Escape from Egypt Game

This is a lil' video of us playing our game with some of the kids in our cong. We can't wait to get back there and see these guys!

3/26/8

Welcome to our new (hopefully) user-friendly website!

We have been very lame at updating our site for last 2 years, mainly because it was not as easy as I would have liked to update with not-so-fast internet connection in Tanzania. So this format should prove much easier and hopefully it will mean we give you all more updates about our assignment.

NEW FEATURES:

If you want to know when we have made an update to our site, you can now "subscribe" to receive notices via email! You should see the box on the lower right of the screen.

I have also brought over all our previous posts to this page. They are listed below along with a sample of the original pictures.

The original website is still in place and it can be access via the link on the right.

Several new pages are also up and linked on the right.

News:

We are currently in California. We should be heading back sometime in May. We are here for some medical attention, but nothing to serious. We are taking the time now to rest and get our strength back so we can get back to work when we get home to Arusha.

Anyway, hope everyone had a great Memorial, the above pics are of our nephews, Andrew-n-Aidan. Aidan was privileged to 'pass' the wine this year...to the visible nervousness of his dad. ;-)

That's all for now!

Love, Scott-n-July

6/7/7

Dear friends and family,

Forgive us for letting so much time pass without updating you. Things in Arusha are going very well. We now have about 45 publishers in our congregation. Some have moved in and others were baptized. We had a really cool and wet summer, which kept things green and muddy. Scott's mom, sister and brother-in-law came out for a visit in Dec. through mid Jan. Scott's sister, Stacey, and her husband, Scott came out a few weeks before his mom, Laurie, to go out in field service and get a glimpse of true Tanzanian life. They were troopers, braving miles of hiking through our territory in the mud. The local brothers and sisters enjoyed their visit so much. We are currently building a new Kingdom Hall in our territory which will expand into an Assembly Hall holding up to 750 people. We are so excited because we have been using a small, dirty elementary school classroom with no power or running water. So importing everything for each meeting takes extra time. To the local people a place of worship is very important. It's hard for them to walk by their big, fancy church to attend meetings in a classroom without special spiritual appreciation. So a new Kingdom Hall will be such a blessing all around. Scott and I had to return to California for a few months due to illness. It was a difficult decision, but necessary. It was just your normal third world stuff like amoebas and parasites compounded by one other minor condition I had. But I just wasn't bouncing back anymore and I couldn't eat, so we came back for some medical attention and some rest. So, now we are both ready and rearing to get back to our assignment and continue our work there. But we think of you often and love you all dearly! Thank you for all your words of encouragement and comfort. Drop us a note when you get the chance so we know how and where you are. May Jehovah continue to bless you!

Love, July-n-Scott

9/14/6

Dear friends and family,

Thank you all for continuing to support and encourage us! We are having a great time here, so great in fact, that we have neglected to update this site as often as I would have liked. Sorry. We'll try to catch you up to date on the last few months.

We now have 36 publishers, including us 2, and 2 special pioneers and 1 new pioneer. The new pioneer was just baptized in Jan, so she is making excellent progress! The ministry average for the country for pubs is: 12.1 hrs, 1.1 Bible Studies so there is a good spirit here and that's god because there is a lot of work to do! The town/city of Arusha has a population of nearly 500,000+ people and curently there are about 1000 pubs in 8 congs and 3 groups! Two congs have been formed since we arrived last year.

At our recent DC we had a peak attendance of 2207. It was held in Moshi at the base of MT. Kilimanjaro*. There were 56 baptized! It was a realy good experience to see how the brothers here arrange the seating* and food for lunch. Many were eating a few slices of bread and a soda. But everyone was content. The really outstanding feature was that when the music started (you know, the time when we are all supposed to sit down) nearly everyone returned to the seats and listened. A brother in the home who was the guest speaker at a DC in the refugee camps said that when the initial music played, the brothers not only returned to their seats, but the all sang the songs! A lot of apreciation. It was also nice that the brothers walked thru the sections to hand out the new release while all waited patiently. The baptisms here are very nice, most of the sisters wear a kanga, basically what they wear to the convention, very modest.

We currently have over 20 students between us, some are studying twice a week. It really makes the days go by quickly! We are finally able converse fairly well, still along way to go, but it is not nearly as frustrating as it was! Scott is giving a part almost every week at the TMS/SM and he is conducting a CBS. The second one he did was the appendix in the BH book about 1914. Try explaining how to explain 1914 to a Bible Student to Publishers, most of whom were baptized this last year...in a foreign language! It was only with Jehovah's help that it made any sense to the brothers. But it is getting easier. Thankfully we don't start Revelation until January!

We have been visiting the families in the cong, with a different family every few weeks. It has been really good way to get to know them better and to help the kids to warm up to us.*** The cong has been so welcoming to us and patient with our fumbling with the language. It's nice when they mention our improvement over the last year, they especially notice it with July. She has gotten very good a commenting at the meetings, me (Scott), I've been a bit slower, but I'm getting better. ;-)

We were very fortunate to get our hands on a very detialed map of our town. It has every street and dirt path and alos all the houses! So we made up our cong territories and we have begun showing the brothers how to use them. It is a bit difficult because there are no street names at all! So we are filling in the maps with names of shops and such to help them get their bearings. But now, by looking at the map we can see that we have about 70% of our territory that has virtually not been worked, at least not very well. Anyone want to come down??? It is especially hard to get thru the territories because every few house you'll start a study! One territory we started in a few months ago, at least 15 studies have come out of it and it is still not done! And it is not a really large territory.

