convention echoes

I have been remiss to state that I have had some blessed experiences of late. I attended the Connecticut convention in May, and although my bro Regan was not there to poke at me with his wit, I enjoyed myself anyway. My lovely wife was also left behind again... this new career of hers is costing her something, but she is calmer these days and enjoying her work. Fortunately, our next convention is only 9 miles away from out house.

The convention was lovely, the program wrapped around some of the events of the Exodus. I gave a talk on the "Christian Worthies", which of course is a topic that most have not heard of. I was not presenting anything new, just playing off of a word usage of our Pastor that few seem to have caught before. See R5859, where Bro Russell uses this phrase 2 times in connection with this special class.

WE had another lovely baptism.. a young girl that I've watched come up from birth who has such a lovely sincere attitude... truly melted my heart.

Three days of bliss in spite of the continual airport blues.

Also, we two had the privilege of serving the brethren in the Islands in April. It was absolutley perfect weather. I have heard some tough stories from others who have served there about the intense heat and the difficulties it causes, but we had no such 'luck'. It was mid eighties and lots of breezes... lovely. The people - even lovlier. 4 days of convention in Jamaica with some of the happiest faces and some of the humblest attitudes I've ever encountered. This island is crime laden and very unsafe in many ways. They speak about it daily in their own newspapers. Yet we drove through the crowds and interacted somewhat with the people and had no such difficulties. A nice baptism there too... another lovely young girl who now refers to be affectionately as Bro. Uncle Jon. It would be hard to forget that smiling face. I heard some wonderfully prepared in depth discourses from this crew of speaking brothers that touched me in various ways... O how I wish all of my brethren here in the states could have this experience. This is a somewhat poverty stricken nation though our brethren seem to get along quite well. They are not dresses in rags and to have jobs with decent incomes and they did bend over backward to make sure that all of our needs were met. I ate things (fruits mostly) I had never seen before and will never forget. ONe of my blessed memories was introducing them to Regan's music... we were driving down a Jamaican mountain road at about 80 kph while listening to #9 on the Octoman CD.... the old brother in the front seat looked across at the driver and said, "Hey... that's our music!" "Yes, reggae!" was the reply. But they really rejoiced in the lyrics.... "The dead, know not anything...." It was kind of like a story I heard about someone who heard the Eagles on the radio while driving through a canyon out west. It wasn't only Regan's music... it was Regan's music in Jamaica. I gave one of the CD's to a rather Rasta loosing fellow in the Miami Airport who was catching a plane to the islands... he put it in his boom box and boomed it throughout the airport. I don't think he cared for the lyrics nearly as much but he was thankful for the gift.

We served also in Trinidad and had a blessed experience with those brethren there also... so tender souls they are and wonderfully spiritual. We passed through crime laden streets to get to our meetings (late for the first ones due to the presence of Mr. Obama and other dignitaries at the 36 Nation Summit) but were blessed none the less. I lamented having to leave these ones behind, but life goes on. We visited one of the famous leather-back turtle beaches on the Atlantic coast... saw the same beach on the news here at home last Saturday and my eyes misted up. These folks could love you to death. We shared our take on the Gospel with them and we all agreed it is just plain good news and the greatest event the world will ever witness is about to take place. O how wonderful to note that the Lord's people truly are everywhere around this great globe.

Now we're six weeks out from the Ohio Convention... I'm bursting at the seams...

Thanks to Jehovah God for it all

sincerely

jonalfred