First Sunday Meeting

Group when the road is safe...r!

     Getting Settled In

It sure doesn't take long to feel like you have family in our organization!  This family left today for Columbia and I thought I was going to cry saying goodbye.  The picture to the left was the group at our first Sunday meeting(plus me, taking the picture).  We were a bit disappointed until we realized that the torrential downpours from the night before had made "The Road"  extremely dangerous for travel due to landslides and boulders.  I say "The Road" because there is only one main road on the entire island.  So if "The Road" isn't good, you're not going anywhere.  The group here may be small, but they definitely have mastered the feeling of the worldwide brotherhood.  Each person has a special, important role to play.  When one is missing, the entire group really feels it.  To the right is Canyon giving his first Bible Reading in Saba.  There is much for everyone to do, so it is nice to see Canyon excited to jump in and want to help out as much as he can.  Of course, this is inside of the little Kingdom Hall.  Brothers came from Florida and helped them to remodel it and fix it up.  We take things like that for granted in the states, but for a little isolated group like this such acts of kindness really help them to feel like they "matter".   Meetings are a lot of fun. Clint is doing an amazing job with trying to help both

Service in 'The Bottom"...haven't found the top yet.

the Spanish and English in the group.  He spends hour upon hour preparing in both languages.  Everyone works as a team to make the meetings understood by everyone.  If someone doesn't understand, someone else jumps in and translates.  We all laugh a lot! One of Canyon's duties each meeting is to catch the anoles(like lizards...ADORABLE!)and put them outside...he found out the hard way that lizards are to some sisters here as spiders are to some sisters at home...only they can jump farther :)

Amber :)

THE MINISTRY:  We are enjoying doing quite a few Bible studies.   When we arrived, there was a list of names of those who like to study and we have been slowly finding them and making arrangements with them.  One is with a group of children.  Clint had a bible study with the older boy, 13, and Canyon and I took the 5 younger ones, ages 3-10.  It was so much fun!  When we arrive they all came out to meet us with their Bibles and books in their hands eager to study.  I had printed out some activities from JW.org to do and Canyon read to them Bible

"The Bottom" where many in the congregation live.

stories that went along with the printouts.  I think we will be excited to go see them every week!  Several of the kids were at meeting today!  I hated to take photos as we are just getting to know the students, but perhaps in the future... These other pictures are just some fun things we have seen while out in the ministry.  After the ministry one day, we took a tour of an organic farm.  A volcanic island and a rain forest do not give you ideal soil...so the cows on the island help out with that.  Only problem...there are only 4 cows on the island...so every drop of
fertilizer is precious!  We have a goal of meeting

Parsley...his favorite herb.

all four cows and naming them. We called the one above "Amber" since he is brown and his contributions are so precious.  The tour was very educational...and yummy!  They insisted we help ourselves to some produce and spices. We got to ask all our questions about how to take care of our banana trees behind the cottage.  Did you know they die after they produce a bunch of bananas?  We can't wait to harvest ours!!!  



"The Road" is a story all in itself.  It is 10 miles long and connects the 4 little towns.  You are looking at it in this picture...the main road on the island under construction.  They are trying to make it wider and this is the only piece of heavy machinery we have seen them use.  Other than this it seems to be shovels, wheelbarrows, and strong backs.  They take the stones out of what they are knocking down and hand build a stone wall.  It is beautiful when they are done...and a little less frightening on the spots that are wider!  The views from it are amazing, but you better not even attempt a glance if you are driving.  Again...this is the only road, so everyone needs to be on island time and not really care if they are delayed.  Driving is a bit frightening.  We have been here nearly two weeks and I just started driving a bit...and I am terrified to drive in town!!!  What we consider one lane in PA is often 2 lanes with parking on the side!  Everyone is constantly backing up and squeezing through.  Most cars have their sides scraped up.

"The Road" on a good day.

Living Room/Dining Room/School Room/Office

Saban weather forecast:  Yep, it's gonna rain in 5 minutes...again!



We hung feeders and have lots of cute birds coming already.  Even a crested hummingbird!

There are goats EVERYWHERE.  We went for a hike and they couldn't figure why we were on their turf.
It was so steep and rocky we really felt like we were part of their family.  They hunt goats here just like we do deer.
Only difference is they actually own the goats and hunt the island searching for THEIR own goats to shoot. 

"Tropic" birds with long tails.

The beach we hiked to one evening in hopes of going swimming...treasure hunting instead.

It may not have been good for swimming, but it sure was beautiful!

                                                                          

You can see better in this picture why we didn't swim.  Can't go swimming?  No problem...rock climbing is always fun, too!

Second stage of our trip...Shawn and Becky Light arrive. YIPPEE!! They graciously offered to come and help out with the meetings so Clint wouldn't be doing all the brothers parts himself.  Clint will have some help from here on out, so life will be a little less stressful...YEAH!!!  They flew into the airport...the smallest commercial runway in the world...in high winds...we took the ferry:)  We watched them land...wow... This picture shows nearly the entire runway, their plane, and the airport.  The end of the runway that you see...a 100' cliff into the ocean.  It is funny that we have only been here two weeks, but already knew quite a few in the crowd at the airport.  The island population is only around 1,800.

Yeah...Shawn and Becky are here!

They flew in Saturday evening and Shawn gave the talk Sunday morning.  You don't get a break here!  No torrential rains this time, so we had 19 at meeting! 

Shawn's first time giving a talk that is translated into Spanish.  He started out with an illustration with all these big complicated science words....the sister translating,and all of us, eventually had to just laugh at any attempt to translate it.  We didn't even understand them and English is our first language!  He quickly saw our lost looks and simplified it 'on the fly'.  He even kept his cool while a little girl was playing peek-a-boo with him at the door beside him!  He is adapting quite well to the uniqueness of it all and gave a great talk.  Clint is getting to be an expert at conducting the Question and Answer parts, though he humbly thinks he is struggling.  This is the first meeting that felt somewhat "normal". 

This is our 2 1/2 hour family meeting we had to get Canyon's talk #3 out for next week.  He insisted that he give it in both languages so everyone could understand it...and HE hand wrote it out in both languages!  He really got into it and had fun doing most of it himself.  Clint helped him translate it with the help of google translate.  Think of him,and pray for him,this week when you hear the talk on how Jesus set a pattern for us.  It is a pretty big task to take on for a kid that just turned 9!  He has really embraced doing all he can to be encouraging to the friends here.  You should hear his voice in a little concrete Kingdom Hall.  Everyone here is loving his enthusiasm for singing and joining in.  It sounds so beautiful with both languages so heartfelt at the same time.  I am sure it can be heard from blocks away!  If I am tech savvy enough, I will tape it and put it on the blog next week. 

Endless beautiful views!  Until next week........