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alarm goes off at 6:00 A.M. Breakfast is at 7:00 A.M. with a pep talk from Steve DeLoach for
dessert. The mini-vans are loading
at 8:00 A.M. and we begin the 45-minute trip through Georgetown, across
the Demerara River on the world’s longest floating bridge, and down
Canal One to the elementary school building that will be our clinic
and crusade site for the next 5 days.
Most of the team will make this trip four times a day, spending
about 3 hours on the road. (That is two round-trips, 1 ½ hour each.)
Five
of us will have the opportunity to go to different congregations outside
Georgetown to preach each evening.
Arriving at the clinic site,
we are greeted by a line of Guyanese people who have come early to be
first when the clinic opens.
We
quickly unload the truck with its tons of equipment, medicine, and medical
supplies. Carrying heavy boxes
the hundred yards from the road to the building quickly reminds us that
we are in the tropics. You have
to understand that people in Northern California don’t even perspire,
much less sweat.
Just
before we open the gates to our first patients, we all join hands in
a large circle. Jason Santiago
and Drew Denton, two of the teens with us from Fairfield, have been
assigned to lead our devotionals today, and they get us off to a great
start with uplifting songs and an inspiring prayer.
Finally,
the reason for all the months of preparation is at hand, we are ready
to meet the people of this country face-to-face, one-on-one, to share
our faith in Jesus Christ.
Every Guyanan who comes to the clinic, and there will
be 1,260 of them before the week is over, is offered a Bible study on
their way in to see the doctors. (To
my knowledge, not one of them turned down the opportunity, and some
came back to continue studies without seeing the doctors.)
All of us who are not directly involved in the medical clinic
or crowd control spend the entire day conducting Bible studies. An individual study may last anywhere from
15 minutes to two or three hours, depending on the background and interest
of the student.
Because
of the size of the building and the number of people involved, we only
have three or four feet separating us from the studies going on around
us. English is the language
of Guyana, but there are many different dialects, and most of them sound
strange to our ears. Noise and
distractions make understanding even more difficult, and we quickly
learn to focus closely on our student.
My first study is with a lovely Hindu woman whom I
discover knows a great deal about the Bible in general and Jesus Christ
in particular. Someone has done
some serious teaching with her. We
quickly review the Creation, the fall, and God’s plan for redeeming
mankind. As we reach the subject of faith responding through baptism,
it is apparent to me that this is not new territory to her and that
she knows she needs to do something about it.
As I continue to gently probe for understanding, I learn that
her children all have the same father, but the family does not have
the benefit of marriage. Not only does she know that she needs to be
baptized, but she also knows that she can’t do it until she gets her
family right.
I
ask her to wait a minute while I find the local preacher, a converted
Hindu named Vishnu. Vishnu has
done the things necessary to perform recognized marriages in Guyana,
and he encourages her to let him help her and her children’s father
to make things right in their family. She seems genuinely committed
to trying to get the three of them together.
I hope and pray that it is working out.
I understand that this is a very common condition in Guyana,
and, like our marriage penalty tax in this country, the Guyana government
doesn’t do anything to make marriage easy.
I am reminded that “counting the cost” can be very difficult
for some.
This is my first evening to go out and preach. Ben Bezzerides and Jason’s roommate, Jonathan
Brunger, from Franklin, TN, are accompanying me to a community called
Canal Two. I have no idea what to expect, and it is very comforting
to have Big Ben with me. It
doesn’t help that our driver has to stop and ask directions three times
to get there. It doesn’t help that the last left turn, 45
minutes out of Georgetown, is over a wooden bridge that looks incapable
of holding foot traffic, much less a van. It doesn’t help that the one-lane
rutted road winds for two or three miles in total darkness because electricity
has not made it to this community.
We
know we are there when we hear beautiful acappella music coming out
of the darkness, even though we still can’t see where it is coming from.
I am very glad I brought my flashlight.
As we cross a small canal on some unsecured planks, we quickly
come to a small building about the size and shape of a single-car garage.
The building is packed wall-to-wall with people of all ages. It is lit by candlelight, a kerosene lantern,
and a small auto dome-light bulb that is powered by a car battery.
The
first thing that hits us is that these people love to sing praises to
God. The songs are familiar;
the tempo is unique; the accent is different; the volume is bold; the
enthusiasm is totally contagious. The
second thing that hits us is that the small children, who fill the first
two rows in the building, are very well mannered and totally absorbed
in the service.
Many of these people have walked a great distance
to be here, and they will walk the same distance home in total darkness. They are in no hurry for the service to be
over, even though most of the benches don’t even have backs on them. I am anxious to talk to these people about
the “Great Family of God,” but at the same time, I am reluctant for
the singing to be over.
I am glad I have memorized my notes since they would
be very hard to see in this light.
However, I had planned to read my opening text.
The local preacher, Harry, (“a” as in “car”) graciously holds
my flashlight over my right shoulder until I finish the text. There are no clocks on the wall, and I can’t
see my watch. This is every preacher’s dream situation.
We get back to the hotel around 10:00 P.M. and at
10:30 P.M. we all assemble in our private dining room for an evening
devotional to finish off the day. Tonight
is Fairfield’s time to lead the devo, and Jason Santiago gets us started
with some great praise songs. There
are over 60 of us on the team since a group of teens that had been at
Shankland for a missions’ camp is staying over to put their training
to work.
Drew
Denton chooses Acts 4:20, “For we cannot help speaking about what we
have seen and heard,” as his theme for the evening. His thoughts and the singing are the perfect
exclamation mark for the end of a perfect day.
(We adults from Fairfield will bask in the accolades that are
heaped on our teens for their exemplary participation and conduct during
the week.)
Well,
we have now experienced a full day as missionaries in a third-world
country, so everything will now be reduced to repetition….or not.
Lanny Partain
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