Sights

Georgetown got to see us 3 times last week, twice for getting an extension to stay in the country purposes, and once for a U.S. Embassy meeting for U.S. Citizens. I'm ready stay away from Georgetown for awhile now, since it's about a 3 1/2 hour drive one way, not including the Spready's stop for dinner. Along our way through Georgetown, I took pictures of some things that I found amusing, interesting, sad, or beautiful. Here goes: Georgetown is bordered by this big long sea wall, and this is the view from the other side of the sea wall- the sea!

I thought this was slightly amusing...Ellen and I were walking down the sidewalk away from the post office, and we see this sight- in the middle of downtown Georgetown, a horse and cart tied to a post in a parking spot- notice the car parked next to it. yeah.

There is a child living in that little hut. I think it's a house.

Eating lunch at a nice restaurant. We waited and waited for Ellen:) She ate some of Mr. Hunter's soup as well. I think she's dissecting a piece of meat off of a bone right now, a little bit tedious of a thing to accomplish.

This is what the "cooking" side of the restaurant looked like- EXTREMELY clean!

In the restaurant, I saw this horse and cart go by on the road outside, and it was just funny, so I ran over to the window and snapped a picture. I think a bunch of people were staring at me like I was a crazy tourist or something, which I'm not, but you know, it was strange. I couldn't decide if that stuff he's carrying in the bed of his contraption is junk to be pitched, or if he's building something and it's the parts he needs....I guess I'll never know.

Teen Night

Friday night we had a Teen Night here in Corriverton, including games, pizza, Facing the Giants, a quiz and discussion of the movie, and taking everyone home. We had a good time.

This one is from the pizza eating contest between Ellen, Buddy and Troy. Buddy won.

Them all going at it.

The group seeing who could abolish their pile fastest

Psychiatrist

Me in the midst of organizing everyone to get a ride home- that's rough to do with 40 kids! The movie seemed to be an overall sucess, many kids responded, though a few flat out didn't like it. But when the gospel is clearly presented, and there is changed being posed, some won't like it!

Some of the boys after the movie, Kevon and Rovendra are in the back.
Kevon personally thanked me today for the time we've spent with him, and for last Friday night. He is definitely thinking about the things we have presented, and he has shown mature interest, though he's only 15.

Ellen and I printed up a quiz for all of the kids to take, and this group got creative in how they were going to write the answers. Buddy, Cynthia, and Priscilla.

Quiz taking

We made pizza and Cinnamon sticks.

Getting ready to show the movie after everyone had eaten.

During the movie.

Thakur and Troy carrying out the pizza

We did a canoe, mountain, backpacking relay race with them at the beginning of the evening, and this group is building their mountain.

Introductions at the beginning of the evening. I told them each to say how they knew me, because that seemed like the best way of letting everyone know who they were.

The preparations beforehand took a lot of work! We made 17 pizzas, and we had Dian helping a great deal with that. Also, Ravinee and Trevor and Cynthia came over right after school, around 2:00, and helped the rest of the afternoon- I don't know what we would have done without all of the helpers!

Little Moments

I was just sitting down next to Katie discussing today's and tomorrow's events when some of the afternoon program children (OVC) started to show up. Vashti came over to me and just leaned on my leg looking up at me smiling. She wanted my lap and then Mohadai, an older girl asked me to sing (this is a usual occurence) after I had finished singing "Love" for Vashti. Then Devon Daniels showed up, a young, always happy boy of probably 11 years. He walked right over to me, pinched my neck, put his hand on top of my head and gave me a kiss on the cheek and then asked how my day went. These children are going to be hard to just leave and I want to be able to love them well while I am here with them. Sometimes that's a hard thing because there's such a limited amount of things I can actually DO for them. I know Katie feels the same about some of this.

I had craft time with the remedial kids this morning. It went so well, especially in contrast with last week Tuesday! I'll have to take and post pictures of the beautiful pinatas these kids have designed. I still can't decide when we should bust them. Maybe I'll have them hold off until May so that we can do a Mexican themed holiday, and learn about it before hand and then do Cinco de Mayo. I'm still not certain on that though. I'm going to work in the library shortly and hopefully get a chunk of books thrown away again.