Anyway, lot's of fun! An incredible blessing that we have been able to come here. We pray that all is well in your home territories and that you are enjoying your ministry.

Tunawapenda wenu! (We love you all!)

Love, Scott-n-July

4/4/6

Hello everyone! Habari zenu? (How are you all?)

It has been a while since we updated, so we will try to fill you in on the highlights.

We had our Circuit Assembly in late February with just over 1000 in attendance. There were about 12 baptized and 7 of them are in our congregation! Among them there was an young widow (husband died of AIDS last year), a married couple (who legalized their marriage a few months ago), a brother* with an unbelieving mate who agreed to a study of her own after he got baptized (they legalized their marriage a few months ago also), a young college student, a sister who is 7 months pregnant (who also legalized her marriage last year), and a single sister in her 40's. A brother* from another cong in his late 40's was also baptized that day. But, what made it so special is that he had a stroke and is partially paralyzed. They had to carry him out to the pool and lift him in and out. He takes 2 hours each way to go to meetings because of his handicap. He has to walk. A healthy person could walk it in about 10-15 min. The week after CA we had a Bar-B-Q for the cong* to celebrate our new brothers and sisters. It was a good time as every one looked at pictures of the candidates being baptized on a laptop, that was set up outside on the lawn.* The week before the CA the was a great scene at the school where we have our meetings. After the Sunday meeting, there were four groups scattered about, two were brothers going over the questions for baptism*, one was a Bible study* and the other was woman going over the questions to be a publisher*! It was especially nice because I (Scott) was able to be part of 3 of the 4 meetings.

We also recently started preaching in a territory that has received little attention in the past. We have preached there 4 or 5 days and have started 6 or 7 studies, which is great except that now we have very little time to keep going door to door! It's a nice problem. One of the students runs a little shop (selling cooking oil and a few basic items from a little shack* on the side of her property. When we asked if she had ever seen the Watchtower or Awake! she said, "Yes!" and ran inside and came out with a WT from last year. She said she had gotten it a year earlier but had moved here and had not seen the since. We told her that we had recently begun preaching in her area and offered her a study. She accepted and has studied for the last 2 weeks, she prepares her lesson and is very excited about her study. She was especially happy to learn Jehovah's name! She lamented that she had been praying all this time and didn't know his name.

(You may be wondering, "Can they really understand what these people are saying if it is in Swahili?!" As I'm writing, I'm wondering the same thing. As it is, we understand, but it is like they are talk thru a crackling radio, we pick up the main points, but we know we are missing so much! It will be so much more thrilling in the ministry when we can clearly understand what people are saying.)

Last month our shipment arrived from the States. It was very exciting! Like a holiday, we took two days to unpack and had a great time decorating our room* and finding things that we forgot we had. Now our home feels more like home. It is nice to have a comfortable place to come home to, especially after a long day in the ministry. Aside from our room, our home is also a peaceful haven. Our housemates are great people, easy to get along with and very encouraging. It is common for us get together for a movie in the evening or to sit and talk at the meal table. Some had asked what kind of food we eat here. Well, at home it is not so different from anywhere else. Breakfast is usually a few of the following eggs, toast, pancakes, coffee cake biscuits-n-gravy, bacon, sausage, granola, yogurt. And we also almost always have bananas, mangos, avocado and tomato. So it is very good! Lunch is rather varied, but two of the couples are from the States, one from Canada and one from the UK. There does seem to be a lot of Italian food though and this week there was a very good curry! Occasionally we get to eat the local food, in fact last week we were at a home and we had just introduced the Bible study program with the 'Require' brochure and they asked to stay for lunch. We have to be careful of the local water, which is used to clean the veggies, so we politely refused them. However, the main dish was excellent! It was beans mixed with boiled corn and some other tidbits. Very good and it was called, "mancande".

Here is another sampling of the kind of interest there is here. Last week we were with Glen and Valerie Corey driving home from the meeting, when a man walking on the side of the road called out to Glen. We stopped and the man came up to the car. It turns out that Glen had given him some mags months ago, but due to being so busy, didn't make it back to him. He said he had been waiting for him to return so he could learn more! Another one was with me (Scott), we had just started preaching in a new territory and a man approached us and saw that we were speaking about the Bible. We sat down with him at a little restaurant-type place and showed him the mags and offered a study. He agreed, gave me his phone # and we were to meet the next Monday. Well, I was terribly ill on Monday, so I called him. But apparently I had written the # incorrectly. Later that week we went to look for him and the neighbor said he had returned and was asking around for us. So we felt real bad, but we figured if Jehovah wants him found, we'll find him. About a month went by and we were walking in a different territory, rather far from where we found him and guess who walked up to us? John Mwita! We explained the phone # fiasco and made plans to meet him a few days later. We met and began a study. We'll see where it goes from here.

We have entered the fall/rainy season. Some days it is downright cold! And the mud (matope)* is getting worse in some areas. So far it isn't too bad getting around, but they say it will be getting worse. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, our cong is getting 2 Special Pioneers this month. They will be permanently assigned. It will be a great boost to the cong as they are 2 single sisters and we have several young single sisters in our cong. It will also be good for us to have others to go out with in the mid-week. July has met them once before and at least one speaks English, which is also very good.

Hope you enjoy the new pictures and that we didn't bore you with this update.

