Dane And Emily Adventures: March 2013

So the Mexico Branch has asked our Congregation to spearhead a new form of witnessing here in Manzanillo. Its called Public Witnessing or Table Witnessing. It has been done in many other parts of the world like New York, and even down here in Mexico City and Guadalajara, but its new for us here.

We receive signs with the latest featured articles like "How to Stop Arguing" as seen above from the February Awake magazine.

Most of the people we talk to are Spanish speaking, which we get information from and turn over to the Spanish Congregation. But we do get some English also.

This little girl seemed especially interested in one of our signs :-)

Brenda used the opportunity to place a "My Book of Bible Stories" with her

The little girl was so excited about her new book. She kept turning pages and showing them to her mom - exclaiming "Mira Mommy, Mira!" Which means "Look Mommy, Look!". We could hear her from across the park.

There have been a number of great experiences at the table during public witnessing. Dane had an experience with a man who approached the table asking about the latest magazines. Here's Dane with that experience:
One young man said he used to study in Spanish but stopped because as he put it "I started doing bad things again". I asked him if he would ever consider studying again. He said he wasn't sure. So I read him Psalms 37:10 "And just a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more; And you will certainly give attention to his place, and he will not be"
I asked him who he thought the "wicked one" was in that scripture. He replied "Well that's Satan". I mentioned to him Satan is the one who wants to distance us from God, but that we have the chance to change that. I read to him James 4:8 "Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you indecisive ones."
I asked him "Did you notice that when we draw close to God something special happens?" He said "God will draw close to us." I mentioned that when God draws closer to us it will help our lives for the better. I then asked him what it meant by WE draw close to God, and how he can do that. He wasn't sure. So I explained that its a personal way we can communicate with God and in fact he can do it right after this conversation. "Prayer!" he said. He was touched that God would care about him even though he was as he explained "one of the indecisive ones" in the scripture. I gave him my name and number if he wanted to continue his study or had any questions. He left with renewed thought to return to Jehovah. We'll see what happens!
---
OK Back to Emily :-) Another great experience during Public Witnessing (AKA: The Stand) was had by McKenzie and followed up by a few others. This man actually came to meeting a few times. That experience told by her can be found on the Seims Family blog. Direct link to that experience here: Service In The Sun

For our Memorial Invitation Campaign we finished all our territories. It was tough, but we made it. Our territories for the preaching work are interesting sometimes. Here is an especially fun one.

And now a closeup for effect :-)

One of the local Spanish Congregations had this sign done at their KH

A door to knock on

The Memorial was great of course. We had almost double our Publisher count in attendance - 97!
Some of us girls shots

Here is McKenzie - Tim and Leah's daughter

Can't leave out the guys - and on the left is Levi - Tim and Leah's son

Notice anything different about his attire? Well, some of the Kingdom Halls don't have air conditioning and its acceptable to go without a jacket on the stage. Dane enjoyed it :-)

Dane Pioneered with Dave and Bogie in Portland, Oregon waaaay back before we were married. Now they are serving in Melaque English, about an hour north of us. They had us for hospitality after Dane gave the Public Talk.

Camping Trip to Playa de Oro

I finally got to swing on a jungle vine! I've always wanted to do that.

OK, so the below group picture has what looks like Gavin is a "Ghost". Well, since we know the Bible teaches us Ghosts don't exist, I'll explain. Someone needed to take the picture so Gavin put the camera on 'Night Shot", took the pic as we froze. He then quickly got into a good spot. See, no ghost! Just Gavin.

A fun group! We'll miss them as many of this group are leaving soon :-(

I've gotten to be out in service with Leah a lot in the past few months. It's been a blessing to develop a close friendship with her - and her whole family. You may have seen them in the camping pics above. We've had lots of fun times out in service with all four of them - they're all a delight. Sometimes when her husband Tim has to go out of town to work it gives us a chance to have girl time. And Dane usually has Levi their son and other guys from the hall over for a "guy's night". You can read more about it if you want to check out their blog - they initially were only going to visit for a couple of weeks and ended up staying for 6 months! They're leaving the same time we do. We'll miss them a lot but we're so thankful for the time they've spent with us down here!