LivingWaters's Journal

Sep 2006
6:12 AM MDT

August 8, 2006 By: Jeffrey Smith FCD Field Assignment Final Paper Outreach To Parika Village, Guyana, South America Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Stage One: Entering The Community After a short flight delay God gracefully got us through the Airports. Kim (Canadian) Kerone (Jamaican) and I (Canadian) arrived in Guyana Thursday night June 1ST 2006, and were met by Neeloyani (Beno), Ravenna and her dad Moses. I prayed that God would show me what He sees that I should be aware of since I was in a totally unfamiliar Country. This is a principle we learned in Jamaica from Darrel Miller’s teaching, to ask God what He wants us to see, to put on His glasses. We drove back in the night so we didn’t see a lot of scenery, but our driver Moses pointed out the El Dorado Rum factory, which is one of the nations biggest destructive strongholds. He also pointed out the new Cricket Stadium called Providence; my prayer is that this facility will be used freely by Christians to host large evangelistic nationwide prayer meetings! We also saw a large Hindu false god statue, and lots of different coloured Hindu flags in the corner of peoples front yards. Another thing I noticed was that most Muslims painted their houses green and white with star and crescent moon emblems carved into their concrete fence work. We drove by numerous Christian Churches, Mosques, and Hindu Temples; apparently everyone lives together despite their beliefs! This is written in their coat of arms: One People, One Nation, One Destiny. The Bible warns us about false gods in the 10 commandments; Exodus 20:3-5 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. I can identify with the Psalmist in Psalms 119:104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. We arrived in Parika at 12:15am and the place looked like a deserted ghost town. Timothy (Beno’s son) greeted the team as we drove up to the YWAM Guyana base, and we prayed through the house and I anointed all the doorposts with oil. It is advised by Alistair Petrie to sanctify and dedicated any new living space (whether hotel or friends house) to the LORD by praying throughout the rooms. I fasted all day so I would be in tune with the Holy Spirit, after prayer I felt comfortable and decided to eat some Guyanese food and fruitcake. To be honest I ate the whole cake, I asked for more so Beno said I could eat it all and I did, then Kim walked by and asked for her piece…I felt really bad about not saving her any oops. The next day we walked through the community to get familiar with our surroundings, and started to build relationships. We were spying out the land and trying to see what was going on behind the exterior scene in the physical and spiritual realm. At 7:00pm we went to the Parika Baptist Church for their second night of joint prayer meetings, where five different Churches were represented. The Pastors shared what God wants for this community and it was such a timely blessing for us because God had already begun preparing the church for community development by way of unity. Pastor of Faith Community Church, Motie Singh the Mayor and “man of peace” formally welcomed us to Parika Guyana. God used this wonderful opportunity for Kim to make our team and vision known to the community! Proverbs 29:18a Where there is no vision, the people perish. Let people know what your goal, and purpose is for being in their community, so they will know how to assist you. They talked about issues such as schools giving out condoms to students encouraging premarital sex, the problem with illegal squatters settled where they please, and the importance of owning land. 1 Corinthians 6:13 Now the body is not for fornication, but for the LORD; and the LORD for the body. The Pastors spoke about making a difference in all areas of society for the glory of God. I was so excited to see how God works; they were talking about everything I just learned in my lecture phase as if they were there. The churches joined groups and all prayed together in unity. The next day we ate lunch at Pastor/Mayor Moties house and learned different things about their culture like what foods are the nations staple diet, this is what it means to go into a community as learners. Then the five churches met together again at our house at 3:00pm for the “International Prayer Day”, and Parika’s 1st ever unity “Prayer Walk for Jesus”. We set up large sound systems and microphones on the back of trucks to sing worship music and declare Jesus Christ to all the community! All the Pastors and church leaders came onto our property to cleanse and purify the land by dedicating it to the LORD, and did spiritual warfare! 