Love, Scott-n-July

12/28/5

Hello dear friends,

We have been trying to decide what to put in this update that would hopefully be interesting to you. Then a very good friend of ours sent an email with MANY questions, I think that they may be questions that some of you may have. So here goes…

How is language going?

It is going good, though some days I'd like to bury my head in the sand and not come up for air! It is really not a difficult language, it does however have a different word for everything! So it is basically a lot of memorizing. If you have learned a language before, you know the challenge. But so far so good. We have about 700 words that we should know now. (We don't know them, but we SHOULD know them.) July is actually doing much better at remembering the vocabulary. It is still very frustrating try to talk with people, especially in the cong. But talking is the best for us to practice, so we are trying and most everyone is very patient with us. The language course is very intensive, 2.5 hour M-F and we get about 50-100 new words each week! We have a great teacher though, she has been a missionary with her husband for almost 10 years. She is very patient and has a very good grasp of the language. Someday maybe we will too! ;-)

How was KM school Scott?

It was great. It was in English! Good instruction and it was nice to understand everything that was said. Incidentally, one of the Brothers who conducted the school is a CO who lives in our home. He had about 12 parts on the program but then, the next week he did another school. This time doing 12 or so different talks in Swahili (then the other instructor could not make it so he gave several of his talks as well). All this in addition to having just gotten over Malaria before the first school and right after the last school he came down with Typhoid. (Hopefully we all think twice about grumbling when asked to give an impromptu or several talks in the same month, or week.) He is certainly an example of a hard-working missionary! He and his wife have been missionaries for over 20 years.

What is cooking like there?

We have a pretty normal kitchen. It seems the biggest challenge is making sure we have everything for our cook days (which are wed-n-thur). If not we have to walk about a 1/2hr round trip to the store. July does most of the cooking although last week I made breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast, bananas, yogurt and raspberry sauce) and I Bar-B-Qued, of course July did all the prep work for that. The food variety is great. There are some local dishes that we had when we were at the Branch, but at the Missionary Home all food is what we are used to. The bonus is the fresh mangos, papaya and avocados. GIANT avocados for less than $.50. Some things are very cheap compared to the US.

Who do you live with?

We have 3 couples and a single brother in our home and they are great people! One set is from England (9 years as missionaries), another from Canada (3 years as missionaries), one from the US (20+ years as missionaries) and the brother is from England (10 years as a missionary). The Thompson's who have been here the longest were in the same class as Br. Mark Noumair (one of our Gilead Instructors) and they were in the District work for 6 yrs and now our in the Circuit work. The single brother is now one of the 2 District overseers in the country.
The family is very considerate of one another and very helpful. For example, after every meal EVERYONE helps to clean up and wash dishes, regardless of whose cook day it is. They really try to keep the family close.

How are your 3 studies?

Our 3 studies are now 7! Maybe 8 if they are home this next week. It is fun, a little stressful and we don't know if they are actually learning anything. But at least it is helping us learn Swahili. One is attending meetings, but of course he was doing that for a few weeks before we started. He had studied a few years ago and just moved to town. July has 2 of those studies and the possible one too. We won't be able to do any more until we finish the Swahili course because it takes about 8 hours just to do 4 studies on Sat because we have to walk everywhere.

How do you find the scheduled life?

A little tight, but the structure helps us stay focused and not get too sidetracked. And believe it or not we actually find time to watch a movie or two and do personal study. Right now though it is tighter than it will be when we're done with the language class. Our Service days are tue-n-thur afternoon for 2.5 hours each, then 8 on sat and 3 on sun. During the language course we have a requirement of 65 hours. Once it is over it will be 130! Then we'll have to rework our schedule.

Is it hard?

(See Above)

Do you have cars?

No.

Or is the territory all walking and is that hard?

It is tiring but it also helps the day stretch out longer and that gives us time to think and rest our minds before the next call. But it is hot right now and sometimes it rains and then there is mud, but overall it hasn't been bad. On sat we walk about 8 miles to go to all of our studies, it is definitely helping us to get in better shape. After sitting for 5 months at Gilead we need a little exercise!

Our congregation?

They have been very supportive. When we arrived there was one elder and one servant for less than 20 publishers. In the last 2 months we have had 4 new unbaptized publishers. One new servant appointed and one servant has moved away. So the workload is still heavy. There are now 27 publishers (counting us) and on sunday there are about 45 in attendance! Even though our grasp of the language is negligible they have made me the Secretary and Service overseer. A bit overwhelming but of course at the moment the brother who was here before is still doing the bulk of the work. (For example, tonight at our TMS/SM, the PO gave every part except the last one on the SM. I REALLY need to learn Swahili!)

We have one new publisher that is noteworthy. His name is Machaba, he has 3 kids and has wanted to be a publisher for over a year! But he was not legally married and the mother of the children was not pleased by his studying with JW. But he was finally able to reason with her and they were married a few weeks ago. The very next meeting we went over the questions to be an unbaptized publisher and the very next day he was out in the ministry! Two weeks later he gave his first talk in the TMS. He has been out every week and already has his own Bible study. He also brings his 3 kids to the meetings without his wife's support. It is very encouraging. (Tonight he turned his first field ministry report!) We have possibly 4 who will be ready for baptism this Feb, which is a tremendous workload for ONE elder. My very limited grasp of Swahili does not allow me to go over the questions for baptism, so the other elder will try to enlist a brother from a neighboring cong to help. (Anyone want to move to Tanzania???)

