Convention venue and preparation

Two years ago, the Zimbabwe branch in Harare was approved to hold an international convention in 2014 with the theme,"Keep Seeking First God's Kingdom". They were overjoyed, but there is a huge amount of organization and preparation to do. And the Zimbabwean economy has suffered terribly. This is the country where government issued a 100 trillion 'dollar' note, worth about $300US when issued; they suffered a hyperinflation rate of 231 million percent in 2008! They converted to the US dollar as their currency in 2009, but there remains much poverty and financial distress.

Old Zimbabwean currency, including laminated on a cup!

With all these challenges, would they be able to make preparations? With Jehovah's help, they completely made it happen! We were so impressed with the preparation and generosity they showed the delegates.

When we were accepted to attend the convention, we received a PDF file with lots of great information for us... about visa requirements, currency, electrical adaptors, weather, and helpful local phrases. While virtually all Zimbabweans speak English, since they were an English colony and they use that in schools, they also speak Shona (70% of population) or Ndbele (20% of population) or other local languages.

The convention was held in the National Sports Stadium, with a maximum capacity of 60,000.  There are 42,000 Jehovah's witnesses in all of Zimbabwe, but likely not all would be able to attend or, spoke an African language and would attend elsewhere in their own language. They were expecting 40,000 to attend, including over 3,000 delegates. But... by Sunday the attendance was over 82,000! It was estimated that about 40,000 were non-witnesses from the field! They arranged for large video displays and speakers to be put outside on an ancillary field where the overflow attendees could attend! It was amazing!

Stadium

Platform

We were told that the brothers there prepared the stadium by starting the cleanup and maintenance five WEEKS ahead of time (if I remember correctly). They had to literally use shovels to move out the mounds of trash from low-lying spots. They made repairs as well. Then, in those five weeks, the stadium would have an event - and afterwards, the brothers went in AGAIN and cleaned up (including a Methodist convention that someone said was left completely filled with trash). This kept happening, week after week, until our event. The local brothers wanted to be SURE the stadium was clean and ready for this important event honoring Jehovah. And the Sunday of the convention, the brothers were asked to return to do a final cleanup, to leave the stadium in a clean condition - to honor Jehovah, that we are a clean people.

The brothers made a gift bag for every delegate, including note cards, a welcome brochure, a book cover, keychain, and more. They also provided one seat cushion for each delegate, which we have also enjoyed using on our wooden benches in our kingdom hall in Guatemala! They also included an Emergency card with the badge lanyards, with contacts so that in case of any emergency, the brothers could help. Imagine making this many gift items for 4,000 delegates!  How generous!

They rented 85 buses to get delegates to and from hotels or other tours. The branch arranged for tours before and after the convention - of the branch offices, of a typical village, of nature parks, Victoria Falls, and to go in service. (We did two tours - the village tour, and service.  See the later blog posts about those). And all these services were supported by voluntary donations. The brothers informed us how much something like that might cost ($10 as a suggested contribution for transport, for example, or $20 for a meal plus transport). They simply invited us to contribute whatever we wanted at the branch offices or at the convention site.

Once we got there, there was a large tent for the international delegates where we could get bottled water, take care of questions, or pick up box meals provided.

Some have asked about fears about Ebola. While Ebola could show up anywhere due to modern-day international travel, we weren't overly concerned about being in Africa. The distance from Zimbabwe to the center of the Ebola crisis is 3500 miles - the same as from Guatemala to the bottom of Chili, or from Kansas City to Lima, Peru! Not at all close - also demonstrating the hugeness of the African continent!

More links with interesting articles or images:
http://www.herald.co.zw/jehovahs-witnesses-convention-to-open/
http://www.herald.co.zw/jehovahs-witnesses-convention-ends-on-high-note/
http://www.pinterest.com/ZimboGuz2014/harare-international-convention-2014/
http://www.radiovop.com/index.php/business/11147-jehovah-s-witness-convention-good-example-of-religious-tourism-m.html