainly brings joy to my heart to see the effort of the students despite there trills and tribulations they face. Geno is a man thats been mentioned before and he was hi-lighted in our movie, he has made fine progress. Last thursday night, it was the second time he wore a tie to a meeting, and he and his wife even took there own boat. They struggle with getting to the meeting on thursday night because he really doesn't feel comfortable with taking the boat at night but they made the effort and stayed the night just to make it! his son paul asked to begin studying as well. He's a nice man but this study is going to be difficult because paul really doesn't read well, at all. So I'm going to draw on some guyana skills and a whole lot of Jehovah's holly spirit to help him read and most importantly, learn what the bible really teaches. Today I went to Genos welding shop and who do you think had his bible teach book out and preaching, yep it was Geno himself. He tells me "I just cant help it keith, i just love talking to people, someday ill be with you guys"! You sure will Geno, you sure will......

This ones from Seth:
Hello family and friends. I hope all are well, be assured that I miss everyone one of you, and sorry for my lack of keeping in touch. We've been very busy here in Belize. I have about 4 excellent progressive studies, and a whole buch more in the works. I'll start my expierence with
something that happens pretty common here in Belize, but for any publisher of Jehovah, it makes their day every time they see it happen. It's when the householder stops everything they're doing at that moment in time, and read the publication that Jehovah has lovingly prepared for us. This happened to me with a study I'm conducting named Gubida. Gubida was hard at work as always, but this time he saw us as we were going on a return visit about 50 feet away from him. All of the sudden I heard this deep voice yelling, "Hey! Hey!" I was shocked to see that this big, black, bearded man with a shovel, was yelling at us, trying depserately to get our attention to come over. When we got a little bit closer, and greeted him, he waisted no time in saying with anticipation, "So do you have anything new for me to read!?" We gladly placed the current magazines with him. As we were walking away, I looked back to find that he hadn't moved from the place where we had just spoke, and was sitting cross legged in the dirt reading the magazine. He looked up and noticed me looking at him, and starting yelling "Blessed love Brotha! Blessed love!" I could really feel the appreciation in his voice. Then I started thinkin to myself of how people here really are thrilled to read the newest from Jehovah. When I see people like Gubida, drop everything to read the publication, it deepens my apprecation for what the Slave does for us in feeding us Spiritually. It's something we're spoiled in, and something I personally haven't fully taken adavantage of. The excitement and yearning Gubida has for the societies newest material has helped me with my own.



Fishing trip where we went to the keys



A picture of our backyard, its tough serving where the need is greater...