Under a Jaca Tree

One year ago Manoel & Menice moved to São Sebastião and started working hard in the surrounding villages.  The first week they worked in a village called “Terra Nova” = new earth.  There they met a woman named Sonia who accepted a study and they’ve returned each week since then to conduct her study.  Sonia’s parents live next door and her father started to study soon after.  In time, Sonia’s mother would listen in and although she wouldn’t accept a study, she had new questions each week.   Sonia and her parents started telling their neighbors about the things they were learning and recently, several neighbors have started stopping by during their studies with all kinds of questions!

Because of all the interest in this village, Manoel and Ben decided to hold a mini-meeting there.  They reasoned that this would whet the appetites of all interested to attend the meetings in São Sebastião.  A date and time was set and Sonia agreed to hold it in her backyard.  

Manoel, Menice and a mother/son duo from our congregation arrived early in Terra Nova that day.  They went door to door personally inviting everyone in the village to a “special discourse” that afternoon at Sonia’s house.  They met one man who informed them that he has been disfellowshipped since 1985!  They encouraged him to come, and wouldn’t you know, he was the first one who showed up.

In total, 18 people from the village were in attendance!  With the six of us, there were 24 people total.  It was a beautiful afternoon and one of the most special things we’ve ever been part of.

          

The talk was split in two parts.  Manoel (left) spoke for the first 15 minutes and Ben (right) for the last 15.  They chose the outline:  “Who is qualified to govern mankind?”  When they’d make a point about how man is failing in certain areas like healthcare for example, certain ones in the audience would shout, “THAT’S TRUE!”  Then at the end when Ben was leading them to the conclusion that there was only one ruler who could fix everything, they shouted in unison, “JESUS!”  haha

After the talk, Manoel asked for any who wanted the recent magazines to raise their hand.  He also encouraged them to speak to the witnesses who were there if they were interested in a personal bible study.

Four new studies were started and the disfellowshipped brother spoke to Manoel and Ben after about how he could get started back in the truth!  That night, Sonia and her husband (who up to that point had never shown interest) showed up at the meeting in São Sebastião for the first time!   So many good things came out of the afternoon under a Jaca tree.