2014 International Convention Atlanta Georgia

Our three day convention is being held at the Georgia Dome in Downtown Atlanta, you can just see the Dome through these two buildings taken from the revolving restaurant where we had dinner...

Here are some photos of what it looks like inside the dome during the convention...

These photos show the dome roof, seating and some of the football field which is the main feature of the dome...you can see the yard line markings in white on the astro turf field...

...the key feature for us though was the two large screens, one at either end of the stadium showing the stage activities....

The centre of the field held signage of the theme of this year's convention...

The stage and sound team were toward one end of the stadium...

The two baptism pools were set to one side of the dome, seen here on the left...

We were lucky enough to hear Brother David Splain from the Governing Body give a talk on every day of the convention. I do love his talks. What i really love about him is that he is so relaxed, even though he is standing in front of over 30,000 people. I loved his starting routine...he walked up to the podium, set himself up with his papers and bible, then clasped his hands together, leaned on the podium and gave us all a big smile and started his talk with some kind do greeting or welcome (unique for each talk)....and that was just the start!!! He is an extraordinary speaker, wonderful to listen to!

He specifically requested that all Ukraine and Russian Brothers and Sisters in the audience attending as international delegates sit together on the last day to demonstrate the unity of Jehovah's Witnesses unity...

What was remarkable was that most of them had dressed in white and colour, whereas the predominant colour of the rest of the stadium seated was in more darker muted tones. What a wonderful demonstration of peace and unity displayed during such a time of turmoil back in their respective home countries!!!!

David Splain had some very special announcements for these Ukraine and Russian brothers and sisters....publications were released in their own languages...Ukraine finally received the New World Translation in their very own language!!! You should have heard the shout of joy from that end of the stadium!!! It was touching :)

We met and made many new friends from right arounf the world...many who wore customary dress, and others who didn't...

We got into the spirit of things and wore the convention colours....purple...

We met many people from all over the world, given many gifts of all shapes and sizes and have many cards of friends from all over the world that we need to keep in contact with. 

There were many banners...

And a display of the sound car used when the preaching work was in its early days...

A total of 33572 witnesses were there from Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, New York and delegates from Japan, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, UK, Australia (of course), Italy, Finland, Switzerland, New Zealand, East Timor, Griffith (oh that's part of Australia isn't it?) and Ireland. We also had several regional conventions tie in with our program for special talk which gave a grand total of 195138 in attendance. We had a record number baptised of 1329, which is almost double the normal average!!! Awesome!!!!

It was an unforgettable experience...one that will be remembered for eternity...