Saturday morning came all too early for me. At 4:30 I awoke and could not go back to sleep. I sat on the front steps and watched the moon set and the sun slowly climb. At 5:30 brothers George and Dorreck set off on the motorcycle for Karasabai, a village north of Lethem about 3 hours. Otherwise, it was still and quiet.

A period of personal Bible study followed later and by mid-morning I was ready to head out. Guyana Christian University is about a mile from the town of Lethem. It was not yet hot and I headed to town. I stopped at the Takutu Guesthouse to use the internet but found only one computer working and occupied. A bit further was the Savannah Inn and Shop where I picked up some things for meals and the apartment.

On my way back I was excited to see a sign for a local restaurant featuring hot dogs. A quick stop and I found that they were out until at least Monday.

While in Lethem I met two ladies who work with a Bible translation organization. They have lived in Guyana for 35 years and are working with the Macushi and Wapshana tribes to develop Bibles in their native languages. Since our students are from these tribal backgrounds such a translation could be very useful. We will watch the development of the text and hope for great things.

Another half hour and I was back at the school and in  the shade.

Although the students have no classes on the weekend some were found studying in the school library and classroom. They are finishing personal biographies which I will post here in days to come

One of our students, Elroy McGarrell has a young 10 month old son who has had a bout of vomiting and diarrhea for a few days. Young Melroy lives with his mother in the village of Nappi. Such GI problems in a small child can be serious anywhere but especially in the savannahs where health care is limited. We received word today that Melroy was slightly better and the vomiting part had stopped.

Mango trees dot the landscape here like oak trees in Alabama. At this time of year they give off their fruit constantly in shades of green, yellow pink and purple. It’s messy to eat a mango put well worth the effort. There is also a coconut tree beside our school building. I picked up a coconut that had fallen and spent a half hour trying to break through the outer shell. It’s a tough and fibrous husk that protects the coconut on the inside.

After breaking away the husk I was left with nut which is similar to what we see in American grocery stores. A bit more work and I enjoyed the cool coconut  milk and white, sweet fruit. A nice evening snack.

The Lord’s Day dawned beautifully in Lethem as we prepared for worship. Several of the students went to the creek to bathe before sunrise and now return refreshed and prepared for service. I will be preaching again this morning. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 will serve as my text as I speak on the changing power of Jesus Christ.

66 attended this morning which is a good number at Lethem. Two good sisters responded to the gospel invitation and sought prayers. Our students conducted the services save for the Bible class teaching done by Thomas George and the sermon which I offered.

The singing was amazingly beautiful this morning as it drifted out into the grasslands. Just the purity of human voices is a sweet sound that cannot be outdone.

In all my travels I have never been sick – until now. Sunday afternoon I began to feel poorly and soon had a full blown stomach ache with nausea and vomiting. I will blame it on the coconut. Anyway, God brought me though with nothing more than a bit of inconvenience. By midnight I was fine.

The morning newspaper headline was large:

“MORMONS TOLD TO LEAVE GUYANA”

We were unsure what to make of this and were a bit concerned ourselves when we saw the lengthy article in Guyana’s top newspaper. Was this a government crackdown on religion in general or something specific to the Mormons?

A thorough reading showed that the Mormons were alleged to be in ongoing violation of Guyana’s immigration laws and had overstayed their work permits after extensions were denied. All foreign nationals working with the Mormons were first given a week to leave and then that was extended to a month.

Our concern was that the although our doctrines are poles apart and although there is not nor ever has been any relationship between the churches of Christ and the Mormons (the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), there could be confusion because of the slight similarity of the name. A quick letter was dispatched to Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo  to assure no confusion followed.

To this moment our concerns seem unnecessary and no problem has arisen. However it offered a fine opportunity to remind the students that the day could come when Americans were no longer in Guyana and the church here would be in their hands. I believe this thought impacted the students in a positive way.

