Memorial, Circuit Assembly & April Update

Hello Everybody!!

I've been having some internet issues over the past week and was unable to post sooner.  

I figured I'd share some info about our Memorial.  As I stated before, our congregation has about 27 publishers (I think). We had 58 in attendance at the Memorial! That's pretty good, but we were expecting more.  However the day before the Memorial and the day of we were having a snowstorm. Down here when it snows everybody pretty much stays home because the roads can get bad pretty fast.  

So all in all, we were quite happy to have the 58 in attendance due to the weather conditions!

This is the stage in my Kingdom Hall:

So two weeks ago we had our Circuit Assembly.  I'm in WV Circuit #1 and we go all the way to Salisbury, NC for our assemblies.  It's a five hour trip, but everyone is so grateful to have an assembly hall that we all willingly drive there.  I got to go to the Pioneer Seminar again, what a treat! So on our way to Salisbury we stopped to hike at Pilot Mountain State Park, which is outside of Winston-Salem, NC. Here's some pictures from our hike!

This is a panorama from the top of Pilot's Knob. 

If you look hard, you may be able to see the highway that we got off of.

Here is Herb, our fearless hike leader!

Molly and I stopped to take a little rest on some rocks. I made the mistake of wearing sandals because I didn't know we'd be walking.  But it wasn't too bad!

Another scenic outlook.

This is Pilot's Knob as viewed from the highway. 

The pictures above were taken from the very top of it. 

And now for some pictures of the Salisbury Assembly Hall.  I found out from a friend that it is the largest in the US and the most used assembly hall.

The stage.

Front lobby:

The outside view from the front.

This was a neat map of assembly halls in the US Branch.  To give you an idea, I live in the little pointy bit of Kentucky that's wedged between West Virginia and Virginia.  My circuit used to go to the London, OH assembly hall, but that is almost as far away as Salisbury and much more crowded.  

So our circuit had an average attendance around 958, so it's a little smaller than DE Circuit #1.  But we have 157 pioneers and there was a 50% increase in pioneers since last year! What amazing growth!!!

It was so encouraging to see the rest of our circuit.  Up until now I felt a little isolated because we are so far away.  My congregation is at one edge of the circuit and their are congregations at the other end of our circuit which is about 5 hours away. 

So now here is some pictures from my adventures over the past month.  We went kayaking a few weeks ago, and we drove right down into the river to unload!

This is Johnny, he was getting all set to launch.

Out in service a week or two ago we stopped at this house.  This is where Johnny and his 7 siblings grew up.  There were 10 people living in this little house!  Right now it is unoccupied.

Last week Pike County had something called Hillbilly Days.  It's kind of like a county fair. But they shut down Downtown Pikeville (our 'city') and you see these cars parked all over the streets and fair vendors all over.  They also have craft tables. Hillbilly Days is held to benefit the Shriners Hospital.  So you can probably imagine some of the characters you'd see here. We went on a rainy day, so the crowd wasn't too bad.  But the day before, it was sunny and the streets were packed!

This picture was taken this week.  Up in the top of this barn is Johnny and a boy named Jonathan.  This was taken at Rachelle's bible study's home.  Her study Ernestine is in the pink jacket and is Jonathan's aunt, but she raised him.  Anyways, Johnny was waiting outside while we had Ernestine's study and Jonathan came along and started talking with Johnny.  Long story short, they ended up playing pool in the top of this barn.  The whole time, Johnny was witnessing to Jonathan and they would pause to read scriptures.  Jonathan agreed to a Bible Study.

Last but not least this is the guard pony we encountered this past Saturday.  We pulled into the head of this holler where I have a call and the little pony came running down the hill.  I got out and it let me pet it and scratch it a bit.  But after I went to the door, the pony wanted to chase our car down the holler.  Yes, it was loose and not fenced in! Or sometimes you will see horses tied to stakes in the yards here as well.  Saturday we also had a softball game at the local park.  I switched my work days so that I could go to the game.  So if anyone would like to come experience seldom worked, we also like to play sports and hike! So come ready to explore and play!!

March Update

Hello Everyone!

I apologize that I am late getting another blog post up, so much has been going on!

We have been fully engrossed in the Memorial Invitation work. Our territory is very large and it is quite a daunting task to try to cover it all.  

