So that's where you went? Tell us about your travels!

[Victoria]

I live in the South of the Far East of Russia. Close to China and Korea.But we eat with a fork, not with sticks

[New World Explorer]

I live in the South of the Far East of Russia. Close to China and Korea.But we eat with a fork, not with sticks

Thanks Victoria , I would love to see photos of your region ... Please post some

How people respond to our preaching where you live ?

Edited January 8, 2015 by Gregexplore

[New World Explorer]

It's in her introductory post, Greg... or at least in the 'Where are you from' thread... .

Thanks Ray

[Stormswift]

Hey there Victoria ... forks here too - or hands haha.

 

I would like to tell you guys of our big travels last year if that is okay. As many of you know, New Zealand has two major Islands - the North and South. My family live in the North. Our dear brothers assigned us to the Convention at the BOTTOM of the South Island. Now, it is a well known fact, that it is cheaper to fly to Australia than it is to travel down South - hence the reason Aussie has so many kiwi (NZers) in it I reckon.  So you can begin to phathom just how daunting it was for a family who doesn't do a lot of  travelling anyway to go this far for a convention. But my story doesn't really start there. It's starts with a cranky old car we have had for years.

 

It was a holden commodore - lovely old thing with a beautiful engine - but it would just 'stop' on us for no obvious reason anytime she wished. So after considering how much it would have been to fix we decided to get a new Holden to do this trip to our Convention. (New - secondhand of course). So we get a loan out for it, and we get enough to help  us get to Convention.

 

My mother died just after we bought that car - we had the privilege of taking her into the hospital in our new car (my Dad worked at General Motors so we kinda loved our Holdens) and sadly she did not survive the operation. But having had the money for the convention saved we used this to help out with bills and things needed to tie up loose ends.

 

So where does that leave us for the Convention? Practically broke! My hubby and I kept look at the map ... we had to take our car across in the Ferry which is about 3-4 hours sailing (Depending what Ferry you sail as one firm is ALWAYS late). Then we had to drive to Christchurch and stay there for a few nights then drive onto Dunedin. So I decided - without any money - to book the motels - both motels I rang were fine with NO deposit! So we were booked, now we had to get the money to pay for it all - which for five of us was over $5,000 NZD - which is quite daunting for a family on limited income.

 

Some of my art 'suddenly sold' that had been sitting there for a long time. Then when I was out on field service ... a sister who was working one day a week at a Headstone shop to help support her pioneering said that they were looking for someone to do four days part-time. I jumped at it. Suddenly we had a means of saving and getting to our Convention ALL on the spirit of Jehovah. But ... dear brothers and sisters ... our story has only begun.

 

A week before the Convention we hop on the Ferry so we can get to the South Island ... it was a glorious day ... and we could sit out on the deck and bask in the sun while seeing the beautiful sounds as we entered the top of the South Island - Oh Jehovah what a beautiful earth you have created.

 

We get to Christchurch later that day after viewing majestic mountains against a clear blue sea - breath taking. Now as many of you may know Christchurch has suffered some devastating earthquakes ... 1000's of them in the past few years in fact 1000's is on the safe side.  The poor buildings in this city most of them were broken and sad. There was rubble all over the main streets and some streets towards the sea were difficult to pass still. But out of the dust of Christchurch we could see new buildings being built and a unique 'Container City' made out of shipping containers - there were cafes, and pizza places with stone cooked pizzas, sweet shops, clothes shops and many more in these brightly coloured shipping containers. I really enjoyed seeing that.

 

We went onto Dunedin ... Dunedin has a lot of very historic buildings ... beautiful architecture. The first thing we see in the square is our dear sisters with the carts. They had a 'countdown' of the Convention and it had 'One day to go" ... all the way down the south island we saw signs painted by brothers and sisters,  either in car windows or on the sides of the streets. After three days of incredible spiritual food that you brothers and sisters know very well also, we met amazing people and made friends from the South Island we will never forget. We stood by banners that said "See you in Paradise" - we cried at the baptisms and at the link ups when were saw our Brothers and Sisters in Australia waving to us.

 

All too quickly the time came for us to return to Christchurch and then up towards home. Everything had gone smoothly ... or so we thought ... In Dunedin - there is the 'world's steepest street' and our Son hadn't been up it ... so we thought we would take him up ... but our dear little car, who had run so well for the whole trip ... must have heard what we were planning. She suddenly overheated before we could even make it to the street. Thankfully not far from a garage and we were able to get her checked out. The diagnosis was terrible - they thought we had a cracked head and we were looking at a $2,500 bill.

