February 7, and 8 we attended our circuit assembly in a town called Bennekom, about an hour away from Amsterdam. The day before the assembly, February 6th, I had the pleasure of attending the pioneer meeting for the English circuit.
Because of the distance, and the pioneer meeting, I went a day ahead of Matt, on Friday (since he didn't need to be there until Saturday) and caught a ride with a couple from our hall, the van der Heuvles. He had a part on the pioneer meeting program and interviewed Makafui and me about our experiences pioneering for a few minutes. I have to say I was a bit shocked to be part of the program so soon after moving here, but I guess I still think I'm new here, but it had really been 4 months already at that point. The brother's here put so much energy into their parts, it was a really enjoyable day. We came a little early to the assembly hall to help with the cleaning. There was a "how to" instructional cleaning demo that sung the praises of all things microfiber. It was really well organized, even though everyone joked about feeling like we were watching an info-mercial.
They didn't use any chemicals, and every one was issued one micro-fiber cloth for glass, one for other surfaces, and one for toilets. Then the all important microfiber mop for the floors, of course. I was pleasantly surprised that we had lunch served to us. After years of trying to eat sensibly, I've acquired the habit of packing my own lunches if I know I'll be out most of the day, especially in service. It doesn't work out quite the same here, but I had packed enough snack stuff to hold me. However...Not only did they have tea and coffee complimented by Matt's favorite Dutch dessert, the stropwaffle cookie, but a full hot lunch as well. I caved and left my snacks in my bag, drawn in by the delicious smell of another singularly Dutch item, the kroket sandwich. Have I described "bitterballen" to ya'll yet? It's something like condensed cream of mushroom soup with chunks of sausage rolled into balls, dipped in batter and deep fried. These sandwiches are made of similar stuff, but in the shape of a sausage instead of a ball. To be enjoyed steaming hot, with mustard. Yeah, fell off the healthy choices wagon that day :)
Since the town is such a commute for car-less people like ourselves, we asked our
friends here, and they helped us select a hotel within walking distance. I stayed over night, and met Matt at the Hall in the morning. A kind and quiet brother offered us a ride the previous week, so Matt hitched in with him and another brother. Here's what I mean by "quiet" brother. Matt rode with him Saturday morning, and asked him if he wanted to sit nearby us. He says, no thanks anyways, he already had a seat elsewhere. Later that day, during the baptism talk, I take a look at who the baptismal candidates are, and I spot what looks a lot like him...so I ask Matt, "hey, is Chris getting baptized today??" and he says, "I don't think so, he didn't mention it". But sure enough, he was there getting baptized, and with quiet humility, saying nothing about it. We laughed and joked with him after the program telling him that he was being sly. He said, "I'm not sly, I just don't say much". True enough. 
He also gave us a ride home on Sunday. There is a train that stops nearby, but it's so much nicer to ride with your spiritual family.We were pleasantly surprised to find that the coffee and tea service (though, sans stropwaffles and sammies) was still being served for the Assembly program. I thought it was just for the workers who showed up a day early to clean the hall. Turns out that before the program, and lunch, and for a while after the day's program ends they still serve tea and coffee at all Dutch assemblies. This is something most Jehovah's Witnesses who have been around for a few years remember fondly from the old days. Although we can agree that it's much better for all of us to bring our own digs and retain the ability to listen to the program without having to worry about your shift serving or preparing food for the masses, we all miss some food item that you just can't
get anywhere else. Cheese danishes for me. Matt says hoagies. The Dutch just couldn't give up the civility of tea and coffee service. So, they were granted a stay :)On Saturday evening, the Kupyeres picked us up at our hotel, "The Reehorst" (their recommendation) and took us to meet some other friends for dinner in the neighboring town of Ede (pronounced Aida). We were hoping for Italian, but the place was packed out, so we went for Greek instead. The other couple who met up with us was really great too. The brother helped me on Friday figuring out what to do with my microphone. The sister, his wife, is from the States, so we had a grand old time helping her husband to understand some of her habits that confuse him by proving that they are "American" things. ie: eating off of each other's plates at random, being irritated by slow restaurant service, etc. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't get a picture of us at dinner. Usually a server can be interrupted to take a quick snapshot...these ones couldn't be found to be interrupted :) We still had a really nice night of good food and companionship with them regardless.
It was really interesting looking at things from the perspective of being in a foreign language field.
It still doesn't really feel like we're in a foreign language, because it's our mother tongue. And 9 times out of 10, even the native Dutch people speak great English, so it's not so apparent to us that we're living in a foreign language community. But being at the assembly gave us new insights into what it really means to be coming here from another country, looking for work, or to be near family, or a thousand other things that brings people here from all over in a more permanent way than ourselves. The District and Circuit Overseers are both native Nederlanders, and while the C.O. gave his discourses in English, the District Overseer had his talks translated from Dutch. Most of the time it was seamless, but once in a while the speaker would make a joke in Dutch that just doesn't translate, or the translator for some reason wouldn't know what to say, so we just looked at each other, puzzled, as they went on. As we said they all had a lot of energy, and good humor. If I were to give examples, this post would take me as long to write as the Italy blog did...no one wants that...heh...After two days (3 for me) of meeting new friends from all over the planet who have the English language and a spiritual brotherhood in common, we felt energized and overwhelmed at the same time. We made friends who I very much hope to see again, but don't have any idea of when...There's so very much work to do in the service and congregations here, and here we are, knowing we'll leave them all too soon to be much real help. I did
take some pictures of some of our Ghanaian sisters wearing their traditional clothing, but I still need to ask them if I can post their pictures. So, you'll have to be patient and wait to see them.Then, a few weeks after that (February 24-March 1st), we had our Circuit Overseer visit to our congregation. We actually went back to the schedule I grew up with: Tuesday night TMS, Thursday night bookstudy, except we had our Sunday meeting on Saturday actually. And again, we had a really encouraging motivating pioneer meeting. I didn't realize before that how many auxiliary pioneers we have. We really do have a lot of service support here, and for that I am very very thankful.
So we had a busy handful of weeks spiritually, physically, and emotionally. As much as I hated to leave our friends in California behind for 6 months (now 9 months), I now dread to leave this new found family behind to move back "home". Oh, Matt got to experience accompanying the brother here that does port witnessing this weekend, which is where they get permission to board vessels in the Port of Amsterdam to talk with the workers. Leanna and I had the opportunity to do that while she was here, and it was a truly unique, and rewarding adventure. One more of the things that we will probably only get to try our own hands at while living here in Amsterdam.
Until next time...
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