Katie and I will make another trip to Georgetown tomorrow to try and complete the extension of stay process we're currently going through. Monday didn't work to get all of the paperwork done and by the time we had the necessary papers, the other office was closed. It's a bit frustrating because our whole day is taken up with driving, walking around, and sitting, but it's necessary to obtain these papers! We'll be going to Georgetown again later this week for the US Embassy meeting which should be interesting to attend. That makes three trips to Georgetown in one week though, which seems crazy. The time is going by pretty quickly overall. We've already been here for over three months. I pray people's lives are really being effected! It's hard to measure our effectiveness. It's only Christ in us that makes us anything though :-)

Happenings

We've been busy, especially last week with some get togethers. We did a Children's meeting on Monday, and spent all day cooking for it, then Tuesday we had a Ladie's meeting here in Corriverton, Thursday was Graduation for the EduCare students, and then Friday we held a Teen hang-out thingy. Start at the bottom to read about and view the pictures.

One of the students grabbed my camera and took this picture, and though it's not a very good picture, I guess it depicts normalcy here...these are the people we spend a good bit of time around at the Centre. We were actually posing for the photographer to take a picture, apparently James wasn't paying attention.

The Kellman brothers, Kevin and Kevon, with their parents.

Mark Rose, another one of the trouble-making boys who turned out to be a really more than decent guy. This boy has shown integrity and morals that are remarkable.

I love that smile!

James receiving his diploma

The crowd at Graduation

Right after Mr. Hunter talking about these boys, and how much it means to him and how happy he is to see the changes, the MC asked those boys that he was talking about to stand in the crowd. I only had time to capture these 2 students, but one of these boys is special to me, and to Ellen as well. Kevon Kellman is standing in the blue shirt, and he and his twin brother Kevin are such sweet, decent, mature-ish guys. They, according to Mr. Hunter, were trouble-making problems for the Centre when they first came, but have changed dramatically. I trust both of these boys very much, and they respond well to the bible, and discussion of what God would have us to live our lives according to. Praise God!

Mr. Hunter gave a "response" to his recognition, and he almost made me cry when he choked up regarding some of the students, and how far they've come. It's really amazing the changes that have taken place in some of these boys especially from the time they came to the Centre, to now. They are actually productive, "good" members of society rather than a trouble-making scare for everyone.

The Hunters got recognized throughout the ceremony, which goes to show how valuable they are here, and how much they've done and meant for the poeple at the Centre.

A Guyanese song sung by some of the Educare students.

Mrs. Indru's speech

The Educare graduates: Electrical and Garment making programs. Out of 56 students consisting of drop outs, 48 of them graduated. That's pretty impressive!

Ellen's stance during the very long speech.

Switching gears to Graduation, Mr. Hunter fixing one of the boy's tie before the service started.

This man is so helpful and willing to do ANYTHING. I love that about him, he really displays a servant's heart.

We had 28 children I think

Some of the boys on the front row...

the 5th boy down, right to left, is Dian's older son.

the 4th boy down, right to left, is Jason, our neighbor who is really fun.

Monday's Children's meeting

Children's meeting

This week has been crazy- Ellen and I have had a lot of planning to do for various events.

Monday we had a children's meeting at 5:00 p.m. We got up in the morning and Ellen started boiling beans for "cook up" while I went to the Centre to straighten out some things as well as hand out invitations for our Teen night on Friday to the students. I ran one other errand, and got home around 11:00. Then Dian and a neighbor came over, and they helped us cook pretty much the rest of the day. We made 8 loaves of bread total, and a huge pot of cook up which consists of beans, rice, potatoes, green onions, garlic, carrots, corn, and spices. It turned out really good, *Good job Ellen!*

We had only planned on cooking with the other 2 ladies, but we ended up talking about life, and particularly these two ladies struggles with being married to unsaved husbands. Ellen and I just listened a lot, and then we got to open up the bible and read and pray with them. We all agreed that as believers, we need to follow what God has to say with how to deal with tough situations, because that's the only real way to glorify him. We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon talking and discussing God's will and way for women, and how a biblical woman should act/respond to her husband, even if he is unsaved. It was so good for me, though I PRAY I will never have to be married to an unsaved man. I was so excited that God took this day that was supposed to be cooking all day, and turned it into a cooking and fellowship day with sisters in Christ, encouraging one another.

