1st week

So, this was our first week preaching in Guyana. We took a few days to relax and settle in which was much needed. We are staying in the Linden area of Guyana with some good friends of ours, Phil and Debbie Thomas. They have been here supporting the local congregation and searching for interested deaf individuals since November. We are already sooo thankful to have them as guides for us in this new land.

During the first few days they showed us around town, introduced us to the brothers and sisters, taught us how to shop in the marketplace, and generally feel at home. On Wednesday Cat and Debbie went on a study with a woman named Laverne. Laverne has seven children and one of them is deaf. In addition to studying the bible with her, Debbie is also teaching her some basic sign language.

Thursday we went to our first meeting. I was thinking to myself it will be nice to just relax and enjoy the meeting, considering that there was no way I would have a talk on my first night....Wrong. The brother who was assigned to sign the bible reading for the week cancelled, so Phil asked me to do it an hour before the meeting. Considering, that there are only 3 brothers in the sign group there was no way i could say no. But, I can't complain after how hard everyone else was working. Phil who is the School Overseer for the Sign Group also was assigned a part on the Service meeting for the English portion of the Congregation. So immediately after closing the School he had to run on stage to open the Service meeting. After that he had to run back and he as well as everyother capable signer had to translate all the parts and comments for the rest of the meeting. We can tell that we are going to be very busy here. Did I mention that it is a good 95 degrees in the Kingdom Hall with only 2 fans to provide relief?

Friday we went to Georgetown which is the capital the only way to describe it is it looks like Tijuana feels like Kingston and smells like a cowshed complete with random cows and goats wandering the streets. We ran numerous errands and most importantly exchanged money. Saturday we went preaching (HOT) I rode a bicycle for 10 miles (exciting) Cat walked 5 miles (Not very exciting). We both enjoyed preaching in our new territory. One thing that has really impressed us is how willing people are to listen and talk about the bible. That has been a true breath of fresh air.

Now we get to Sunday the Special Talk and first Watchtower study seperate from the English. There were 22 in attendance and 10 deaf. Some of these were deaf that no one had seen before. Morris who is a deaf study and shoemaker went to a stand where he knew deaf would be, and told them to come to the meeting. When Phil asked him why he did this he said" All the talks have been telling us to preach and invite people to the meeting I wanted to do the same." it was amazing! our first ASL meeting and we hope one of many to come.By the way there were 280 that showed up to the English Special talk. The field is definitely white for harvesting here in Guyana. That's all for now.

Love,
Kurt and Cat