The Times They Are A-Changin'

The English congregation had their circuit overseer's visit this past week, and I was able to attend the midweek meetings and the pioneer meeting. I was going to attend Sunday as well, but all the Spanish meetings for that week were moved to Sunday morning due to the visit and the electricity went out 10 minutes into the public talk, so after two Spanish meetings with no fans and no mics, I decided that a nap would be more beneficial. Dave and Amanda Taitano were visiting, and Dave gave an excellent talk despite the lack of a sound system or lights.

It was announced at the English pioneer meeting that the Nicoya pre-group has seen enough growth and support that it will now be applying to the branch to become a formal group. At the pre-group meeting last night, it was announced that Spence and Jill Huffman and Ben and Lindsay Taitano will be moving up to Nicoya to form the nucleus of the group as part of the Spanish Nicoya Sur congregation, and though we're very sad to see them leaving Esterones, it's an exciting mark of the growth in the English field here and Jehovah will no doubt continue to bless their whole-souled efforts. (Anyone who's experienced our long, hot, dusty Nicoya days will appreciate the self-sacrifice on their part, not only in their move to Spanish but to the town itself.) 

Garrett and Jennifer Ellingson will also be moving to a city near the Panama border in a couple of months, so the English congregation here is experiencing some downsizing but there's still a solid core of enthusiastic pioneers to keep the work going, as well as the visitors that will be coming and going until the rainy season. (Note: If anyone wants to come down and help in English, I'm told the number of temporary needgreaters drops dramatically during the rainy season from June-November, so any help then would be especially appreciated if you don't mind some rain. The temperature is slightly cooler and there are some terrific electric storms, so I hear.)

The local Spanish congregation of Buena Vista, on the other hand, has been seeing an influx of pioneers including myself, Lou Galgano from Port Angeles, Jamie and Megan Detwiler from Reno, and soon (we hope) a sister named Amber from Australia. I've decided to stay at least a year in the Spanish congregation here, and after that we'll see if I move to English depending on their need, or to another place altogether.

The view across the road from my place. I never tire of it.

A lone vulture picking through my scraps.

During the campaign work, at least a couple of Saturdays will be spent on excursions to the rural parts of our territory. Last Saturday we met at 7:30 at the hall, piled in cars, and drove out to the town of Carillo and spent about four hours walking around in the hills. Here, "rural" doesn't necessarily mean sparsely populated; it means you drive through hills, jungles, and teak plantations from village to village, each of which has one or two little stores and quite a number of houses.

My witnessing partner for the morning, Janet Espinosa. She lives on the road to Playa Buena Vista and owns a little cabin that she rents out. She brings her young son in service and to the meetings, and she invited me to come have coffee with her sometime. She also gave me some cookies right before we crossed this bridge to get to someone's house. She asked if it scared me to cross it, and seemed amused when I said no. 

Yesterday, Nicoya Tuesday. Gerald (left) and Sergio (middle) are brothers from the local Spanish hall that have been supporting the pre-group for quite some time, and they join us for English service sometimes. We were working around Gerald's house yesterday, so he brought out a big bottle of coke to share and we stood around in the shade talking mainly in Spanish about the educational systems of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Japan. Gerald says that in Costa Rica, public education is free and they give you money for bags, shoes, clothes, etc. I couldn't believe the difference with Japan where you pay for everything but the classes themselves.

After the pre-group Jeremiah book study.

The girls. From left: Ivannia (local sister), me, Brittany (visiting from Port Angeles), Laurita, Betsy (Lindsay's Bible study), and Lindsay.

The Times They Are A-Changin' is a song by Bob Dylan