Many experiences are, in their own right, worthy of being printed in a Watchtower or Awake! or even a Yearbook. Themes like these are found regularly among our congregation and others throughout Nicaragua:
...70+ year old unbaptized publisher travels 2hrs each way on "chicken bus" to make the meetings regularly.
...Publishers travel over an hour by boat and an hour by motorbike to reach return visits.
...Witnesses spend days mapping areas in rural Nicaragua, the first step to preaching efficiently, and weeks censusing just to find 1 English speaker willing to learn about Jehovah.
My favorite one so far though is...A married couple move from Alaska to Central America looking for answers to a happy life, they find Jehovah's Witnesses.
You might be familiar with Gary and Shannon, I've mentioned them before. They were a major support during my motorbike accident recovery, Gary took the video of my pin being removed.
Gary and Shannon are originally form California. They have led an...interesting life, to say the least. They met at work at a sales company and got married at Burning Man. Gary wore coat tails and a top hat (that's all he had on) and Shannon wore white lingerie and a vale. A variety of costumes from birthday suits to drag queens were sprinkled about throughout the audience. They were both very good at their jobs and made lots of money. They had a couple houses, their main house a mansion with six bedrooms, and every toy they could afford. This was Gary's second marriage with 2 adult children which he did not have a good relationship with.
During the housing market fall in the U.S. Gary and Shannon had to get creative with their income and became marijuana growers. Shannon says that it was hard getting use to arriving home from work with boxes of pizza to feed all the gang-members they had hanging out in the parlour. They were there daily watering, pruning, drying and packaging the product. Gary and Shannon eventually became disillusioned with their material possessions. Gary said that 'it just all seemed pointless, I can't die with this stuff.' The thought of being in a federal prison also urged them on.
They got rid of what they did not need and decided to move to Alaska, they lived there for several years. Gary was very political and promised that if Obama became President, they would move out of the country. Sure enough, they moved to Costa Rica. All this time life's big questions not answered bothered them, especially being disillusioned with the U.S. Government, they did not know where to find security, prosperity and happiness that was once the promise of the "American Dream".
They decided to try and find answers in the bible and tried a few bible groups along the way, still no answers. Gary and Shannon ended up moving from Costa Rica because it was becoming "Americanized". They wound up in San Juan Del Sur and the first thing they did was look for an English bible study group. Well, the Witnesses were the only ones offering one in English, so they began studying around June 2014.
Steve(elder) and Elkie study with them, their studies on average last 5hrs long. They have read every book available, published by the Watchtower and Tract Society, and devour any biblical information they receive. It puts some of us to shame, really. Gary and Shannon went to their first assembly in Managua, Nica earlier this year and enjoyed it very much, even though Gary was rittled with Chikunguya and Dengue simultaneously. They recently traveled with the entire congregation on the 18hr bus ride to El Salvador for the IMITATE JESUS! Regional Convention.
Gary told me "I have been to many sales conventions where they push pamphlets and CDs on you at the end of the day. We didn't know what to expect, but I like it, nothing like I've ever experienced.". Immediately after the convention, Shannon who had already begun to preach informally to her friends, went on a personal campaign to share with her whole family what she learned at the convention.
You wouldn't think it, but we have several expats in our territory that are "inactive" witnesses or ones that grew up as a witness and never made it their own. One particular woman came up to Shannon not too long ago. The woman takes Shannon aside while at a local expat gathering and tells her 'I just want to tell you, I'm worried about you, your such a social person and I don't want you to ruin your life. But, if you become one of Jehovah's Witnesses you won't be able to have fun, once you get baptized you won't even be able to talk to us...' Shannon laughs and replies 'I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh at you, but you mean to tell me that all this is worth more than everlasting life?'. BAZINGA!!
Both Gary and Shannon are currently going over the questions for unbaptized publishers and can't wait to go out in the ministry. They were telling everybody they were going to meet us at the service meeting even before they started the questions.
A few of weeks ago Gary showed up at the Saturday meeting with no beard and long hair. He came late and sat in the back away from Shannon. No one knew who he was until they went to introduce themselves and heard him talk. I was so excited I gave him a hug. I waved Jessica over while she was talking to Pete. She looked very confused and asked Pete "Who is that guy?", Pete didn't know either. She came up expecting to meet someone new and was flabbergasted.
We are so privileged to be a part of this! If there wasn't an English Group here in San Juan, how would have Gary and Shannon found and the truth? Although our territory can be rough, because we are still preaching to the same uninterested, "have my own religion", "I'm satisfied with my life" kind of attitude we have in the states, there are always right hearted ones to be found and Jehovah will draw them to him.
Currently we are trialing the Public Talk and Watchtower Study on Sundays in Rivas. It is a 4 week trial to encourage our 34 studies to attend the meetings. At our Kingdom Hall in SJDS we have 5 studies that regularly attend, but the majority of our studies are 30 minute to an hour away. Our first meeting this past Sunday we had 4 bible studies attend. Although they are Nicaraguans whose second language is English, these are ones that have turned down studies from the local brothers and have accepted it in English. If this becomes a group, it could make it easier to reach the native English speakers in the north beaches. At this time it is very difficult to reach them, because it is all badly built beach roads. Most areas need to be reached with four wheel drive or dirt bikes and transportation is hard to come by here. About every 6mths or so we do 2 to 3 day campaigns, at times spending the night in hostels or tents, just to preach in those areas.
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