DR Branch Visit

We decided to sleep in (well maybe our bodies chose that for us) until about 10 am.  We needed to purchase a cell phone and get something to eat before our tour.  When we first started making these plans, our first contact was the branch.  We wanted to make sure we did things "by arrangement", so we contacted them to see where they saw there a need for us to help.  We were given several locations to choose from.  We were encouraged for our first stop in the country to be a visit to the branch office.  We were greeted by Brother Pena, from the missionary/need greater desk.  We were given a "need greater" orientation which lasted about 30 minutes.  During this time he let us know of the real needs there were in the DR for the preaching work.  Further in this post I will share some of those figures.  Here are some pictures of the branch itself.

The Branch (along with the Assembly Hall) was dedicated in 1996 - the property was purchased in 1989

This branch houses 80 Bethelites - 4 of the Bethelites are single sisters

As you can see there are multi languages represented in the DR - Spanish, English, American Sign Language, Creole (Haitian), Chinese congregation, Italian group and Russian group

There are 6 Missionary Homes with a total of 32 missionaries in the country

The branch is located very close to the ocean - therefore the property contained much of the original coral rock still in place - there is alot of the original coral still in place around the property - they have incorporated many piece of the coral in the designs - this reception desk of made from said coral rock

The country contains 2 districts, 22 circuits, 453 congregations total

The dining room deats 140 persons - on a typical day there are 120 seated, included in that number are the commuters, etc.  You see the gleaning cart is out for the Bethelites to "glean" for the weekend - also I noticed that they cover the tables once the table is set for the next meal

This map shows the delivery routes for the literature - the magazines are shipped to the DR from Canada, and the everything else from the US - it generally takes 3 months for delivery once the order is placed - There are four main routes where the literature is delivered to the local congregations or delivery depots - three of the routes take 1 day each to make and the larger one takes 2 days - these deliveries are generally made once a month - FACT OF HAITI:  The literature of shipped first to the DR and then the brothers deliver it via big truck to Haiti

This is the interior of the open-air assembly hall - it seats 2500 persons

NOTE - the huge fans in the middle of the ceiling

Dining room in the back of the assembly hall

Baptism pool - paradise

Additional points brought out during our tour:

The fields here are "white for harvesting".  Here are some Memorial attendance figures shared with us:

Restoration Spanish congregation - 26 publishers had 809 in attendance for the Memorial - When the Branch asked then what they needed in the way of help, their answer was sisters - Usually in the states we are willing to study with anyone wanting to learn - in that congregation they needed sisters to conduct the Bible studies - they could not study with everyone, so they had to narrow it down to those making the most progress - don't you wish you had that problem.

Barahona Sign Language Congregation - southwest section of country near Haiti - 10 publishers - 263 at the Memorial - sounds great right? - 216 of them were deaf - We spoke to a Brother working at the need greater desk who is in the sign language congregation in Santo Domingo - he said that in one of their territories you can actually go door to door preaching for the deaf because there are so many of them.

English - We were told that the English started a group 2 1/2 years ago - since then there are now 7 congregations - persons who are interested in learning the truth in English are: college students, expats, those that work part-time in the states.

There is more information I want to share on Haiti and the earthquake, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.  Nite!