Ministry Experiences

The last post, I gave an update on our progress with Spanish. That's the boring part for me. What have we been using our Spanish for is the exciting part.

It is amazing to witness first hand the growth in this city. Bible knowledge is abundant here. Not just general knowledge, but important bible teachings are understood by many. This is because people enjoy reading the Watchtower magazine so much here. Since so few have access to the internet, reading material is actually read here! The people recognize the points brought out in our magazines are from the bible. Everyday, we pass by people as they read the Watchtower. Not only that, people regularly come up to us asking for the latest magazines. This is how I started one of my bible studies.

One young man named Felix literally stopped me in the street and asked me for the magazines. He seemed even more interested then normal so I offered him a study. He gladly accepted. Let me tell you, I have never had such an eager student. We study nearly every day. Sometimes twice a day! That's right, one morning after our study, I asked him when he could study next, and he said that afternoon! He plans on attending the memorial and hopefully he will start coming to the Kingdom Hall soon. He has had a bad experience in the past with another religion so this has made him a bit apprehensive. But he said he likes that he can make his own decision and is not pressured by us.

Felix asks lots of questions too!

Bree is studying with a woman who had studied in the past, but lost contact with her study conductor. They study every week and she plans on attending the memorial as well.

Bree with one of her studies

When we first started in the ministry here, we could barely understand any thing the householders would tell us. But now, it really is encouraging when we can understand our bibles students expressions of faith.

Speaking of the memorial, it is only 8 days away. We are expecting a massive crowd. The location is at a school in a very central part of our territory. It will be a special night for our congregation as we will be splitting in May. This type of change is quite common here with the growth, but sad none the less.

The last I heard, there were 30 congregations in the city. The population is about 150,000. I have heard from various brothers that the ratio of publishers to population is about 1 to 50. But there is still much work to be done. The rate of those getting baptized here is still growing. Not to mention the preaching that can be done in the rural areas!

On Sunday, our congregation made a special trip to a rural area to preach and invite people to the Memorial. We all pitched in the pay for the bus rental and it felt like a school field trip! Even our dear older ones in the congregation went! Sister Thelma, who needs assistance walking went with us. She was sweating a lot as we walked quite a bit through difficult terrain and I asked her if she was ok. She smiled and said she was fine!

Sister Thelma not letting anything slow her down!

We have seen just in our few months here a number of bible students make progress in the congregation. Several have become publishers recently and will be baptized soon. Because the growth is so much here, many in the congregation are unbaptized publishers making progress. Therefore, much training and assistance can be given to these ones.

Beginning the rural preaching day

New Kingdom Halls need to be built as well. We just received news that a new hall will be built in a few weeks and another one possibly in a few months here in our neighborhood. Each Kingdom Hall in the city currently is home to 3-5 congregations!

Our friend Yoshto from Japan is serving with this group that does not yet have a hall to meet in.

Well, we can't write all that is being done, but hopefully this gives you a better idea of what's going on here!

Language Update

With only a short time left here in Nicaragua, I wanted to provide an update to everyone. In this post, I will share our progress with learning Spanish. In the next, I will relate some field service experiences.

At this point, we have passed the five month mark of being here. When we were first deciding how long to come for, many told us that six months was a good amount of time to learn the language. So, do we know Spanish?

Well, by no means are we fluent and we obviously can't communicate nearly as well as we can in English, but we are able to understand and speak enough Spanish to get by. At times, we both felt frustrated and like we may never reach our goal of learning Spanish a sufficient amount. But like others had told us, the six month time frame to learn a language has proven to be right.

While living in a Spanish speaking country is a huge help, I've learned that you cannot learn Spanish merely by osmosis. You must put forth effort to learn to language. But not as much effort as you may think! I recommend studying a new concept and some new words every day. Then use those new things when you practice speaking with others. Listen to people speaking or audio recordings. Reading the language in printed form is essential as well. And finally, do not be shy. If you want to learn, you must put your self out there! Bree and I are both thankful to Sam for helping us. I playfully compare him to the spell checker on Microsoft Word when you make a mistake and a little squiggly red line appears. That was Sam for us here! We had good times laughing at our continued mistakes.

