Watchtower Educational Center - Patterson, NY

Early to rise! Today we woke up at 6AM so we could go have breakfast, since it wasn't provided at the hotel. We ended up getting it at the Starbucks drive thru since I was there getting a latte anyway. The boys lamented that 'we could have slept another 1/2 hour' if we were just going to a drive-thru. Oh well.... we had a quick and uneventful drive from Fishkill to Patterson and arrived just before 8AM. The tour started at 8:20 with Phyllis Smith, a sister that has been at Patterson since it opened in 1994. Joining us was Paola and Sergio LeMonaco from Torino, Italy! The just arrived at JFK airport yesterday and after getting lost 4 times made it to Patterson for the first tour of the day with us. What a treat it was to get to know them and learn about the work they are doing in Italy - and lo and behold, Paola's aunt is a Deaf sister who uses Italian Sign Language and attends a sign language congregation there.

Patterson 's grounds are beautiful, but there is not nearly as much 'action' is there is at Wallkill. Here there is definitely a focus on learning. Classrooms abound. At present, the elders school is going on. Each week 96 elders arrive on Saturday afternoon. Sunday is spent studying and class starts Monday. Class concludes on Friday afternoon and the class leaves by Saturday morning - then it starts all over again. This creates much excitement and a real interchange of encouragement, but also more work for food service and laundry!

Phyllis got us in to a quick tour of ASL services in the morning (since Paola also had an interest) and Shawn, the boys and I got a tour from another sister (Debbie) after lunch. While it was the same department, they shared lots of different things so it was great to go twice!

Speaking of lunch, Andrea's sister and brother-in-law Helen and Mark Mattson hosted us. They have been at Bethel for 20 years together, and Mark was there for a number of years before they got married. In addition, both of Mark's brothers are also there. His parents served together for a number of years. His mother passed away a few years ago, but his dad is still serving faithfully at Bethel at the age of 84! One of Mark's brothers is the overseer in the department where Dad works. What a great example for us all!

For lunch we had BBQ pork ribs, coleslaw, homemade bread, collard greens, baked potatoes, lemonade and honeydew melon for desert. We were stuffed! The boys, used to mustard & turnip greens from Grandma Shirley said Bethel's greens were "good, but not as good as Grandma's". Kudos to Grandma!

We then hopped in the truck and drove back to Newark, checked into the Marriott and returned the truck to Budget. The boys swam, we ordered in Chinese, we're updating the blog then heading to bed. We are tired!! Considering taking tomorrow off from touring and just having a fun day. We'll catch up with Brooklyn Bethel another day this week.

Thanks for the comments from everyone! We love hearing from you and getting your feedback.

Love,
Us