When the Cat's away...

The mice will work?

With our only elder out of town, I wasted no time in planting a very girlish idea in the minds of our two brothers now in charge of decisions.  What else but a:  MAKEOVER!!

Esthetically, our new hall was well...drab.  See, here in Brazil, there must be a minimum of 30 publishers for the Branch to get involved with KH construction.  When this number of publishers is met, and a piece of land is purchased, the traveling construction crew comes and builds you a lovely hall.  However in the case of this congregation here in Sao Sebastiao - and many others in the area - the minimum has not been met and therefor the responsibility of arranging a KH falls to the local brother(s) taking the lead.  Here was how it looked:

The friend's opinions were not asked/voted on as far as color or decor.  They were understandably disappointed when the "color" chosen for the outside of the hall was literally called: Concrete.  Now this color, in the states, is quite lovely on homes.  But here, as all houses are made of bricks covered in concrete, the friends felt and we AGREED that it looked unfinished and sad.  A few weeks after this picture was taken, the long awaited signs arrived.  Maybe they'd spruce it up a bit?  Wrong.  Picture two plain white squares with plain black capital lettering.  We all sighed when they were hung, walked in and concentrated on the fact that we had a place to meet at all, right?

Here are some other photos.  One will show the stark white walls in detail, one the put-you-on-edge blood red stage wall with handmade year text sign, one the yellow floor and unpainted back door and one the bathroom.  I promise the picture of the bathroom was NOT staged.  Just shot on an average meeting night:

My idea was accepted and collaborated upon and after 4 hours at the paint shop in Arapiraca, we got to work.  Here was some of the process:

Stencils for a boarder on the signs were traced, cut out and finally painted with black acrylic.

The front was painted including the metal doors.  Two coats of "masa" were applied to the stage wall.  This gives it a smooth affect, like sheetrock.  Then there was of course lots of cutting in and rolling.. A coat of paint was thrown over the brick wall in the bathroom to lighten it up a bit and finally the floor was painted.

We bought a King size sheet and two throw pillows.  Edite turned the sheet into a curtain for the bathroom and two covers for the throw pillows.  A brother in Arapirca has a glass shop and donated a piece of glass for the year text.  We only had to pay for the lettering to be put on!  Oh, oops, and the gas back to Arapiraca to his shop when Ben dropped it and broke a corner.  No worries though.  A rectangle makes a beautiful octagon if need be ;)  A small detail was painted on the literature counter to tie it in and it was repositioned to be more efficient - as in, people could now walk up to it and get literature, wow concept.  Fixtures were bought for the bathroom like a toilet paper holder (imagine!), hand towel holder and hand soap that you pump.  The previous hand soap was a bar of soap set atop a sponge used to clean the sink.  Burnt out lights were replaced, repairs were made to an already leaking roof and other small details completed.   In the end here's our NEW new hall:

No announcement was made to the friends about the makeover because the brothers decided on a Sunday and it was completed by the next meeting, a Thursday.  They had to make a quick decision as the goal was to have it ready by the Memorial.  Happily, the friends walked into the meeting that Thursday and were thrilled :)

A week later, Ben had the biggest privilege of his life.  Because Manoel sells fish and this is the Catholic Holy Week (Catholics can ONLY eat fish this week), Manoel worked everyday and all Memorial preparations including the talk, fell to Ben.  He called the Circuit Overseer to ask if there was an available elder from a nearby congregation to give the talk but the CO told him to be prepared.  Sure enough, here's Ben giving the talk:

 I had the privilege of making the bread and helping pick the wine and flowers.  We have 19 publishers and there were 54 in attendance.  One of our publishers is named Messias.  Messias got the truth in his late teens, riding his bike over two hours to the nearest congregation for his studies.  In his early 20s he started developing a terribly degenerative muscle disease, not sure the type.  He's now in his 30s.  He can't talk anymore and barely has any control of his muscles, communicating only with a thumbs up, thumbs down or very limited writing.  He lives in the country with his mother and is bound to the house.  But every month one of the brothers brings him his literature and his mother helps set him on the porch to place the magazines with those passing by.  He has a friend who comes into town once a month to pass in his impressive field service report including several placements and return visits!  Touched by his example, this year, Ben & Manoel were determined to get him to the Memorial.  They made arrangements with his mother to pick him up and he was present with us!  He was beaming and the friends were so loving with him. Many of them have not seen him in years.  Here's our dear Messias:

                 

Confident you had a wonderful Memorial as well.  Love you all.

Ben & Meg