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We made it home safe and sound!! It has been an amazing experience and we appreciate all of you sharing it with us!!

Coming to the End

We have just a few days left. We will be out in service and spending sometime with Jon and Cindi these next few days. Then this weekend we will be in South Africa visiting friends. We will be home next week.

Time goes by fast when you having fun!!

Adventure Continues

Today Tony and Tracy (the new missionary couple) officially became African. The tire blew out in service. We also feel like we have rounded out our trip with a typical African life now. Tony had an extra tire and the boys worked it out. 

Jake's enjoyment since he has been here is taking pictures of cars and trucks. Especially really old ones like this one or ones that we don't get back home. He is pretty sad about that but has been having fun driving them.

We finished our nice weekend at Bethel. When we said the full African experience the flat tire was the end of our day. We began our day after morning worship heading back to Christians house. We arrived Rebekah and Norman were not around and the power was out. It is very normal for at least one part of the day to have no power. Some areas in Zim have gone 5 days or more without it, but for the area we are in it is pretty good and we have lost power only twice. Christian has a generator, but we only use it for hot water in the morning and lights in the evening.  Lately we haven't really had to use it.

Rebekah came back and said just a few minutes before we arrived that a man tried to steal oil out of the
main transformer. Which is on the side of our house. It is not Christians it is for the city and our block.
But when he did he got electrocuted. So Norman and Rebekah heard him crying. So we went out with
them. Around here sadly if someone steals or tries to steal the people will normally beat him for punishment and then the police with will come. Norman and Rebekah told them it wasn't needed since
he was definitely already in pain. Rebekah was laughing because she wanted to know if I was scared
since I wouldn't go closer. I could see him but not his injuries. Jake did. He said it was sad. I explained I don't do well with seeing someone in pain. Even though he was stealing it is so sad to see people try to do things like that and get hurt. At home when they steal it is normally for drugs. Here it is normally because they don't have anything or can't get work. Just a sad world we live in. That is when you wish someone had Jehovah and lived a better life.

So he blew the transformer for the whole neighborhood. So who knows when we will have power. I won't be surprised that it will be a week or more. So for now it is nice we have a generator for lights at night and hot water. But it is still figuring out washing clothes in the bathtub and cooking. Always an adventure. We have it pretty good compared to some who don't have a generator.

We had a great study right after that. Maria my student she prepared for her study. Even looking up the scriptures. I mentioned after next week another sister will be doing the study and that she can go to the meeting with her since she has Sunday's off. She said that sounds great. Its sad I have to give it up. Jake will have his study this upcoming Monday for the last time. After the study we walked to get food and a young boy named Elvis about 15 years old stopped Jake and asked if he was one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Jake said yes as he stopped another women stopped me and said you haven't been around this week do you have the magazines. Then Elvis said to Jake that he had found one of our papers and it talked about Armageddon and he wanted more literature. So Jake shared the magazines on the kingdom. Then he said you offer bible studies. Jake said we do and demonstrated how we do that. We didn't have a teach book on us. Since it is hard to get and when you do you don't keep them long. So we told him we would return this week and Jake would study with him.

Now you can see why they call it a Pioneer Paradise. It is going to be sad to leave all these calls and studies. But we know the pioneers and missionaries here will take good care of them. It has been a blessing and a privilege to see so many interested in spiritual things. The less you have the more you appreciate what you have.

Cindi and Jon are pioneering in April. So this weekend it will be service and then they have arranged an area at Bethel where we can have all our new friends come for a small goodbye party. Then more service next week. We are coming a close of two amazing months. We look forward to share the experiences and the lives of the friends here.

Bethel Weekend

We took a tour of Bethel yesterday. We have visited often and have been to most of the places in Bethel but didn't take a tour so it was nice to learn about some details. It is a small Bethel but beautiful. This is our guest room that we are staying in. Since we come from so far they allow us 4 nights. So we will be here till Tuesday morning.

Since it is the weekend we will be going in service. Along with spending some time with the friends. Monday night after the Watchtower there is a lecture. So we hit it right since there are normally only 5 or 6 a year. So it will be fun!! As you see our room is beautiful. It feels like we are staying at a hotel. It is a nice privilege!

Field Service In French

This is Claude and Carol. They are the special pioneer couple that we worked with in French today. They have been special pioneers for 8 years. First in the English field and then in French. We will also be with them this Thursday doing some studies with them. Right now the French congregation has a Swahili Group. Since many that come from the Congo and various areas speak Swahili more then French. So they are unsure of the future of the French. But for now they work hard.

These two men are Jake's studies in the rurals. He had a great study yesterday. We won't share all the experiences since we will have nothing to share when we get home. But it was really nice. They love what they are learning and are eager to share with others.

I also had my study at the shops with Maria today which also was wonderful. Carol was upset that it is not in her territory so that she could do it. But she said she can see why it will be hard to leave her. We have definitely met some people that are hungry for the truth.

This is one of the CO's for english. Nata and Miriam. They are very sweet. He is a wonderful teacher. They have a very difficult life as CO's in Zim. It is not like the states at all. We look forward to sharing with you when we get home what a self sacrificing life that they have. 

Time is passing fast. We have two weeks. We will be taking a tour of Bethel this weekend and staying there for four days. So we look forward to that. Then the rest of the time is service. So we are excited that we are able to conduct our studies a few more times. We will share more as soon as we are able.

No Vic Falls

So sadly the sister that was going to take us to Vic Falls her car broke down. So we did not go.

So just a weekend of service in Jon and Cindi's hall. They have the CO this weekend. So it is a nice weekend of service, meetings and just hanging out. We spent a nice evening last night with the Bethelites and International Servants playing a game called Crazy Bridge. We look forward to sharing the game when we get home if some of you haven't played. It's a fun group game.

We hope to have more experiences from service. Along with more pictures to share.

Prepping for Special Activity

Everyone here is prepping for special activity. One hall has over 24 already signed up to aux pioneer. The hall we visited last night have about 30. There are about 104 publishers. Their goal is to have 70. They are all very excited about the special reduced hours.

Many here especially in the Shona hall work all day long. 7-5 everyday. Then they go out in the ministry in the evening and weekends. So it is so nice to see them use their precious time for this special campaign. 

We look forward to hearing that the friends back home are just as excited. We hope to leave tomorrow for the falls. The car we were going in is in the shop so we are not sure what that will mean for our trip. But as usual you really never know about much until a couple hours before you leave. Zim Time they call it. Really Africa time... We hear that a few that have gone the past few weeks have gotten really wet. It is running about 90%. So it will be interesting. 

We also got approved to stay at Bethel for four days. So we will be going there next weekend. We hope to add more pictures of the falls and Bethel for you. 


Time is ticking away so we are taking in as much as we can. Hope all are well and we will post more in the next few days.....