We're Jehovah's Witnesses

Early morning start with a 6:15am bus departure.  "Auntie Mel" has breakfast on the table, cases of water for the bus, and even plastic baggies for us to take along a snack for later. Checking to make sure we didn't forget anything and/or we were not taking too much - felt like our first day of school.

Ready or not - here we come!

Due to the excellent planning of our bus captain, we were the first of the innumerable number of buses to arrive at the convention site at 7am. But the masses were right behind us - people crammed in cars, city buses, and many, many walking alongside the road. All waving, smiling, excited for the day.

Can't get a smile out of every one this early in the morning

Maydelle and her girl bows are a hit!

The National Sports Stadium was divided into major language groups represented: Shona, English, Ndebele, and Sign Language.  But there we delegates from 28 different countries in attendance. And speaking of attendance, here are the amazing figures:

What we learned is that the officials estimated that we would probably get about 55,000 max attendance. But with almost 67,000 on the first day - we have already exceeded expectations. And we know that more local people who received invitations will not be working tomorrow.

Once the news coverage hits after this first session, we may have standing room only (since we are already sitting on the field).  One brother expressed it well.  He said that our presence is making their ministry much easier. They always talk about the love and unity we enjoy as part of this worldwide brotherhood; but now Zimbabwe is seeing it and it's worth a thousand words. Or 66,791!

Took over 2 hours to get back to the lodge given the traffic but we sang all the way so the time went by quickly.  Feeling overwhelmed after day one - I might just be a basket case by the end of Sunday's program!