How are you coping with missing people and stuff?

We do miss our friends and the cong, but every time we get an email it takes away any thoughts of 'missing people' and we are just encouraged to have such good friends and to be on the same planet. (The "SKYPE" helps too, because we can hear their voices.) It is just so encouraging to know that y'all are visiting this site and dropping the emails now and then.

Your health good?

Not bad. We have both been down a few times with nothing in particular. The other missionaries have told us that it is normal because we are adjusting to a completely different everything! No Malaria...yet. (Although a brother in our home who has been a missionary for over 20 years with his wife, he has had Malaria and typhoid since we've been here.) But that was most likely from his visit to the capitol, there is very little malaria where we are.

How was that? Anymore questions? If so let us know and maybe we'll add them to this post. To all those that we met along the way this last year, we love you all and thank you for being so encouraging to us! To all or friends back home, we love you too and thank you for the help you've given us over the years!

We'll write more when we have something good to say!

Love, Scott-n-July

11/11/5

Dear friends and family,

A lot has happened since our last update. We are now in Tanzania! We arrived on the 28th of October. It was quite a long journey from New York. We were awake for most of two days, needless to say, when we arrived in Dar es Salaam (the capital city) we were exhausted! The Branch brothers were very accommodating allowing us to sleep in and get accustomed to the time change over the next few days. But that doesn't mean that we had nothing to do there. The day after we arrived I was asked to give the Public Talk in the English congregation (there are 2 in the country). But that morning we were out in the ministry with the Swahili congregation. We didn't have much to say, but it was great to get a taste of the preaching in Swahili! We were out for a couple of hours and we only talked at 4 or 5 houses (not because the others were not at home, but because you generally stay at each house for 30 to 45 minutes!). And at many homes people gather around, one home there was 3 women and 22 kids gathered around. Of course it is a novelty for them to see us white people in their neighborhood, it is very common to hear the locals (especially the kids) calling out "mzungu!" (which is the term for touristy white people).

Then on the next day we had very relaxing day at the beach. The water was close to 80 degrees, it was beautiful! It was a much needed rest. Then during the week we worked with various departments at Bethel. July was mostly in the Literature Depot, counting out KM's for all of the congregations in the country, then rolling them up and labeling them for shipment. I worked with the Maintenance Dept. They are in the process of repainting some of the Buildings, so they had me pressure washing some of the buildings. This exposed me to some nasty little bugs which resulted in at least 49 bites on my legs and arms (quite uncomfortable for a few days). During the week we had 3 meetings with members of the Branch Committee, it was part of a new arrangement from the Service Committee of the GB for all new Missionaries. It was very encouraging! We also had a tour of the Branch, which is spread out thru a little neighborhood. They are just about to build a new branch which should be done in 2007 I believe. The Branch buildings are very nice but right across the street there are people living in shacks that many of you would not put your tools in. It really helps you to see how badly these people need the Good News (now if only we could speak Swahili!).

The following weekend we again went in the ministry, this time trying a very simple presentation. It went like this, "Habari ya asubuhi? Ninaitwa Scott. Ninajifunza Kiswahili. Tuna kuletea magazeti mapya. (then handing them the mags) Mnara wa Mlinzi na Amkeni." (Translation: "How is your morning? My name is Scott. I am learning Swahili. I am bringing you the latest magazines. Watchtower and Awake.) It was a very encouraging and humiliating experience, because they all accepted the mags but then the brother who was with me continued the conversation for about 30 minutes! It was like being a little kid with my dad. But it was a start. The next day I gave a talk in the Swahili congregation! But it was thru an interpreter. That was a very interesting experience to say the least. Then we went out in the ministry with the cong.

After 10 days at the Branch we left for our Missionary Home in Arusha. It was a 12 1/2 hour journey (counting a few stops and lunch). We were riding up with the literature truck. As we passed Mt. Kilimanjaro, we could just see the base and a little corner of the peak, but it was almost entirely shrouded in clouds. We arrived at our home at about 7pm and the family had prepared a very nice BarBQ dinner. We have 2 very cute dogs here at the home (Cara, the rotwieler and Bingwa [which means 'champ'], the german shepherd), they help us feel safe and it also helps it feel like home. There is also a beautiful view out the back of Mt. Meru.

In the home there are 3 other couples and a single brother. 2 of the couples are in the Circuit work and the single brother is a District Overseer. All have been very helpful getting us settled in. The other couple in the home is in the English congregation here. And the wife is going to be our language instructor. Class starts on Monday! She and her husband have been in the country for about 9 years. Last night we went to our first meeting with our new congregation. It is the Arusha Kusini (south) cong. It has only been a congregation since May! There are about 20 some publishers (4 of which started publishing in the last 3 weeks!), 1 Elder, 1 Ministerial Servant, 1 Pioneer and now us. They do not yet have a Kingdom Hall, we are meeting in a classroom at a school. The meeting began at 5:00pm because there is no electricity, that way we could be done before sundown (however we had to use our flashlight to sing the concluding song!) The cong was so loving in welcoming us, they did not expect to have missionaries sent to their cong. It was so sweet, when we commented, they applauded. It was definitely good advice that we received at Gilead, to comment right away, the friends could then see that we were serious about learning the language and helping them. There is a wonderful couple in the congregation, he is the only elder and she is the pioneer. There were missionaries here for some time and now are need-greaters, which is so encouraging to us, because they have chosen to stay even though they have to work to support themselves. It really shows how much they love the people here. I know they will be a big help to us as we get accustomed to life here.