 

Here we were, on the side of the road, five of us, pouring with rain, all our luggage, days of travel from home. 4 degrees and dropping. I'm afraid I couldn't help the tears, they just came ... but through the tears came our theme scripture : Seek first the kingdom ... yes yes you know it well. All Phillipiains 4:6 when you're in  a fix remember Phillipians 4:6. Then I remembered a dear friend of mine from Christchurch - I knew her Father was an elder, surely he would know someone who could help. So I texted her thinking she was back in Christchurch, but she wasn't she was still in Dunedin with her parents.

 

They turned up ... oh wow was it good to see them. And he did indeed know someone - this dear Elder in Dunedin owned a carpet business and he had a HUGE warehouse. We were able to take the car there. His Son-in-law was a mechanic, wow. When we arrived still a little shell shocked he showed EXTRAORDINARY hospitality and took us all into the staff room where we were able to have a drink. There in the staffroom were five backpacks and other types of bags - sitting there - which we were able to use to pack some of our luggage. So we left our car in the care of these dear brothers who we will be forever thankful to. The parents of my dear friend paid for a rental vehicle to get us back to the Ferry. Wow again. Jehovah - your people are amazing.

 

We had petrol money donated to us and when we FINALLY got back to the North Island another dear Brother was there to pick us up and yet another dear brother and sister lent us a vehicle that we are still using, as our car is still down in Dunedin under the safe care of our new friends.

 

Well ... the story is STILL not finished ... we heard it will only cost $600 for repairs and all we have to do after that is go down and get our car lol ... the BROTHER who fixed it and his family are prepared to drive our car to Christchurch - about a 6 hour drive from memory. ... So I guess this story is to be continued ...  watch this space and I'll tell you how it ends. If we need to go to Christchurch to get I'll take some photos just for you guys so you can see our beautiful country. (We had some taken but our camera was stolen prior to the trip so my son took them on his ipad - getting him to get us the photos is like yanking teeth).

Edited January 8, 2015 by Stormswift

[RaymondG]

I am sorry, Mandi... but I will have to say this...

As Witnesses we are almost totally dependent on the car. It takes us witnessing, to meetings, to conventions in almost every case.

We should all be able to understand cars (so we don't get into this sort of trouble too easily in the first place) and then we really should learn how to fix them.

It saves so much money that can be better devoted to our other goals, saves us time without our cars as the garages keep them there off the road, it gives us further satisfaction in life because we're not at the mercy of the rip-off merchants that do exist.

Even when they're not 'ripping us off' they still have to overcharge because their obligations include making sure that they miss nothing else that might conceivably go wrong in the near future and fixing that too.

When one is on a low income, I cannot ever understand how they can ever think they can get along without fixing their own cars!

And here's an interesting one...

These bridge abutments have carried a bridge, but no train ever went across it. The Sandy Hollow to Maryvale rail link in New South Wales was never quite completed before the government abandoned it and pulled down all the bridges.

[Stormswift]

Brother Ray,

 

You are right - with any asset - especially a car - it must be maintained. My husband understands cars -  but with all engines - sometimes they just fail as this one did - we had done everything right. We thought we had bought a reliable car (and it will be now this has been fixed)  - it had been checked out and maintained properly. Sometimes things just happen. You can't foresee problems sometimes - this only turned out to be a cracked gasket instead of a head ... so it was good. It's still a beautiful car and even with what we spend on it .. it will be worth more than what we paid. Holdens are brilliant cars.

 

At the end of the day ... while I would have preferred this not to have happened ... we have seen Jehovah look after us through his organization.

 

So thank goodness we haven't been at the mercy of rip-off agents. Jehovah was there to help us because we did all we could within our circumstances.

 

I have to say Brother Ray, that our car isn't in a garage, it's in a brother's warehouse and he hasn't charged more than he has to, he's so lovely. So we are hoping that we will be able to repay their kindness one day soon.

 

We had checked the radiator, done a full oil and filter change ... made sure the oil and water was topped up. Petrol filter and brake pads were also checked before the journey - just as the tyres were. ... Holdens are robust cars usually - similar to the US Chevvy - our one is a 3.8 Litre ... even the mechanic who is fixing it couldn't work out why it went at such low mileage. The only thing we can think of is the previous owner put some sort of additive into the oil, but even then we aren't sure.

Edited January 8, 2015 by Stormswift

[Qapla]

Yes, it would be nice if we could all work om our cars ... I used to be able to do just that. However, the newer vehicles rely so much on electronics and diagnostic devices ans software that I cannot do some of what I used to do to keep a vehicle working.

 

Even though I have, in the past, rebuilt entire car motors, I recently had to pay $1500+ to have the timing chains replaced in my truck because, with the new designs, you have to tear the truck halfway apart just to do this repair and I did not have the time, place or tool for such a job.

[Victoria]

Thanks for your story,Mandi!I really enjoyed it! As brother Sanderson said our association of brothers is like a family and it is a miracle!

[New World Explorer]

Yes, it would be nice if we could all work om our cars ... I used to be able to do just that. However, the newer vehicles rely so much on electronics and diagnostic devices ans software that I cannot do some of what I used to do to keep a vehicle working.

