Tuesday 19 November 2013

There is a need every where....

So much has happened in the last week, where do I start?

Ok, so have you ever visited somewhere new and someone asks you where you are from and you tell them and them they ask you if know such and such?? (we always get asked if we know someone in Sydney - although we have never lived in Sydney!) So we never ask anyone if they know any one.

Two weeks ago we had a couple from Vancouver visiting, they were visiting a cousin who is not in the truth but both her and her husband came along to the meeting. I have been making it an earnest goal of mine to talk to visitors and so after the meeting introduced myself and Shannon. Well we started chatting and invited them to dinner during the week. We exchanged numbers and made arrangements.
Audrey called a few days later and had told me that her cousin has a deep love for the bible and was impressed with our meeting and how the children answered. She had hoped that she could encourage her small church to do the same. Anyway we chatted further and I had this urge to ask her if she know this family friend - well it turns out they have been friends since they were teenagers and they know Shannon's parents! So they came arround for dinner and Audrey asked me to call on her cousin when they went back ( they left last week) I said she was technically out of our territory by 4 houses but because of the many "coincidences" including them coming to our meeting, Audrey knowing a family friend... I promised I would take another pioneer sister from our cong and we would pop in.

Well today we called in to see Jenny and Andy and they are just lovely. Jenny was busy knitting dolls for an African project for children and I mentioned that I had a HUGE bag of unwanted wool. After some chatter we managed to turn it into a bible discussion and I left her with the Bible Teach book with a promise of returning with wool and to further our bible discussion!

This month has been super busy with the campaign and we are on a mission to finish of our entire territory (about 65 maps) Some great discussions have arisen.  I had an experience today where I met a young women who grew up in the truth but her family stopped going to meetings when she was about 12. It came up that her father passed away 10 years ago and had been inactive due to "humanly issues" as she put it. I sympathized with her and said there have been many changes in the way things are handled and said that Jehovah uses imperfect people to deliver a perfect message.  I asked her if she believed in the resurrection and she said yes. I then re counted the story of Lazarus and how Jesus gave way to tears - not because Lazarus was dead but because he saw how Martha was grieving and explained that Jehovah is the God of all comfort. She was clearly touched and I asked her if she had a bible. She replied no so I pointed out the JW.org website on the back of the leaflet and said I could come back and show her some of the features including some great videos for the kids which she was excited about (I didn't have my ipad with me!) She then asked me if it had an online bible! I assured her I would be back and we could further our discussion.

Not a bad day in a territory full of "I'm not interested".....

Here's a Picture of our new found friends Audrey and Doug.




Wednesday 6 November 2013

With Every Goal, There's A Starting Point


Our family loves to travel and we have had the opportunity to travel to so many places and meet people from all over the world. To us planning the journey is the exciting part, where we are going to go and where we will stay, what we will do and of course what food we will eat!
Life can be considered as a journey and as we make our way through these last days we have an opportunity to view this as exciting times as we look forward to the new system.

There are however many places which we would love to visit and explore and experience. One such place is Cuenca, Ecuador, and it is our goal one day to serve as "needgreaters" even for a short time.

But how do you go from regular family in the cong with jobs and kids to setting your heart and mind to serving where the need is greater?

Have you ever heard the term "virtual tourism"? 

Virtual tourism is the activity of "visiting" sites of interest over the Internet without having to physically travel to them and why would any one want to do that? Well you have to admit, this world is built on glossy mags showcasing the very best the world has to offer - including travel destinations. The internet has provided an opportunity to take a closer look at places that we may never have considered or thought was out of our reach. By looking, reading fist hand travel accounts we get an idea of what it would be like.

The society's website, www.jw.org is an amazing example of how far we have come and how it is helping people from all over the world come to know Jehovah.

Over the past 8 months (since we had that dvd that was shown during the Co's visit) I have been reading about "needgreaters" from all around the world and their wonderful experiences, building up a desire to visit some of the places mentioned.

So even if it may be a far off goal in a far far distant land, our desire only keeps growing everyday. In the mean time we working hard in our own territory finding honest hearted ones and enjoying the rich blessings and ...... we have a starting point.

Here are just some of my favorite blogs  -

http://batesfamilytravels.blogspot.com.au
http://ilynca.blogspot.com.au
http://charlietaniadakota.blogspot.com.au
http://mattnrachprisco.blogspot.com.au
http://jeremynelena.com
http://ofalpacasandothermatters.blogspot.com.au