We want to thank all of you for your support and encouragement; we look forward to hearing from you in the weeks and months to come. We will try to update the site regularly with some encouraging experiences from our ministry here.

P.S.-Don't forget to draw little hats and faces on our Gilead picture and then send us a copy of it. This is an unique opportuntity for the kids (and adults) to have permission to draw on the pictures in the WT. Have fun and let's see some creativity!

P.P.S.-As a reminder, you can email us thru the website here or at scott@freedlun.net or you can send us 'snail mail' at this address:

Box 15206, Arusha, Tanzania, East Africa

Love, Scott-n-July

8/7/5

Dear friends and family,

Sorry that there has not been an update in quite some time. The last month was extremely busy! We had our convention, we took our mid-term exams and started the Greek Scriptures. And of we received our assignments! All of that adds up to a heavy strain on the brain. First of all, the mid-terms at first something we all feared, there would be about 300 questions on the entire Hebrew Scriptures! Historical and Prophetic applications! But the instructors assured us that the intention of the exam was to encourage, not discourage. And that proved to be the case, after taking the first half most felt really good, we realized that we actually had retained quite a bit of what we had learned in class. Then the second one came and we were humbled a bit...but still left feeling good about our studies and the wonderful (though previously underused) gift of a brain that Jehovah gave us.

That afternoon we left for our convention in Amherst, Mass. We had a great time at the convention and made close friendships with the families where we stayed. Then back home on Sunday and up early on Monday to start our consideration of the Greek Scriptures! For me it was a difficult switch from Hebrew to Greek, it was a different approach to study that took me a week or so to get accustomed to. But you would be amazed at the depth that you can study the Gospels, I'll try and think of a few examples...

We first discussed the various groups of people mentioned in the Greek Scriptures (Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, Herodians, Essenes-though not directly mentioned in the Bible), also terms such as (Diaspora, Sanhedrin, Decapolis, Hellenism). While we are familiar with some of these, actually understanding where they are from and most importantly, what they believed, really adds a lot to your understanding of the Gospel accounts. I won't give it away, most of their background can be found in the Insight Books.

Another interesting item is where the custom of replacing "Jehovah" with "Lord" came from. While the Jews where in Babylon, the picked up the practice from the Babylonians. Their principle god was Marduk (or Merodach), but they would often refer to him simply as "Bel", which means "Owner, Master, Lord". Thus, the Jews borrowed this from their worship, the result being a distancing of themselves from Jehovah and thus their being influenced by Greek philosophies (which you will see if you look into the above mentioned terms).

Look at Mt 13:31, 32. There it speaks of a mustard grain. What is it? What is the tree it becomes? And what are the birds? This one was completely new to me!
Here is something that we discussed several months ago, was the census that David performed against the Mosaic Law? No. Did Jehovah tell him that he was not supposed to count the people? No. Why then was it a sin? ... You may find the w69 3/15 p. 190 Questions from Readers to be very enlightening.

When Jesus was conceived in Mary's womb, why did her imperfect state not have any effect on Jesus? (it-2 p.56 #2, 3) And that being the case, if Adam had not sinned, even though Eve had, their children would have been perfect. The Perfect male life-force would have canceled out the imperfection. (This is from the w1885 9/1 p3) Interesting huh?

I really appreciate having the opportunity to talk about these things, it re-excites me about the things we are learning! I hope that you all enjoy them as well and it encourages you to study more. That is one thing we realize now...we did NOT study enough before! We wasted so much time! When we did study, we thought we were doing a good job, but rarely did we ever look back more than a few years into the publications. Or really analyze the context of what we were studying. Trust me there is nothing more satisfying than looking up a scripture during the meeting or out in service and really understanding what it's all about. We are by no means done though. There are huge sections of the Bible that we did not even touch on here at Gilead, they simply covered enough to humble us and whet our appetite for more study!

On that note here is a suggestion from Br. Guy Pierce of the Governing Body. In a discussion about Godly Devotion (1 Tim 4:7) he brought out that this should be our way of life, he asked if we were doing this. Then he asked if we had read the Insight books...we laughed...he didn't. He said, 'we've had them since 1988!', needless to say we were a bit ashamed. I mean, who ever thinks of reading them? Some do, and it is a great reward to them! And I am passing on the suggestion that he gave us, to read them as our study project. It isn't one you'll do in a month or two, but...If you did read them, study them, you would have 75% of what we get here at Gilead! It is amazing the work that the Faithful Slave has put into them!

Maybe start with an article or two, but when you do, take the time to look up the scriptures. I NEVER realized just how much they add to the articles in the Insight. I always looked at it like the scriptures backed up what was said, but the explanation was in the book. Not the case, many times it is not fully understood until you read the accompanying scriptures. Now maybe that sounds obvious, but I know for myself that I tend to rush through my study to get the answer and then move on. Gilead has really taught me to slow down and let Jehovah's word work on us, really meditate.

OK, sorry, I rambled a bit. One day everyone will have an education like we have been blessed with here at Gilead, until then all can still get it, just with a bit more work.

