If this goes through tomorrow, I know it will be less than a week since my last posting, but since we have been having such problems getting through (this last time we had three unsuccessful trips starting on Tuesday before Stephan was finally able to connect more than a week later on Thursday, and then he waited around there for an hour before he was able to get on) I decided I would write this up and start trying tomorrow (Monday). If I’m not successful, Stephan mentioned he planned on driving out Tuesday, and if he’s not successful, I will be in Kaituma Wednesday, so I can try from there.This past Wednesday, Stephan and I took our bikes to Big Creek. The road there was very bad in places. Many places had deep ruts, and you just had to drive in the rut, holding your legs up, since the ruts were at times even narrower that the bikes, which made for ‘driving with difficulty’. Then there were many large puddles, but you had no way of knowing how deep they were until you drove through them. Some were only 6” deep, whereas other were a couple of feet deep. One place, the water was deep enough that you couldn’t see the ruts, so you drove, not knowing how the ruts were going. Someone didn’t make it through that one without dumping the bike. Needless to say we got quite muddy. Stephan said if he had known how it was going to be, he’d have brought a clean change of clothes with him. I said when we got to Big Creek, we could wash most of the mud off our pants.It turned out that Big Creek is just a name. When we got to the first house, I asked the girl if there was any water around we could clean up in. She said there wasn’t. I asked her about ‘Big Creek’, and she said it’s way back in the bush. At one of the first camps we reached, three men were working at setting up a new camp. When we arrived, they stopped their work and invited us to come and sit in some shade, providing things for us to sit on. They listened attentively and appreciatively to what we shared with them. We left them with magazines to read. At many other places no one was home, I expect they were working in the bush, so we left magazines. I mentioned to Stephan I wondered what they would think when they returned and discovered that the witnesses had been there.We decided that rather than return the way we had come, we would continue down the road, which joins the road to Port Kaituma. We had asked which way the road was better, and were told it was about the same. But one of the people we asked assured us that ‘since we were moving with the Spirit’, we were sure to be successful. I had my GPS with me, so we were able to map out the whole road, plus we had no way of knowing which was the ‘last house’. I think the other end was actually a little better, but not by much. Afterward, I asked Stephan at what point he would have changed into clean clothes if he had them, and he said, “Good point”.Friday I went with Filbert to visit his relatives in the bush. It was about a ½ mile walk through the bush beyond his house. When we got there there was a man and woman waiting for us. We had a nice discussion, however a number of times I would ask something and get a blank stare. Then Filbert would say the same thing, and they would respond. It was nice having him along to ‘interpret’ for us. Unfortunately, neither of them can read. I left the brochure, Enjoy Life on Earth Forever, and made arrangements to study with them on Mondays after I have my study with Filbert. It will be interesting to see if Filbert is going to want to come with me on the call. I discovered that the man is Beatrice’s son and Patricia’s brother. They are ones who walk the farthest to come to the meetings. I told him he should come to the Kingdom Hall, as I know his mother and sister would love to see that. I haven’t mentioned anything to them as I am hoping for a surprise. I recently finished adding a second window to the other side of the Kingdom Hall to give better cross ventilation. We got paint from Georgetown to match the trim paint, and I finished and painted the trim, so the new windows match the existing windows quite well. Now we are in the process of getting a sign to hang on the front of the Hall. Hopefully that will be finished soon. Then I will post up a picture showing the new look.It’s hard to believe that another month has past, but I was putting the report together for the congregation’s activities, and I thought I’d share some of it with you. We are up to eight people engaging in the public ministry now, up 30% since we arrived. The group reported 59 bible studies last month (between the three of us here in the house we had 47). The average hours for the publishers was 20.6 and for the pioneers 119.7. Our meeting attendance average for February was 61 for the Public Talk, 60 for the Watchtower Study, and 34 for both the Congregation Bible Study and Service Meeting, which amounts to an average of 763%, 750% , and 425% respectively. Next month should be better since our newest publisher, Sonia, is conducting a couple of studies, but they haven’t been held long enough to be officially counted yet.This week’s picture is from our trip to Big Creek. Unfortunately, because of the lag between the time the button is pushed and the camera takes the picture, Stephan has passed the worst part of this spot. But you can see the method of riding in the ruts. You can’t have your feet on the pegs because the ruts are so narrow, so you hold them up and out like outriggers and do a bare-foot water ski (or more accurately mud ski) along either side.
