#16 The joys and challenges




Walking in the territory

    As promised in the last blog we are going to inform you of the few challenges and the many many blessings of being here in potosi.  As in the case of many territories around the world that have yet to be reached with the modern conveniences such as cars, sidewalks and Starbucks to mention just a few we here enjoy the daily exercise of walking and riding our bikes. On average we probably walk at least a mile or two a day in the territory and bike at least 3 miles to and from the territory.  We enjoy the biking since the breeze created by our speedy pedaling makes for a nice refreshing sensation, it's when we stop that things start to heat up.  Thank goodness for that a.c. unit! Thus biking has become a challenge but also a blessing ( believe me we would much rather bike than walk ).

Some of our territory is 45 minutes away in a car and on the days that we work this area we all cram into one of the local brothers trucks or sometimes take a bus.
The pictures below are of us working this territory the day after a nice rainy night, hence the muddy road.  We divided into 2 large groups to cover the area and when we finished we enjoyed each others company eating the lunches that we brought while at one of the local families houses.  The week before we journeyed out to this same area to support a meeting that is held there once a month.  Those that had parts the night before pile into the truck and arrive at a brothers house where you find a small replica of a kingdom hall, we say replica since he built this small room with a platform to be used temporarily as a kingdom hall since there isn't one out here, talk about contributions!  On this specific occasion we arrived to find the tire going flat which was a blessing to find it before the meeting in time to change it instead of after when it began to pour down rain.  The brothers in the back were kindly provided a plastic bag to cover themselves with while it rained, ( that was a challenge in case you were wondering ).

The blessings include but are not limited to the following: having more studies and rv's than one can manage, having entire families studying at the same time ( sometimes up to 5 at a time ), waking up every morning knowing that the only things on the agenda are service, rv's and studies, seeing the very young baptized brothers setting a fine example in caring for congregation responsibilities since theres' such a great need here they are definitely getting used to the full, and last but certainly not least forming lasting and close relationships with the friends in the congregation.    We know that many of these blessings are being enjoyed by friends all over the world not just here in potosi and that's why we encourage anybody who is thinking of assisting in another area where one would like to be used to the absolute full to do so! " taste and see that Jehovah is good." ( psalms 34:8).  Until next time.

Kirk and Kelly

On the way to the meeting

The "replica hall"



the young brothers are in charge here

after meeting sunset..before it started raining

The tire kept coming loose on the way home

Meeting for service the next week...same place



a ride over the muddy waters

This particular house gave us a watermelon!