We are starting week 16 tomorrow! Only 5 more to go, then off to Tanzania! We haven't had much time to look into it, at least July has reminded me to not to get too sidetracked on the country or the language yet. They really want us to focus on school for now, but that is difficult now that we know where we are going! The language is Swahili, so we will really be able to walk up to people and say, "Hakuna Matata!" (It means no worries..for the rest of your days...it's our problem free...philosophy...Hakuna Matata...). Anyway, it seems like a not too terribly hard of a language. The pronunciation is straightforward, only a few confusing sounds ("dh" = "th" as in this and another one is that an "m" or an "n" can be a syllable all by itself! It actually sounds pretty cool). But there will be time to learn later, but it is hard to wait!

As for the country of Tanzania, It was under ban for many years until 1987, then it wasn't until 1995 that we were officially registered there. But the growth has been tremendous! For the last 5 years they have averaged a 10% increase each year! And about 20% of the publishers are pioneers! We are so looking forward to it.

Before I go, I want thank you for showing such support to us, it is a great encouragement to us! And please continue to send your emails, we don't always get back to you right away, it is only because of busy schedule. But we do make the time to read the emails and will do our best to get back to you, even if it is brief.

As soon as we get some better pictures of our 'assignment day' we will post them.

'till then,

Love, Scott-n-July

5/21/5

As I am home Sick this weekend (sore throat, cough...), I thought I'd give you all an update on our schooling. Thursday we finished the last 7 chapters of Isaiah and the book of Micah AND Leviticus chapters 1-7. Friday was all of Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah, as well as chapters 8-n-9 of Leviticus. Those were just the morning classes! In the afternoon we had a lecture on Godly Devotion and on Friday, a lecture on the history of Assyria. Without Jehovah's help I am quite sure very little of this information would stick. But, of course, even without remembering all the details, it is already being made abundantly clear that Jehovah inspired the Bible to be written very carefully. There are so many patterns (illustrations) for our day; it is extremely faith-strengthening. And then to see how much time and effort that the "Faithful Slave" class has put into studying and preparing this information, not just for us here at Gilead, but for every one of us! I am not sure if I already mentioned it, but the primary publications used in school are the Reference Bible, the Insight Books, the All Scripture book, the Proclaimers book and the Reasoning book.

Here are a few of the new things we have learned:

In Genesis Chapter 24, who is represented by 1) Eliezer, 2) Rebekah, 3) Isaac, 4) 10 Camels, 5) Her Lady attendants? You may find the w89 7/1 to be very interesting.

When Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices, it may have been before the cherubs guarding the entrance to Eden and fire may have issued out of the "flaming blade of a sword" to consume Abel's Sacrifice. Interesting, huh? See if you can find the reference.

What about the prophetic significance of the 10 plagues on Egypt? This is great! The reference is; w65 6/15.

That same article also mentions "an impediment" that Christ Jesus has, even now, which corresponds to Moses being "uncircumcised in lips". (Ex 6:12)

We also have enjoyed several talks on the Fruitage of God's Spirit. One point of interest to me was that Long-suffering is not simply 'controlling your temper', it is actually controlling your 'mental inclination' so as not to have your temper rise in the first place! This can be done if we realize that the underlying motive for Long-suffering is to look out for the welfare of others; it is the patient endurance of wrong with a refusal to give up hope for improvement. Not that was completely new info, but it is a slant that I had not grasped fully before.
Here is a valuable point, particularly for brothers in their talks. When you look up a scripture, don't read it and then apply it! No, first read it, then...explain it...then you can apply it. It was pointed out that many avoid explaining the background or context of a scripture, they just rush to the application. But this takes the power of God's word away, it reduces the Bible to a list of 'do's' and 'don'ts'. Jehovah had the Bible written in just the way he wanted, so we should use it that way. Take time to explain what was happening in a particular verse or the meaning behind the words used, this way the message from the Bible is richer and more full of meaning.

Finally, some wonder why some parts of the Bible are so hard to understand? Jehovah wrote in such a way as to force us to ask questions. If things were written too ordinarily we would likely miss some important points. It was illustrated this way: When you are riding in a plane you soon forget that you are thousands of feet in the air traveling at hundreds of miles an hour. But as soon as you hit some turbulence, you instantly take notice and you are keenly aware of exactly what your location is. So too when we hit some 'tubulence' in our study it wakes us up and we take special notice of what the Bible is saying. Especially when we have to do much research are we helped.

Anyway, I thought it was a good illustration. My mind is now staring to wander. So I think I'll wrap it up for now.

P.S.- Please feel free to email us, we are finding time to read our emails at least once a week, we may be rather slow in returning them though, it is nothing personal, just 'buying out the time' is a little tough. ;-) (Oh yeah, there is a little blurb about our class on the "jw-media.org" website. Check it out!)

Love always, Scott-n-July

9/21/5

Dear friends and family,

 It is hard to believe, but Gilead is over and a new class will be coming soon. The Graduation week was great! With so many of our family and friends here, it was far more enjoyable than I even thought it would be. After everyone left we took some time to rest and we are now at the end of our vacation/rest period. We still have no date to leave, so until then we will begin monday as Bethelites, monday-friday, 8 hours a day. Though we loved the study during Gilead, it will be nice to come home at the end of the day and not have homework. We also get to start attending the Book Study with our congregation, it will be nice to go thru Daniel nice and slow (instead of 3-4 days like we did in Gilead, although that appraoch definitely helps you get an overview that you don't get in the Book study setting).

 We have recently learned that are assignment in Tanzania will be in Arusha. It is in the north, at about 4,000' elevation and not far from Mt. Kilimanjaro and the national parks. It is a beautiful area with about 5-7 congs in or near the city (interestingly, there is one english cong there too). It is hard not to want to leave right away, but for now all we can do is be patient and try to learn a little swahili before we go. That is really the most overwhelming thing right now, but everyone learns the language, they say we just have to work at it really hard.

