Guyana Time

For the past year Guyana, South America has held a special place in my heart. Last year during Mount Vernon Nazarene University Spring break I had the opportunity to Travel to a small village of Orealla in Guyana. During the summer months I traveled back to Guyana for Mission Experience, led by Paster David and his wife Diana in another small village called Sipurta. During both of these experiences I was amazed to see the presence of God in everything that we did during our time. I began to realize that God is everywhere that we go and I was not brining God to these villages. God was already present in the churches and community members in the places that I was traveling. I was there to rather be the hands and feet of Jesus. To love the people as Jesus did during his time on earth through the sharing of each others stories, and intentional conversations. My faith grew during these two trips because I continually saw people trust God with everything they had even if what they had was not much. I was challenged in my return back to the states on how I live my life? Am I living a life daily searching for God? Or am I letting the things of this world take priority over my life?

During my spring break this year I had the opportunity to travel back to Guyana with Pastor David and Mrs. Diana to Orealla, Guyana with Bags of Hope and 16 other team members. God was defiantly present from the very begging of the trip. Once we reached Miami, we went to church at Day Springs International in Fort Lauderdale for Sunday service where someones book bag and passport was stolen. We stood around and prayed and I was amazed because people were not just praying for the passport to return, but for the man who stole the passport. By the grace of God, we found the passport right before we had to leave for the airport. Earlier in the day, another team member Katie and I were walking to the door and saw a lady with a very similar bag to hers. But, our team leader Cara reassured her that Miami is a big airport and there is no way that the lady had her luggage. When we returned to the airport to pick up our bags from baggage claim, her bag was missing and was no where to be found. We gathered together and prayed for her suitcase to show up and that there would be peace throughout the situation. Thankfully, the bag was with a lady who only lived 15 minutes from the airport. Meanwhile we were having trouble checking our luggage into our plane because our tickets were not loaded as a group ticket. Long story short we were the people in Home Alone sprinting to security and our gate because they were yelling final boarding call. When we got on the plane, people were asking us why we were so sweating? Crazy, so much had happened just in the first two days of our journey.

Yes the rumor is true. On the first day in the village we were able to see a wild anteater who later on attacked someone from the village. We thankfully had a nursing major alongside us that was able to help the individual get patch up until the doctor arrived. Since the anteater escaped so many times, he eventually was killed and we ate it for dinner later, along with a larger rat. They both tasted good. Our contractor from the construction site, I had the opportunity to meet and work alongside last year. He was Hindu and involved in drugs and alcohol. 2 months prior to the trip this year, he decided to surrender his life to Jesus! Working alongside him this year, I saw so much joy, energy, and passion to share his story and his walk with Jesus thus far. He journeyed alongside us and was so gracious with our work even if our wall was crooked he would say "looks great!" It was a joy to see him change full circle, and be full of so much love and peace this year. Trevor and Usher were apart of our team, and live in a different part of Guyana. There were numerous ties where many of us did a while row of cement blocks wrong and they simply were like "we need to redo this." They did not get angry at us they simply laughed and helped us fix what we had done wrong. They showed us grace and patience knowing that we didn't know what we were doing. In addition, one of our team members from Guyana got baptized. Our leader John was able to journey alongside him and perform his baptism with Pastor David in the river! Many people got sick during the trip as we passed it on to one another. Although that was not the most pleasant of times, my team members took care of me well. Katie and Cara have a servants heart and continued to do everything they could to make sure that we were well and taken care of along with my other team members during the trip.

During our time in Guyana we journeyed alongside some amazing people. We shared our stories with one another because sharing the testimony of how God has worked through one another's life is powerful. We worked on a building called the community center which will eventually be a place for resources like canning, clothes, and teaching basic skills to people. During the evenings we had evening services were someone from our team member would speak about something that God had laid on their heart. We held some children services in Orealla, and some of the other villages we traveled. Since this was my third time going back it warmed my heart to see friends again that I had made on my previous trips. There are not many people around my age in the church, and if there are it is only a few. Some times I catch myself at school thinking how hard it is to continue my faith because life does get hard sometimes. I then think what it would be like to be the only one around my age in the church. I am reminded of Proverbs 27:7 which states, "as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." Yes we are continually building a building for the people in Orealla, but the relationships and people that we meet and share stories, testimonies, and Christs journey with will make a longer impact on the people and friends that I have made.

One of my fellow team members (I traveled with 16) made a comment during morning devotions that "the ground in level at the Cross." This really struck because too often I catch myself thinking that because I've done "this" God won't love me as much. Remembering the importance of God loving us all equally and that we are not running a race of filling our life with all these goods to balance out the bad. I am learning slowly that God accepts all of us no matter our past or what we have done making "the ground level at the foot of the Cross." In addition, I learned that we should be challenging each other to love others without any expectation. How often do people annoy us and we choose to steer clear of them or not engage in conversation because we won't get anything out of it? We should be loving others despite without expecting anything in return just as we see Jesus did throughout the Bible. Loving others who is not like yourself can be hard sometimes, but it will grow you as a person and in your faith. Bob Goff gives a representation in his book 'Everybody Always.' He gives the example of drawing a circle around yourself and your loved ones, but to fill that circle with difficult people, or new people. "Don't just love the people who are easy to love; go love the difficult one." So, I challenge you today, who around you is difficult in your life that your choosing to avoid? Maybe those are the people that need the most encouragement and support.