I sit
here late on Wednesday evening writing while I hear the gentle sound of the
happy frogs after all the rain we have had this week. Its so nice to finally
have the rain here. The air is cooler and cleaner, the grass has turned green
overnight. And for me personally, it is truly a Godsend because now our horses
will have food, just time for this weekend. Everything is good.
This weekend?
Well, I
can honestly say that my whole body hurts from head to toe tonight. My arms and
legs are stiff as ever, and I am thoroughly exhausted. But happy and satisfied.
Why, you
may ask, and what has that got to do with this weekend? And what is so special
about this weekend?
This
weekend is the Regional Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses in Durban at the
majestic Moses Mabhida stadium. Because this is so special, I am publishing
this blog post a day early. We are expecting upwards of 20,000 delegates
to attend, there will be talks, demonstrations, experiences and re-enactments
given over a course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday in English, Zulu and South
African Sign Language.
You have
likely heard about this special event, for the last 3 weeks in most of the
province of Kwazulu Natal invitations have been distributed, perhaps you got it
delivered to your door, dropped in your post-box, perhaps a co-worker or
schoolmate gave you one, maybe someone sent it to you electronically, or
perhaps you got it on the street. This is so special as it is not a singular
event, but something that has been happening for some months and will continue
to happen for about another month in hundreds of cities around the world. If
you are able to, please please do attend!
Why am I
so sore and stiff? And so satisfied?
Well for
the last two days I have spent the entire day at the stadium as a volunteer. I
have had the privilege of working in the sound department setting up the
speakers and running wires and pretty much helping in the ginourmous job of
turning a soccer stadium into an oversized Kingdom Hall. My job had included
carrying many heavy items (speakers, brackets and poles, wires) to various
places around the stadium, removing chairs in various spots and stalling
speaker brackets, connecting wires for speakers and numerous other jobs. Its
been a lot of physically hard work, and many kilometres of walking and climbing
so many stairs. But above all, the last two days have been incredibly
satisfying. I have been doing this in amongst (I would hazard a guess of about
400 people) my spiritual brothers and sisters. None of us are paid anything for
this, we do it purely out of love for God, his great name and for our
"neighbour" (ie. all other human beings). While a team of us have
been working on sound system, there have been hundreds of other good spirited
volunteers setting up stages, setting up big screens, sweeping isles and
washing chairs, cleaning bathrooms and putting up baptism pools.
The Stadium
But
there is one particular thing I really want to share with you about this
convention and the beautiful venue that we have for the first time this year
that proves that Jehovah God is really with us.
The
convention committee (a group of responsible brothers who have the weighty task
of making the convention happen, with God's help of course) has been trying for
years to arrange a meeting with the stadium officials so that we can have our
convention at this stadium, to no avail. Every time they tried to get a
meeting, they were turned away. Eventually they managed to secure a meeting
with the stadium officials. The meeting was held out in the stands, and the
stadium officials were not seeming very keen on the whole aspect of having
20,000 plus Jehovah's Witnesses coming here. However the brothers had prayed
about it, and stuck it out with the meeting, starting with showing the stadium
management a short video on the Jehovah's Witness Conventions around the world.
After watching the video, the stadium management were suddenly a lot more
willing to discuss the possibility of having the convention there. The meeting
ended with the stadium officials telling the convention committee that they
will email them within the next few days.
After a
few days they got an email saying that they
could in fact use the stadium, however they would need to use the stadium's own
contractors for cleaning and catering. The brothers decided to leave
things a little before approaching that subject.
As
Jehovah's Witnesses, we always have volunteers who come to clean the convention
venue before we have our conventions, we each bring our own small packed
lunches from home. However a couple of days later, without request, the stadium
management emailed again, this time saying that they
had contacted Kings Park Stadium (the one we always have had conventions at)
and had confirmed what they had seen in the video, that JWs volunteer and clean
the stadium before hand and that the other stadium said the JWs make it the
cleanest it is ever every year. So, if we have the volunteers, we do not need
to hire their cleaners.
Then a
couple of days later, the stadium management again emailed, saying that they also noticed in the video that all the delegates
brought their own lunches in little cooler bags, so as long as the convention
does not hire outside caterers and everyone brings their own lunches, then the
JWs will not be required to hire the stadium's caterers.
Oh, and
while they are about it, they also said that they
saw on the video that everyone has those lapel badges, so as long as delegates
have the lapel badges as identification for the three days of the convention,
the security will let them in. That particular point though has had many
of us worried, because we have been inviting thousands of people to join us at
the convention, however there will be hospitality kiosks outside all the
entrances to the convention where visitors can check in and get a lapel badge.
Now if
that doesn't show God's power and spirit in this convention, I dont know what
does.
So I
will again invite you, please attend at least one session of this very
important event this weekend. And if you are, please drop me a line and I'll
come find you and we can chat.