Then we had the kids come and I did a lesson on the Syrophanecian (or however you spell it)woman who wants Jesus to heal her daughter, and when Jesus asks her why he should give the children's food to dogs, she says, even the dogs eat the crumbs from the master's table. We clearly presented to the kids that you are a FILTHY RAG in God's sight, and you have No righteousness outside of Christ. The kids seemed really attentive, and I was happy about that. I think we had around 30-35 kids, and after we fed them- oh boy did they ever get crazy. They were screaming and running around, yelling. It was nuts. We had to TRY to calm them down, but we ended up playing a Guyanese game called dog and bone with them before walking the kids home around 7:30. Overall it was good, and we are happy to have these opportunities to tell kids about our Lord.

We have a Teen night coming up on Friday, and we are expecting around 40, maybe more. We are going to have invited around 120 kids total, and it could get pretty big. We have been planning this for awhile, and are praying that God will use it to stir the hearts of some of these Teens. We plan to make American Pizza, and watch the movie "Facing the Giants" with the kids, (which I purchased at a shop in town for $200 Guyanese dollars, =$1 U.S.) give them a quiz from the quiz, and discuss some major themes, and then play games and have some music. Hopefully we'll get some good time of praying with them as well. They seem pretty reverent of prayer, which is good.

It is late, and I need sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day shopping for all of the ingredients we need for the food on Friday and then going to the Centre to work on the graduation song with the garment making girls for Thursday, and then helping Ellen with Pinatas that her class of 30 young kids is frustratingly not accomplishing very well. We need grace! We both are feeling stretched to our limits right now, and I am praying that we'll have a couple of hours in the afternoon to just spend reading and praying. There is so much going on, and we need the Spirit to work in and through us.

Thank you all so much for your prayers.

Pesky Bug

So this morning I woke up late, and it was raining outside, the sound beautiful on our roof. I rolled over, and Ellen was still asleep, so I crawled out of bed, and headed out into the hallway, but I didn't feel quite oriented, and felt like I still needed to lay down, so I went into our porch room, which is all screened in and has a great breeze. I stretched out on my stomach on the floor and layed with my arms spread out, enjoying the breeze, the coolness, and my eyes being shut a few minutes longer. I praised God for the enjoyment I was able to have, and just as I was praying, something went CLUNK in my ear, and all of the sudden it was itching, and it felt like a hair was playing with my eardrum or something was dancing on top of it. I was coughing and banging my head on the ground to try to get whatever it was out, but it was not working. I wondered if it could be a loose piece of wax, but no, there's no way something like that could feel this painful and annoying. I was about at the point of wanting to rip my ear open to see what it was! So I went into our room, woke Ellen up in the process of turning the light on and getting the peroxide, and I told her what was going on, and how it felt like something was in my ear. Right before I put the peroxide in my ear, I scraped the inside of my ear with my finger, and out came a black bug, that had thought he was worthy to go into my ear and annoy the daylights out of me. So there went my peaceful morning! I peroxided my ear anyway in case he bit me or something. It hurt. Oh yeah, so the rain kept coming today- all day long, and I love it!

Crusade Messages

I thought you all may be interested to see some of the content of what we've been hearing over the past weekend. I've been pretty blessed by much of it myself.

Friday night Pastor John spoke about four philisophical questions many people ask themselves...

1.Where did I come from?
God (Gen. 1:26-28)

2.What am I here for?
Originally to reflect God, we were to have dominion over everything. (Gen. 1:27-31) Your purpose on earth is to glorify and honor God and love Him.(Eccl.12:13-14and Mark 12:28-31)

3.What has gone wrong?
Sin is the problem. That's what has gone wrong. You were created to live, but you die. Why? Sin. “There is none righteous, no not one.”

