Annual pioneer meeting

Sunday afternoon a week ago, we had the annual pioneer meeting conducted by two elders. The congregation has 25 regular pioneers, including two new ones appointed within the last two months! With so many pioneers, you can imagine what an enthusiastic spirit there is for the ministry.

The two elders who conducted the meeting were Sean (branch committee member) and Eric. Eric and his wife were regular pioneers for a number of years while Eric held a full-time job and, in addition, they had an infant son. A few months ago he quit his job with Skol, a beer company, because he was under continually increasing demands at work and the stress was getting to be too much. Well, recently both he and his wife had to go off the list because they are about to have their second child. Anyway, it was nice to have Eric conduct the pioneer meeting, since he is a pioneer at heart.

So at the end of the meeting Sean announced that we could all go to Bethel for some refreshments. I can tell you, it turned out to be far more than "refreshments"; it was a full spread, buffet-style.

Then, Ernest played the guitar while some sisters sang Kinyarwanda songs. There was dancing. We also sang Kingdom songs, with keyboard accompaniment.

All in all, it was a great time!

Then, yesterday, Saturday, January 31, we had our circuit assembly. Because this day was umuganda, we could not begin at the regular time. Instead, the start time was 12:40pm, and we finished about 6:25pm.

Miscellaneous observations:

• On a bus one day, they were playing a video of the Three Stooges (newer version) overdubbed with Kinyarwanda. Strange! Question: How does American slapstick comedy go over in a different culture? Answer: So-so.

• I was trying to reach a call of mine at a Chinese restaurant (complete and operating) with adjacent hotel undergoing construction. I couldn't find him, so I went to ask a Rwandan security guard at the temporary residences. When I asked him in English, his reply in very broken English was, "No English. Only Chinese." So I had to switch to speaking Chinese! Yes, there are Rwandans on these sites who can speak Chinese.