Service is starting to get better.  People haven't been super hospitable because of the cold weather, they don't like to keep the doors open for very long.  However, I had an interesting experience last weekend.  I work as a cashier in a gas station on Saturday and Sunday evenings.  This woman came in last Sunday, and my afternoon was going slow.  I checked her out, but then she stayed at the counter and felt the need to tell me about how she tries to read her Bible everyday but is having trouble reading it and understanding.  She told me that her grandfather really encouraged her to read her Bible and apply it, and that he had died recently.  I thought to myself "I really need to witness to this girl." I was able to talk with her until her husband came in to see what was taking so long, but we talked for 20 minutes! I was able to get her name and address and I promised to bring her a Bible Teach book.  This week I tried to find her, but as is common here, most streets do not have street signs.  I am determined to find her this week.  I did talk to some other pioneers and they gave her family a Memorial Invitation. 

This is Donk- a donkey belonging to an old man in one of our territories.  There is a brother and sister on the bridge and they walked over to give him hard candy. 

This is a swing bridge that me and my pioneer partner, Molly walked across.  Swing bridges are not uncommon here and there are several that we have to walk over to reach homes.  There are some homes that we also have to cross railroad tracks to reach. 

One thing that is different here is that everyone knows everyone and where everybody lives and who their family is.  I stick out like a sore thumb, the locals can pick out right away that I am a "foreigner" so to speak.  Most people are very friendly and ask where I am from and when I say Maryland the answer almost always is "Why in the world did you move to Phelps?" That opens up a door for me to explain that I came down to help with the preaching work and give a brief witness.  

The Phelps area is very unique.  This is a coal mining area and most rely on the coal industry to make a living.  However, as it is everywhere, times are hard here.  It has proven very hard for me to find a job in the medical field, most doctors are an hour away, and those close by don't have the greatest reputations.  This area is afflicted by drug abuse, most commonly, prescription pill abuse.  We had to ban two people from our gas station because they were dealing drugs on the property.  Pike County is also a dry county, meaning no alcohol.  However people will drive over state or county lines to get alcohol. I sometimes wonder if that contributes to the seeming proliferation of drug and alcohol abuse in the area.  One thing I've also seen in service is these backwoods beer joints.  Here's one I saw yesterday:

Another thing that is common here is cock fighting.  It is against the law, however the police, judges and lawyers all participate in it.  Saturday night is a big chicken fight night.  Many people here treat their fighting cocks very well and they often have a lot of them.  A typical yard might look something like this:

Yes, the rooster is tied to a traffic cone and that is its home. 

Also, in this area many people live in mobile homes.  Just like anywhere else, there are nice mobile homes and there are some that are pretty terrible.  Here, some people just throw their trash in the yard, or burn it on the edge of the creeks.  The scene above is not uncommon. 

About three weeks ago, my dad came down to visit. Boy was I glad to see him! It was nice to have him visit and help out on the cottage.  While he was here we got all of the flooring down! Thank you Dad, we couldn't have done it without you! 

While my dad was down, the sister I work for insisted that we have a traditional country breakfast, aka, A Coal Miner Special.  It looks like this:

I couldn't eat it all! And it kept me full until the very end of the day when I needed a little snack.  

As a result of all our hard work, I was able to move in to my own place on March 12!!! I'm really enjoying having my own place and my puppy is too. Here's a little picture of the finished inside:

 These are my new neighbors, two friendly goats from next door.  They like to graze on the mountain.

I was also thinking I would share a little Kentucky terminology.  Down here we identify our territories by "hollers." I live in Smith Fork holler.  When you talk about where you are in the holler you use the terms head and mouth.  The head is the very top, usually dead ending in a mountainside.  The mouth is the opening of the holler, usually onto a more heavily travelled road.  Hollers are usually narrow two lane roads, though most have areas where two cars can't pass each other. Another unique thing is some hollers have two names, an old one and a new one and most people will know the old one.  An example is Popcorn Holler, which was renamed Swan Fork, most still call it Popcorn.  We also have 'Bottoms' which I don't have a clear definition for.  A 'Bottom' seems to be a group of houses.  By no means would this be what northerners would call a development.  It may more closely resemble a trailer park or just a random group of homes in a valley.  But, when I asked my neighbor to watch out for my puppy, he asked if the kennel was in the bottom at my house..... Needless to say I was confused, and just told him it was in the backyard.  His reply was "Yup, the bottom." You also can identify where you live by mountain names, like Big Creek Mountain, Phelps Mountain, Widows Branch, Calloway Mountain. Also, since six of us in the congregation live in the same holler, we travel to meetings together, yes all six in a sedan.  It looks like a clown car when we pull up to the Kingdom Hall.

