Paradise Island

Here are some pictures of our trip to paradise island with the Mckinney and Young families.  According to a CNN article of the world's 100 best beaches, paradise island (cayo paraiso) is number 34.  It's just a tiny sandbar surrounded by a coral reef a mile or two offshore.   The water is super-clear and there are a lot of fish.  The pictures really don't do it justice.  None of these pictures were edited and the water really was that blue.    

Hello!!!  It's been a hectic couple of weeks down here in the DR.  We spent a weekend with Matt and Deborah.  The first several pictures are of a day we spent preaching in far out territory with their congregation.  It was a beautiful area called "Yasica" and is up in the mountains between Puerto Plata and Santiago.

This is the young brother I preached with. (He's the one on the right...)

A view of the little town of "Yasica".

This is the view as we are starting to head to "Yasica".  What you see is the north shore of the Dominican along with the mountain right behind the city of Puerto Plata.

We had our circuit assembly this past weekend and two people from our hall got baptized.  Gladys is on the left with her daughter and Luisa is on the right.

A view of the baptism area at our assembly hall.

Aaaaawwwwwwwwww!!!!  

We hope to hear from you all soon!!!

Public Preaching and the Resort!

Hello everyone!  Well another service year has come and gone.  A lot has happened this year and we're looking forward to more good things coming.  

Here's an interesting piece of news from the DR... the first legal non-catholic wedding was celebrated last week.  Up until now the only "preachers" allowed to officiate a wedding were catholic priests.  Non-catholics had to go to the Dominican equivalent of the "Justice of the Peace" to be legally married.  In 2010 a new law was added that allowed leaders from other religious groups to legally marry couples but as always in this country laws take a while to be put into affect is ever...

Finally the first non-catholic wedding was celebrated last week and guess which religious group it was?   Jehovah's Witnesses.  Here's the link if you want to read one of the articles that's on a Dominican newspapers webpage.  It's in spanish though... :(  

http://listindiario.com.do/la-republica/2013/8/29/290080/Una-iglesia-no-catolica-casa-a-primera-pareja

We started the preaching in public places.  I made a little stand that we take early in the morning once a week to a bus stop.  We've done it several times so far and still aren't sure of how successful it will be in our territory. We'll have to give it some more time to see.  Below is a picture of Leandro posing in our hall with the stand before heading out with it for the first time.

Heading to the bus stop.

For the last week of the service year we took a little vacation to a resort complex not far from where we live.  Several times a year they give great deals on the website  www.cheapcaribbean.com for 19$/night with everything included.  It's a really awesome deal, so if anyone ever thinks about coming for a visit.......  it's a great place to stay.  It's such a good deal that witnesses flock to it.  Every time we've gone, there has been a lot of brothers.  This time we counted at least 22.  Other times there have been over 50.  It's nice to be there and see brothers reading their magazines and even preaching to the resort staff.   Here are some pictures from the trip.

     Some of the many pools.... remember 19$/night... all inclusive....food too... : )

The view from the beach chair.

I finally posted one of us.   Kyle took this of us after one of the days of the district convention.

Take care and we hope to see you all soon.

Pictures from Kyle's trip

Here is a bunch of pictures from Kyle's trip.

Setting up for the picture...

The final result

The blooper shot...

Now the serious one showing how we really are... :)

The sunset from our kitchen window.

The beach closest to Imbert

Getting ready to go to the convention

A few pictures...

Hello everyone.  Here is a mix of some different photos from the last few months.  The first is of a new publisher.  His name is Basmat.  This was the night of his first reading in the school.   Basmat actually became a publisher two months before his mom.   He is 7 years old and has only been in the country for a year and a half.  They are originally from Haiti.  He's doing great in the ministry and is very bold when preaching.  He was working a day with his stepdad and another man.  He was the other man's helper in the morning and preached to him the whole morning, asking questions like "Who is the ruler of the world?" , etc.  At lunch-time when his stepdad asked the man if he wanted to work with someone else for the rest of the day the man said no because Basmat talked the whole morning about a lot of interesting things.

 

Of course this is Lili looking as cute and inquisitive as ever.

 

We had a bee problem between the tin and plywood in a part of our roof.  It took about 3 days to get all the bees out and was very messy.

 

Here is a small group crossing a river to go to a country territory called La Piragua.  

 

A view from La Piragua looking back towards Imbert.  The town of Imbert is at the base of the mountain on the right.

 

Leandro is a nice young brother here in Imbert who helps out a lot in the congregation.