A common thing some would say to us back home was, "My brain can't learn another language!" I am always disappointed one someone says that for several reasons. Probably, they have never really attempted to learn a new language before! You have shut the door before even trying! Second, Jehovah God created our brains. Our brain is capable of so much even in our imperfect state. Third, that statement could discourage others from attempting to learn. Maybe they are having apprehensions about diving into learning a language. While living here, we have meet many from varied ages and backgrounds who have learned a new language. We only need to show love, have a willing spirit and Jehovah's powerful holy spirit will do the rest.

It is bittersweet right now, because we know that if we were staying here longer, our Spanish would continue to develop. Therefore, we are trying to make the most of our time left and are determined to keep learning when we return home!

The Short Story

It's raining right now. That may not seem like a big deal, but according to my records, it has not rained here in Chinandega since November 18th, 2014. This city is dry as a bone! There is dust everywhere. It is impossible to keep anything clean for more than a few hours. Yet, there are fires set on every street daily to burn trash and other things. Today, I witnessed a man set fire a large pile of leaves and trash, right next to a grove of trees and bushes. We then approached the man and had a discussion with him. The fire got quite large and all he had was a small pot of water if it got out of control. I was sure it was about to several times. Even with the wind whipping around and almost igniting the wooden fence a few feet away, the fire eventually went down. I then quickly remembered that the man probably did this a couple times a week and I didn't really need to be so worried. By the time I engaged back into the conversation, my 13 year old companion had started a bible study with the man. As we walked away, Miguel smiled and told me it was his first bible study that he has ever started. He asked me to come with him Saturday morning on the study. But Saturday is a day off for us! I will go though. It kind of felt good for him to ask me to come. After all, I can't really offer much help. Perhaps he thinks my spanish is better than what I think it is.

On the dirt roads, every step results in a ploom of dust

The Language
When people ask how learning spanish is going, it really depends on which day you ask me. Some days I feel confident and it shows because I want to keep preaching and pushing the boundaries of what I really know how to say at the doors. Today was a good day and I actually improvised a presentation for the magazines and reasoned on a few verses I wasn't planning on reading, instead of my normal reading through of one of the new tracts. Other days are just downright discouraging. I feel like I can't understand anything or say anything and it feels like I'm letting the friends here down. Those days don't happen too often. Usually I realize it is because I do need to study the language more because I had been slacking.

Bree preaching with Darling

Right now, one of bigger obstacles in learning the language is learning how to speak spanish. I have learned good amount of what to speak. I know quite a few verbs, nouns and adjectives, so therefore I know what I want to say way better than the last time I wrote. But at times, I will construct a sentence in my head and then speak it, but the listener just looks at me funny and says they don't understand. I know I pronounced all the words correctly! I think to myself. But I know that I may not have used them in the right order or even used the right verbs.

I am in no way discouraged about this. It is part of the learning process. Just simply wanted to let you know where I am at right now since many have asked.

Our large congregation. The sound was broken at this meeting.

The Congregation
We are very much enjoying getting to know the friends in this congregation. They have many strengths here that I hope rub off on me and can use wherever else we serve in the future. Just one example is how willing the friends are here to open their homes for meetings for field service. It really hit me just how important this is since we have to walk everywhere. Having a home to meet in is very helpful. For many congregations where we live in Maine, driving and spending money on gas is a huge part of our ministry. Opening up our home can alleviate some of the expenses for many of the friends incurred during the ministry. Also, we can cover the territory more effectively by being strategically located in parts of the territory.

It is a bit difficult because I want to help more, but I just can't at this time. So my biggest goal has been to just try and set a good example with actions since I can't use words. This means making sure we are on time for everything!

Waiting for the group to arrive.

They came eventually. They always do.