There are also some local terms that I've started using, like Pop instead of soda, being hateful(angry or rude), vaclipped (frustrated), addled (confused), schwarpped (drunk), blazed (high on drugs), sprigged (upset), what-n-all, might-could (maybe), wagged (carry around or take back and forth), pack (to carry something), gob( to gob off or  be gobbed up means to block or stop up something, it can also mean clutter), reach (instead of hand someone something). Another thing I've noticed is using the term main, like the main back or the main head, to describe something all the way in the back.  

People are also known here by their nicknames, like Groundhog, Porgy, Mountain Buzzard, Big Sexy, Gnat-Eye, Red, Big-I, The Boxer, Dinker, Wimpy (actually a guy's legal name), Crippled Bill, Hollywood, Cat Man and Can Man.

So this is just a little update as to some of my going's on.  I hope everyone is doing well! I have really enjoyed the increased activity of the Memorial Season.  I'm going home this weekend for the Special Assembly Day and then when I come back, we have our Circuit Assembly in two weeks.  I'm really looking forward to meeting more of the friends in the circuit! I've got to go to bed now, tomorrow I'm helping in the Spring Clean Up at the Kingdom Hall and then we are going on a long hike!

Take Care Everyone!!!

How I wound up in Kentucky

I know most of my congregation knows the story of how I wound up here in Kentucky, but some of my friends haven't been able to hear the story, so I figured I'd share it again.

In February 2012 I went to Bluefield, WV to visit my old circuit overseer and his wife (Ed & Erin Baumgartner).  It was a very snowy weekend, so we spent it just talking and sharing encouraging conversation.  During that time Ed asked if I still had a desire to serve where the need was great, and if so, did I have a place in mind. I answered that I most definitely still wanted to and that I was open to suggestions, though I love the beach and the mountains.  So Ed recommended Phelps, KY and to come for his visit there in May 2012.  So I made plans to go for a week in May. Those plans involved quitting my job I'd had for over 5 years because they weren't going to let me have off to go to Phelps for a week. I quit my job and didn't have another one lined up just yet, and that made me nervous! But I felt like Jehovah was directing me to come here and at least check it out. 

Well, May 2012 rolls around and I made the journey to Phelps, not knowing what to expect.  I had heard so much good about the congregation, like how they were involved in the ministry, and had a loving family atmosphere.  Needless to say, I loved the week.  The congregation truly lived up to what I'd heard and I really bonded with some in the congregation.  I started thinking hard about making a permanent change. So I made arrangements to come back in August 2012 for a month to see if I could work out a place to live and a job and if I could handle being here on my own.  The congregation didn't think I was all that serious about moving and some thought I wouldn't come back after May, but I surprised them when I stuck to my plan and did.

Before I came back down in August I said a vert specific prayer to Jehovah(just like Sister B and Lori taught me). I wanted to know without a doubt what I was supposed to do.  Let me tell you what I prayed for: I asked that Jehovah make me clearly see where I was supposed to be and I prayed for certain criteria.  I prayed to find a place to live in Kentucky, close to 2 elder's  families in the hall, but I wanted to live on my own and have cheap rent, THEN, I prayed that in addition to all of the above, I wanted to live on Smith Fork Rd, yes I prayed right down to the street I wanted to live on! And I didn't tell anybody at all about my prayer. 

So August comes, and I said a tearful goodbye to my Dad and friends for a month, the longest I'd ever been away from home.  I get down to Phelps and on the 3rd day I was here we went to feed the Pioneer School (3hrs away). I get in the car and a fellow pioneer sister, out of the blue says that she and her husband had a property that they would like to offer me to live on.  The original home on it had burned down and all that was left was a single story garage.  They offered to renovate the garage into a studio apartment for me and that I could live there RENT FREE! Can you guess where this place was? Yes, it was in Kentucky, near the two families I wanted to be by, oh AND it was on Smith Fork Road!!!  Needless to say, I was very shocked and a bit freaked out and I started crying.  The sister could tell I was shocked, and she didn't want to put pressure on me to move, but they wanted to offer this to me.  All of this occurred on the 3rd day I was down here in August, WOW! So I felt like I got my answer almost right away.  Let me show you what the garage looked like in August 2012. I never imagined it would come as far as it has.

