Back in the USA. Final Report from Guyana

Even though the entire week here in Linden, Guyana was awesome, the end of the week, Friday, was even better. Our day started out like all of the rest of them. We conducted 18 studies with 19 people, and ended with 4 people obeying the gospel, putting on Christ in baptism. A great end to a great week.

Friday night's worship was great as well. The singing seemed exceptionally spiritual and emotional, and, all of the classes were excellent and well attended. We broke the record for our attendance with 205 people coming and participating. I thought at the beginning of the week we might, but the last couple of nights had leveled off a little. I was glad to see that we reached the prediction of 200.

This week for us comes around once a year, and after a 20 hour travel day to get settled in, you think you will have plenty of time to get your work done. It is, however, the fastest week you could ever experience. It starts and is over in the blink of an eye and we are on our way back home. Although we will miss everyone we met and worked with here in Guyana, we miss everyone back home as well. For 2014, our work on the ground in Guyana is done, but next year will be here before we know it and we will be working alongside the brethren at Burnham Drive Church of Christ once again.

Our team that traveled from the States was awesome and I am proud to have worked with all of them. Shout out to Glenn Till Jr., Joel and Che' Abbott, Wes and Pam Blankenship, Sean and Mary Mcallister, Will Spurlin and my wife Suzanne. It was such a special blessing to have experienced this trip with all of them. It was a very special honor to have worked all week with Suzanne by my side. Her being here made this trip even more wonderful.

'til next time.........

Random Pictures From The Week

Sean and Mary Leading a Study

Pam Teaching the 6 to 9 Year Olds

Fun With Glow Sticks the Night of the Blackout

Our Team After we Visited the Hospital

Glenn, Cy and Myself Before Evening Services

Sean Teaching the Teens

Me Teaching the Teens

I Started to get Tired After Counting all of These Sheep

Will and Wes Discovering Their Inner Child

One of the Paths we Walked While Door Knocking

An Old Cemetery Being Taken Over By Jungle

Glenn Helping out in Pam's Class

One More Day

Well, tomorrow we will wrap up a great week of spreading God's word. Today, however, has been just as much of a blessing as every other day. Our group studied with 19 people, conducting 20 lessons. We all have plenty more tomorrow. Some will be The Plan Of Salvation, while others more beginner lessons. The local church at Burnham Drive will be following up and watering the seeds we have planted.

Early tonight, we made our annual trip to the hospital to leave gifts of fruit, and juice, and tracts for every patient there. We prayed for many at bedside, and encouraged them. They were all extremely grateful for us visiting them. It really is a privilege for us to be able to spend a few minutes with every patient in the hospital ( about 65 patients this go around). I especially look forward to that trip every time I come to Guyana.

After the hospital visit, we made our way to the church building for our evening classes. As usual, it was a great evening. We had an attendance of 156 people. Not quite as high as I had expected, but good nonetheless. We may not reach the 200 that I hoped for at the beginning of the week, but I don't know if we could fit everybody in there any way. We would try however.

Continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers, that we will have a safe and productive rest of our mission trip. Also pray that we will have a safe, and timely, trip home. We have heard murmurings today that the Caribbean Airlines pilots are on strike. Maybe it will all be worked out before our plane is supposed to leave early Saturday morning.

'til next time...........

Do You Know What Day it is?

It's Hump Daaaaayyyyyy! I'm sorry I had to do it. Wow a great day, but a seemingly long day. Everyone one of us were a little busier today with more bible studies, for each of us to conduct. In total, we studied 18 lessons with 22 people. We are starting to get to the point where some of the people we are teaching, are realizing they are needing to make some decisions with their life. We hope and pray that they make the right decisions soon for their sake. Tomorrow we all will continue our ongoing studies. We ask for prayers, that as we sow the seed, God will give the increase.

Tonight was interesting. All of the power in Linden, Guyana went out about 5:40 PM and did not come back on until about 10:15 PM. In other words, we conducted all of the evening classes by flashlight and lanterns. Did I say that with no power, meant no fans? We had 150 people attend classes tonight, which was good considering we were in a blackout. With 150 packed into a room about 25 feet by 40 feet, singing for 45 minutes generated a lot of body heat and energy. Yes, slightly warm for a couple of hours, but the worship and praise seemed extra special by all of that "candle" light. The locals here are used to blackouts, so no big deal to them. But even they said it was extremely warm, no actually the preacher said it was down right hot. But all is well that ends well. The power is back on as I type this out, and the air conditioner window unit is now pulling double duty. Oh how spoiled we are in America. Good night all.

'til next time.............

Tuesday Night Report

Tonight I am realizing just how fast the week is going. We have just three more days and we will be heading home. At the beginning of the week, it always feels like we have plenty of time to reach as many people as possible. But time really flys when you stay busy, non-stop.

Today we all hit the ground running. While a few of us were rapped up with study after study, some of us had a little time to reach out and door knock  between our scheduled studies. But it was all non-stop I promise. We ended up conducting 15 studies with 21 different people today. We are definitely reaching a lot of people.

Tonight our nightly classes continued as planned. There were definitely more in attendance, with 153 people participating, up from 111 last night. At this rate we will for sure surpass 200 by Friday. I look forward to reporting on what we are doing each day, and want all of you to know that we appreciate the prayers and support. Without that, it would be difficult for us to work as diligently as we are. Thanks again.