The Ministry
We work the territory completely every two weeks. That is a bit of a challenge because it has forced me to learn new presentations! Bree and I both have a few studies. Today we were walking home and a man was reading the magazines on the sidewalk. Once he saw us he ran up and asked for a tract. I gave him one and then he left. That sort of thing happens a lot. People enjoy reading here. Barely anyone has internet, so information on paper is valued.

Bree doing a study.

One thing that has happened a few times is that often when I don't understand what the householder is saying is that I assumed they are telling me something negative and they aren't interested. First of all, since I have arrived here, only one person told me they weren't interested. This was such a big deal that one of the elders had a group about it. Therefore, there really is no basis to ever assume they would be telling me that.

One very old women I preached too soon after we got here basically was yelling the entire time I was at her door. I automatically assumed after we left that she was not interested in the Witnesses because she kept shouting Jesus' name and so I figured she was evangelical. The next time we preached in her area, I was hoping that it would not be my turn when we did her house, but of course, it was. Once again, I didn't understand any of her yelling. But at one point she got her Bible out and said she had a question about a verse.  She flipped to Ezekiel. Oh boy. Thankfully, I had my english Bible in my bag which I usually didn't bring. I turned to the verse she asked about and read it to myself in English afterward so that I was sure I understood her question. She wanted to know why God called the nation of Israel a prostitute. I actually was able to give a simple answer which she understood!

Piglets at the base of the cardboard.

The next time we preached in her neighborhood, I actually wanted to go to her door. I felt like we had a little bond now. I feel bad for her. Like I said, she is quite old and clearly doesn't have much help from any family. She lives with all her animals in her small home, including a large pig which just had piglets. These piglets are literally her livelihood for the next few months. She can probably sell them for about $20 each in a few months. I asked her if she was satisfied with the answer we gave her to her question. She said, "Yes!" emphatically of course.

The Assembly
I imagine that many are excited to be having our convention in Portland again this year. I am looking forward to it as well. I think from time to time all of us have had a complaint or two about a location for our assemblies or conventions. But let me tell you, I will never complain again about any location after enduring the assembly here on January 4th. The location we used was the local baseball stadium. The stadium is just flat out not a suitable location for many reasons. We had to clean the night before the program right after a baseball game. Cleaning up after a circus is a breeze compared to that. The bathroom situation is atrocious. The poor speakers had dirt blowing on them from the baseball diamond. Then the audience has to endure tempeartures approaching 100 degrees. That's 100 degrees in the shade. Most of the audience is in the sun, so more like 120 degrees. We survived though. I give the friends a lot of credit for dealing with that all these years. They love it though. The spiritual food is what is of most importance. Nobody stays home just because it is uncomfortable. Over 3,100 attended. 3,100 for a circuit assembly! We have 28 congregations just in our circuit alone! The growth has been so fast that the branch has yet to split the circuit to get it down to the normal 20 congregations per circuit.

Setting up and cleaning

Listening and trying to survive.

For many years now, the brothers have let the branch know that there just is not a suitable location for assemblies and conventions here. Needless to say, when the circuit overseer announced that the Governing Body has approved the construction of an Assembly Hall in a nearby town, the audience gave the longest and loudest applause of the day.

The Weather
It is no longer raining. The rain today was definitely an aberration. I think today was the "trace" of rain that is normal for January. The best hope of sustained rainfall won't be until April, the month that we leave.

This sister is showing the river who is the boss.

Normal temperatures during the day right now reach about 93-98 degrees. By March, temps will be easily over 100 every day. Even though it is the dry season, it is definitely not a dry heat. The humidity, combined the strong equatorial sun make preaching dangerous if you are not prepared. Hence, my hat. Make fun if you want, but I have yet to get sunburned.

Last week.

