We just came back from our circuit assembly and it was soooo encouraging! What a shot in the arm. Don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't had theirs yet. But you just can't walk out of there being the same publisher. You will look at your spirituality differently. The assembly hall is beautiful. It's outdoors. Reminds you of back in the day sitting in the heat at Yankee Stadium. But it's wonderful that while you're looking at the platform, there are palm trees in the background blowing in the wind. The brothers and sisters are super warm and just so happy to be there. And it is a sacrifice. Most of them have to rent buses as a congregation. There was one congregation that had to rent a bus for a 2 and 1/2 hr ride and the local friend accommodated them. Again this is for a circuit assembly, not the district assembly. So everytime they have an assembly, they have to kick out money for transportation and stay at someones house. It's a beautiful thing to see. No one complains about the heat. They all are happy to eat together during lunch. They look for some shade and spread a blanket and it's a picnic w/ their friends for them. There are no congregations assigned for clean up. They just announce that clean up has to be done and everyone grabs a broom. That's the same arrangement for our local congregation w/ kingdom hall clean up. Just beautiful to see.
In the circuit, there are quite of number of americans who have moved there as missionaries, special pioneers, and need greaters. The encouraing thing to see was families who were serving there. This one couple, who happen to be doctors, brought there 3 children to Costa Rica to serve a few weeks during their summer vacation. One of their daughters is 6 years old and actually conducts a study. All the kids said they loved preaching there. That experience was the best gift their parents could ever have given them. There was another couple with a 1 and 1/2 yr old and a 3 year old that have been serving for 2 years in Costa Rica. When the wife got pregnant, they didn't want to give up their goal to stay 5 years. So they, or Jehovah, is working it out for them. Somehow the brother was blessed w/ being able to leave Costa Rica and work a few months in the U.S. to support his family and stay in Costa Rica. They wanted to meet their goal of staying 5 years.
We just wanted to share some encouraging facts that were shared during the c.o.'s part on "Pay attention to the needs of the circuit". Here they go:
The circuit had 897 publishers 2 years ago, they now have 1061. There are 21 congregations and 2 isolated groups. This one little congregation has some temporary special pioneers helping it because there's such a need. In one isolated group there are 13 publishers conducting 50 studies each month.
This experience was touching and shows how easy we have it in the U.S. to preach and makes you question how much to I really push myself. This one congregation is so rural that they don't have public transportation in their territory. And there aren't any brothers w/ cars. To go out in service, It takes them 45 mins to walk from their house to the beginning of their territory. By the time they've worked the
territory, it takes 2 hrs for them to walk back home. This is a regular service day for them.
There's such a need for brothers here. For 21 congregations and 2 isolated groups, there are only 47 elders and 38 ministerial servants. Which means some congregations have no ministerial servants, like our's and may have only 1 elder.
So the c.o. really commended the brothers and publishers. They are really working hard to cover their territories and to shepherd brothers. He also begged the men to reach out and qualify.
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