Home of John and Marie Goode

On the weekend of October 10 & 11, 2009, we had the privilege to travel to the city of Hinche in the upper central plateau region of Haiti to attend the Special Assembly Day for Haiti Circuit 11B.

It was over nine years ago that we were there for the last time.  Marie and I were also there back in 1993.  That was a very memorable journey, as the return trip after the Special Assembly Day was a very long eight hour drive, due to the rain creating a thick layer of mud on the road.

It was nice to be able to go back and see the friends and the new ones at this event.  We had a total attendance of 433 with 9 baptized.

The brothers had an ingenious idea for their baptism pool.  Many in that town don't like the idea of getting baptized in the river, which has slow moving, brownish, green coloured water.  Most would prefer to postpone their baptism until the next District Assembly at our Assembly Hall, where we have a nice blue baptism pool with clean water. 

The brothers had the idea of digging a rectangular hole in the ground and lining it with a blue plastic tarp weighted down with cement blocks.  They also made a set of stairs out of more blocks, along with a rope that was anchored to a tree to make it easier for the candidates to enter and exit the pool.

Early Sunday morning, at 5:30 AM, a group of young brothers placed 4 large plastic drums in the back of the pickup truck, and after filling up the drums with water, we drove to the site where the baptism pool was to transfer the water into the pool.  After doing two trips, and moving over one and a half tons of water, we had a pool all ready.  It was a joy to see the nine new brothers and sisters express their vow to serve Jehovah by water baptism that day!

Why so much trouble to fill this pool you may ask?  Imagine that this city of over 60,000 inhabitants has had no city power for over five years now.  Only a few homes receive water from the municipality.  A lot of people depend on small electrical generators or solar panels to charge up some batteries to have minimal lighting and power to run a pump.  Despite these challenges, the assembly ran smoothly, with one solar panel giving electricity to run the sound equipment all day.

I posted the photos of our trip on my site.

Enjoy.