 I am in the process of scanning all of my notes so as not lose them if something should happen to my notebook. As I looked at it acouple things jumped out that I thought I would share.

First: Synagogues-What are their origin? Are there any similarities to Kingdom Halls or congregations? There is an interesting article in the w61 7/1 412-415. After discussing the similarities to our day, one dissimilarity was mentioned...the front seats in the synagogues were coveted...it's funny how the front row is almost always empty in a KH.

Second: This has to do with how we know that Jesus was not bnorn in December. Likely you know some reasoning on this, such as the shepherds not being outside in the winter. Or using the prophecy of the 70 weeks, Jesus dying at the "half of the week" (Spring 33 CE), thus his baptism at 30 years of age at the "start of the week" (Fall 29 CE). That of course puts his birth in the Fall of the year 2 BCE.

But...do you want even more conclusive proof? Take alook at the w54 6/15 382-383. There is a very interesting article. Make sure you have piece of paper handy as it involves a bit of math, it would also be helpful to have the Jewish calender in the Appx 8b in your Rbi8 (Reference Bible) or you can use the animated one in the "MISC" section of this website. I am sure you will find it a study project worth investigating.

 We wanted to take a moment and express our gratitude for all of the encouragement and support that we have recieved from you all (you know who you are). It has truly been overwhelming the encouragement that we have recieved. It just reinforces the fact that Jehovah is taking care of us and he uses the brotherhood to do it. Never leave this loving organization! Something Br. Herd said in his graduation day talk was really good; "We cannot give kindness away, it always comes back." We have found this to be so true. Thank you all for your kindness that you have shown to us. We hope that you will continue to send emails and pics from home (just be sure to send only small pics, as our bandwidth will be severly restricted in Africa). We will always strive to reply to your emails, it may take just a little while longer, as we will not have internet in our home.

 Hopefully in our next update we will have some field service experiences from Tanzania! And of course some pictures of our dear brothers in our congregation there.    

Thanks for stopping by!

Love, Scott-n-July

6/26/5

Hello all!

    We have been busy for last few weeks. We were told that everyone gets to a point when you can't remember anything about what you study after just a few hours. Well, it's true. The last few weeks were mentally challenging, but Jehovah has mercifully allowed us to regain the ability to retain and recall information. Sometimes it seems that we limit ourselves as to what we think we can learn and remember, but we were told not to put limits on Jehovah's creation, he created our minds to do much more, certainly he can help us remember some more wonderful information from his Word.

We are in the middle of a discussion of the Kings of Judah and Israel; it is fascinating seeing the correlation of the different accounts. Particularly interesting was the meaning of Elijah's miracles/actions anti-typically. We covered so far only 1 Kings 16-21 (the rest will be this next week). Pull out your Bible you'll really like this!

[16:29]
Ahab = Political Rulers of Christendom {PRofC} (Rulers of lands claiming to be "Christian")
Jezebel = Clergy of Christendom {CofC} (The reasons for this will be very clear in a few chapters)

[17:1]
Elijah = The Faithful-n-Discreet Slave Class {FDS} from the 1870's to 1942
1st Miracle (drought) = Satisfying message of Jehovah's word is withheld from the CofC and people of Christendom

[17:6-10]
Fed by raven-n-Widow of Zarephath (under the Mosaic law ravens and non-Jews were viewed as unclean) = CofC view spiritual food of FDS to be unclean

[17:13-16]
2nd Miracle (flour-n-oil) = FDS were able to continue to provide spiritual food with Jehovah's backing

[17:19-24]
3rd Miracle (resurrection of widow's son) = FDS able to impart spiritual life (in effect resurrecting many from dead spiritual condition)

[18:17]
Ahab irritated with Elijah = The PRofC view the FDS as trouble makers 

[18:18-24]
Test on Mt. Carmel = Prior to 1914 the FDS challenged the CofC doctrinal issues (Trinity, Hellfire), but primary was the issue of who was the true God? The CofC claimed that the FDS did not have God's backing and that their predictions about 1914 being the end of the Gentile Times was wrong.

[18:25-29]
Baal unable to answer = Predictions of the CofC of a coming peaceful time were proved wrong

[18:36-38]
4th Miracle (Jehovah responds with fire from heaven) = When 1914 came the evidence began to mount that the Gentile Times had indeed ended in that year

[18:39]
The people fell on their faces = Some in Christendom recognized the fulfillment in 1914 of what the FDS had been preaching about for over 30 years

[18:40]
Baal prophets killed = The release and distribution of the book "The Finished Mystery" (A powerful expose' of the hypocrisy and bloodguilt of the CofC and the PRofC)

[18:41-46]
5th Miracle (rain ends the drought) = Discourse by Joseph Rutherford on 2-24-1918 in Las Angeles, "Millions now living may never die"

...
There is more to come, but I must sleep now.

Love always, Scott-n-July

4/21/5

Dear friends and family,

July-n-I have been here at Patterson for a little over one week now. We registered for Gilead School last friday, however this friday is the first 'official' day of school. That is when will get our assignment binder and books, etc. To walk around the campus is like walking around in the Paradise! It is such a beautiful place and the Bethelites have been so tremendously loving and welcoming! I really can't emphasize that enough, because, of course you would expect our brothers and sisters to be that way, but the extent to which they ALL have gone to make us feel welcome is really touching. For example, on our first day here they had a Bethelite couple greet as our personal hosts. They didn't just take us to our rooms and leave, they stayed with us for about 5 hours! Showing us how to get around, taking us to lunch, sitting and talking with us. It was such a kind, loving provision. And beyond that, the pace of life here though structured has been very relaxing. It is as if they are slowly getting us into the groove and up to speed, so that once the real work begins with the school, it is not a major shock.

