Bates Family Travels: 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….