Conclusion
Bree and I really like it here. We enjoy the challenges we encounter because it reminds of just how different of a world it is here. The blessings far outweigh any such small difficulties. It is tough when people ask us what we are going to do next. We really do not know. Right now, it is hard to discern just where we should be; where Jehovah wants us to be. So, we are going to keep learning and pressing on until April comes. In the meantime, our best friends Travis and Nicole are coming the visit us in about ten days! Hopefully, Travis and I will be able to watch the Patriots win the Super Bowl during their visit!!!

The Learning Curve

One of the questions that people asked us the most before we left was, "How is your Spanish?" or "Are you fluent in Spanish yet?" This was a difficult question to answer because really, if you are not in a spanish congregation, or are living in spanish-speaking country, it is nearly impossible to learn spanish quickly. So even though we had been learning back home, and we had visited twice before for a brief stay, we basically came here 3 weeks ago knowing virtually no spanish.

Taking a break in service. 

Also as you may know, we spent our first week here attending an English convention. So therefore, Bree and I have been immersed in the Spanish language for a grand total of 15 days. It has been very challenging to say the least! Saying the least is exactly what we have been doing! We can't say anything in Spanish!! Or that is at least how we feel.

The congregation is very nice and patient with us. Sam is very helpful for sure. But he can't be with us every second to translate if we don't understand. That is when it gets interesting. For example, sometimes I so desperately want to let the brother or sister know that I understood them, that I may agree and shake my head yes even though I am not quite sure what they just said!

Sam missing the piano.

Me missing football.

Knowing the "pure language" is such a help. The meetings and service are easier to follow along with because when scriptures are looked up, we know what they say in English, so therefore we know what the discussion is usually about.

As you can imagine, since we have only been doing this for two weeks, we have made some funny mistakes already. But since the part at the convention said we should laugh about the mistakes, let's review some of Bree and I's best ones so far. (mostly mine, since Bree is doing better than me. They ask her to translate when I can't understand something already!)

-On Bree's fourth day in the ministry, a sister in the hall asked her to say a prayer on a study! She wasn't the slightest bit prepared! She did well, but apparently just forgot to say "in Jesus name". So neither the other sister nor the student knew the prayer was over. She quickly remembered and said it.

-That same day, at the afternoon group Bree was telling us about it and we all laughed. Then Elvis, one of the elders in the hall, looked at me and asked me to say the prayer. "Uh oh," I thought. I basically just tried as hard as I could to recite the prayer Bree had just told us she said!

-During the Watchtower, I had prepared a comment. My comment was supposed to be: "Sexual sin is a form of greediness." The word for sin in spanish is: pecado. The word for fish in spanish is: pescado. I let you you figure out which one I used. Immediately after my comment, Sam leaned over and told me that I said, "Sexual fish".

-I committed another similar mistake today, this time during a prayer. The words for things and houses are very close (cosas/casas) So in my prayer I said, "we thank you for all the houses," instead of what I meant to say, "we thank you for all things." Not as crazy of a mistake, so there is progress!

I'm sure we made many others, but those were the ones I can remember.

A video! You don't get that in Sam's blog do you? Fumigating the neighborhood.

We have definetly made progress since we got here though and that is essential to focus on. As mentioned, we both have said prayers. Both of us have been able to conduct bible studies with the Good News brochure. Each meeting we have prepared comments as well. And we have been able to have to get to know the friends in the congregation more and more.

Time is going by really slow. But I view it as a good thing, because I am going to need every moment of these six months to learn as much spanish as I can!

-Ben and Bree

Bree and I went to the beach with friends in the Leon English congregation after we traveled there to give a talk. 

El Salvador Convention

If you are reading this, you should know that you can speak a foreign language . In fact, there is great need in here in Central America for the foreign language that you know. Just to reiterate, one of the most difficult aspects of serving where the need is greater, learning a foreign language, you have already accomplished! Why do I say this? It is because you read, write and speak English fluently, a foreign language here in Central America.

The fact that there is a great need was made clear this weekend at the Regional Convention for the English speaking field for the countries of El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The convention took place in San Salvador, El Salvador. It was a 10 hour bus ride for a group of us coming from Nicaragua. Many others had much longer journeys.