It has been our desire all along to help Guyanese brethren plant and build a Guyanese church headed only by Jesus. To date, every congregation here is autonomous as the Bible shows. Americans are supportive financially, physically and spiritually but each congregation makes its own decisions. We pray that our relationship with the brethren across this beautiful country will flourish until  the Lord appears but we also pray for the growth and strength of the native brethren.

(Update: As of today, September 12, 2009 there is still no generally accepted reason why the Mormons are being expelled. Guyanese newspapers are full of speculation but the Mormons, the Guyanese Government and the American Embassy in Georgetown are all very silent. – JBE)

“in many ways, God spoke to our Fathers…” (Hebrews 1:1) So begins the glorious book of Hebrews, penned by an unknown author to Christians of a Jewish background. We took this as our starting point for our Thursday class. The students were given an in-depth lecture on the covenants of God and, more specifically, how God speaks to man today.

Paul told Timothy that he was to “rightly handle” or “divide,” the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:16). It is important to understand that while God himself never changes, his method of dealing with man has. This progression, from direct instruction to the heads of the family to the inspired words of Jesus’ disciples and including the Law of Moses given to Israel alone, show the nature of God and provide learning for us today (Romans 15:4).

In Christ, a new and fresh message of redemption is ours.

We carefully took the students through the three great dispensations of time, Patriarchal, Mosaic or Levitical and Christian. We emphasized that while the Law of Moses was great and glorious, it could not bring salvation (Hebrews 10:4) apart from Jesus Christ who is the only path to God (John 16:6).

In the afternoon students continued work on their sermons by refining their main points and began adding sub points under each. We want the students to understand that sermon outlines are a method or organizing their thoughts. As they gain experience each will develop their own system of sermon preparation.

We established on Tuesday the nature of the church yesterday and demonstrated the ownership of the church by Jesus Christ alone. Notably, the church is not owned by any man or organization. Any church which points to a mortal man as its founder is unsuitable and finds itself in competition with the one true church for which Jesus died (Acts 20:28).

The name of the church is important. In Jesus’ day there were many religious groups. The Jews were predominant in the history of Christianity. Less important initially but still notable were the various pagan religions which flourished in the Roman Empire. One would think that a single name would demarcate the early church from the surrounding groups. However, the gathering of God’s people under Christ were known in a variety of ways. Sometimes as simply the church in a given location (Colossians 4:16), sometimes as the church of God (Acts 20:28) and as the churches of Christ (Romans 16:16). Many other names are also given.

The best understanding seems to be that the term “church” was understood to signify the collection of believers placed into the church by God himself (Acts 2:47). Since there were no denominations in the first century  there was no need for a single moniker for the assembly of God’s people.

We may be assured that the names found in Scripture for the church are acceptable and therefore represent the appropriate names for the church. It is important that church was never known by a mere man’s name.

Some think the name doesn’t matter at all. Ask Pepsi and Coca-Cola if names are important.

In the afternoon, more sermon prep as we refined the “big ideas” from the day before and began to craft three to five main points all of which come from the text itself.

A round of Bible memory work marked the end of the day.

Our preaching students are just that – students. They have offered brief Bible talks and have participated in various aspects of the public worship but they have never presented a full length sermon. The need to prepare them to speak became even more pressing when we learned of a pulpit vacancy that will soon occur in Moco Moco. The students will assume the preaching duties there for the present time.

We began to teaching and clarify some fundamental Bible doctrines that these men will have to face very soon. On this the second day of classes we began to teach about the nature of the church. Like so many places in America, Guyana has many religious denominations. The people are often confused by so many differing views and ideas. By grounding the students in what the Bible actually says about the church we hope to help them teach undenominational, New Testament, Christianity to the people.

Our morning class began with a discussing of the word “church” and its usage in the Bible. We then sought to show other words used for the church including “kingdom” and the “body of Christ.” From this we were able to show that Jesus Christ is the owner of the church (Matthew 16:18; Acts 20:28) and the King over his kingdom (1 Timothy 6:15).

From this it becomes evident that ownership brings certain privileges such as the right to name  his church, the right to set standards for admission and the right to define the activities of the church. The morning was a fine start to this study.

