This joy I feel - this joy is real

The Evening Gathering was a spectacular affair. Several of the friends, including Bro Splane, said we were in for a treat. And, oh were they right!

It started with another train ride - this time with a transfer too (which I guess made it 2 train rides or technically 4 since we came back the same way). I love that we got to travel like the locals. Using public transportation gave us yet another chance to give a grand witness to the city. In fact, I got to witness to a curious older couple on one of the trains. The lady said that she had never seen the train so crowded this time of day. She was very pleased to know that we had enjoyed our visit to Scotland. And, of course, I searched my bag and could NOT find a JW.org card before we had to get off the train. Rookie! Should have saved that for the next bloopers post.

Family walk from train to Evening Gathering

Once we got to the location for the Evening Gathering, we were amazed at the sight! It was a massive food truck hall with everything from Smash Burgers to Nashville Hot Chicken. And of course, there was music, laughter and smiling faces everywhere.

After our meal of fish and chips, I stood in what seemed to be the longest line to get Stacy some donuts with biscoff drizzled. I tried to pass off one of them to some new friends but they waved us off. Time flies when you’re having fun because we then had to leave the venue to find our seats in the main auditorium. When we got there, we still had plenty of time to visit with more of the local friends.

We met Sis Keir Nicholson (not pictured above). She told us about our special convention bags. She was part of the 8 sewing hubs made up of 28 sisters (some of whom could not sew at all). They were given the top-secret and challenging assignment to complete all the bags in 5 weeks. They worked from 8:30am - 4:30pm Monday-Friday and completed the task of over 6000 bags in 3 weeks!!! 

Made with love

The performance included music, singing, dancing and re-enacted stories of how the truth came to Scotland. Here are a few highlights:

• Bro Russell selected Bros Sutherland and Bender to come to Scotland to distribute the tract: Food for Thinking Christians.” They put an ad in the newspaper to find men to help and over 65,000 tracts were distributed.
• Aug 1914 newspaper article featured two opposing topics on the same page: Dread of Great War and an advertisement for the Photo Drama of Creation.
• 1936 - First sandwich boards
• 1939 - Kite witnessing (who even knew there was such a thing?)
• 1946 - Wheelchair witnessing (so I really have no excuse)
• Did you know? John Barr was born in Scotland, baptized in 1929, went to Bethel in 1939, and served on Governing Body from 1977-2010.
• Sister Barr once reported that she missed getting her time due to inclement weather. The branch asked her to report how many rainy days they had. Instead, she reported that there were only 8 days without rain. Again, no excuses!

Enjoy some more pictures from the festivities:

This joy we feel - this joy is real