Further than it looks. Some came from Bluefields!

This was a unique gathering for so many reasons. Although it was not an international convention, it had that feel. Basically, most of the delegates are "need greaters" that have moved here from all over the world (at least 19 countries were mentioned, probably many more) to help preach in the English field here. Since there is a need for brothers, many of the speakers gave multiple parts. Brothers and Sisters from all different backgrounds and circumstances have come here to serve.

-Married Couples: Many who are retired and of course many who are young
-Entire Families: There are quite a few parents who have completely picked up and moved their children down here.
-Single People: Countless single brothers and sisters.

With Alex Rodriguez and young brother Eisenhower. Yes that Eisenhower.

Every single one of the ones we met this weekend have amazing stories of why they chose to come here and the tremendous experiences they are having.

For example, one sister we met related to us that she was struggling back home in California. She had the circumstances to do more, but not necessarily the desire. She prayed for the desire. At the same time, she also wanted to do some traveling. She eventually was put in contact with a brother who recommended Nicaragua. Interestingly she went to San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, not with the intent of being a "need greater". Yet, she enjoyed being there so much, she just decided to stay and began regular pioneering in the English group there. Now she is learning Spanish as well. Jehovah answered her prayer.

While there is not as much of a need in English where Bree and I are in Chinandega (in fact last year, the English congregation here was dissolved), that is certainly not the case in other parts of the country. As stated above, there is a group in San Juan Del Sur which is a very nice beach resort town (very much unlike Chinandega). On the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua there is also a great need. This is a very different Nicaragua. Mostly English creole is spoken there (basically you get to talk like your Jamaican). A brother who has moved from Mexico to there and is dating a sister from Tennessee told me that everyone in the congregation has about 15 bible studies! Yes, you reading this right now, could conduct 15 bible studies in English while living on the Carribean coast! He almost had me convinced to move there even though we have already settled on learning spanish in Chinandega!

I need two chairs. Last time I was here I broke a chair during the meeting. I was not about to have that happen again.

Of course, since we are in Central America, the brothers here don't have access to all the fancy equipment to run the convention like we do back home. The sound system was sketchy at times (The sound frequently burst loudly or it would just cut out altogether, like during the opening prayer). The video department had to run everything off one laptop. One little mistake on the first day was a bit awkward. The brothers were having some trouble playing one of the videos and they accidentally flashed a picture of the new book which wasn't released until Saturday! It was all good though as most in the audience had already heard the program before (either in Spanish or while visiting home which most need greaters do in the summer).

Convention souvenir

We were warmly welcomed after our long trip to the convention city by our El Salvadorian brothers. They clapped after we got off the bus and arranged rides to our hotels. One brother named Mauricio quickly came up to us. He was so helpful and loving. He is about 40 years old and has learned English. His English accent is so funny though. It is like a hybrid of a spanish and an Italian accent. Each sentence ended with an upswing in inflection. He told us that whatever we needed he would help us since we are in a foreign country. He said, "That is why I'm ah-here! So I can ah-help you! You are my brothers, you know!" On the way to the hotel, Mauricio told us they had been waiting for us for over 6 hours! (We were a bit late)

Sam had not been feeling well since we left for El Salvador. Let's just say his condition worsened once we checked into the hotel. By Saturday morning Sam decided to stay home since he had spent the night in the bathroom. I was getting concerned by then since Sam had been progressively getting worse in the three days prior. I told Mauricio about Sam and he immediately directed us to a brother who was a doctor. Sam actually came to the session during the noon break. Mauricio brought Sam to the doctor who was there doing the medical department. He actually had a makeshift infirmary set up at the convention site! After about ten seconds of questioning, the brother had Sam go behind the curtain (which really didn't hide much) and a sister administered a shot to his rear end. After the session, I told Sam he should at least ask what the shot was. The brother told him it was an antibiotic, amoxicillin. Sam is all better now.