'til next time......

Most of our Team Before Heading out on Monday 

Wes Teaching the Adult Class Monday Night

Joel Leading the Teen Class Monday Evening

Suzanne Teaching the 10 to 12 Year Olds Monday Night

Sean and Mary Mcallister withTheir Hands Full Teaching the Ever Active 2 to 5's

Pam and Che' Leading the 6 to 9 Year Olds 

One of the Main Reasons we are Here. Glenn and Will Leading a Bible Lesson with a Young Lady Named, Shellon.

This Goat Sure Appreciates the fact that People Ignore this Sign

Monday's Campaign, Off to a Great Start

The first full day of the campaign each year is always interesting. We're not sure where our door knocking will start, and what kind of studies we will have, or, how interested the people we visit will be to study God's word. We can be a little apprehensive on this first day, but it always turns out to be a great day. In total, we conducted 18 bible studies with 15 different people. We all have more lessons set up with people tomorrow, and look for that to continue for the rest of the week. 

While we are out door knocking and studying with people, we are also inviting them to nightly classes that we are hosting at the Burnham Drive Church of Christ building, each evening from Monday through Friday.  We have classes available from toddler through 5, 6 to 9, 10 to 12, teens and then the adults. All of the mission team participate in these classes in one form or another. We start out at 6:30 PM, sing for 45 minutes and then hold our classes until 8:00 PM or so. It is always a great night of worship and Bible study.

Usually, the first night we draw about 80 persons, and grow from there each night having doubled that by the time we are finished on Friday. There is no reason to expect any different result this year, as it has been fairly consistent the last 5 years that I have been participating in this great effort. Tonight, we had 111 people in attendance. By Friday, I won't be surprised if we top 200. 

Please pray we have continued success as we sow the seeds of God's word the rest of this week. Tomorrow I plan to post more pictures of our studies, and classes that we are teaching. And I look forward to an awesome week here in Linden, Guyana.

'til next time.......

Guest Blogger, Wes Blankenship

The following is a great collection of thoughts from our first day in Guyana, written by Wes Blankenship.

Shout to The Lord

When you think about it, it's kinda funny how the human mind works. It seem seems like it's so selective on what information it retains and discards.

There are moments every week that we have to stop and try to remember what we went into the kitchen for. Or, as soon as you see your garage door closing, you remember you forgot something on the table (or, in my personal case, you drive one block away and forget if you even closed the garage door at all.)

At the same time, sometimes it seems as if it's impossible to forget some things. The times when you said or did something really foolish, or the questionable fashion choices that you made 20 years ago. Why can't we forget those things?!

When I think back on my mission trips, one thing sticks out: the memories of the annoyances of the long travel days are quickly replaced by the joys experienced once you arrive. On Saturday, we traveled for nearly 20 straight hours. After worshipping with the brethren here in Linden on Sunday morning, those 20 hours in travel really didn't seem that bad after all.

At home, I fall into the routine of going to church every time the doors are open, but sometimes forgetting the whole point of going to the church building is to worship. I go to church, but sometimes I don't worship.

The church here gets it. The singing, the prayers, the dedication to Bible study, and the emphasis on Bible classes for little ones are just on a whole different level than what I sometimes give on a typical Sunday morning. I keep a portion of my attention and focus on myself, while giving some to God for a few hours. When this church here meets, it seems as if they focus completely on God.

We came to Guyana to teach, but I was the one learning this morning. Christianity is about worshipping God with all of our hearts, minds, and soul. Sometimes I get so focused on worshipping in truth that I neglect to worship in spirit, but this morning reminded me of the importance of both. If there is one part of Guyana that I bring back with me, I want to make sure it's the spirit of worship that they use here.

Please continue to pray for the Hoover team and the church here in Linden. We'll see all of you soon!

Joel, Che', Wes, Mary, Sean, Pam and Will about to attend morning worship services

Joel bringing the message!

Sean, sharing God's word during service

On The First Day of the Week

Our first day, as usual here in Guyana, was filled with a good supply of worship, food, naps and more worship. It has been great seeing old faces, and meeting new ones at the Burnham Drive, and Amelia's Ward congregations. Right now, most everyone is preparing for their upcoming lessons that they will teach this week, while a couple of us are attempting to reflect on this great Lord's day. Tomorrow we will door knock and conduct one on one bible studies with people throughout the Burnahm Drive community. Then tomorrow night we will begin evening classes for all ages, and continuing for the rest of the week. The following are a few pictures of our day today:

'til next time.............

Glenn Till bringing the message of how when we were justified by Christ, it was Just, if, I'd, never sinned. Great message!

Workers still working on the roof, of the future Amelia's Ward church building, late into the evening.

We Made It!!

Well after a long day of travel, I am glad to report that we all made it safely to Linden, Guyana. It is 12:20 AM local time, and everyone is readying for bed. I plan on blogging each day and sharing news and photos of our work this week. I will probably have a couple of guest bloggers as well. We pray everyone back home is safe and sound, and we ask that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we go through this week sowing the seed of the Gospel.

'til next time........