First of all I have to say I was in the jungle for 2 weeks!!!!! The jungle!!!!!! What a great great experience. I will try and keep this blog as brief as possible as I have also sent you all a link to another little movie I have made but wow how to do this trip justice. What a wonderful blessing again from Jehovah. I am just buzzing. So I went to 2 different towns. It was a 2 week trip. First we spent a week in Baramita which is deep in the interior of Guyana. We had the memorial there and some amazing jungle preaching.
I know sometimes you read blogs from different bro and sis and they say we are living the yearbook. Well actually I have, for real. Some of you may already of looked up the 2005 yearbook on guyana with me going on about it all the time. Well please look up when you get a chance page 178 through to 181. The story of Ruby Smith and progress of the baramita cong. We were there. We were guests in her home. We lived the yearbook.
So when you see the video you will see our little plane.
You literally get on, buckle your seat belt then off we go. Then the plane lands and we get off and collect our bags. New passengers get on and the plane is away again within about 10 minutes. We flew over about 100 miles of jungle and gold mines.
So we landed on Monday 25th March and the Memorial was the next day so we all helped get the outdoor kingdom hall clean. Wow the memorial was an experience I will never ever forget. People just came from everywhere. To clarify my last blog I was given some wrong information. So there are about 2500 carib speaking people in guyana. And the memorial had official count 1393 but the special pioneer elder Bonny said there was at least 1500. Yes that is right I typed 1500. Carib people just flocked from all sides of the kingdom hall. And as it got darker we could see under the light of the moon people all through the bush. The carib people are painfully shy so they like to hide away. Hard work for the brothers serving the emblems. Later on we found out how far some of the caribs had travelled. Some walked for over 2 days through the deep deep jungle from the borders of Venezuela just to hear the memorial in their own tongue. And a large group walked over 5 hours including small children from deep in the bush. The are a isolated village that never mix with others so it was a brave thing for them to come out that special night. What a praise to Jehovah and his name and a real appreciation for the ransom sacrifice.
So it was an amazing privilege to see. The congregation has 65 publishers and on average can have up to 200 at the meetings. The potential in this area is phenomenal. Jehovahs Witnesses are the only religion the carib know. No other church wants to put in the effort of translation. They have a translation office working mega hard to publish literature in the written form of Carib. On the movie you see a clip of a language course. The brothers and sisters from the translation office are teaching the carib people to read their own language. The plane that we came in on had copies of the Listen to God brochure. When we saw the brothers and sisters faces as they learnt that this wonderful brochure was in their language it brought tears to our eyes. How we can take for granted all our spiritual food. You can clearly see Jehovahs blessing on this lovely congregation of faithful zealous brothers and sisters.
So then onto our jungle preaching. We spent 2 days following unseen tracks trusting the local brothers and sisters. Then all of a sudden you would see an opening and a tent or 2 with families living off the land and mining gold. And now armed with the listen to God brochure the congregation will be able to teach the people better. The sisters all just had flip flops on and me and trisha and shannon were all kitted out with wellies. White girl overkill but the jungle is full of who knows what. WE came home both days full of joy and amazing pictures and stories to tell. We were all encouraged to speak a little carib so armed with my notepad I was raring to go. The carib people dont make eye contact with you but what a lovely blessing to see them raise their chins off their chest when they hear you trying to speak their language. The general greeting is JAFFEY LA LEY POH. Apologies for my attempt to spell it. When they understand you and are happy they make a MMMMMMMMMMMMM sound in the back of their throat. That is their way of agreeing with you and saying thankyou.
One local brother in his 60's travels about 1 hour through the jungle to get to the group and then often you have to walk upto 2 hours to get to the territory. Then he preaches for the day then its a 2 hour walk back to baramita town then a hour back home through the jungle. What a fine example they set and wow I can tell you I got alot fitter over these long days of preaching.
Brian conducted a bible study with a family of 4 who walk 1 hour each way each week for their bible study. True appreciation.
