Bible Seminar

On the first of November BMMC began a Bible/Health Seminar in the village of Mashabo. The seminar was quickly thought of when we heard that someone from a Pentecostal Church was poking their nose around in Mashabo. In fact, since there is no other spiritual organization for the villagers, this church really was bringing the people in. They have been having meetings every week for a little while now underneath someone's home. Since they have moved in, teaching these people whatever it is they believe, BMMC thought it was urgent for us to make our move and share with them the truths we have found in the beautiful word of God.

Calwyn is one of the teachers here at BMMC who decided to head up this project. He is a kind little Guyanese fellow that is teaching a class on Christian Living and co-teaching Hydrotherapy and Massage class as well. He is very knowledgeable in natural remedies and hydrotherapy and is extremely well founded in the Bible. His passion for sharing these wonderful things is unmatched. He sensed the urgency of bringing a stronger SDA presence into the picture in Mashabo and the seminar was his idea to get our foot back in the door.

Within a matter of only a few days he had gotten various staff members to commit to helping lead out in his effort. So with the strength of his persistent passion, and the organization and equal drive of Anca (another one of our other teachers), they were in Mashabo on the evening of the 31st ready to deliver their first meeting. Unfortunately a few days wasn't really a sufficient amount of time for the hard-working leaders and they went a bit more unprepared than they had thought.

The meetings were scheduled for 7:00 every evening. Since they would be happening after dark, one of the vital things they were needing was lighting. They had thought of it, and even arranged for it. But it wouldn't be arriving until the next day when Gilbert would be bringing the tractor with all their other supplies.

In the dark of night, the villagers started to come, but of course didn't see anything or anyone that resembled a meeting and so went back home assuming that something had gone wrong and there wouldn't be any meetings. They even spread that message to their neighbors, so that first night the only people we were able to share with was a small group of teenagers that were hanging out in the dark. Andre, the speaker for the night, produced his message loud and clear, but it was easy to detect the disappointment in his attitude as he reflected on the event.

We were all slightly discouraged at our weak start, but we doubled our efforts on Saturday afternoon by splitting up into groups of two and going out into the village to let them know that the meetings were indeed still happening. While Michael and I were out we visited a family that had a very curious little pet monkey. The lady of the house said it wouldn't bite so we got to pet the cute little guy. He even climbed from his little perch on the house onto our arms. He probably would have crawled all over us if he hadn't been tied up. :D I was definitely sad I didn't have my camera.

That night the people did come. There was a pleasant turn out with around 20 adults and 30 kids or so. Michael and I were in charge of the children's program while we were there so we thought up some good stories to tell and a fun game to play. It was funny because although the adult program was nicely equipped with two bright, generator-powered lights, we had no lightning for the kids. We all packed into a little building lit by the brave efforts of two small Mag Lights. It worked for us though and things went just fine.

It was kind of nice to have a change of scenery from our school's campus. Though we were definitely living more primitively in Mashabo, we had a really nice time fellowshipping with our fellow staff members. It's nice to be in a more relaxed environment with people. You get to see another side of them. We enjoyed a couple nice swims in the lake, cooking over an open fire (we even made a couple batches of popcorn!), and tent camping. It was nice to be in our tent again. It's been a while.

One of my highlights was paddling to the other side of the lake with Michael, Andre and Natoya (two married students from Barbados) to collect coconuts. Andre climbs coconut palms very well so we appealed to his talent to help us. He was delighted. He climbed a palm that was probably 35-40 feet tall. I was impressed! He stayed up there until every last coconut had been plucked from the sturdy tree and tossed down. Several of the coconuts that he tossed broke open upon impact. He was trying to aim for a pile of leaves to pad the fall, but didn't always hit it spot on. In the event that one broke, the ground crew had to act quickly. Our goal was to fill a couple large water bottles with the sweet coconut water to take back and share with the others.

Michael and Natoya worked furiously to take care of the ones that had burst open. They wanted to chop a hole and pour it into the bottles before it all leaked out. I ran around collecting the nuts as they fell and delivered them to the others. The family who owned the trees were all standing out there watching the entertainment. The mother even helped us chop open the coconuts for a while.

Finally Michael found a bag laying in the bush and used it to catch the last batch coconuts as they were flung down so they wouldn't burst open too. He was pretty good at it, only dropping a couple. We all made a great team!