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ASL District Convention in Santo Domingo
By Jac | September 19, 2009
So, after Anton and I got back from enjoying the DC in Michigan, we had about a week to get things set for our own District Convention in the Dominican Republic. This year it was our turn to travel down to the assembly hall in Santo Domingo, which is about 2.5 hours away, instead of having it in the nearby assembly hall in Villa Gonzalez.
The good part about the assembly hall in Santo Domingo is that even though it is open air just like ours is, there is a lot less ambient light. This means that the projected image we use to show Bible texts in ASL, and make sure the people in the back can see the speaker, is a lot clearer. In Santiago we always struggle with the massive amounts of light, but in the capital that isn’t a problem.
The bad part about Santo Domingo is that it is incredibly hot! Also, because of the economic situation of the friends, rooming arrangements are made with local friends. We are very grateful for this, even though it means you never know what to expect and things are generally out of your control… something that is a bit challenging for Anton and me.
Anyways… we had to go down to Santo Domingo the Wednesday before the program started for video set-up. Anton worked on that while I helped the assembly hall caretakers with some tasks around the facility.
The program started on Friday morning and the Santiago congregation arranged for all the brothers, sisters, and students that wanted to come to head down that morning on rented bus. Happily for us, Darwin and Luis both attended the program, coming down without us on the congregation bus.
At the program a young deaf woman from our hall, and a dear friend of Jessica’s named Maria was baptized. Jessica couldn’t stop crying! She said, “Maria and I have been friends for years, and now we can be friends for eternity.” I have to admit, that part choked me up a bit.
Bethel arranged for the purchase of a new projector and screen, which the ASL district is extremely happy to have. No more making screens out of plastic and glass window frosting! Here is the beautiful set-up the brothers used for this program:
And here we have Darwin and Luis happy as can be at the program:
Remember I mentioned that things can get a little crazy staying with random brothers and sisters in the capital? Well, check the following picture out. Darwin and Luis are happily sitting on the bed, looking at one for the new publications they released at the program. Notice the size of the bed? That is the bed Anton and I shared for the 5 nights we were in the capital! It was old and sagged in the middle… gave us a nice excuse to cuddle, but it was about a billion degrees so that wasn’t entirely appealing… Even though it was the most comfortable thing in the world to sleep on, it was still so nice of them to let us stay there for the long weekend.
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