To an island - from an island

We have had a fun few days since I last posted. Wednesday, we heeded everyone's advice to find a beach and get some sun. To answer Deb's question: Yes, we can see the ocean from our windows. It is about the same veiw as the photos with the sheep, except a little farther back. We can't go to the water there though. Most of the ocean along the south side of the island is not beaches. It is called the 'iron wall', because there are walls most of the way along, that just drop off to the water. This is the side cruise ships come in on and other boats like cargo & fishing. So unfortunately, we can't walk to any place to swim. Actually it sounds like most beaches are quite a drive away. There are some resorts not far, but you have to pay to use their beach. So we decided to venture down to the famous West Bay Beaches. This area is the whole way down to the west tip of the island. We hadn't been that way yet, and this it is supposed to be the best beach on the island. It is where most of the resorts are and where all the tourists want to go. So we got a taxi, and off we went. It was quite a drive! Probably about 45 mins. That is crazy seeing as it was only about 12 miles away! That is how it is to get anywhere here. The main road is so windy that everything takes double as long as it would if the roads where just straight. Probably from one end of the island to the other, would take you 2 hours. But it is only about 30 miles long. It is very beautiful though. There are a lot of hills and little mountains that take you up high and give you beautiful veiws of the island and the sea. Anyway, West Bay Beach was beautiful. It was a little cloudy and the ocean was choppy when we first got there, but then the sun came out and it calmed down. The water is turquoise and clear. And there are some good spots for snorkeling right off the beach. We didn't get to stay long though, because it was our meeting night. The only bad thing about this area is, there are a lot of people bugging you the whole time trying to sell you stuff, and it does get quite crowded with people. But it is nice if you want a break and want to feel like you're on vacation. 

 

 

We went to meeting in the new Kingdom Hall in Coxen Hole for the midweek meeting. The congregation has about 40 some publishers and about half are locals and half are from other areas that have come to help. Everyone was very friendly and they didn't appear to need much help commenting or with parts. There are a bunch of elders and everyone seems very zealous. But that is ok, because we are hopping to focus our energies on the east end. Most in the congregation are happy staying on the west side and don't want to move up there and help. I can understand why, it seems pretty nice down there and it is a lot more built up. But we came to help where there is a real need. And that is the east end. The congregation does go up there once a week to work the territories up there, but the problem is, these people couldn't get to meetings because they are so far away. So they want to start having meetings up there and see what happens. I'm truly hoping we can stay to see the start of a new congregation! The day for service on the east end is Thursday. So this was our first day out. We met at 8:30 at the K.H. in Oak Ridge. We worked in a little village called Pandy Town. Just as we were hoping, the territory seems as good as it was in Belize. Most everyone is willing to talk to you. The second lady I got, I placed the magazines with her and went over the 1st paragraph in the middle article. She was busy doing laundry though, but still willing to talk for awhile. She was very excited to get the magazines and said "when are you coming back, we can go over this together and sit and talk longer, I'll pull some chairs out and you can stay awhile." Can you believe that! I think she made the arrangements for us to have a bible study! Justin had some good potential stuff too. On one of Jana's study with Sherry, (that came to the meeting the week before, with all 4 kids) we made arrangements for Justin to study with her 2 older boys, Deandre (12) and Elijah (7). 

 

Justin and I went back up to Pandy Town today to work in service ourselves. We figure that there is no point in going to the other end, if we want to help develop things up here. We didn't get real far though. We were supposed to study with Sherry's boys today, but they ended up having something come up. We also were planning on going to a little island to preach about 50 feet out in the water from Pandy Town. It probably has about 30 houses on it. You have to get a water taxi over, or get a ride from someone. It is not a problem though, becasue it is a community on the water, so there are boats everywhere. So after a couple mins. of waiting, a couple offered us a ride over. It took about 4 seconds. As soon as we got off the boat, a little boy about ten years old greeted me with a big hug. His name was Matthew. He lead us to his house, and I was thinking "ok, the parents probably won't be quite as eager as him to see us", but I was wrong. His Grandmother greeted us at the door and said "come in, come in". And then she too gave me a big hug! We sat down and talked like we had known each other for a long time. She took some magazines and said to come back. She explained to us though, that we had come to the island at a bad time. It was getting close to 11 am and at noon is when everyone eats their big meal and relaxes. So it wouldn't be a good time to preach. I knew a lot of areas where like this but just hadn't thought of it. It had started to rain quite hard while we were there though, so she made us stay for awhile until it stopped. Then we decided to leave the island and come back another time. So we caught a taxi back over for 10 lemps a person - that's about 50 cents each. So we didn't get real far preaching by ourselves, but we will get the hang of it. We have to get our groove set. We are very excited about the potential though. Keep the comments coming, we like hearing from everybody! Any questions?? Until next time.....

Moooove!

                                                                         Pandy Town

                                                     A veiw from up high on the road.