The Special Assembly Day program has come and gone. We had a nice few days rest in advance of it. I don’t think Terri went out of the house for two days. I had been asked to do a part on the program which called for interviewing a couple of young ones who were known to be regular in the ministry, as well as a couple of ones advanced in age. I spoke to the Circuit Overseer about who I might use. I mentioned that I was thinking of using Brother Baxter. The CO at first told me he didn’t think that would be appropriate. I asked him why he felt that way and he said, “I have worked with him in the ministry. I can barely keep up with him. There is no way he qualifies as one advanced in age.” He said, “Well, maybe if you could get him to wear a grey wig.” I mentioned that I had seen some pictures of him in his home taken a few years ago and at that time, he was showing quite a bit of grey in his hair. I mentioned maybe that is why he chooses to not have hair, so it doesn’t show grey. In the end, after consulting with the other brothers, he relented and let me use him on the part.Friday I had some anxious moments because I had told Stephan I would call him Friday afternoon when he got to Kaituma to see how everything was going. It got to be after 4:30 and he still wasn’t answering his phone. Finally around 5:00 PM he called and said they were passing the area where we go to make our calls. I asked him why they were so late and he said he’d call when he got to Kaituma and tell me more.He called later and related all that he had been through. It turned out that one of his studies had been going looking for gold the last few days, hoping to find enough to pay for at least his wife, and possibly the two of them to come to Mabaruma. He ended up finding gold, but then started drinking out all the money. Stephan said he had been drunk for two days straight. His wife had been away to another area, so one of the big daughters who had planned on going to Mabaruma, she had her money all saved up, was having to ‘babysit’ the small children as well as the drunk husband. Stephan had held off leaving as long as he could in hopes that the wife would get back so the daughter could come. But finally he had to leave.It ended up being a much smaller group that came down in the boat than we had anticipated. Stephan came with Eugene, Marry, Stephanie, Doris, Keyza, Danica, Shaneza, and Sonia. Monica, Sharon, and her three children came from Kaituma. Caroline wasn’t feeling well. Sherwin’s sister, Shonette who is also from Kaituma had come down earlier in the week.We had a really nice day Saturday, although there were less in attendance than I had expected. There were 53 for the morning session and 63 for the afternoon session. But we had five get baptized, two from Mabaruma, Paul George, and Alaric Jessemy, and three from the Ridge, Mary and Eugene Smith and Stephanie Bumbury.Shortly after the program was over, the group left to go back to Kaituma, and then on to the Ridge. Stephan was planning on holding the meeting there Sunday, since most had already missed one meeting on Saturday, and had not been able to able to come to the Special Assembly Day program. But he wouldn’t have to do it all by himself since he now had another baptized brother to help him. Here in Guyana, we put them to work almost before they have a chance to dry off!There was room enough on the boat that we could have gone back with them, but I think the break has really been doing Terri good, so I decided not to cut it short. Besides, I had hoped to visit the office of Lands and Surveys, to try to look at a map of the Kaituma area to see if I could see any available spots that might be suitable for a future Kingdom Hall, and I hadn’t gotten that done yet. So our plan is still to travel back Tuesday.I’m going to try and ‘push the envelope’ and include two pictures. One is of the five who were baptized, and the other is of the group from Kaituma and Matthew’s Ridge. I’ll try and identify all in the group picture. On the far left is Sharon’s big son, then Shonette next to Terri, with Sonia in front of her. Keyza has her arms around Sonia and Sharon’s daughter. Monica is behind Keyza with Mary next to her. Finishing the front is Doris, with Stephanie almost hidden between Doris and Danica, who has her arm around Shaneza. In the back, it’s myself, Eugene, Sharon with her small son, and Stephan.
