Back to Trinidad

Well, we have very mixed feelings about what took place today... Leaving Guyana was truly bitter-sweet.  We felt very sad to leave our new friends who we felt like we had known for years and yet we were very excited about the next phase of our trip.  Jace put it so cute, in a way only a child could, he said "I don't want to come back to Guyana! (we were shocked to hear that) then he continued, "When we are here I miss people from home, and when we are home I'm going to miss people from here! We should just stay in one place!!"    =)

Regardless of our feelings though, we had to go.  One sister put it this way: "if you don't leave then you can't start planning your next trip back!!!"  She is soo right!  :)

So we flew out of Guyana this morning (our flight was delayed 2 hours so it technically was this afternoon) and we arrived back in Trinidad.  It was a non eventful flight, all 3 of the children slept the whole flight and we were able to reflect on the past two months.  WOW! We couldn't believe two whole months had passed that quickly!  Our experiences have no doubt changed our lives.  We probably will find ourselves appreciating things we never even noticed before.  Like, hot water!!! There is no hot water in Guyana so we took cold showers every day.  Most of the time it felt refreshing and sometimes it was actually not cool enough but the times where it had rained and the sun hadn't heated the tanks even a little, it was freezing.  Needless to say those were quick showers!  :)  That is just one example of something we never thought about before that we will have greater appreciation for now.  The list is endless, it seems.  And yet we felt genuine joy, we felt contentment with less and we mourn having to leave so soon. Although, our Guyana experience for 2011 is complete, the long term effects on us will continue for many years.  :)

So the Dinoo family were patiently waiting for us when we finally arrived.  It was so wonderful to get to see them again!  We have some VERY exciting things in store for the coming week!!!!!

We will be coming home in just short of a week but, it is jammed packed!  

There is a much anticipated zone visit here in Trinidad that is to take place on Sunday afternoon.  Originally, the entire country of congregations plus brothers traveling from Guyana were to attend in one location.  But, do to issues with getting that location it was changed and is now being held at an Assembly Hall.  With such limited space only a few select ones are invited to attend in person, while all the other congregations will be watching via live video transmission.  We were slightly disappointed in the change but, still thankful to get to hear the information at all! 

When we got back to the Dinoo's house they had a gift all wrapped and waiting for us.  They are exceptionally giving people!  Inside the card to our complete shock was tickets to attend the zone visit at the assembly hall!!!!  As if that wasn't exciting enough, they had made arrangements for Dishon to watch both boys so we would just bring Rayah and actually be able to pay attention to the program!!!!   We feel overwhelmed with blessings from Jehovah!  We NEVER could have imagined that we would be able to attend such a special event!  We are very thankful and excited!

We also have some pretty exciting recreational plans for the week but, I will wait to explain all of those until after I have pics to go along with the description!   

Sending all of our love to our friends and family across the globe,

Brandon, Angelique, Jace, Kaden & Rayah

Some Recreation!

So we have made some incredible new friends.  The kind of friends we will think about often, miss terribly and try to contact as often as we can!  With that being said, we had some company / aka a PARTY!!!  The Hendricks, The Henry’s and The Simon’s all came over last Sunday with an agenda….

To Have Fun!!!!  We ate, we laughed, we played music  (some of us even danced) It was a blast!  Check out the pics…..

We also went to the Botanical Gardens in Georgetown with the Persauds, the Henry’s and the Hendricks.  It is free admission and had lots of areas for the kids to run and play!  And boy did they PLAY!!!  For hours, until they about dropped.  Then we all went for dinner to Popeye’s!  It was sooo much fun!  We were able to get many pics that day as well!

Again, thank you to all of you who have made comments on the blog or emailed!  We enjoy reading your comments and feeling the” interchange of encouragement”!   We have just 4 days left here in Guyana.  *sniff sniff*  It seems crazy that almost 8 weeks has  passed. We  truly don’t want to go home.  Although we definitely miss our family and many of the conveniences of home, we love being here for the ministry!  For about two weeks now I’ve been refusing to look at the calendar so I wouldn’t have to acknowledge we are leaving….but we are.  Today was our last Sunday meeting in Guyana.  Now we have to start packing up a house we have been living in for 6 weeks.  It’s going to be a lot of work.  But, we will be flying back to Trinidad for the last six days of our trip!  We are excited about that and we will also be present for the Zone Visit going on in Trinidad on the 30^th of January! Also, we can’t wait to see the Dinoo family again!  Many more memories to be had!

