Hurricane Fink

We have been experiencing quite a bit of rain these past couple days. It started Friday, and has really not stopped since. And when I say rain, I mean like hurricane, monsoon type stuff. It has been windy, stormy and cold! Actually it's the worst we have seen since we got here. And we thought the worst of the rainy season was over, but I guess it's not. So we are blaming it on the Finks being here. Unfortunately that means we haven't had any good beach days or time to go out sight seeing. We have just been kind of hanging out at the house. Oh well, we can't control the weather!



Playin Cards

 
 

We have enjoyed having Chris & Heather here to go out in service with us. It's nice to have the company, because a lot of times it's just the two of us. And it's nice to get to share the experience with them too. They are really enjoying our calls and studies. It's just such a joy to get to meet people that want to talk about the bible and want to learn! It really gives you a changed attitude about the work we are doing and how much there is still to do. There is just so much potential here. I think already between the two of us, we are up to around 16 bible studies. (that was a rough count) The fields really seem to be "white for the harvesting" here. So we are just so excited to see where this goes.... We didn't have a big turnout at our meeting again. I think we had 16. But like I said, it was a monsoon out. So a lot of the ones that we were hoping would come, didn't make it. The Martinez family did come though. And all 3 girls answered during the Watchtower study. They are doing really well. The oldest one, Danjah, said she was reading the chapter in the Teach Book about baptism and said "I have a lot of work to do". That made us smile.



The Martinez Family

 


Chris is chairman for his second week at Oak Ridge

 


Our yeartext in English, Spanish & Miskito



I keep forgetting to talk about our sign language group. Heather reminded me that I have to tell you about it though.... There are about 60 people on the island that are deaf. So it was decided that an effort should be made to try to reach these ones with the good news. So an ASL group was started in the Roatan English Congregation. I'm not sure how long ago. I think maybe just a year or two ago. There are many bible studies being conducted, and many of them come to the meetings. I don't have an official count on how many from the territory come to the meetings regularly, but I know of at least 5, I'm sure there are more. I will try to get some more accurate stats in the future. But I do know that there is one that has become a publisher. His name is Craig, and he is a sweetheart. He gave his first bible reading last Wednesday night. One of the sisters said that it was the quietest the Roatan English Congregation has ever been. You could have literally heard a pin drop. All eyes were on stage to watch Craig act out with his hands and face what the bible said. It was great. We really want to learn more sign language to be able to talk with him. So we are adding that to the list with spanish.

Craig's bible reading

We also had our meeting for the pioneers in the congregation, on Saturday. It was really nice, and encouraging. And yes, we are officially members of the Roatan English Congregation now. I think there were 20 of us there as regular pioneers. That's pretty good for a congregation of 47 publishers right? Ok, well, I am going to go. We are going to read our weeks bible reading together this evening as a group. Until next time folks.... Adios!

 

 

 



Thanks for the Crocs mom... I needed them today!

 

You all thought Roatan would kill us...

But you were all wrong!  This is a bonus post to you from a different viewpoint. That’s right….Heather is taking charge of this one. Don’t worry, I’ll try to keep it short and sweet and Trish will blog as normal on Monday. I just thought I would tell you all a few things from a different perspective.

First of all, as Trish alluded to in her last post, the timing of everything with our flights went well, but not everything went smoothly. After boarding the connecting flight from Miami to Roatan I began to feel progressively unsettled in my stomach. I won’t go to into the yucky details, but let’s just say, I had what was hopefully my first and last experience with puking in an airplane bathroom. Nothing like vomiting at 30,000 feet.

I’m sure the ‘fish bite’ incident has spread far and wide by now. But, Chris would like you all to know that he prefers to be called “Shark Bait” as opposed to “Fish Bait”. It just sounds much cooler.

Trish already told you about our Sunday meeting at Oak Ridge and how many people were there, but she didn’t tell you how amazing their singing was with just those few people. Those 26 people sang their hearts out. They were able to out-sing any congregation we have ever been to. It was awesome and I wish I could have got it on video. Chris felt privileged to be able to give a public talk there and it was an experience we’ll treasure. And, yes, it was pretty warm in there, but you sort of just forget about that. Despite the heat all the brothers still wear at least a sports jacket for their parts.

The mid-week meeting at Coxen Hole in the new Kingdom Hall was also awesome. The congregation is both English and ASL. The ASL is translated simultaneously with the English meeting. So, that was pretty cool to see. We met a young, deaf sister as soon as we got there and she gave us our own ASL names. She actually makes a personalized sign that is designated as the “name” she uses for each person in ASL. We’ll have to show you all when we get back. The Ministry School was particularly touching to us, but we’ll let Trish blog about that later. It is evident from the meetings we’ve attended that Justin & Trish have become a true part of that congregation even though they’ve only been here 2 months. They are loved and used to the full. So, despite the fact that we miss them at home, we were able to see just how valuable they are to the brothers and sisters here.

Last, but certainly not least, is field service. We have been out 3 times in the past week and have loved every minute of it. The studies and return visits Justin and Trish have are all amazing. She’s told you about a lot of them already, but being able to experience them first hand was a real treat. We really think these ones have a true respect for Justin & Trish and enjoy learning bible truths from them. Justin & Trish have developed good relationships with them by being their friends and showing genuine interest in them. They even make multiple trips back and forth to the Kingdom Hall on Sunday’s so they can help interested ones attend meeting. While the conditions are challenging, the efforts seem to be well worth it.



