A Day in The Public Ministry

Our day began waiting for a bus to take us to the service arrangement at the Hall in Zihuatanejo, then of course entering the Hall and taking our seat in the auxiliary class room.

Two sisters were assigned to work with Carol and me. One was the sister with the exploding kitchen stove, and her partner was a local unbaptized publisher. We took a taxi to our territory which is far cheaper to do here than in Montreal. We could have walked it in a half hour but in the very warm sunshine we'd have arrived dragging long tongues.

The photo collage below shows the territory and includes another Kingdom Hall we discovered.

It is all search work of course, looking for those who might speak English.We spent a little time with one man waiting on the street for a friend. His English was perfect because he was a Canadian from Ottawa who winters here. He took a tract from Carol. Among other things he told me about an app that enables a person to send his GPS location, and directions, to another who has the same app. It's called What3words.

A hotel owner invited us to sit down in his lobby. His English was fluent. He also spoke, besides Spanish, French, Italian, and Chinese. He was a pleasant man who went to find his Bible so I could show him a scripture in it. His Bible appeared to be a well read book. By the way, when I say we were in a hotel it would be an exaggeration to envision The Plaza in New York City.

We stopped in a women's clothing store that was part of our territory. The woman minding the store spoke no English but we learned she is a sister. Instant family! She agreed to a photo ...

Some things are sold in stores, but other things by strolling entrepreneurs. I'd thought I'd seen it all when it comes to the wide variety of products sold on the street. But this morning I had to photograph this gentleman calling out for anyone interested in buying a deck chair.

You could buy as many as you liked as long as you

liked no more than three.

Once we were done for the morning we flagged down a taxi to take us to the big supermarket here. In the car, the driver asked if we were Jehovah's Witnesses. He said our dress gave us away. We learned he has been studying. "How long?" I asked. "Too long," he said. There had been problems.

The drive was brief so I arranged for him to pick us up when done so we could talk on the longer drive home. His story is that he feels he was treated harshly over some issues by certain brothers. His study has been an on-again off-again affair.

Since he speaks English well I invited him to come to an English meeting at our hall. Rather than probe into what the problem is all about, and since things do sometimes go wrong, I reminded him of Jesus' examination of 7 congregations in Revelation. He remembered reading that. I asked him if he also remembered what Jesus told "the faithful ones among you" after he finished pointing out serious problems those congregations had to fix. He didn't.

I explained that Christ did not give them a long talk to encourage them. He basically told them one important thing: "Hold fast what you have till I come."

I said, "If Christ were sitting here instead of me you can be sure he'd say exactly the same to you too." Tears came to his eyes and he wiped them away.

We took his phone number and will call him for future taxi needs - and possibly conversation. And we urged him again to come to one of our meetings. We'll see.