JUNE 25, 2009
Dear Friends, We are on our fourth week in Guyana now and are continuing to adjust to the surroundings. So many blessings and annoyances too. But, I have to say the blessings outweigh the annoyances by far. Service is such a joy, with most of it being bible study work. Some of the students are beginning to express their faith with others. For example, Rea, one of Marion's studies was asked if she thought the Pentecostal pastor who recently died was going to heaven or to hell. She confidently answered, "he is going to hell". This gave her opportunity to explain the condition of the dead and the resurrection hope for "the rightous and the unrightous". Jillian,another Bible study was visited by a friend who saw her Bible Teach book and curiously began to look through it. Jillian took the opportunity to explain the Bible study arrangement to her friend. It is encouraging to see this because when students start expressing their faith to others, it indicates that they are on their way to becoming Witnesses of Jehovah.
On Wednesdays we have a service arrangement at 9:00 am which is usually well supported and another at 4:30 pm that was set up for the three young publishers who are in school. All of them supported the arrangement yesterday as ususual. I went with Stephan to the far end so we could finish the territoty map and Danika who is 11 years old went with us while the other four started at the close end. Stephen said it would be pretty far and somewhat muddy. I am finding that he isn't one to exaggerate. We trudged through several miles of muck until we started going through a trail that looked like it was regularly traveled by very short people as we we had to duck down to get through much of it. Where it ends up, we still don't know, we just found a couple of huts on the way It was getting toward dark so we had to turn back. We ended up walking out of the jungle in the dark. So, you may wonder how Danika fared in our adventure. Well, to deal with the mud, she just took her sandals off and walked barefoot and happily chattered away throughout the entire adventure of mud and dark jungle. It shows what the locals here are made of.
Today is Thursday which we have set aside as our day off. Last week a bunch of us took a hike to "the falls". Today, we will take a trip to one of the internet cafes which is about a half hour ride from here since there is no signal in Matthew's Ridge. (If we bring our own coffee we could perhaps call it a real cafe.) First, we will take care of our shopping which is an annoyance because one has to visit numeous shops to find even the basics. Often we have to wait until another day even for those. We had really acquired a taste for fine coffe before coming to Guyana. A good quality dark roast with a bit of 18% cream is oh-so-good. After trying various form of ground coffe here in the Ridge, we finally settled on Nescafe instant. As far as 18% coffe cream goes, forget that notion. That seems odd since there are cows everywhere. In fact, you can't even walk to the store without cows getting in the way, and yet, the only dairy product availible is powdered milk. One thing about powdered milk, though, is that it will froth up pretty well. Marion has come up with a way to make a mean frothy Nescafe latte. (Perhaps a new idea for Starbucks?)
We really appreciate hearing from back home. In case you are wondering, we recieve your e-mails at no cost since the contract is already paid for. I am including a pic of us standing in front of a large tree, (Guyana's rain forests are still largely unspoiled); Land crabs that Grace caught for dinner and Bobnesta, a young Bible study with his study brochure.
JULY 6, 2009
I believe that our last e-mail did not go through so I included it as well and am keeping this one short. It is another rainy day here and we had to forgo our studies down the jungle in Parow. The rain gives us a slight reprieve from the heat but it sure is muddy.Walking through Matthews ridge means going through a maze of deep puddles and trying to find places to step without sinking to your ankles in mud. Last Friday, I decided to venture out despite the black sky to go on a study and stop at the post office as well. This Bible student was away last week and I didn,t want to miss another study with him. I wore my long rubber boots and took my umbrella to be prepared for the worst, but, to little avail. Soon after I started it began to rain, and when it rains here, it doesn't mess around. It was raining so hard that it the raindrops splashed mud from the road clear up to my shirt. I also discovered that my umbrella was not that waterproof. When I got to the post office, the postmaster who isn't known for his sunny disposition in the first place, was dealing with a problem with the post office building and wasn't about to give me any service. So I headed up the hill to my study's house and was met there by a girl in a middle school uniform who said," Mee-sah Lloyd, he no com back yet." Oh well, I'm sure Jehovah appreciated my efforts despite what they say about those who don't know enough to come in out of the rain.
There is always plenty to do here in Jehovah's service here with so much interest and so few workers. Between us Marion and myself have 13 and 8 Bible studies respectively and probably 2 more lined up. Next week we hope to go to a place called Black Banana to spend the day preaching there. Stephan indicates it will be a good Guyana experience for beginners. Other trips include boat excursions and can mean camping out for several nights. The apostle Paul wrote, "I have become all things to people of all sorts, that I might by all means save some". One "sort" that is often found in the interior of Guyana includes those who never went to school. Not only can they not read, but, they have never learned to learn intellectual things. Among these, are beautiful, humble people who long to be taught the truth.
One of Marion's studies is a lady named Yvonne, handed to her when she got here. Yvonne is very shy and she cannot read. At first, she wanted to wait until sister Newton came back from the states to continue her study but decided to try a study with Marion. It did not go so well because she could not understand Marion's strange Canadian dialect and it ended with both feeling quite frustrated. The following week Yvonne stayed hidden in another room while we studied with one of her daughters. The week after that we went back for a study with two of her daughters and Yvonnne decided that she missed her studies and wanted to give it another try. By then, Marion had some experience with others who were illiterate to know that it is necessary to go over things slowly and explain each point, in some cases several times. Yvonne was just thrilled that she could now continue her studies. Needless to say, Marion was quite happy to have overcome this obstacle with Jehovah's help.
Even though such one are limited in their ability to study, we are confident that Jehovah's spirit will rise to the task of helping them become fiathful servants of His. Well, so much keeping it short. We keep you in our prayers that Jehovah will help to remain steadfast in the faith. Please keep the words spoken by Jesus in Matthew 9:37,38 in mind when you pray because there is such a need here, as in many other areas. We eager look foreward to hearing from you,
Love, Gary and Marion.
