We made it back to Dominican Republic after an uneventful bus ride from Port-a-Prince. As promised, here is a brief overview of our past week. I will try to be a detailed as possible.
We arrived last Monday afternoon by bus into Port-a-Prince around 2pm. Robin and Terrie West and two special pioneer sisters, Luna & Nadine, picked is up at the bus station. As I mentioned in the previous post, the West's are a missionary couple living in Mirabalais. Ashley had met Robin about a year ago and I was able to meet both of them the weekend before we left, down in LA. What a difference meeting them made to our trip here! They really encouraged us towards considering Haiti as an option to visit. They also prepared us a lot for what to expect as far as the culture and the people of Haiti. By the end of our weekend in LA, we both were wondering why on earth we had chosen the DR and not Haiti to travel too! (of course, once getting to Pedernales and having such great experiences there it was hard for us to think to much about travelling to inner Haiti.)
In any case, we still wanted to visit and the West's welcomed us with wide open arms. After picking us up we drove to the Bethel Branch, which is about 20 minutes away. Once there we realized right away that we were with some of the best people you could be with when visiting Haiti. They had been at the bethel branch for over twenty years and had only just been sent to Mirabalais last spring. Walking around bethel as guests of the West's was like having celebrity status! Further proof of a really great couple:). We all had lunch in the room of another unique couple, Hugh & Janet Haisely. They have been here in Haiti for close to 30 years (I think) but have just recently been reassigned to Patterson, NY. It was a real privalege to meet and get to know them. After lunch we did a tour of the branch. It's very pretty!
We set off for Mirabalais just after 6 pm. By then it was dark outside. Haiti has a hour difference to the DR. I guess they used to be the same when Haiti recognized daylight savings. But then someone decided that for man to just change time like that twice a year is going against what God intended for timekeeping so they stopped........hmmmmmm.....;)
Anyways since it was dark we only got to see and experience crazy traffic as we left port-a-prince before heading north into the mountains towards Mirabalais.
On a side note, in case some of you have been reading the news and have put two and two together, Mirabalais is in fact the town that the cholera outbreak was traced too. The government thinks that it was caused by the dumping of human waste directly into the river by a UN Peace camp that is located just before the city. We took extra precautions while in the town itself, of course and everything went very well.
Tuesday was a holiday so the whole congregation had planned to work the day in a smaller area about 20 minutes away. Around 60 people showed up at the hall 7:30 am to get started! It was great to see so many. Plus, about 10-15 of them are just brand new publishers! I guess this is really normal. The congregation has regularly over 300 at each meeting. Anyways the service day was great. We walked really far. At one point three groups of two us treked up the side if this hill to visit some homes. Well in one of the homes there was a man who loved to talk about the bible. He gathered all 6 of us and sat us down, sending his young son to get all of us fresh coconuts to drink! We had a nice discussion with the man and he said that he looked forward to when we would visit again.
The rest of the week passed by way to quickly. We did the same schedule as Robin & Terrie normally do, which was being out all day wed, thur, sat. Friday they take off. We were going to go up to a nearby waterfall, but, as I am sure you all heard, there was a hurricane headed right towards port-a-prince. It ended up not hitting nearly as bad as everyone thought, just brought in a ton of rain. It was kind of funny though cause we didn't have any Internet and no other way really to read the news so I don't think the Wests would have even realized there was a bad storm coming if it had not been for several different people at bethel who called Terrie every few hours to update and check in!
The territory itself was very much the same as Anse-A-Pitre. Everyone is willing to listen! We had some really great experiences. One of the funnier ones was that at one house I started in on my presentation and I asked the lady if if she could read the verse in the bible I was showing her. She said she couldn't read. I said it was no problem, i would read it for her. But then her young son, maybe 4 or 5 years old, interjected telling us that his mom could read, that she was lying. We all just kind of laughed, the woman too, and I just went ahead a read the verse. Then, after I had given her some magazines and we were getting ready to leave, the sister I was with started to explain to her how our work is voluntary and if the woman would like to contribute towards the cost of the magazines, then we would be happy to accept. Well the woman shyly shook her head no, saying she didn't have anything but then she ducked her head back in her house and brought out 2 gourds, which is about 1cent. We gladly accepted it. Except then, out of the house, her little boy comes charging at us with a 200 gourd note in his hand, gives it to the sister, saying his mom was lying again; she did have money. We all started laughing, the mom included, as the little boy went back in the house and brought out a handful of more money, repeating to us that his mom was lying. It was a little awkward, of course, but we all just laughed at the little boy, mom included, and we gave the woman back her money. Out of the mouth of babes!
A little more on the congregation... Like I mentioned it has regular meeting attendance over 300. Many of the ones you invite to come show up, all dressed up. Bible students themselves progress very quickly...I met many students who were brand new publishers because they were out in service with us everyday! Really young ones progress fast too. I met two newly babtized young girls who were age 9 & 10. the ten year old already had atleast 2 studies and the 9 year old had 6!! It was so impressive though cause these girls knew their bible SO well. Because it is so easy to talk to everyone you meet, a new publishers learns quickly how to find key scriptures to many different points. It was a very humbling experience for me; in my time here i have learned so much!
The Sunday before we left some of the brothers in the congregation through us a small party after the meeting. It was really nice of them! Plus, I have never seen so many guys who loved to dance in one room! It seemed like the brothers outnumbered the sisters and I was literally being passed from one guy to the next as each song ended and another one began. It was hard to leave!
The next day we had to say goobye to the Wests and travel back down to bethel. It was really hard to say goodbye! Just in one week we had both fallen in love with the area and the brothers and sisters, especially the Wests. They were so encouraging to us!
Monday evening we stayed a night at the bethel in Port-a-Prince. We were able to have dinner with the bethel family and also attend family study. After the study some bothers had a smaller gathering for us another two sisters who were visiting from Canada. It was a nice ending to our week!
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