A few short weeks ago we were inviting people in our community to commemorate the anniversary of Jesus’ death with us. It makes a person reflect on the use of apostrophes, and how our linguistic forefathers had the sense to not bother repeating the S when a name already ended with one. Something similar happened in Spanish with the double-N: it became the Ñ (pronounced EN-yay). But really, in all seriousness now, the Memorial of Jesus’ death is an event we take seriously, because it is definitely something Jesus commanded us to commemorate, in contrast with other holidays. And while some of the customs here at this time of year might be a bit strange to us (carrying around an effigy of Jesus in a kind of parade, for example), I must express my relief at not seeing a single bunny or decorated egg! Not that I’m a rabbit-hater, or dislike egg art; it’s more like I can’t help but wonder what they have to do with Jesus… I don’t recall the last supper involving chocolate bunnies and the apostles painting eggs…(“Hey! Judas broke my eggs again!" “Calm down Peter. Have another piece of chocolate…") In fact the very name Easter has little to do with Christianity and more to do with paganism! At least the Spanish call it “Pascua" which literally means “Passover", the Jewish festival that the Memorial of Christ’s Death replaces. During the week in which Easter falls here, they have Semana Santa (literally “Holy Week" but more comparable to Spring Break). It’s a week many have time off, if not the whole week, at least Thursday and Friday. We were surprised how little traffic zipped past our house those 2 days! It was brilliant! During this week the devout Catholics are trying to relive Jesus’ last week alive, the Evangelicals are scoffing at their rituals, and everyone else is headed to the beach! Really, the beaches are packed for that week!

Anyways, the week is no less special to Jehovah’s Witnesses, but it’s perhaps more simple. We continue in our regular ministry, but endeavouring to invite people to the special meeting we hold that week. It’s a simple meeting really. A talk about the significance of Jesus’ death and what hope it holds out to us. Then we do what Jesus and his apostles did: pass the bread and wine. However, unlike other churches, not everyone partakes of them; most are there just to observe. It’s much like a wedding: only 2 get married, but many come to observe. Likewise, the emblems of the wine and bread represent a covenant Jesus made with certain ones of his followers. Not all partake, but it doesn’t prevent us from observing the occasion!

Our sign language is relatively small. We usually have around 20 at our meetings, but had more than double that at our Memorial observance, some of whom came to the Kingdom Hall for the first time!

Another recent special event was a visit from the World Headquarters or Jehovah’s Witnesses to the Central American Branch in Mexico. Formerly called a “Zone Visit", a special meeting is always organized to encourage the local Witnesses. Before, they used to be attended by only a relative few, but now with technology, all Witnesses within a branch’s territory can attend. Obviously, not all of Central America could go to Mexico for the visit, so by means of the internet, the meeting was broadcast to all the congregations in the area. The program is presented in Spanish, but this year one of the talks had to be translated from English. In our case, sign language, all the talks had to be translated! In the case of the English talk, we could at least hear the phrase first in English, gather our thoughts, and while it was being repeated in Spanish, we could nicely interpret it into sign language as well! Made interpreting it a little easier… Part of the program included experiences from Mexico of some surprising opposition. We think of Mexico as being a preacher’s paradise, but in some areas they aren’t so kind. One community tried to prevent the building of a Kingdom Hall. Their efforts eventually backfired, as the calm response the Witnesses gave caused some of their former opposers to take their side and defend them to see how the reacted to the threats! In another community, an aboriginal one, the few Witnesses were literally rounded up and driven out of town! The kind of thing we think only happens in countries with dictatorships!

So as you can tell, it's been busy, and it's only gotten busier. But that will have to wait for another week's blog. [Insert witty comment here]