 I will try to keep posting but, I’m sure it will be too hectic for the rest of the week.  Thank you for all the prayers and encouraging words along this journey, we have had an amazing time in GUYANA and encourage anyone who can, to come experience it for yourself!!!!!

Brother Hendricks is NOT camera shy!

This is Ciel dancing! She was adorable with all sorts of moves up her sleeve!

Kaden and Ciel enjoying the hammock

Dancing!

He just loves to dance! So does Gayle!

We went to dinner at the Philander's house..  The boys LOVED playing with them!

Sister Philander is an amazing cook!

Friends for life! Can't wait to come see them again!

The three boys went to get a drink after the meeting

tough girl!

playing ball

Our Sweet Boy

The Gang

We love Sister Hendricks so much!

Eating cassava chips

Updates on Our Ministry

Well, with everyone being sick we were pretty sad that we couldn’t get in the ministry more.  We knew our trip was quickly coming to a close and here we were sitting in the house.  So Brandon and I decided to take turns coming and going.  I would stay with the kids while he went out with the group and I would get to go the next day and so on.  It was a little tough because we each wanted to be out but, when the other one came home smiling with great experiences, it was nice.

Here are some of our experiences in service….

I was feeling a bit down because I hadn’t been able to get in service for a while with being ill.  I kept praying and praying to Jehovah that I could please find someone who would truly be yearning to learn.  (The bible study that I previously spoke of that wanted to start in January never really came into fruition.  I was able to share several bible texts with her to answer some of her questions but, our schedules never lined up )

So when I came upon a very tiny wooden built home I wasn’t expecting what happened.  There was a young woman sitting on the couch (in an immaculate kept home) and she said we should come in.  I started my presentation about Natural Disasters and she quickly mentioned that she was in her third trimester of pregnancy with her first baby.  I had one copy left in my bag of the Awake on Raising Responsible Children from October.  She readily took the magazine and said she would read it.  Then she proceeded to tell me how she LOVED to read her bible and go to church but, just had not had the time lately.  She also said she had never read the Watchtower and Awake before or spoke to Jehovah’s  Witnesses.  That was very surprising as the territory there was worked often.  She had always been working  previously but had since quit her job. 

She indicated that she was a deep thinker and was always wishing she could understand her bible better.  She felt that if she just kept reading, eventually it would make more sense.  I offered her the What does the bible really teach book and a bible study.  She said that would be fine.  She was very flexible with her schedule, saying I could come any day of the week! 

Her name is Carolyn and she enjoys her study so much that she studies twice a week!  We have conducted 2 bible studies as of yet.  She is such a delight to study with.  Each week I feel like she opens up more.  This last study she learned God has a name, Jehovah. She could not believe she had gone to church all of her life and had NEVER been taught that.  We spent a great deal of time on that subject, helping her to see all the reasoning behind why it had been removed from so many translations as well as all the scriptural reasoning on why we can and should use it! She said she wanted to start using God’s name although she was not accustomed to it and thought it would probably take her some time to adjust.  It was incredible for me to experience the appreciation she had!  We had traveled all those miles to find people like her…yearning to learn the truth!  This seriously has brought me some of the greatest joy I have ever felt!  There is nothing more fulfilling then helping someone come to learn about Jehovah!!!

Brandon has had an alarming amount of bible conversations.  He informally witnesses EVERYWHERE we go!  He also has great success in placing literature.  People  just really enjoy speaking with him!  He had one experience where he was walking home from service and a group of people called him over.  They began asking him questions and inquiring of what various topics of Watchtowers and Awakes he had.  They were even taking certain ones to give to friends whom they knew would want to read them.  When he came home that morning, after only2 hours he had placed 18 magazines!! (I have never come close to that!) Plus he had a date and time to return to answer more questions!

Just this past weekend we were at a park and as usual Brandon remembered to bring his bible and some literature !  He met a man named “Junior” who he was engaged in conversation with for over an hour.  As you will see in the pics below, after the conversation had ended Junior replaced the newspaper he had previously been reading and began reading the Watchtower!

These are just a couple of the experiences we have had.  We look forward to speaking in person with as many of our friends as we can to share more!  For now we hope you enjoy some of the pictures we have taken out in service!

The meeting for field service.  The sister in an apron owns the bread shop behind them and so she came to join us for the meeting and for the pic.

This little boy took the tract to bring back to his Mother inside the house.

Sister Simon, Sister Khan and her little boy out joyfully preaching!

Jennifer Henry, Royette, Sister Hendricks, and Christine Simon

Waiting for a taxi to go to Mommy's bible study

Baby girl just couldn't stay awake for the 2 hour study!

