Back To Belize Part (I forget the number)
Wow it has been a long time from the last post, sorry for the year delay but I will try to update you all with the progress that has been made in the Placencia Congregation.
I remember almost 4 years back when I first came here to Placencia to help preach and try to start a group with only a few publishers that were need greaters. Now 4 years later we now have a thriving congregation of zealous preachers and most importantly local brothers and sisters now participating in the ministry, and many more studying with the goal of one day being a witness of Jehovah. In the congregation we now have 25 publishers with 14 pioneers and an average meeting attendance of 70 when the meetings first started here in Placencia we had a meetings attendance of about 15-20. Most recently we have had the first local brother appointed to serve as a ministerial servant, Rodger Arden. And for the memorial we had an attendance of 131. Now for a few ministry experiences.
Me and Gino took a trip out to the Cayes to relax, we were going out to a small island named Pumpkin Caye where we would fish, sleep and fish some more. The island was about 50 yards long 20 yards wide so we carried our pillows with us and slept on the breach. While on the island another sailing boat of 10 of fisherman were also seeking a place to sleep for the night, so they too decided to sleep on the island as well. While me and Gino were cooking our catch for the day to eat for supper I told him "I wish we would have brought some magazines to place with these guys but I thought we would be the only ones out here" Gino then said, "Well you have your Bible with you Derrick why dont you give them a little sermon. Ill let you knock this one out since you been baptized longest." I laughed and told him I would do it but I wanted to eat my fish first, so while Gino was finishing up cooking the fish I was preparing to give a talk for the fisherman and since it was memorial season decided to have the Memorial of Jesus Death as the subject. Gino in the meantime was talking to the captan and his crew would like to hear a Bible talk and the captan said he and his men would love to hear the talk. So while we were eating all the men were gathered together around us waiting for us to finish our fish so they could hear the talk, by the time we finished eating it had gotten dark, the the men brought a car battery out hooked some wires to it and a bulb and hung it over a tree so I could have some light to see the scriptures. I began the talk and explained the importance of the memorial, why Jesus came to die for us, why we needed a ransom, and the benefits and blessings of following Jesus and what he outlines us to do in the Bible. After about 30 minutes we then began to discuss what we had talked about in the Bible and the men thanked us very much for taking time to show them those things from the Bible. One man actually had a sister in Guatemala who was a witness and he said he knows this is the truth and he wants to do better and be more like her. The Captan told us how much he appreciated the talk and that he really appreciates the witnesses because every time they come to his house they are so patient with him and teach him something new from the Bible he has been studying from the Bible Teach book but because of work he is not able to study as much as he would like. He also said he is always impressed when he sees young children come to his house that can use the Bible so well. We then went to sleep and the next morning we invited the fisherman to examine the daily text with us and the memorial Bible Reading which they also enjoyed.
Another experience I had in the ministry was when we were working door to door in the ministry and found a lady who teaches at the school. We discussed how god did not create evil and how the Devil made his own choice and decided for himself to do bad. She really enjoyed the discussion and before I left she told us she teaches religion for 7-12 year olds at the School. I told her that we have a couple of books for kids in that age group and that she may find them useful to help in teaching her students about the Bible sense it can be a very difficult thing to teach. Her face lit up and she was very excited to see if she could receive the books so she could use them to teach. I later gave her the books and she was very appreciative to receive the books!
This one's from Ross Winkle:
Sometimes brothers have to face name calling and similar verbal abuse for being a Witness. Today was probably the most strangest I've ever heard. We were working house to house a few doors away from where a brother lives, and we approached a house with very loud radio blaring out. It could be heard all the way down the street. As I got near to the door to call out the 'DJ' was saying "and I am warning you all that there is a pirate in the village, imitating the Jehovah Witnesses, he wants to corrupt you all with dishonest practices! There is a pirate in the area!" Suddenly the music and DJ stops, and the door opens and a man holding a karaoke microphone opens the door. He the proceeds to tell us that one of his neighbours - the baptised brother who lives a few homes away and was working house to house across the street - was dishonest and was calling himself a Witness! He spun around and shut the door then turned the music back up and turned on his karaoke machine to shout out the same things again! It was bizarre, but the brother handled it very calmly, he carried on. The brother owns the land and the man has not paid rent for months, so the brother was in the process of going through the courts to get him evicted, and so the crazy man was venting his anger! One of the neighbours told the brother that they were sick and tired of him and his loud music all day so they offered to 'get rid' of him - the brother politely stopped them. It's a crazy village!
Tony Pinder, Rodger Arden and myself. Rodger was just appointed as a ministerial servant and Tony as an Elder.
How we fish in Belize, no pole just a line with a hook at the end and your finger. Just be careful that line doesn't cut your finger off ;)
One of the fish we had for dinner! They call this one Old Wife!