2 Corinthians 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. They let us know that we have their support. We then walked down the street in a big crowd handing out tracts and stopping to pray at all the different spheres of society, because community development affects and influences all areas of society. The pastors took turns praying at different locations, Schools, Markets, Businesses, Government buildings, Police Station, Health Center and Post Office! The family (Dave, Dana, Ethan and Evan from USA) arrived during the prayer walk, and Yashen came the next night, James never made it. Our team took time to get to know each other and build relationships. Kerone was saying that he loves Guyana so much that he wanted to extend his visa and live here (this was only the first week)! Robin Thompson taught us that community development starts with the individual, and then the community. Our team continued to meet regularly throughout the outreach at 8:30am for team time of prayer and devotions. Monday was our day off and Friday we had a special family breakfast prepared by the person who led devotions for that week. Each person was assigned daily duties whether meal preparations or clean up, we all helped to get things done and worked well together. I learned a lot about community living this outreach and am sure it has equipped me for long-term ministry. I am eternally changed! We did an evaluation of the entry stage by asking how we felt as a team and assessed how we were adjusting to the new culture. We felt that God had just opened doors up for us to be able to learn as much possible about long-term development in such a short time. Stage Two: Mobilization Psalm 48:12-14 speaks about God being our guide unto death. We split into groups to go about the community to do spiritual mapping. The Apostle Paul did spiritual mapping in Athens, it is where you go around an area gathering information about the community, and it’s a valuable spiritual warfare tool. Kerone and I talked to a man who turned out to be a Deacon of the Mt. Hebron Congregational Church, and discovered a brand new Community Center just being built. He was a man of peace and knew lots of history about the community, we asked him what some felt needs were and he said better maintenance of the existing infrastructure, pure breed animals and livestock due to the continual cross breeding, and of coarse water lines reaching Hyde Park where we also live. We talked to Donald Taylor about some strongholds of the land and he said that people are making their cars their idols and washing them on Sunday instead of going to church. He explained that drinking and drugs are a problem, and that the streets are a different story at night filled with drunks partying. Romans 13:13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. Unfaithful marriages are ruining relationships all over the country because men and woman are sexually active with many partners. Proverbs 6:32 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. This man invited us into his house to meet his wife and we prayed holding hands in the middle of their dining room. We went up the road waving at people and talking to shop owners. At the end of the road we saw a Hindu Temple and lots of Hindu flags, most people were friendly but others were hard faced and ignored us. There were beautiful houses, and run down houses right beside each other. Our team learned in our lecture phase the importance of stewarding the land God gave us, so we worked on many projects on our property to aid the pioneering that needs to be done. I think the two boys Ethan- 5 yrs. and Evan 3- yrs worked the hardest of us all they did everything from using a cutlass to building planes. Work is a part of worship so every time I swung a cutlass when chopping bush and clearing grass I did it unto the LORD. We cleared moss of the concrete pad out back, installed a new water tank, put up a brand new fence on one side to keep cows and other animals off our land. We dug a foundation ditch for the concrete fence out front, and cleaned the YWAM sign on the bond (Shed) and cut the tree so it is visible. We reorganized the bond, and put a couple of trailer loads of sawdust on the grass to prevent weeds and bush from growing. In fact every time we turned around it seemed that our lovely neighbour blessed us with another trailer load of sawdust, this wasn’t our favorite thing to see since we had to shovel it all out into wheel barrels and dump it in the yard while we were trying to focus on other projects. We broke 4 hammers, and I broke a shovel handle, a pitchfork prong, blew a stereo by plugging it into the wrong currency, and one unbreakable plate. I wasted many hours at the Stelling trying to get long beams for free to build a bridge onto our property, they kept telling us to come back in a couple weeks and when we got back they would be gone. We never did get any wood from them. I learned a valuable principle that you can’t rely on people to honor their word and you have to be persistent if you want something done from people. People must be motivated to do things. We prayed and asked God what projects He would want us to do, instead of just doing what we felt needed to be done. We came up with a free clinic but it wasn’t a felt need because they already have a Health Care Center here. There is no running water that reaches our area so we decided to investigate and find out why not. After talking to the Mayor and others you get a totally different reason from everyone you ask, but it appears that they are working on it to some degree, and there is not much we can do to speed up the process. Our team prayed and felt the neighbours needed fresh rainwater instead of using the dirty contaminated trench water, which was actually making them ill, so God provided the funds to buy them a water tank and install gutters to catch water! When this project was finished we went next door and taught them that Jesus is the Living Water, and prayed with them. The Mayor asked us if we would come to a meeting about the new Community Center, they were given the building by SIMAP a Government funded