Catching Up...Finally

I can't believe it has been nearly two months since I updated my blog!  I am finally able to take a little time to share some of the highlights from what's been happening in our lives.

In the last post, I mentioned we would be traveling to the States for Chad's work.  He spent the first few days in Houston, while I went on to our home in Ponte Vedra Beach.  I enjoyed being back in the ministry with the congregation, and I was even happier when Chad rejoined me for the latter portion of the week.  We also had a nice visit with family and friends.  We are always grateful for all the good meals and association they provide.  It was a quick trip, though, and as soon as we arrived back in Grand Turk another busy week began.

We thoroughly enjoyed the week with our new Circuit Overseer and his wife, the Gouin's.  They are young, enthusiastic, down-to-earth, and very encouraging.  It was a pleasure to learn from their experience in the ministry and have some more personal time with them over two meals at our home.  To my surprise, I even entertained them on their anniversary.  What a special privilege!

The very next week included a trip to Provo for our Special Day Assembly.  We appreciated the opportunity to be with our brothers and sisters in Provo, the Gouin's again, and the Schilling's from Walkill Bethel.  Brother Schilling serves on the Branch Committee.  They had so many good experiences to share and I was especially fond of their open, honest commentary.  They were so easy to relate to and very approachable.  The assembly, of course, was amazing!  A special highlight for me was seeing Paola in attendance.  She was able to sit with the Spanish group in the back room and hear the entire program translated in her language.  She absolutely loved being there with us!  She immediately made friends and felt comfortable.  After witnessing the baptism, she even said, "Maybe that will be in a year."  I certainly hope that is the case.  She is definitely making good progress and heading in the right direction.  What a blessing to have a part in her spiritual growth!  For Chad, a highlight was the privilege of interviewing Brother and Sister Gouin on the afternoon program.  Did I say how much we love them?!

The assembly was on Saturday and we departed early Sunday morning for the States yet again.  This visit had been scheduled long before Chad received any work requests as an opportunity to spend quality time with our family and friends.  We spent time in the ministry and enjoyed many fine meals with friends and family as usual.  We spent two days in Savannah with Steve, Marina, and sweet Riley.  We had such a good time!  Our week also included a much needed night out with some of the girls in PVB for me and the guys for Chad.  We even fit in a "date night" for ourselves at one of our favorite restaurants.  We took the necessary steps to put our house for sale.  After meeting with a realtor and getting all the paperwork completed, a sign was officially placed in our yard on a Tuesday.  To our complete shock, we had a verbal offer the following Tuesday night, a written offer Wednesday, and a contract Thursday!  We are scheduled to close on December 28th if all goes well.  We will return about a week out from that date to pack our things and move them to storage.  We are so grateful to Jehovah.  It seems he has answered our many prayers on this matter and we feel encouraged to continue simplifying so we can pioneer together in an area of greater need.  We don't know all the details about where and how this will fall into place, but we are confident that Jehovah will guide us in the right direction at the right time.  He certainly knows best and His hand has not been short with us.  We are nothing but grateful for the great joy we have derived from our ministry thus far and know that only good things await us if we make ourselves available to Him.  For now, we are focusing on our work here in Grand Turk.  While exploring options, we leave the final say in Jehovah's hands.

Chad arrived back in Grand Turk ahead of me after our visit in PVB.  I stayed almost a week longer so I could be with my family during my grandmother's surgery.  I am happy to report that the surgery was a success and that she is home recovering well.  She is such a trooper.  I hope that a bit of her strength is in my genes.

It is always hard to say goodbye each time we part from our dear friends and family.  We miss you all very much and appreciate the support you offer both when we are home and away.  It is always helpful to jump right back into our routine here so that we are reminded why we make this sacrifice.  The ministry is great and the congregation a joy!  As an added bonus, we returned to much cooler weather.  The temperature each day is between about 70-82 degrees and the breeze is just lovely!  The mosquitoes have become a bit of a pest, but hopefully that is just temporary.  Any time we are able to spend at the beach is so relaxing, as are the mornings when we have breakfast on the back porch.  The one down side is we don't get to enjoy it very late into the evening.  In fact, it is dark a little after five.  We even had to break out the flashlights on a study last week that went past that time.

Just last week, we were a part of a group of eight from Grand Turk who took a ferry to Salt Cay to preach.  Less than 100 people live on this tiny island, but they had not been preached to in a couple of years.  It was a welcome change of scenery and territory.  It was about a 30-45 minute trip each way and we used a golf cart and SUV to travel once we arrived.  We enjoyed many good conversations with the locals and a nice day with the friends.  We took a break for lunch midday and departed for Grand Turk mid-afternoon. Salt Cay is very quite--much more so than Grand Turk, if you can even imagine.  It's almost stood still despite the passing of time.  We could both say that we had a greater appreciation for our island after being there for just one day!

My favorite call in Salt Cay was on a Spanish couple from the Dominican Republic.  They were eager to welcome us in their home and showed us that they had a copy of the New World Translation, as well as a couple of other publications they had obtained in previous locations.  After sharing a number of scriptures with them, we were able to take note of their phone numbers so that the brothers in the Provo Spanish group could follow-up on the interest shown.  I have really developed a love for the Spanish speaking field and I am finding immense joy in conducting five studies in the language at present.  I have tried setting a number of goals throughout my months here to further my ability to speak and understand Spanish, but have unfortunately fallen short each time.  I am now having much greater success following the Pimsleur program each day.  I hope that it will improve my conversational skills in the coming months and aid to my usefulness in the territory.  Thanks to our friends back home, the Ruiz's, who provided us with a copy of this language learning program!

On Friday of last week, we were joined in the ministry by a couple from Maryland who were in Grand Turk for the day from the cruise ship.  It is always good to meet new faces and give them a taste of the island life.

Well, I think that should adequately bring everyone up to speed on what's been going on in our little world.  We look forward to providing updates on the anticipated sell of our house and plans surrounding the closing.  Until then, we would appreciate your prayers as we await Jehovah's direction.  We send our love to all!