I decided to do a special post for the Memorial. We have been busy getting ready with both the invitation work, as well as the physical work to get ready. Tuesday we had planned to take the bikes and two of the visiting sisters to do invitation work in Kaituma. But when we woke up it was pouring rain, so we ended up going on a bus. Mary had some business to take care of in Kaituma, so she went as well and all three of the visiting sisters from Georgetown. We had a short 200 invitations that we had left over from the Ridge, and we made arrangements for about 100 more to be sent up from Mabaruma. For some reason we weren’t able to make the connection with the ones from Mabaruma, so I told the brothers there in Mabaruma to try and figure out what happened to them and they could use them when they got up Thursday morning.I finished the last of the new seats for the Kingdom Hall. In addition, we rearranged the seats to face the front of the Kingdom Hall, and installed a temporary bench all along the back wall. I figured we could seat 160-170 comfortably. Last year we had had about 120. We started the meeting a little late to let a few more arrive, and as the meeting started we probably had between 140 and 150, so I thought that wasn’t too bad. As the meeting got underway, more kept coming and they kept moving people closer together. The people kept on coming and they started standing them along the wall, and finally outside. We ended up with 201. Not too shabby for a group with nine publishers. It was also nice to see that no one decided to sample either the bread or wine as it was passed around.I had forgotten to mention in my last post that my study Junior had come to the meeting last Sunday. I was so happy to see him. His sister Patricia seemed quite pleased, but his mother, Beatrice, didn’t seem to show much reaction at all. But that is kind of typical of some of the amerindians. But Junior came to the Memorial with his whole family, his woman and five children. Another of Beatrice’s daughters came with a few of her children as well.I heard from both Mabaruma and Kaituma about their Memorials. Mabaruma had 68 in attendance and Kaituma had 41. Of course the Granddaddy of all the northwest is Barimita, but I have no way of contacting the brothers there to know what they had.Next week we travel to Mabaruma, where hopefully I will have good access to the internet, so maybe I will be able to share some additional pictures.This week’s picture was taken during the Memorial, giving a little idea of how filled the hall was.
