Climax, followed by anticlimax

Wow... What a day!!! It was kind of a slow buildup for me, but it all came to a magnificent climax today. Followed by an equivalent anticlimax. More on that later.

First off, the good stuff: Tons of convention highlights... Lunch time talk by Brother Lett, on 'There Are More With Us Than There Are With Them'. Super down to earth and encouraging. Very lovable brother. Then, the drama. To be honest, not as well acted as back home, but still quite powerful. I think I might have actually cried more this time. Then the final address by Brother Lett.... He sure knows how to close off a convention! At the close of the program, we sang song 212 first, then 129 (the scheduled last song). That was pretty cool, to sing 2 songs back to back. That gave Brother Lett enough time to hoof it over from the main hall to the English hall to give the final prayer. Kept it relatively short, which was interesting. After the prayer, we actually sang 5 more songs! 29, 42, 127, 171 and 195. One of the coolest experiences in my life... Joel, Glen, Jeremy Jenewein and I all belted them the last few together, and even did the call and answer bit for song 195. Tons of fun!!!

Then it was all over.... We hung around for a bit, trying to soak it all in. But finally it was time to go home. We missed all but the last bus back... They were kind of annoyed at having to wait for latecomers, especially the driver, but everyone was cool by the time we hit the road. Met a bunch from Bonnyville, AB, which was unexpected. I have to remember to deliver hellos to Debbie and Paula...

We made it home, and met up with our gang plus the Jeneweins and Colemans (missionaries from Cotonou, Benin, actually the same missionary home as James Shin). We hit up a cool shawarma stand in the Latin District and then made our way over to the Eiffel Tower to see if we could make it for the Kingdom Melodies sing-along. Met a ton of Witnesses along the way. I'm sure that others were wondering who the heck we were, so many waving and greeting each other seemingly at random on the streets. We bumped into a man along the way (I think the conversation started because of our badges). His name was Mark, originally from South Africa but now living in London and in Paris for a weekend trip. He's Jewish and had a bunch of questions for us about Jehovah's Witnesses. We all kinda took turns explaining stuff to him and he seemed to appreciate it, though it seemed like maybe it was all a bit much for him. In any case, at the end when he was leaving he told Glen that he was really happy that he had met us and that he could feel the love among us. So it seems that our conduct and demeanour won out over any sermon any of us gave him.

Finally we arrived at the Eiffel Tower, probably around 11 pm. There was still quite a crowd there, in the park, kind of pushed off to the side. It was kind of a weird vibe... This is where the anticlimax part comes in. Just the fact that we were all standing in the dark, there were worldly people wandering in and out of the crowd, some with beers in hand, some of the brothers and sisters were in totally casual clothes... It felt like a strange picnic party. I felt like I really wished that I could get into it, but I just couldn't. Plus it was getting super late... Thankfully someone had the good sense to shut down the concert at around midnight, or else the French would really have thought we're fanatics... As it was, the crowd probably lingered long past 1 am. Just didn't seem like a fitting end to a super spiritual day where we had been urged to keep our senses.... I dunno.

In any case, the postives of the day far outweighed the one negative. It has been an amazing trip so far, and I'm thankful that I got to attend. What a privilege to be a delegate, representing the brothers from Canada! Everyone was so wonderful and I met some cool folks and got some cool swag (aka "booty" (in the Biblical sense)). I am definitely going to be saving up for the next international convention. I honestly can't see how I could skip it after having had such an experience this time.

I told Joel today that I wish we had done our touring first, then gone to the convention last. The rest of our trip is really going to pale in comparison to the convention. But, we'll be relaxing, and associating with the brothers in Paris, so it's not like it will be in any way unenjoyable.

Tomorrow (actually I am writing this at 3 am Monday morning) we wake up at 6 am to see my mom, Sneha, Marita and Rachel off. Then we need to check out by 10 am and move to our flat in the non-gay 18th district of Paris.

Good night!