Finding the love of the brothers

[RaymondG]

I've been thinking about doing a thread relating to my visits to many congregations, Assembly Days and Regional/International Conventions over the past 14 years. And there have been visits to Bethels in four countries.

 

In that time I've made five trips to the USA, with two of them branching into Canada and one extending to 21 countries in Europe. Whenever possible I've attended meetings wherever I have been, often timing my trip to enable me to do so. Two trips were based around Conventions.

 

This is particularly relevant following the Watchtower study article last weekend, in which paragraph 16 asks, "When travelling have you ever visited a different congregation?" It goes on to explain why we should, "The next time you do, reflect on the love and unity among our brothers and sisters. It will underscore that Jehovah is indeed using his Witnesses to accomplish his will today."

 

And I have to agree. As this thread progresses I will post pictures relating to congregation visits and tell how that love and unity was shown. It's a 2-way thing, of course, and while I consider that I have benefitted more, I hope that I have also conveyed to the hundreds I've met something of value to them. 

 

 I've not put this into the publicly visible section as I will be using names of our brothers and sisters as the story progresses. I welcome comments, in particular - but not limited to - comments from people who are members of the congregations I've visited or others who see something they want to discuss.

 

[RaymondG]

My first trip began in October, 2012. The first congregation Janet and I visited was at Weston, West Virginia. We were to revel in the topography and autumnal colours of the 'Hillbilly' country and I was in that area to visit an old friend who'd worked as a teacher in Australia.

 

We stayed at Buckhannon the night before and drove to Weston, following the Garmin GPS to...

 

 

...Kingdom Drive, which really tickled us. The first thing we noticed, and it was to us quite outstanding, was the lack of windows in the hall:

 

 

Our old Dodge pickup is at the extreme left of this pic and Janet is there talking to Brother Edwin Stalnaker who I was to learn had a large part in bringing this hall into being. He provided the land and used his earthmoving equipment to level sufficient ground for the hall, also building the entry road.

 

There'll be more about this hall much later in the thread as I returned there in 2024, but for now it was eye-opening to an Aussie couple finding their way with accents and getting to know people. One sister, Jo Ellen Fitzwater, spent some time talking with Janet and later wrote to her back home. Janet really appreciated that and it's a shame that the correspondence wasn't able to continue much longer.

 

No, it's not a large congregation, but it's firmly established and spiritually strong. It was a nice place for us to begin our 'International Tour' and to spend valuable time with brothers and sisters.

[Qapla]

Looking forward to more of these ...

[RaymondG]

Our next theocratic stopover came after travelling through Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and paying a toll over the Brooklyn Bridge. Yes, we headed for what was then the World Headquarters, Brooklyn Bethel.

 

We caught a sight of it as we crossed the bridge...

 

 

...and then struggled for a while to find somewhere to park. Once we did this we could walk towards those familiar-looking buildings:

 

 

We then found the front desk...

 

 

...and pretty soon we were with a guide on the big tour. There was too much there to keep on posting pics, but a couple of things that appealed to me were the displays of Brother Russell's personal items, one of which was documents relating to the part he played in nurturing the organisation:

 

 

And the slides from the Photo Drama of Creation were a testimony to the efforts of the brothers and sisters of that early era:

 

 

And I'll indulge myself a little here, there was a huge photo of the Bethel family from Australia and, on closer inspection, I found my mother's older sister in the picture:

 

 

My aunt was a part of the Australia Bethel family from about 1938 to her death, which was some time in the late nineties if I recall. 

 

And so we'd had a tour, met many others on the tour as well and enjoyed seeing in detail how things were done in those times. Of course, things are constantly changing and many of the technological developments displayed to us would be out of date now as the brothers keep up with the rapid improvements to help present Jehovah's word to the public. A few days later we would visit both Walkill and Patterson, so there's more of this to come.

[RaymondG]

However, before we visited Walkill and Patterson we did a bit more touring. Up through Connecticut and Massachusetts, cut through a corner of Vermont and went into New Hampshire to reach the most distant place we'd been from home - Squam Lake. I had a commitment to be in Watkins Glen after that and as we dashed back across Vermont and most of Upstate New York we were having a simply wonderful time making discoveries and seeing the sights. 

 

Once my commitments in Watkins Glen were done we were once again looking for a Sunday meeting. My choices were guided by a comment I'd made to a sister I encountered at an International Convention in Sydney ten years earlier. She told me she came from Interlaken, explaining that this was in the Fingerlakes district of Upstate New York.

 

At that time I could only dream of taking a trip to America, but I told her, "If ever I go to America I will be going to Watkins Glen, so I will visit your Kingdom Hall!" And so we loaded our gear and ourselves into the pickup and headed across to Interlaken, guided by the GPS straight to the Kingdom Hall:

 

 

Imagine my disappointment to find their meeting wasn't on! I don't know whether it was because they had an assembly, but my best guess is that's what happened. After waiting a short time to see if anyone turned up we pointed the pickup in the direction of Watkins Glen and steered our way to a late arrival at the meeting there.

 

 

Late? We walked in as the second paragraph of the Watchtower Study was being discussed. Sitting down as paragraph three was being read, the Study Conductor then asked the question relating to that paragraph - and I put up my hand.

 

"The brother who just walked in..." the Study Conductor said. And so I commented on the paragraph, but beside me my dear wife was cringing with embarrassment.

 

Despite all of this we were able to meet several brothers and sisters and discuss both our travels and differences we were finding with meetings in Australia versus the USA. Or should I say 'similarities'? 

 

Once again we were made to feel right at home, though we didn't get an answer as to why the Interlaken congregation had left us feeling abandoned.

 

Two Sundays in America, two meetings. Janet had decided it was too difficult to try and fit in a midweek meeting and remembering that each night we had to get into a hotel and find something to eat, yes, it would have been. But so far we were having a great time and the following day we'd be visiting Walkill and Patterson.

[jwhess]

14 hours ago, RaymondG said:

 I've not put this into the publicly visible section as I will be using names of our brothers and sisters as the story progresses. I welcome comments, in particular - but not limited to - comments from people who are members of the congregations I've visited or others who see something they want to discuss.

Br. Ray, I don't know how important this point is to you but this section IS publicly visible.