On April 6, 2001, a group of campaigners met in San Diego, arriving from various places around the states and foreign countries. The 30 campaigners who attended the week arrived with great enthusiasm to spread the gospel and to be part of a preaching campaign in southern California. Bro. Duncan Heaster came from Lithuania to lead the campaign, and Bro. Bob Lloyd from Los Angeles and Bro. Stanley Owen from Scotland attended the campaign throughout the week to give us encouraging words before going out to preach in the afternoons.
The first weekend was held in Escondido, centered around the San Diego County meeting. We contacted those around the area of the hall, inviting them to an open house lunch and lecture on the Sunday in an effort to reach out to the surrounding Hispanic community.
We awoke to heavy rain on the first day of our campaign and our group couldn’t help but feel disappointed with the weather. We all tried to keep positive, however, and the rain turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Because of it more people were at home and had time to listen to what we had to say. Armed with umbrellas we bravely knocked on doors, attended the swap meet and set up a table in North County Fair mall. Our open day on the Sunday included a came asada barbecue lunch and pony rides for the children in the afternoon. It is exciting to think that we have two young girls who have joined our Sunday school and are currently taking lessons in Spanish after attending our open day.
The rest of the week was held in Palm Desert, where we stayed at the Royal Holiday Inn. We worked really hard during the day, door-knocking from place to place, but at nights we enjoyed doing the readings together and discussing the day’s activities. We closed each night with a group prayer for all of the people we had come in contact with that day. We really enjoyed working with one another and became very close as a group throughout the week. Strong friendships were made as we aspired to develop hearts which yearned for those with whom we came in contact, spreading the awesome hope that we all feel so privileged to share and be part of.
We came away with thankful hearts for being given the opportunity to spend such a spiritually uplifting week with one another. We thank all the brethren and sisters who worked hard to cater for all of our needs and help make our campaign possible.
Since the campaign, follow up classes have been held in Palm Desert. God blessed our efforts with 30 contacts and we have had interested friends attend the follow-up classes.
Our special thanks to the following campaigners.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One