Heather walks the plank

West Bay Beach at sunset



Midas all cozy in our bed

Can you see mainland Honduras in the distance?



Trish's study, Davina.  She's only 10 yrs old.

How do you get there?....swim or boat only

No...I don't have a comb-over.  It was windy.

They always look perfect for pictures...I hate that!

By the way…we are all enjoying hot showers in case you were wondering. 

We're having a great time and will see you all before you know it!.......Heather & Chris

2 Finks and a Fish bite later...

The Fink's have arrived in Roatan. We picked them up at the airport Saturday and everything went smooth. They rented a house in West Bay, so that will be our home too for the next 2 weeks. It's a really cute house.. nothing fancy, just a little caribbean island bungalow, but it's very charming and right off the ocean, so it's got great views. It's nice and quiet too, compared to the lively Los Fuertes. So it's nice to have a quiet night's sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

Our first full day was Sunday, so we headed up east for the meeting. We threw Chris right into things, signing him up to give the public talk that day. We got up there around 11, so we took them on a few calls and tried to figure out who was going to the meeting that day. Most of our calls that said that they were going to go, didn't, because there was a funeral for a young man that afternoon. Our family that we study with did make it though. I think we ended up with 26 in attendance, but that was with an extra 6 visitors from Canada who are Witnesses. Chris did a great job on his talk, and didn't even melt on the stage from sweat. We got to check out how the new sign on the building looked too. Justin had gotten it done on Friday, and I was busy, so he went up to put it on without me, and had his bible study help him. It looked really good. Now everyone can see that it is a "Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses" in english too!

 

 

 

Today we had a beach day. And it was beautiful! Clear blue sky, and beautiful clear water. It was a little windy at first, but then it calmed down. Justin took Chris out to the channel between the two reefs to snorkel. We discovered Chris may not be one with nature... It was going good for awhile, but then a fish came up and bit him on the hand and on the finger. What kind of fish, you ask? Something scary like a piranha or a barracuda? Nope. Just a plain old fish. The ones we see swimming all over in the shallow water that we feed bread to. Justin said "I didn't even know they had teeth". It was crazy. So now we're going to have to watch Chris around the animals, who knows, next he might get attacked by a gecko something.

Well, that's all I have for now. Nothing really too noteworthy has happened yet, but then the Fink's have only been here for 2 1/2 days. I'm sure some better stories will come. We are going up to Pandy Town for service tomorrow, so that will be fun....

A smokin cold shower

Well our meeting attendance was back down this week- I think we had 14. And Justin gave the talk this time, and most of our bible studies weren't there to hear it. We were a little bummed. But oh well, this is only the beginning phases. At our meetings in Oak Ridge we aren't real advanced with technology. We use an old ipod shuffle for the music. And being a shuffle, as you younger people may understand, means that if you are singing song 130, you have to click the thing 130 times to get to song 130. It's crazy. But anyhow, our old shuffle didn't work for us when the meeting started. So we had to break out acapella style, I have to say we sounded pretty good. That was a neat experience, just hearing everybody's voices. It sounded really pretty. We sang "I want to" and "Jehovah is our Refuge". By the third song they got the shuffle working, which was fortunate, because I looked ahead to see what it was, and couldn't figure out the tune to that one for the life of me. So, we are going to download all of the Kingdom songs to our Ipod, and be taking it with us to the meetings now for our music. Thanks to Teri! Oak Ridge will have dependable Kingdom melodies again. I bet you didn't know how importantly your gift would be used:)

We have been getting cold showers now for about 2 or 3 weeks. Let me tell you, it may be hot here, but getting a completely ice cold shower still does not feel good. Especially on a rainy day when it's only 78 out, you don't think to yourself- Ummm, a 50 degree shower sounds really refreshing right now. You see, most places don't have hot water tanks around here. So everyone just buys these big shower heads that have a heating element right in them. Now they work great, when they're working. When we first arrived, ours needed a new part to make it heat up. So we went without for about a week. But then I finally had enough, and told Justin I was going to die if I had to get another cold shower. So he got the part, put it together, and all was good, for about a month. You see, these things are a little bit of a hazard if you think about it....It takes electricity to heat the shower head up, and then you have the water running through the shower head....You get the point. So maybe if they are done completely well and properly there would be no troubles, but ours looked a bit like a hack job. And for the whole month it was working, you would get shocked every time you touched the metal shower knob....Not a good sign. So, for the last couple days before it blew, we were smelling burning when we showered...Definitely a bad sign. Fortunately when it finally started blowing up and smoking, Justin was in the shower and not me. Ha Ha. He came running out of the bathroom with a towel on, over to the garage shutting off breakers. I feel bad saying, but it was kind of entertaining for me. So, now we have been without heat for awhile, and I take the shortest showers I have ever taken in my life.

 

One other noteworthy thing I keep forgetting to mention. To all you gluten free people back home, you are the only ones that will truly understand how cool this is. Our grocery store on this little island in a third world country has an awesome gluten free section! It just started about 2 weeks after we got here. Because when we first went, I looked all over and didn't see anything. But then the one day a few weeks later- there it was! A huge section all of it's own. Pasta, flours, cookie mix, brownie mix, crackers, and so on. It is better than Giant or Walmart back home. I can't believe it. Crazy right? So, I am not dying down here from food deprivation or anything. So we are doing good and anxiously awaiting the arrival of our dear friends Chris & Heather on Saturday! Our next post should be interesting, I'm sure......

This pup found a good napping spot