I don't know if you can tell but the grass in the backyard was over 6ft tall! The brother who owns the property bushwhacked it all down with a machete, after we about killed a lawnmower trying to cut it.  So we had a nearby brother who specializes in construction come check out the place to see what it would cost to remodel.  He came up with the figure $5,000. I was blown away, all I could think was that was a lot of money for this couple, who pioneer and don't have much.  So I prayed again about what I could contribute.  I came up with a sum of money I could contribute and went to the brother who owned the property. I told him that I wanted to give money for the project, and his reply was "Absolutely not!" By this time two members of the congregation offered to pay for the renovation, and other members of the congregation volunteered their time and labor.  Needless to say I was shocked again. The congregation has been so excited about me moving, that they really have put themselves out to make it possible for me to be here. It has become like a little RBC project, we have some sisters that enjoy feeding and many come to visit the cottage project. We are now nearing the end of the project. I painted on Friday and expect to do more painting tomorrow.  The electric just got hooked up last week and the plumbing is almost done and then the water can get hooked up. Last but not least, the flooring will then be installed and then I can take over decorating and making it homey.

So let me show you some photos of our progress! I'll try to do them in order and explain a little of what you see.

This was taken of the front of the cottage after the garage door was removed and replaced with windows, doors and the beginnings of a chimney.

A local sister Barbara cleaning the walls. I stayed with her in May and for the month of August.

This is Lorraine our rock wall specialist! Here she is building the hearth for my wood stove.

This is Donna Kay, the sister who I work for.  Here she is rocking the exterior of the chimney.

Here I am getting my first rocking lesson from Lorraine.  We rocked the walls around the wood stove.

This is a little glimpse of the backyard of my cottage. Hopefully I'll be able to add some windows on the side wall later on.

This is the front of the cottage after it was finished being rocked and the chimney is finished being rocked.

This is Danny, our construction extraordinaire! He and another brother Bill are responsible for all the electrical and plumbing work that has been done! We couldn't do it with out them. Here he was screwing the pipes together for the wood stove. 

This is the back half of the cottage.  That counter you see there is the old literature counter from the Kingdom Hall.  The room on the left will be my bathroom/utility room.

This picture was taken this past Tuesday 2/12/13, its when we got the electric hooked up and I excitedly turned on all the lights!!!

This is Rachelle rocking the front of the counter.  It's all done now, I just don't have a finished picture yet.  It goes very nicely with the rock around the wood stove.

This is the finished wood stove and the two colors my place will be!

This is Johnny on the left and Bill on the right. Johnny and Rachelle own the property and Bill is an excellent electrician.

Here's Molly painting the front wall with me.

Well that's all I can think of for now, I'll put more pictures up of the cottage when we finish in a couple weeks. I've got to go work in our little hillbilly diner now. I hope to put another post up soon about service! Hope everybody is doing well!!!

Getting Settled

Hello All!!!!

So I have officially completed my first week down here in Phelps, KY. I've already learned a lot down here.  We have been working on my little cottage twice while I've been down already and it is really making progress! It feels like it is already coming together well, and we passed electrical and plumbing inspection this week! 

Let me tell you a little bit about my new home.

So our congregation has nine pioneers(including me) and four elders: Herb, Johnny, Danny and Mike.  Ironically, before Danny and Johnny were in the truth, Johnny bought drugs off Danny, 

and now both are elders. How amazing!! 

All four are wonderful, loving brothers and really keep the congregation going.

Here are our elders (left to right) Danny, Johnny, Mike and Herb.

Both Mike and Herb are also Regular Pioneers!

Here is a picture of the Kingdom Hall I took back in summertime.  It's not quite as green today.

So when we go out in service here, there are no Wawa's, Amish Markets or Starbucks.  It usually takes about 30 minutes to find a gas station/deli where we can use a real restroom and get a snack.  It's usually best to pack food here, cause sometimes we don't stop. It's always wise to have napkins or little rolls of toilet paper cause it is totally possible that you may have to use a bush or tree. Although, few and far between are outhouses that people have on their property and generally don't mind you using.  Here's one we saw in service this week!

Outside & Inside...

It's rather nice, especially since it has a seat cover!

Never did I imagine that I would be using one of these!

Our congregation has territory in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.  This is the area where the famous Hatfield/McCoy Feud went on and the families are still in the area today.  You may notice that the outhouse had snow around it.  Interestingly, that was in Virginia and they got from 5-8inches of snow earlier this week. I live 'over the mountain' in Kentucky and we got absolutely no snow and we are so close.  Down here the amount of snow you get largely depends on where you live, as sometimes mountains separate the storms.

Here's some other neat pictures I took earlier this week of scenery:

The mountain road we were working on the other day.  I walked down the road a little bit to check out a house.  You often have to walk up/down long mountain driveways because of their conditions. 

As you can see below, there are a lot of dilapidated old buildings around.  I like taking pictures of them cause I think they are neat and have character.

I hope everybody is doing well.  More to come soon on some crazy service experiences, cause we are sure to have some!