And we had our tour of the local gold mine and I got to keep a little nugget. Its going to be a gift for my Dad. Im having major Only fools and horses flash backs "One day we'll be millionaires Roddas". The brothers that work below me in the gold shop said I should crack it open and who knows it could have a huge gold nugget hidden inside. All I can see is a minuscule dot of gold but hey you never know. Each ounce of gold they find is worth $250,000 GYD which is about £750 so its a lot of back breaking work. All in the pursuit of riches. The gold miners love hearing about the truth and chance to get true spiritual riches.
So after our amazing week in Baramita it was off the Matthew Ridge about 2 hours drive away. Our driver was drunk and still drinking and the clutch wasnt working properly on the bus but with alot of prayer we got to our new home behind the kingdom hall safe and sound. We actually had to use the local bus 3 times and we weren't charged one $ which was really kind of him and a great saving for us all. So Trisha and I stayed in an apartment behind the kingdom hall and Tom and Michelle Sanches were in the apartment next door. They are missionary's from California and I went with them to Lethem. We had no electicity and not much running water and our apartment was home to alot of fruit bats and cockroaches but we had a really great time. Its amazing what you find out you really need and dont. Actually a lovely spiritual brother made this comment THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT YOU NEED AND WHAT YOUV'E GROWN ACCUSTOMED TOO and that was very true of our trip.
So the brothers and sisters are only classed as a group for now. They still come under Baramita congregation. They have 15 zealous publishers including a new publisher Dominic who is 8 years old and full of enthusiasm for the ministry. They have 1 pioneer and no elders or servants. So the 2 local brothers have a lot of work to do. Sisters do the microphones and alot of the extra duties. Bro Kennedy has only been baptised 1 year and conducts the WT. We heard while we were there that the branch in Trinidad is sending 2 special pioneer couples to help them out as soon as they can find homes for them to rent and then the 2 back apartments will be refurbished for them. So that got a huge round of applause. So as you can imagine Tom Sanches was very busy for the 2 full weeks he was assigned there training the brothers and Lucas (who is trisha my flatmates boyfriend who has come to guyana to visit) was really busy too. Tom also said he was grateful that we as sisters came along to offer training and example to the many new sisters in the group which was really touching for us to hear.
The congregation although small was so warm and friendly. Lots of hugs and kisses. But for their memorial they had 208 which is incredible for 15 publishers and for the special talk they had 98 so Jehovah is showering his holy spirit on them. The family in this picture are all studying and come to all the meetings even though it is a 45 minute walk up a huge hill. Matthews ridge has 2 massive hills coming in and out of it. HEAVENS HILL AND HELLS HILL Dont worry the kingdom hall is on heavens hill.Hehehehehehe
So we had some great ministry days when we were there as you can see on my video. Tom wanted to go to Port Kaituma which is about a 2 hour drive away as it never has been properly preached. Every single publisher volunteered to come along even though the costs were really high for the bus hire. So off we went 6AM to 8PM with 7 boxes of literature. We preached and preached and preached until we had no literature left at all. We placed all together 95 BROCHURES 182 BOOKS 20 BIBLE 937 MAGAZINES AND ALOT OF TRACTS.
Then our final mega preaching day
was on ATV which as you can see on the video I actually drove for about 30 seconds. But hey I drove it thats the main thing. So again a early start and the again so many volunteered so the ATV had to do 2 trips. Again the gold mining area was full of people actually begging for a bible study. So we tried to answer ???? where we could and again took down phone numbers.
By the end of our week in Matthews Ridge 2 married couples have said they are seriously considering and praying about starting regular pioneering and 2 other single sisters too. So watch this space. Both congregations we visited over the past few weeks are blossoming constantly and will continue to expand under Jehovahs watchful eye.
So now our trip has come to an end. WE had a great flight out back to georgetown and a safe 3 hour drive back to Berbice side and home. What a trip - What an adventure - How many more joyful memories I can take!!!!
We found out since coming back that our hall had 233 at the memorial which was great. And I had some of my bible studies come along too which was so nice to hear.
So its back into my ministry here which is really really wonderful so my next blog will give you an update on my studies if you can cope with reading all of this. Sorry if its a bit long and boring but as you can see once I start gushing I cant really stop.
Take Care and Hope you enjoy Love Natalie
