This is Mark, making a rare appearance on the blog, at least as the writer, but I really wanted to share this experience. A few weeks ago, I was walking downtown toward the post office in the middle of the main park in Cuenca when I bumped into Irene, a colleague who works in another school whom I had met at a couple of seminars for English teachers. She told me she was in a hurry but she wanted to let me know about a seminar that was upcoming where she thought I might be interested in giving a workshop. As we sat there on a park bench, I was suddenly smothered by two young kids from our congregation-Michael and Angie. They are in the above photo- Michael with glasses and Angie in the yellow shirt. They were downtown with their mother Vielka, a sister in our hall, and when they saw me from a distance, came running and inundated me with hellos and hugs. Well, I introduced them all to Irene and after they left, she said, "Who were those children? They just love you? And, why did they call you Hermano Marco? (Brother Mark)." She asked me if I was some kind of minister, and I said yes, and that they were in my congregation. She said, "Well, I have never seen such affection lavished on a priest, but they obviously trust you and it is obvious that you love them too!" I explained that we were witnesses and that this was an example of the christian love that we enjoy, even though we are not from this country. Irene is from Canada. Well, what was to be a brief interchange with a woman in a hurry turned out to be a 2 hour long informal witnessing opportunity. She didn't know anything about Jehovah's Witnesses. But I was able to contrast our beliefs with those of the other churches. She is also a clinical psychologist and was asking my opinion on a situation about a young girl she had been treating. I mentioned some things which I had read in an Awake article on the subject and she was impressed. I told her that all the information was based on Bible counsel. She then said that a young girl had approached her in English in that same park and had invited her to the next meeting of the English group here. She had not really planned on going but said that she was very impressed by the sweet young girl who had talked to her. Now, she wanted to get the location of the hall and the date and time of the talk. I encouraged her to attend. if possible, and after that a couple of weeks passed and I didn't see her again. Well, about a week an a half ago I took a few of our friends to a little town called El Cabo to eat chicken. When we got to the restaurant there we saw several brothers and sisters. Among them were two large families that serve in the English group. One of the brothers asked me if I knew Irene, When I said yes, he said that she must have been talking about me. She explained to them about our conversation in the park and had attended the meeting and had apparently enjoyed it quite a bit. In fact, she had agreed to a study! I haven't talked to the family since then, but I am anxious to hear how it goes. Knowing Irene, who is quite a pistol, if she ever were to come into the truth, I believe she would take to it like gangbusters. I will monitor the situation and let you know what happens. But it impressed upon me once more the value of the "love for the whole association of brothers" which characterizes and certainly distinguished us from the rest of the world.