Carolyn and her mother Marlyn

Junior and Brandon enjoying spiritual conversation at the park

Junior reading the Watchtower

Happy group after a hot morning preaching! (I really need to bring a hat next time!)

In Keeping With Bates Tradition......

We ALL got sick!

 It stinks to be sick with “the flu” as everyone here calls any illness!  I suspect because my immune system was so weakened from the parasite that is why I was susceptible to coming down with another virus immediately.  I had a headcold along with a fever and just felt yucky for about 4-5 days.  I couldn’t go in service and Brandon really helped with the household chores, even cooking! 

 Then both boys and Rayah came down with it too.  It felt very much like a typical winter for us, well ok minus the 90 degree weather!  The boys seemed to get well pretty quickly.  They were down about 2 days each.  Rayah on the other hand was sick for over a week with a fever upwards of 102.  We were watching her closely of course.  After a week and her fever not going away, among other symptoms we decided she probably had an ear infection and started seeking out how to get her some antibiotic s. 

Our Pediatrician back home, Dr. Przygodzki was incredibly kind and helpful (as he always is) telling us exactly what to get and how to dose her properly.  We can’t thank him enough!!!

Unlike home, we were able to find a pharmacy and without a prescription or seeing a doctor from Guyana, we were able to get an antibiotic. It doesn’t taste nearly as good as what we can get at home, so she hates it but within 3 days our little “RayRay” was on the mend! 

So far we have all been healthy since!  Yay!

Rayah with her daddy.  She started antibiotics that morning and was still feeling icky  : (

Brandon taking care of things while Mom is recuperating

Road Trip!!!

So, what have the Bates Family been doing the last couple of weeks in Guyana???

Well, we have been ON THE RUN!!!  It’s been pretty crazy to be honest.

Last week we  took a trip to Berbice (which is basically a different county from Haslington) it took us about an hour and 20 minutes drive by taxi to get there.  But the reason we went was TOTALLY worth it…that is where Mike and Lara are assigned as needgreaters!  We went to visit them overnight.  We had such a wonderful time getting to know them when they came to visit us, that we took advantage of the fact we were in the same country and went to see them again!  Even when we all are in the US at the same time, they are from Oregon and we are in NY….so basically completely different ends of the country, it only made sense to go see them again while they are so close!

Because we are nearing the end of our trip and several unexpected things came up that we weren’t planning on financially, we are very careful with our spending.  We were not going to go visit the Alston’s because each quote we got from taxi drivers were pretty steep.  It was incredible when Lara called and said she had found a taxi driver from Berbice who was willing to come pick us up and drive us back for significantly less than any other.  His name is Lorenzo and he is a bible study in the Brighton congregation, who wanted to help out other witnesses as much as he could.  He was incredibly sweet to us.  Making sure we had a comfortable ride, while always being so accommodating to the children.  We greatly appreciated all his effort in our behalf!

We had such a relaxing visit with Mike and Lara, plus we also got to see Tom and Michelle Sanches again!  Such encouraging examples of people putting Jehovah first to the greatest extent!  (not to mention a little on the goofy side as you will see in the pics!)

Both Brandon and I were able to go on some bible studies with Mike and Lara.  We both felt very privileged and encouraged by these.  As most everything we have experienced here, there seems to be a learning curve on how to be an effective teacher here. The way of life is so completely different than what we are familiar with in the States that we have to adapt our methods of teaching people the bible.  Very much like the Apostle Paul said at 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 : “To the Jews I became as a Jew . . . To those without law I became as without law . . . To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to people of all sorts, that I might by all means save some.” 

So getting to see how “the pros” Mike and Lara do it was very helpful to us.  We each learned things that we started applying in our ministry immediately. ( Speaking of our ministry, check out the next post all about how that has been going!)  

So although it was a bit of a whirlwind, we had a total blast with the Alston’s again!  They even let the kids play their beloved game of Peggle on the internet and they had some Disney movies the kids were able to watch, which was a real treat for them!  We all had such an enjoyable time, as you’ll see in the pics below….

Rayah showing us the kitty!

This is sour sop.  It is the first fruit we have tried that neither of us liked at all!  It must be an acquired taste!

Brandon is very happy about getting ice cream!

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Lara with her beautiful blue eyes!!!

Silly Girls

I have no idea what possessed us to do this, but look at our smiles underneath all that hair!

Tom: hard at work on the laptop

Playing Peggle! The kids were sooooo happy!!!!

Breakfast was french toast and fresh papaya! Delicious!!!