In the afternoon we began to teach the students how to develop an outline for preaching. They first chose a text and then developed the “big idea” from within that text. It is important that sermons always arise from the text and not from some idea or concept with the preacher. Students must let the word do  the preaching.

School is in for our second batch of preaching students! We began the first class of the first semester for these brand new men who will soon be preaching throughout the Rupanuni. They were eager to begin and full of questions.

We began the day with our chapel service which is conducted by the students. Then, after a brief word from Thomas George, the director, I was allowed to begin. We covered the usual housekeeping issues, schedules, expectations and so forth.

The remainder of the morning session centered on the life of the preacher. We asked why a man would want to subject himself to the struggles and heartaches of preaching. The students responded that they wanted to do the will of God and save souls for the kingdom. We continued through the morning discussing the life and character of the faithful gospel preacher.

After a break for lunch we resumed classes to discuss some of the tools the preacher will use in his work. Of course the Bible was the primary tool. We introduced the students to several other tools such as Bible dictionaries, commentaries, encyclopedias and the concordance.

Until the end of class students were drilled using the concordance. They were given words to look up and passages to find. Two words on our list, “purgatory” and “rapture” were never found. This surprised some of the students to learn that these common religious terms are not Scriptural!

An afternoon rain shower – the first rain I have ever experienced in Guyana – made teaching difficult as the raindrops on the tin roof tried to drown out our voices. Later, a power failure delayed us briefly until a generator could be activated to provide light for the students notes.

An evening of homework and memory work completed their day.

The day dawned in near cloudless beauty as the saints in Lethem assembled together to worship and commune

around the Lord’s table. Christians from far and near were together for a single purpose and that was to praise God and glorify his name.

Thomas George, the preacher at Lethem/St. Ignatius church of Christ and the director of Guyana Christian University offered a strong message in the Bible class hour on being faithful and steadfast in service to God.

It was humbling to be allowed to offer the sermon. Our text was from Matthew 14:22-33. We observed three key points:

1. Sometimes following Jesus is difficult,
2. Jesus wants to hear our call for help, and,
3. Jesus always saves.

The services were filled with passionate singing – voices only – and moving prayers. The simplicity of the services were refreshing.

Afterwards, the men met to plan next week’s service and to identify ways to better serve the Lord. A brief women’s meeting planned upcoming events for the ladies and the children.

The Christians gathered again in the evening for more singing and prayer and a message from Philip Duncan, a former student at GCU as well as a former member of the Guyanese Parliament. He spoke on the need to both give and accept rebukes and reprimands while in the service of the Lord.

Afterwards I sat on the steps of my apartment and watched a crystal clean Guyanese sunset. As the sun submerged into a sea of deep golds, yellows and pinks I thought of my family and the Christians in Alabama who were just beginning their evening services.

A young soul was baptized into Christ, washing away his sins and becoming a Christian all at the same time!

Shain Tippins had studied with Frederick Dundas of the Moco Moco church and with Philip Duncan a former student at Guyana Christian University. He had sent word of his desire to be joined with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. He arrived moments after my plane landed.

After a brief stop at the school we all walked to the creek where Frederick took his confession that Jesus is the Son of God and then immersed him for the remission of sins.

There was nothing fancy about the ceremony. A dozen or so from the school and church joined us as we prayed and sang hymns. I think it must have been much like the numerous baptizing we read of in the New Testament. It was simple, humbling and God glorifying.

Shain is the grandson of sister Ina, a dear Christian lady who travels to church services in spite of difficult health issues. I am sure that her example of dedication played an important role in his decision to become a Christian.

Otherwise, the day was uneventful. Students continued to arrive in preparation for their Monday classes and those already in town had worked hard to get everything in order for the beginning of the new school year.

Our on-site director is Thomas George, a more able or qualified director cannot be found anywhere. Thomas is assisted by former students Philip Duncan and Paul Daniels.

What a great way to start a mission trip!