Thirsty

I was walking down the street the other day in a bit of a fog.  It was about 7:45 in the morning and I was making my way to the place I was supposed to meet my ride to the second day of the circuit assembly which was last weekend.  There was a woman walking toward me, staring intently down at something in her hand.  I mean whatever it was that she had had her rapt attention and I couldn't help but wonder what it was that she was so preoccupied with.  As I got closer I realized it was the Family Tract.  At home (in the States) this kind of occurence would be utterly surprising - really thrilling - but do you know what I thought to myself after I passed her?  Duh.  Why didn't I know it was some of our literature?  It's one of the first things that caught my attention about the people here.  They are thirsty.  They're thirsty for information, thirsty for  knowledge, they're thirsty for the truth.  It's not at all uncommon to see people walking down the street reading the literature or to be stopped on the street and asked for the latest set of magazines.  In fact I've lost count of how many times it's happended to me or whoever I'm with.  Discussions usually follow the request for literature and some even give their contact information.  Honestly, between this and the door to door ministry, it's hard to keep my literature in my bag.  Almost everyone you talk to excepts something.  I really had to get used to this.  Coming from a country where people have little respect for the written word, I had the same stingy feeling for our precious magazines, tracts and books as I had long cultivated in the U.S. when I first got here.  But when you spot a little boy grasping a brochure in one hand and his mom's hand in another and it happens to be the same brochure you saw lying crumpled and dirty on the ground a short time ago, you're heart tends to soften to giving the people just what they want and surely need.  So every meeting I stock up.  More tracts, more magazines, more books.  It still tends to not be enough and now that I have a half-way decent presentation (and when I say half-way decent I mean one-sixteenth of the way decent) the stuff is basically flying out of my hands.  My presentation basically consists of me reading Is 48:17, 18 (poorly) and asking the person if they think that applying Bible principles in everyday life is difficult or easy.  So this morning I finished up reading the scripture to the householder and no sooner could I open my mouth the man laments, "yes, but that's just so difficult to do..."  Ok, another placement that places itself.  Too bad I didn't have a Bible Teach book on me since I already placed the one that I had stolen off Jor that morning, so I gave him the magazines.  And speaking of placements, Jordanne probably won't say this on her blog but she placed 10 BOOKS this month.  Wow.  Now that's what I call potential!

So, as you can see, things are getting busier and more fruitful which is a good thing.  The month of December alone was very eventful.  I went to 3 days of a circuit assembly that I didn't understand.  I went to one day with Jor and A.J. to see their interview and one day of mine.  I wasn't planning on going to the other day but a brother asked if I would attend to kind of help out with a friend of his.  It's a really interesting story.  He's been witnessing to this girl (their cousins married each other) who was born in Canton, OH (of all places) but was raised here.  Her mom speaks nothing but English so she really sounds like an Ohioan but her Spanish, of course, is perfect too.  We live really close to each other so Sebastian, the brother in my hall, wanted to introduce us.  Here's the really interesting thing.  We go to pick her up for the assembly and she's wearing regular clothes and has a little doggie in tow.  Sebastian warned me ahead of time that her mom is not especially keen on the Witnesses so she told her mom that she was going to a picnic with us.  Guess the mom sensed something was up so she insisted the girl take her dog!  Not a problem...we just dropped the dog off at a friend of her's house where she also changed into a dress!  All in all the day turned out really nice.  In fact the month was really nice.  Next month I'll try to keep the updates coming more regularly so my blogs aren't so long!