4.Where am I going?
You're going to die. Only once. After death is judgment. (John 3:18-19, 1:11-14, 14:1-6)

Saturday Night he spoke from Ephesians 2:1-10...

1.What are we outside of Christ?
Dead men walking, controlled by Satan, children of wrath. (Eph. 2:1-3)

2.What did he do for those who have come to Christ?
Quickened us, Raised us up so we could love and serve Him, made us fit for Him. (Eph. 2:4-6)

3.Why did He do it?
The ultimate purpose of everything: for His glory. (Eph. 2:7-10)

Sunday evening he spoke from Ephesians chapter 1, titled "Seven Benefits of Being a Christian"..

If you've received Christ, here's what is yours:

1. You've been chosen to holiness and blamelessness! (Eph. 1:4)

2. He's adopted you, He's even predestinated that adoption!! You get to be part of His family. (Eph. 1:5)

3. You're accepted in the beloved. (Eph. 1:6)

4. You are redeemed through His blood, bought with a price. Grace is free, but it certainly is not cheap. (Eph. 1:7)

5. You have been made privy to all the plans of God. (Eph. 1:8-10)

6. You have been made an heir. (Eph. 1:11-12)

7. You have the presence of God living in you, or the Holy Spirit lives in you! (Eph. 1:13-14)

If you haven't believed in Christ, you are considered with the "children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3)

The last night of the Crusade (Monday night) Mr. Hunter spoke from Revelation 5, entitled "The Throne, the Book, and the Lamb"...

~ God the Father sits on the throne, clothed in majesty and holiness. (I had to pause and imagine a being actually CLOTHED in those things. It's too big and wonderful for me to grasp.) He is surrounded by angels who sing unceasingly and untiringly "holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty" (Rev. 4:8) This God can stand no imperfection. He is ineffably holy and unapproachable.

~ "The book" is the book of the consummation of the ages. It made John weep because noone was worthy to open the seals thereof. (5:4) The book could not be opened by great strength or superior intellect. Only worthiness. No one was worthy (5:3) Wait, there is one worthy! (5:5) He's the Root of David, not the branch this time. He's the Lion of the tribe of Judah. This One is worthy. Revelation 5:6 then reads "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain". Lamb? Slain Lamb? What happened to the the Lion?

~ The Lamb is what John found. His sacrifice, his salvation. To John He was not a Lion. The Lion is reserved for those who are to be ultimately judged and condemned. The worthiness of this Lamb stands on two legs:

1. His intrinsic diety.

2. His perfect humanity.

He is absolutely worthy. God on the throne has been satisfied. Round about the throne a thunderous anthem went up declaring His worthiness. (5:12) He is worthy. If He's not the King in your heart, you have not deemed Him worthy. You will either face the Lion or the Lamb on judgment day.

I personally really enjoyed this message and thought it was a great note to end on. I was blessed by it and think quite a few others were as well.

I'm not sure I've done Mr. Hunter justice with these overviews, but I guess it's the perspective of one of the hearers. If you read anything that you find incorrect, I'd love to be corrected. I have much to learn about...well, a lot of things!

~Ellen

Sunday Crusade

The Service Sunday night went very well, and I was very blessed by the preaching. Pastor Hunter preached on Ephesians 1, and the title was 7 benefits of being a Christian. There was a lot of special music, probably 10 total, and also congregational singing. I loved the spirit.




The people singing "His Banner Over Me Is Love"




Us singing "Who Am I"


Brother Terry with Pastor Steve(an employee from the Centre) and Troy.


The Hunter's special song.


Troy leading in the reading of God's word.


The #57 girl's group song, "Thy Mercy My God". They sang 2 part harmony for this one and did a very nice job- they have come such a long way!




The #68 Roadside Baptist special: Troy, Moti, Terry, Pastor John, Hemdath, and Andrew.


A girl from #68's special.


Emily from Corriverton sang "Word of God Speak", and I played it for her.


Ellen and I sang 3 specials that night, 2 with accompaniment and 1 accapella.


Us singing our closing song, "How Deep the Father's Love for Us".