organization. The project was funded 100% by them but they contribute 95% of the labour and the community is suppose to do 5% of the work to take ownership of the project which is a community development principle that protects against paternalism. We set a date to work on the fence to fulfill the required 5%, when we went only a couple people from the community showed up so we cleaned the place up by getting rid of scrap materials, garbage, bush and weeds. People say they are going to do things but when the time comes to do it they are nowhere to be found. I cleared a large overgrown area out at the back and uncovered the Tomb of a former NDC chairman (Mayor), so I told present NDC Mayor Motie that I cleared a spot for his grave and he said I can’t take his place as Mayor, and he’s not getting buried there! I felt like a tomb raider it was interesting, an FCD principle is that community development workers are like archaeologists you never know what you may uncover! The Mayor stopped me another day and asked me to go down to the Community Center and arrange another workday to put up the fence. People told me they were going to be there to work and when that day came nobody showed up. I worked anyway and realized that they wanted me to do all the work for them, and they were depending on us to finish it for them. This is the paternalism SIMAP was trying to avoid. We were having team time one morning and the Mayor interrupted and invited us to another meeting (he kind of looks like Rick Morranis from Honey I shrunk the kids), but we decided to pull out of this project so they can take back the responsibility. Our neighbour had a flag hanging at her gate representing the worse kind of Hindu god Kali which is demonic, so we prayed for her and at a latter date she asked us for a knife when she had a Pastor at her house praying for her property. Yashen Kerone and I prayed over the knife that it would be used for the glory of God to remove anything that offends Him and she cut down the flag with it! The spiritual atmosphere was beginning to change around our house and now almost every neighbour plays worship music especially on Sundays! We pray for our neighbours continually and they send us provisions and fruits out of their poverty some still give. We used the LePSA method learned in our lecture phase to assess the situation and determine our seed project, as mentioned we talked to people to identify problems they are facing. We saw that the Hydronie Market was filthy with garbage, so we prayed and felt God would honor this as our seed project. We did some research in order to find out the person in charge of the market and made an appointment with him, he’s the next community’s Mayor (Milton Dookie). We were starting to realize the influence and support we were getting from the Government. We talked about the garbage issue and found out that it was an issue very close to his heart, and something that would probably take generations to correct because the peoples mindsets have to change. We came to the conclusion that getting the vendors together and holding an open forum to discuss issues of concern would be important. We had to find out what the peoples felt needs were. It turned out that their felt need was that the Parika Market should be cleaned first so we inherited the task of cleaning them both. We prepared by handing out flyers which the market committee actually printed out for us and took ownership in distributing over half of them, we handed out the other half door-to-door and a shop owner gave us money to buy garbage bags. The goal is too see people developed, and children not throwing their garbage wherever they want. The people must develop with the Village, as it is becoming a Township soon. We learned that what we wanted to do was only a small part of what really needed to be done. When we had the market meeting the market was shut down for the day, we took the opportunity to mobilize the vendors to help us clean garbage or as Yashen puts it “community beautification project”. Out of this meeting a five-person committee was formed by the people to help sustain the cleanliness of the Market. We have to give this committee vision because as the Bible says in Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision people will perish, where there is no vision the committee will perish. The committee can take ownership of future projects and enforce no littering, and work on getting a fence put up around the back of the Market and so on. When Yashen introduced herself at the forum she said she was a missionary, I just said my name and country, but when I started talking a man said you must be a missionary too! Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak Matthew 12:34b. You shall know them by their fruits Matthew 7:16. This Seed Project turned out well, we had a couple people from the community come and others from the NDC (Neighbourhood Democratic Council), and the two market security guards. We cleaned the visible garbage up by noon and the Mayor provided lunch for us all. I asked all the vendors to use boxes for the customers and themselves to throw their garbage in to keep the place clean. We identified some early adapters and early followers who were very helpful and good company. A few guys from the church hung around a lot and some of us went to their weekly prayer meetings and different events. I usually went to 3-4 services at different churches each Sunday to build relationships with people and just be a part of the congregation and learning from them. I went with an assistant Pastor (Rabbi) on his produce pick up route to the Back Dam to see how the average farmer and seller makes money. I learned a lot about the Guyanese culture from him and tried a variety of new fruits thanks to him, the Guyanese have many resources. The roads need a lot of work, but have come a long way as people used to have to take a boat into the Back Dam. I evaluated myself to see if I was changing at all and realized that when I came to Guyana I didn’t eat any vegetables and now I will try different ones and eat them regularly, I have tried some different fruits as well. When evaluating the team I noticed that we are making new friends and building relationships quite well, people are stopping by the house and talking to us on the streets. Stage 3: Implementation In our attempt to get to know the community more and gain influence we started visiting other important areas of society. Kerone Yashen, and I went to the Health Center to learn more about their services and to see if there was any way we could help them, there wasn’t any programs they wanted us to help with so Yashen prayed for a girl who is thinking about going to nursing school. We went to the Police Station and asked if we could pray for them, and the Sergeant who is a Christian saw us at church the week before. He invited us into his office and called the other officers in and they were scared of us (because they know the power of prayer), they also brought in 4 prisoners from lock-up! I stood behind the Sergeant’s desk and Kerone said to me “hit it”, so I prayed for the 12 or more people in the office and that started a friendship with the Sergeant. He told us that 99.9% of the Police force is lodge men (Freemasons) who worship satan. Proverbs 4:19 The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. Proverbs 11:18 The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward. He also felt that people were doing witchcraft against him to get him killed. We continued to identify problems and ask God to reveal the root of the issues. We observed problems with child abuse, drunkenness, adultery, family feuds, idol worship and poverty. The root of many issues is generational in origin, and people are intimidated by family persecution, which prevents them from breaking away from false religions! Numbers 14:18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fouth generation. We then could pray more effectively for God to deal with them. Missionaries can’t develop a community, the people have to develop it themselves, we help facilitate the change and encourage the future leaders. There is a Wesleyan Church Kim and I went to that is in horrible shape, the building is falling down but they built another concrete building around the old wood one, but there is no roof. I told Kim I wished we could help, and mentioned it to Motie and he said he offered to help put the roof on but the pastor never responded. The person in charge needs to take responsibility for what God has entrusted them with or God will take away what little they do have. We helped out Faith Community Church by doing their Day Camp with them for five days; there were over 400 people involved. I believe large VBS camps like this are good to get involved with because you have the opportunity to develop the next generation of leaders! We gained favor with these young people from 5-18 years old, and the unity from different churches was great and even Hindu kids came to hear the Word of God. When I walk down the street kids call me sir, or brother Jeff and their parents say hi it’s a great way to gain favor with the community. The kids come from different backgrounds and some can’t read, some are heavily abused, raped etc. You learn a lot about society by interacting with the children! Our goal is to instill Christian principles and values into their lives, and teach them how to grow in Christian principles. We also strengthened our relationships with the church members; we ate lunch at Pastor/Mayor Motie’s almost every Sunday. They also gave me the opportunity to speak at their youth camp about substance abuse, Kim taught a session on missions, and Yashen taught two classes dance, and drama. Some young people made a commitment to follow after Jesus at these camps too Glory is to God! Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the LORD Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Kerone Dave and I got to go with some members of Faith Community Church to a place called Foul Mouth to build a Church. We built it from the foundation up in 1 1/2 days, I was so impressed to watch these godly men work so hard and fast. People watching us knew we were Christians just by the way we worked and especially because there was no arguments. We stayed at a Baptist Camp in Goshen and had a great time of fellowship with each other, we built lasting relationships. The group had so much fun together it was like a big Italian family. People are waiting to share their heart with you, we must be willing to take the time to show them love and encourage them in their walk with Christ. What a privilege it is to be an Ambassador of Christ to the nations! We evaluated our work by looking over what we had achieved and found it very productive and rewarding to hear from spiritual leaders that we worked harder than most missionaries they’ve meet. The idea is not that we are better than others but it shows that we put our best foot forward to serve God on this outreach. 