Busy Bethel Life, the best

The last two weeks have been quite a blur! Our first month at Bethel has flown by. Being so wrapped up in the schedule and excitement of everything has made our life seem like it's in hyper speed!

We have so many experiences to share with you.

First of all, I will quick tell you about the Gilead Introductions. Gilead students are couples that lovingly make themselves available to a five-month intensive study of the entire Bible and training for missionary work. The students are from all over the world (Canada, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, U.S., France... just to name a few) and are average people like you and me. They go through the course and upon graduation they receive an assignment to a foreign land. The goal is for them to live there, learn the language and give a witness for Jehovah God, teaching people from the Bible Jehovah's righteous standards and the beautiful hope he has given all of mankind. They stay in the assignment until they are reassigned, if they are reassigned. Jamin and I have enjoyed getting to know a few of these couples and hearing about some of their classroom studies. It is all very encouraging.

Many of the couples faced fierce opposition from family members when they decided to dedicate their life to Jehovah. A few of them took their stand for the Truth as teenagers, a couple others were Catholics and other various religions and learned from a study of the scriptures with Jehovah's Witnesses that what they had been taught from childhood are false doctrines and lies. There were a few tear jerkers. Listening to these friends' experiences and the trials they overcame to come to Gilead made Jamin and I take another look at our circumstances to see if we can do even more for Jehovah. It was fun to hear the wives give their side of the story. I think there were two or three that said they were very comfortable pioneering and being surrounded by familiar friends and family members, and they thought they would never go to Gilead. One sister said she never even had the desire to be a missionary. Things change in life so frequently and the realization of the urgency of the times we are now living in made them do a self examination. The sister said we need to look at our circumstances, pray to Jehovah and step out of our comfort zone to give more to Jehovah and teach people about him and his purposes before it is too late. She said if we leap Jehovah will provide the landing.

The ministry has been really fun. The friends in the Seaside congregation are so zealous, especially the young ones! The spiritual depth and understanding the young ones in this congregation have is soo refreshing and sometimes shocking to say the least. Now, when I refer to 'young ones' I'm talking ten years of age to 15 years. They come up to us to make service arrangements, are always prepared with what they are going to say and have carried us most mornings and afternoons with all of their calls! It is so cute!

One of our new pals, Michael, (he is in the middle, Steejay is on the left and Brian is on the right, not a great pic, but oh well) is ten and explained to me the reason he decided to dedicate his life to Jehovah. He says, "When my mom and Dad started attending the meetings on a regular basis, I realized very quickly that I had a choice- I could either play around, sleep and get nothing at the meeting or I could listen, learn and maybe even try out some of the things they were telling us. I decided to give it a try and give my full attention. I used some of the things I learned, it worked and I knew it was the truth. I knew I needed and wanted to serve Jehovah forever."

WHHHHHHAAAAAT! Crazy right!? He is really a smart one. He is like a little man and pretty much his comments at the Kingdom Hall are better that ours! lol

We had PJ in our group the other day, he is 11. He has the goal to be baptized at the beginning of next year, he wants to pioneer as soon as possible, go to Bethel and reach out for circuit work. He didn't tell us this with a silly 11-year-old slight, he told us with conviction and sincerity, this is what he will do if Jehovah lets him! I just, man- no words really. These kids blow me away.

Last Saturday was our Bible Study Saturday, Jamin and I were so excited! We arrived at the Kingdom Hall at 9:00 a.m. with happy, shiny faces and...no one was there. We waited and waited, waited till 9:30 and then decided to go make the calls we had. We had an awesome morning- placed two books and started two potential studies. One of the placements was with a woman we had walked past on the way to a return visit. On our way back to the car we passed her again and she asked us what we were teaching. We told her we are in a ministry teaching people good news found in the scriptures. She said she needed that because she was being evicted that day and didn't know where they were going to live. We turned to Isaiah 65 and read her some of the verses there and then showed her Philippians 4:6, 7. With a little explanation of future promises and the free Bible study arrangement, she took our number and said she would love to understand what she reads when she does read her Bible. That was really exciting! In the middle of talking to her a car group of friends pulled up and informed us that the group meets at 10 a.m. on Bible Study Saturday... whoopsy! It's ok. now we know for next time.

Our territory is so diverse. Here are some pictures of the scenery and landscape we enjoy within our territory.

Last night was really a highlight of Bethel service. Family Night! Ok, so an event that takes place once a year and pretty much falls in line with a talent show, but there isn't judging and prizes. It is brothers and sisters performing and entertaining the family. It was so cool!

It started off with a group of about eight sisters dancing Hula while a brother sang and another brother and a sister played the ukulele. There were brothers that did a Mexican snake dance with the full get up and boot tapping, a sister sang a funny German opera song, a brother played two songs on the cello (that was my favorite), a brother sang That's Life with three backup singers, two brothers sang to acoustic guitar, a brother prepared a video of 17,000 pictures that were taken of Bethel life in the different departments and was put into time-lapse photography (me thinks that is what it's called, anyway it was really rad), five brothers did a funny dance to the song Five Guys Named Moe, there was a comedy act about the observation tour here at Bethel, a sister acted out Hannah's prayer to Jehovah, there was a video interview of some of our older friends in the infirmary here at Patterson (they have sooo many years of experience), we sang number 75 from the new song book (the words were projected onto a screen that had pictures of people and things to match the words), and it ended with a production dance number with brothers and sister dressed in traditional costumes from India. It was a blast and so awesome live.

On Family Night there is a special dinner and experiences given while you eat. We had steak, chicken, kielbasa, baked potatoes, salad with raspberry vinegarette dressing, steamed veggies and hot fudge sundaes. It was delish! Brother Ralph Lindem saved us seats for both the dinner and for the program, so pretty much we had the best seats in the house. We just love brother Lindem. He is so sweet and very informative. The other night before we went to one of our buddies' room to make pizza and watch a flick we stopped by brother Lindem's to give him a bag of popcorn and a pint of lemon sorbet. He loves icecream! His freezer is literally filled with it. We ran a little late to our appointment with our friends because we had to help him with his dvd player (when we approached his room we thought he had company because it was kind of noisy inside, but when he let us in we came to find out he was rockin' out to the new Kingdom melodies, he was trying to practice number 75 for the Family Night program lol) and he made us stay for a quick libation...scotch is his poison heheh

After Family Dinner last night and before the show Jamin volunteered last minute to help the dining room guys clean up. I got some video of Jamin doing what he loves. You will see how fast everyone moves to get the job done and hear how loud it was in there. Jamin was drenched in sweat by the time he was done. Thank goodness we had to meet a a little group back at the Inn where we live before the show, it gave him a chance to cool down and dry off a bit.

I will try to blog one more time on some other little things before we head back to Fort Wayne next weekend for Lauren's wedding.

We love you all and look forward to being back home for a quick visit. Take care, much love.

jazz n' jamin