Bethel

The bethel home here was built & dedicated in 1998, the old home was many buildings scattered throughout the city making it a bit difficult to move around in. They went out of the downtown city area a ways and there was an old farm house and barn for sale, which they have kept and maintained, turning it into a guest house.
The amount of friends living here is around 130 to 135. It has received some serious updates for the international convention this last year to be able to house the new Bethelites and visiting delegates. Its been beautifully done, all of Jehovah's houses look great and colourful in the tropical areas. They have four residence buildings, large wearhouse where they sort after a delivery from South Africa, and an area for the large generators which they seem to use every night to keep power on. Awesome side note..they have dogs! Three of them, when on the leash they do become on alert and guard dog but in their cages they are super nice looking for someone to pet them.

Our hosts were Jon and Cindi Winn. They graduated the124th class of Giliaed and assigned to Zim..four years later they were moved into the Branch where he works as the home overseer & new  maintenance overseer. Cindi is one of the purchasers, literally her job is to shop.. I want that job!  :) She is from Florida and he's from Massachusetts.   We were able to go to family worship on Monday evening after dinner..(which we may have almost missed..apparently weekday and weekend dinners are not the same time..oops). The bible lecture was Do you identify the prophets among us? It was such great and timely information.

There are over12 million people here in Zimbabwe . The Translation office here is for all of Shona and Zimbabwean sign lang. They do have a few small remote offices as well around the smaller cities. They have the audio & recording studio for the DVDs. They oversee the 1100 Cong's here, and many small groups in the bush. They have 16 missionary couples of which we've met almost all of them.  It seems a lot are moved to bethel or into the circuit work either in Shona or English. We met up with the brother who goes through the applications as well I told him I'll staple some American treats to mine..maybe it will slip in the right direction.. His ears perked up when I said fruit roll-ups.. Ha
They need so many more kingdom halls and assembly halls here, they can not keep up with the demand because it takes them so long to build. They have no machinery to help, its done all by hand in clay type soil. We had been okayed to help but they are only building in the rurals and it would be difficult to find accommodations and a bit of a health risk so Bethel didn't recommend we try.  You're welcome Mother. ;)
It was a wonderful few days, we felt a little lazy not working like our brothers so when we went swimming we scrubbed and skimmed the pool for bugs. :) then we felt better.
We now live in a home with no internet so we walk to the cafe down the way to buy a few MIN so we share our thoughts. So especially, parents no need to worry if we go a few days without contact. Our time is being spent wisely in service and we will send our love and experiences as much as we can.