Hi everyone,
So a lot has happened since my last post, per usual.
First off, how about that yearbook?!! I was extremely excited when I saw the release on jw.org, no one, at least those who I know, knew that the yearbook was going to be about us this year and it was a wonderful surprise. I started reading it immediately...well, after flipping through the book to see if there was anyone I knew in the pictures...and it was amaaaaazing. There were so many encouraging an, frankly, jaw-dropping experiences and there was a really nice section dedicated to the foreign language fields here too, especially ASL and Creole. I'm just sad that the yearbooks now are only about half the size the use to be. I could have definitely gone for a couple more pages.
Everyone in the Nagua ASL group and the friends who support it were very excited for page 136. I mean, look at that! Look at us being in the yearbook like that! We're an orange dot!
Oooh, I have to tell you about ASL. I have been supporting the ASL group lot more lately and most recently, I have become a groupie.
A groupie, you ask? Well, in an effort to bring more attention to the foreign language field, our Spanish CO, invited the ASL group to follow him to wherever congregation he might be that week on Saturdays and then the group and the whole congregation would do census.
See, we have a pretty good idea of the number of deaf persons in Nagua and surrounding campos but the territory for Nagua's ASL group is huge! The first week of the CO's arrangement, we visited the Rio San Juan congregation about two hours away by car and that's not even the farthest point of the territory.
So every Saturday for a month now, I have been joining the group and we have been following the CO wherever he may go, censing the territory and finding deaf everywhere. We're thinking of getting t-shirts made: "P. CUEVAS DR TOUR" (P. Cuevas is our CO, btw). The efforts have definitely payed off though. In Rio San Juan, we found10 new deaf persons, in Payita, we found 5 and in El Factor we found 3. (I did have to skip the second week, when the group was schedueled to go to Cabrera, because of my Circuit Assembly) And besides finding new deaf, we teach the local congregation how to census, how to get the information we need for the territory when they find deaf persons and even little Sign.
It's been really fun getting to visit different parts of the island and meeting new brothers and sisters, but that is not all that is happening with Nagua Sign. Exciting Thing #2 is that the group got assigned a Special Pioneer couple, bringing the official member count to 6. The Rogers are originally from the States but they had been serving for the past 5 years in DaJabon, which right on the border with Haiti, taking on the deaf territory there by themselves. They are a great and welcome help to the group and incredibly encouraging. Expect more on them later. And Exciting Thing #3 is that the ASL language course is coming to Nagua the week after Valentine's Day and I'm taking it along with my family and about 7 brother from the Nagua Spanish congregation. So definitely expect more about that later.
On the Spanish side of my ministry, I am also doing well. I just started a Bible study with a old revisit who had disappeared on me for a while because of crazy job hours. After trying to reach her for a couple of weeks, I wrote her a letter and slid it under her door as a last effort. But it worked and a couple days later, she got in touch and we are now studying the BT book at her place of work. I also just found a promising revisit thanks to JW.org and Caleb. I definitely need to be using that website more often, it is literally a gift from God (really is).
Well, that's whats been going on and probably a whole lot of other things that I can't remember right now, but things are only getting started for this new year. We have the Spanish CO visit coming up in a week and the Special Bethel Headquarters Visit (have absolutely no idea what it's called in English, help me out?) and another circuit assembly in a month and the ASL class and a whoollleeee lot of preaching. Busy, busy, busy. But staying busy in Jehovah's service is the best kind of busy there is.
:) Kat