 

Even though I have, in the past, rebuilt entire car motors, I recently had to pay $1500+ to have the timing chains replaced in my truck because, with the new designs, you have to tear the truck halfway apart just to do this repair and I did not have the time, place or tool for such a job.

Sometimes I feel that under the bonnet of my car there is more Star Trek technology then normal screws and hoses ...  I am not able to do repairs on my car ..  too much computer stuff.

In case of emergency I have paid yearly road assistance which could come handy. But in case of a breakdown I will open the bonnet of my car and loudly say "beam me up back home"   If this fails I will call road assistance  

[Victoria]

This is our railway station. The name of the town is written in Russian and Yiddish (Jewish language but almost nobody can speak it now.The letters are Hebrew but most words are German)

[hatcheckgirl]

I loved your experience Mandi!  You showed obedience and faith in attending the assigned convention, and Jehovah through the brothers and sisters made sure you were able to go and come back home.  How wonderful, and thanks for sharing!

 

I also have a lovely travel story that involves being "rescued" by lovely brothers.  Back in 1989, we travelled across Australia from Sydney to Perth.  We had a second-hand Mistubishi Sigma - the best we could afford, all tuned up, carrying spares etc.  We checked the oil levels, radiator levels at every petrol station where we filled up, because you travel long distances between stops in the outback.  Unfortunately, just on the edge of the Nullabor just before Norseman we broke down.

My husband walked to the nearest solar powered telephone to ask for help.  The police said someone would come to assist.  He went up two more times, as distance of 1km each way, still no help.  I was waiting for him boiling a billy and eating biscuits and snacks with my 15mth old toddler and I was 5 mths pregnant.  Finally, my husband asked the police to ring Jehovah's Witnesses to help.

 

And within an hour, a car pulled up and asked "Do you walk in Jehovah's ways?"  Well, I was pouring with tears (We'd been out there for 5 hours by this time).  Jehovah helped us through this lovely family, who got us on the road again and put us up for the night.  We had a good feed and enjoyed spiritually upbuilding conversation.  It's such a blessing to be in a world-wide brotherhood who love us.

Here are two pics of that trip:  The Great Australian Bight, and the Nullabor Plain near where we broke down.

 

 

[Stormswift]

love it. Hey there Sister Lucy xxx

[Victoria]

I wish it was summer right now!Today I can see only snow everywhere!

[Stormswift]

Aah very nice Victoria - I can see some of the 'culture' we were talking about the other day.

[hatcheckgirl]

Victoria, I would love to visit Russia.  One day perhaps.... Your pics are very enlightening on how the Far East really is.  I read the Gulag Archipelago one very hot summer, just so I could cool down (it was 45C for days in Perth that year).  But you experience -30C!

 

Here is a pic of us making billy tea:

 

 

Onya Mandi :wave:

[Victoria]

Lucy, welcome to Russia anytime!☺ To my mind the best time in Russia is early Autumn when it's neither hot nor cold & trees are beautiful. Brothers and sisters in our town don't see any foreigners at all(except Chinese but no one calls them "foreigners"☺)so everyone will be happy to meet you. We were invited to the international convention to USA so none of us was able to go there.

By the way sometimes we experience -40C and in other parts of the Far East it is-60C I can't imagine this!

[Victoria]

I think it is a part of our culture: cows walking in the street! Actually it's forbidden but very few people obey laws here.

[New World Explorer]

Victoria .. what about the cows on the beach in Rodriques Island ?

[well]

Here is Lake Toba... My favorite place for vacation... From my city, it's 4 hours by car plus 30-45 minutes by ferry to reach the island in the middle of the lake... Pictures were taken by my sister few years ago...

 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2015 by ivy

[Victoria]

Greg, are they cows?They look very unusual! Is that island near Australia?

[New World Explorer]

Greg, are they cows?They look very unusual! Is that island near Australia?

Yes they are cows .. here is another take of them ...  The Rodriques Island is close to Mauritius and Madagascar (12 h flight from Australia)

[Victoria]

I have never seen cows at the seaside! That's exotic for me!My husband was born and raised near the sea (about 20 minutes on foot).But this sea named Japanese is not very warm.

[Victoria]

There are no palm trees at the seaside in Russia.By the way Russia is washed by 13 seas.

[nanceebgd46]

Beautiful seascape Victoria...one of the thoughts I have about Jehovah's new world...is visiting the many different places on this earth...that at present are off  

 limits because of governmental restrictions./politics, lack of funds and time constraints etc.  There is so much beautiful scenery worldwide that I am looking forward to seeing one fine day.

[Victoria]

Thanks, Nancee!In fact I did not think about traveling much but this forum made me interested in many places around the world. Now I am looking forward to the opportunity to travel too!