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Stage 4: Advanced Implementation God has given us the opportunity for us to speak into our neighbours lives. We have sound relationships so we can now try to correct them when we see their errors. Our next-door neighbours were beating their kids one day and Kim went over there and told them to stop, these kids were screaming and we heard smack after smack it was chilling. Kim has had the opportunity to comfort the children on different occasions. The parents felt embarrassed and hopefully convicted of their cruelty. The lady has opened her house up for prayer meetings and Bible studies. We brought her to church once and her daughters on several occasions. We went as a team to her new house thanksgiving service also. We have tried to impart vision into the lives of young people here and pray they will do a DTS and take ownership of the godly activities going on in the community. Whenever we worked the neighbours watched and admired the way we worked hard. I occasionally see them doing something for their lawn, or helping someone else and encourage them that they are doing a good job. This is the whole idea of community development, to show them that they can make a difference if they are willing to try. Luke 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God. We ministered as a team the last three Sundays and I was given the awesome responsibility to preach in 4 different Churches during this outreach. God used us to encourage the Pastors and leaders of the community. We tried to always lead by example. We impacted the community for the good of all the people around by setting good examples. Alistair Petrie taught us in his book Transformed the concept of A.O.K. (acts of kindness), and we displayed this to our neighbours by giving them water and pots and cooking utensils, and let them use our refrigerator when they needed things kept cold. 1 John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. Stage 5: Withdrawal From The Community Community development takes a long time usually 3-10 years to work yourself out of a job; in that time you train somebody to take your place. This outreach gave us a good taste of what community development involves. Although the team is leaving Guyana after 2 ½ months Kim is staying to pioneer YWAM Guyana in Parika for long term. Kim has been in Guyana for the past 14 years working with YWAM when it was in the capital city of Guyana Georgetown. She is the current director. People are starting to play Christian music along our road, and ask us for Bibles and ask questions about God. The whole area is starting to acknowledge God more I believe. The community however still needs lots of work, they don’t show up for community projects, and many still show no interest in doing the right things. The people still need to gain vision for the community, and learn to work toward the intentions of God. Even know the Churches have been united and they have a regular Pastors board meeting, they lack relational unity. Some Churches haven’t responded yet to the unity of the Churches, and some still fear that they will lose their youth to another fellowship. The leaders I have worked with are training others to be leaders already; they are trying to break them out of their box (comfort zone), and encouraging them take the Gospel out of the 4 walls of the Church. We saw Parika and God saw the beach! We were in Parika for over 2 months and at the very end with 1 week to go we found a gorgeous beach with nice sand, perfect for watching sun sets, and we saw a fight. We learned that when you are supposed to do spiritual mapping it is recommended that you explore all avenues! Everything happens for a reason so I trust that if God wanted us to find the beach called Bushy Park any sooner we would have…I still think it would have been a great place for ministry! I never did get to swim there, but the family did. We started our outreach by getting welcomed by the corporate body of believers in Parika, and left by getting a farewell by a corporate gathering of the different youth groups. Psalm 133:1 BEHOLD, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! When the body comes together in corporate relational unity, they will begin to see the power of the HOLY SPIRIT moving in their midst and Transformation start to take place. There were over 60 people who came together for a time of social fellowship and a bond fire. The people thanked us for coming and gave testimonies of how we impacted their lives. Our team gave them encouraging words and I told them they are an army, which could do great things for God if they stay united! I was able to impart the basic concept of community development to a young man named Gavin and he said he is willing to take up the challenge of running with the vision of keeping Parika clean. This is the key principle of FCD to train others to take ownership of the projects to reach God’s intentions for a community. This brother seemed to show up at the different projects regularly and I hope he’ll do a DTS and be used powerfully by God! 2 Timothy 4:6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure (from Guyana) is at hand.

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