In fact, although school begins on friday the 23rd,on the following wed thru sat we go touring the other complexes (Wallkill-1 day, Brooklyn-2 1/2 days). Here is an interesting fact. Although we are assigned to support a local congregation, (we are assigned to New Milford South, which is the same KH were Tom-n-Ruth Anne Ewing are. They are in the North though) we are not PART of that congregation. We turn our field service reports in directly to the Gilead office, because they are viewed as an 'Isolated Group', the School even has there own Congregation Number. Isn't that interesting? Let's see...what else...OH! July is working in Housekeeping and I am in the Exterior Maintenance Dept. That is basically the Scaffolding, Painting and Roofing crew. Once class starts we will only got our work assignments on mon, tue, thur, and fri, and then only from 3-3:30 till 5:00. And on wed we don't go to work, but rather we have a study period in the afternoon. At the mid-term they will change our assignments to another aspect of Bethel.

Our introduction to the Bethel family is going to be on mon the 25th. We are all very nervous about this. There are several reasons:
(1) We will be broadcast live to all 3 complexes in NY (and maybe Canada)

(2) We are expected to say something interesting about ourselves without embarrassing ourselves or breaking down to tears due to the emotion of this occasion.

(3) And we have ONLY 1 minute to do that in!

So that is a lot of pressure, but I think we have our comments finally set and fairly well in mind. One reason that we only have 1 minute is that there are 56 students in this class! Some may not realize the significance of that, but it has been MANY years that the class has been restricted to only 48 students. So we have a landmark class in that respect. We have heard that one likely reason is simply to allow more foreign students to have the opportunity to enroll, because many we reaching the age limit and they did not want to change that. We have students from Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Canada, Great Britain, Netherlands, Denmark and 5 couples from California! Look at the photo section, there should pictures of all of them there.

We want to thank all of you for you encouragement and the incredible send-off we received, it was great! We love you all!

Love, Scott-n-July

5/8/5

Dear Friends and Family,

We have now finished the first 2 weeks of Gilead School! It is hard to imagine that it can continue at this pace for 4 1/2 more months, but they say it does and it gets MORE intense! What have we been studying? Well, we spent over 10 hours discussing the "Forward" and the "Appendices" in the Rbi8 (the Reference Bible). And then another 6-8 hours on archaeology, chronology, the history of Bible translation and of course Hebrew and Greek. Our instructors have told us that this is just 'background' information, the 'REAL' Gilead starts this Monday (the 9th), they all gave a sinister little laugh after that statement, I guess we are just warming up as far as study goes.

We have had 3 'Written Exercises' (tests) and there will be MANY more. They keep reminding us that is not so important to get an "A" on all the tests, they just want to help us to have the info sink in to our hearts and minds, so it will benefit us in the future. For instance, after all the study on the NWT it has been emphasized to us that it is not just scholarly head knowledge, but it actually helps us to appreciate 2 very important things. First, that Jehovah is indeed the one who has inspired the Bible and the one who has seen to it that it was carefully copied and preserved for our benefit today. Second, that his "Faithful and Discreet Slave" is just that 'faithful', the time and effort and research that went into the NWT is incredible. Only Jehovah's organization could (or would) do such a thing.

Something else that we have recently studied was the "Fruitage of the Spirit". We are taking almost 2 hours for each one. We have covered, Love, Joy, Peace and Long-suffering. It is a very detailed look at each quality especially as they relate to life in the missionary service. Again we faced with the same conclusion, that these are Jehovah's and the only way that we can truly experience them is to stay close to Jehovah and beg him for his Holy Spirit.

We are really getting attached to all of our fellow students, we can already tell that it is going to be hard to say 'good-bye' in 5 months. There have been a few who have already given talks or research assignments in class. And they were outstanding! We are in a class with some wonderful people who Jehovah has blessed greatly in regard to the teaching ability. July-n-I have our first assignments on Monday. Mine is a research assignment on Gen 2:9 and July's is a talk on the authenticity of the book of Jonah. By the way, sisters do not know who there householder will be until right before the part! So no practice sessions or scripted dialogue. They were rather nervous about it, but it goes great! It is so much more realistic. If you just ask logical questions, it is obvious what the HH should answer. So anyone want to try it on the outside, in the TMS? (Come on Sharon, you can do it!) ;-)
Well I need to get back to the room and do some study. We love you all!

P.S.- Please pass this on to anyone who may not know that it is here and would like to know. Thank You!
Scott-n-July

3/15/5

This is the first post to our website. Please let me know if it does not work well (or at all). If you are on a "dial-up" internet connection, I would like to know if it is 'reasonably' quick loading.

We plan to keep this site updated so as to keep all our friends and family informed about how and what we are doing at Gilead. Hopefully we will be able to continue doing this once in our assignment (wherever that may be).

We shipped all our belongings from Yuba City AH and it is on its way to Patterson, there's no turning back now! (Not that we would dream of missing this opprtunity.)

Thank you for your encouragement and support!

Love,
Scott-n-July ;-)