About 900 attended each day.

Each night, big groups went to dinner. San Salvador is quite nice and there are many places to go. Mauricio wanted to go to dinner with us, but it just didn't work out sadly. The day we left, we were telling one of the local brothers how helpful they had all been, including Mauricio, in showing us hospitality. Then he went on to tell us that Mauricio has been partaking at the memorial for the last few years! What a privilege it was to have this perspective brother of Christ take such an interest in us!

Well, the trip is over now and after a long trip back home we are ready to hit the ground running in learning spanish! Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Our bus made it through the boarders of each country pretty easily until the final crossing from Honduras to Nicaragua (of course). It really was not much trouble but just funny. The boarder patrol was bit overwhelmed with the size of our group and evidently decided they didn't feel like processing our health inspection paperwork (some had started to fill out the proper forms, but they stopped us after they saw how many they would have to process). So they just gave us all little scraps of paper which apparently verified we had a clean bill of health. It's good to see that the world is on the same page on how to stop the spread of ebola!

Officially cleared!

Waiting for the OK to cross the boarder.

Earthquake Strikes on First Night

As our first day of Nicaragua drew to a close, I was taking my first cold shower of many for the next 6 months. Sam and Bree were just getting finished working on presentations for service. In the middle of my shower, the power went out, a common occurrence here in Nicaragua. I stuck my head out of the bathroom door to get a flashlight so I could get dressed. That's when the house began to shake.

Like most of you, I've experienced a small earthquake before back home. The dishes start to rattle and then its over. That's how this started. Sam jumped up and yelled (you know how it sounded if you know Sam), "Earthquake!"  Then it went from a tremor to the whole house moving back and forth. That's when I got scared and started looking for a table to get under. I immeadiatley realized that a large sturdy table should be one of our first purchases for the apartment here in Nicaragua. Somewhat frozen, I saw Sam hop over to the entrance and half question he yelped, "Doorway!?!!" We sprinted underneath the doorway, and I put my hand over Bree's head. If the quaking had gone on for any length of time, I don't think that would have helped much. Sam also heroically blew out and a candle we had just lit because of the power outage which surely would have fallen and possibly started a fire. Unfortunately for Sam and Bree, I'd only managed to get my underwear on by the time of the quake. We were able to laugh about that later. Under a minute from the start, it was over.

The doorway we went under. Bree was so tired!

Thankfully it stopped before anything of significance was damaged. The flashlight lantern I had brought into the bathroom broke, and the fridge nearly tipped over, but that was the worst of it for us.

We immediately realized how unprepared we were for a disaster. We hurried to put together a go bag because aftershocks are inevitable. Small earthquakes are quite common in Central America, but any thought that this was a normal event quickly went away. We walked two blocks down the street to check in with one of the elders in the congregation whom Sam had introduced me to earlier in the day. Almost every household was gathered underneath their front door away. The elder and his family were as well anticipating another shock. When I met the elder earlier that day he was joking a lot with us, but at this moment he was quite serious. He told us this is the strongest earthquake he'd ever felt.

We started to hear from our friends in the city. One brother told us that a wall in his house started to split and that his family was going to be sleeping together in the safest area in their house. Erling, another elder in the hall who had recentally suffered a leg injury, had bolted out of his house on his crutches into the street. Zach called told us he was fine after getting under a table.

We are located at about the third ring from the epicenter

We got power back relatively quickly. We heard official word earthquake was a 7.4 magnitude strike! I couldn't believe it considering much less powerful earthquakes have done much more damage like the one in Haiti. We definitely dodged a bullet. We eventually were able to get to sleep since since it's impossible to know when an aftershock will strike.

We certainly are deep in the last days and Jehovah's people aren't immune to the signs of the times. At least now we have a conversation starter for our first days in the ministry here!

UPDATE: We found out the quake officially lasted 12 seconds. To put that in perspective, the Haiti earthquake lasted about 30 seconds and the Japan tsunami quake lasted 2 minutes.