Hi everyone! The pics tonight tell their own stories...

We were reminded earlier in the week that this trip isn't a vacation, but that we should view it as an assignment of being encouraging. That was very effective, and it seems all 38,903 are taking it very seriously! We were, today, 8,324 from Cape Town, 12,112 from Durban, and 18,467 from Pretoria. Somewhere in there Swaziland also joined in by phone.

Everyday they do brief reports from other lands. I thought it was interesting that France, being a land known for loving romance, related a story of a sister who was at a regatta. She noticed a sad looking lady on a bench and started talking to her, found out that she had just left her husband that morning. The sister told her about the scripture that says 'do not let the sun set with you in a provoked state', and later that evening, she saw the lady back with her husband!

44% of Korea's publisher's are Regular Pioneers, and 500 of our brothers there are in prison for not serving in the military....One of Zambia's foreign language fields is Chinese...

...see the baby in the blanket??

This next thing is really nice, and if anyone can show this to Grandm Elsie, that would be great:

Grandma Elsie, even though you're in TX now with Aunt Kathy, you'll still find this encouraging. One of the speakers related an experience about Mabel, one of the annointed. She said "I've been through a lot of trials, but none as severe as this nursing home." Then the brother said "Don't think being in a nursing home isn't a test...Don't forget our precious ones in the nursing homes!!" Very powerful for all of us.

Jesus used illustrations people could relate to by talking about things from the area they lived in...today they talked about elephants!!! When a lion hunts, most animals run away (right??), elephants though, sound a warning and then form a circle around their babies. Guess who is who in this illustration. That's right, we're the babies..Jehovah is the elephant.

This next part is so needed...it's based on Proverbs 24:16, where it says the righteous one gets back up after making mistakes. The speaker said "Ever try? Ever fail? Try again. Fail again. Fail better." I'm going to right that on my forehead....

So that's today....o, i almost forgot...when lunch was over, the sound for the music went out for our afternoon song, so you can imagine the sound of everyone singing a capella. Nice. Tomorrow is going to be a big day here....everyone have a great meeting/Sunday...and think of us as we conclude the convention!