Over the past few months it had seemed as though things just dried up so to speak in the ministry. In house to house we found a number of English speakers who flatly said they were not interested or not religious at all; highly unusual for Mexico. Some of our Bible studies moved to other places, some just stopped studying for one reason or another. We have had trouble locating many of our return visits, work or other pursuits suddenly became available and there was little time left to study the Bible. Still though, we have had a few good experiences recently in the ministry, such as the following:
While working in house to house Tonya and I met Vianney, a woman who only spoke Spanish. She was on her way to work and told us she had lived in Phoenix for a few years. She used to study and attend meetings there but had done neither since she returned to Guasave. She also had a twelve year old daughter who spoke English. She expressed some interest and said she would like for her daughter to study as well. We were able to arrange for a Spanish speaking sister to follow up with her.
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Earlier in the year back in March or April Suzanne and I were doing census work and we came across a woman who told us her husband spoke English but was working abroad in the U.S. She had expected him to be home some time later in the year. So last month we were working returns near there and remembered the woman we spoke to. We went back to the house and she warmly invited us in. She told us her husband was still in the states and would be home she hoped by the end of the year. She stopped doing her housework so we shared a brief thought with her from the Bible and left with her the only Spanish tract that we had. She excitedly told us that her husband had co-workers who were Witnesses in the U.S. He has been reading the magazines and sharing with her what he was learning. We asked her if she would like to learn more as her husband was and she agreed. We got one of the Spanish speaking sisters from the car group and a study was started with her on the spot. We later mused among ourselves what a coincidence that both husband and wife were now studying and hoped they would be able to continue to do so as a family when the husband returns home.
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On a Saturday morning late in September Suzanne, Dani and I were working together and passed a house with a sign offering English lessons. There we met Luis an English teacher who had lived in Las Vegas for ten years. He told us he was suffering a number of health issues and his mother was sick as well. We were able to share with him the magazine on the topic of "Why So Much Suffering?" and also read to him Psalms 46:1. We reasoned with him that one way Jehovah helps us is with the meetings. We associate with others who love Jehovah and face their own struggles. As we do we encourage one another and are helped through our own difficulties.
Later on that day Lizeth, one of the pioneers in our congregation, was attending her English class in school. She said the topic of religion somehow came up. She told us the teacher began to speak highly of Jehovah's Witnesses and encouraged the students to "listen to them when they come by your house because they only want to help you and just talk about the Bible." Who was the teacher? Yep, it was Luis whom we had spoke to that morning.
Sitting in the class and listening to all of this was a student named Leo. He has family who are Witnesses and used to attend meetings with his mother. He attended the Sunday and Thursday meetings that week, and has been a regular attender since; even commenting during the WT study. We were able to have a several nice conversations with him after the meetings and he said he looks forward to calling his mom and telling her he is attending meetings again.
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So you may wonder what's with the title of this post? Well as I mentioned back in one of my August posts there were some changes underway in the English field in Mexico. One of these changes was the dissolution of the English congregation in Guasave. So for now we are back in Florida, considering our next step from here.
