We booked into a tour with Jesse Torres who took us to both Walkill and Patterson Bethels. If there is ever a tour that will introduce you to the work undertaken by the organisation this is it! I was blown away with the size and variety of work the organisation does, the extraordinary condition of all the facilities and the wonderful loving family atmosphere at both sites.
For those of you unfamiliar with what Walkill and Patterson Bethel are, here is a brief overview...
Jesse picked us up at 6:30 and we headed to Walkill first
One thing i wasn't really prepared for was that Walkill was so big and actually had farms!!!! Yes there were apple and stone fruit orchards, vineyards, corn fields, cows and a slaughter house!!!! Yes Watchtower farms really is a farm!
We visited the cows...
And took a walk down Paradise Lane
Then we headed to the main entrance
The foyer had an amazing bible display on the history of the organisations printing works.
And even had its own fun photo opportunity...
Our Bethel tour Guide took us through the entire printery
This is the printer working hard...if you look carefully you can see the paper rolling through being printed...
Then it goes through a number of stages and comes out the other end...6 football fields away...as a completed and bound book.
Then it is packed....
These are the stacks of paper rolls used on the printer
These grey rolls make up the covers of our new Bible.
I want to tell you all about what a "signature" is and how many are used to make up a bible and how many signatures are printed an hour, but I know that I am one of those rare people who is interested in those kinds of statistics...so I won't bore you with it here. I did take copious amount of notes though and if you are interested I could chat to you about it for hours :) but just for fun...this is a "signature"...and yes it is a whole pallet of paper!!!
While we were touring the facilities we got to see the boys loading a new roll of paper onto the printer...not quite like just adding a new ream of A4 paper to the printer drawer...I can't imagine it being easy and it certainly didn't look easy, but the boys definitely looked like they were enjoying themselves anyway :)
Our tour ended and we were fortunate enough to be invited to have lunch with the Bethel Family and other international delegates from around the world...
Next stop was Patterson Bethel
We toured all the departments and facilities...
We were lucky enough to turn up at the laundry department at just the right time to have a complete walk through of the whole laundry...each Bethel family member has their clothes bar coded and are assigned a specific laundry day. Their clothes are then laundered by the Laundry team...
Clothes sorting
Pressed...I have more boring statistics for you and can't resist... They press 40 pants per hour, 24 dresses per hour...and...
...60 shirts an hour...that's one every minute!!! Try that at home and then still look as happy as this guy at 4pm in the afternoon!!!
They also have a sheet folding machine, that folds 1 sheet every six seconds...alright, alright, no more statistics!!!!
...next stop was the dining room...
...and then we toured more departments...
We were treated to many beautiful bible based art works...
We toured the beautifully manicured grounds
And watched a storm roll in
Then we were given little gifts to take home as a momento of our visit.
Finally, we had a play with Caleb and Sophia...
And were then sent off with a series of kingdom songs by the wonderful choir...
What an extraordinary experience!!!
These tours really opened my eyes to the amazing work done by all the different departments, sections and branches to make sure all witnesses around the world have what they need. The orderly nature of the organisation shines through. The impeccable nature of the work done is demonstrated. Everything has been carefully thought out, and the latest technologies are used. The happiness of the workers cannot be found in any other organisation on earth. These facilities really are families. It's not just an organisation, it is a world wide brotherhood.
Thanks to our wonderful Bethel Family for an amazing day!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment