2009 Bendigo District Convention

As many of you know, we are going to the Seoul, Korea International Convention in August this year. But, we werent sure how many of the talks were going to be in English (we have since found out that the entire program will be interpreted into English). So, to make sure we got the convention, we decided to go to Bendigo. After a short 1.75hour drive, we arrived at our lodging. I wont say hotel, because it wasnt. I wont say motel because it was somewhere in between. It was nice.

Anyway, what can I tell you about the convention? It was really good! Really, really good! Alot different from other conventions we have been to in the past. And, Im really happy that we get to have the convention again!

So, below we have a new release being held by Kylie, Jessie and Angela - I have blanked out the cover so its a suprise for you! And, let me tell you, even though I had heard about it before, it was still a suprise!

We caught up with many people at the convention, including Dan and Bec Botros. As you can see from the photos below, Bec is heavily pregnant (i think I remember her saying there was eight weeks to go still - or was it eight days....) She already has a son (Noah) and he is ___years old (I dont know how old.) He is CUTE!

Now, the drama. Very Moving - thats all I will say. You will really enjoy it! I can reveal that it is a modern day drama based on the Prodigal Son account. I can reveal that because it has already been printed on the back of the Watchtower magazine advertising the upcoming convention. We knew quite a few from the drama including our friends Grant and Wanda (Grant is gesturing in this shot on the right of the image and Wanda is being obscured.)

And, here is a shot of us on the last day, after we realised that we dont have a photo of ourselves.

It was such a great weekend - the convention was GREAT, it wasnt as stressful as it is going into the city. The peak attendance was 3,094. On the Saturday, we were parked in an area known by the parking attendants as "the swamp." Why, you may ask? Because it is A SWAMP! It was a grassy, muddy area when we parked in the morning and it rained ALL DAY! So, you can imagine when we got back to the car, it was dark, and we trawled through mud and water to get into the car. It was still bucketing down with rain and I was soaked through. I worried about getting bogged but that didnt happen. The word on the street was that only one person got bogged and they had left 15 minutes before the end of the session .......... hmmmm!