Mission Trip

Spring break at BMMC came with the promise of a mission trip to Mashabo. Michael, and many others, has been working feverishly in anticipation of this trip, preparing all kinds of lumber to be used for building a mission house there. This was the first time that the new wood shop was in full operation. It was very exciting to see the beautiful jungle hardwood getting spiffied all up as the boards passed through the various machines.

Beyond providing all our own lumber for the job, there was one other thing that would be
especially unique about this trip. There would be a group of 20 or so people coming down from the Washington/Idaho area for the week to help build the mission house. The leader of the group was pastor James Shires, Liz and Alexis' dad. Even with our very limited phone and Internet availability down here, our co-missionaries were able to coordinate the whole trip with their dad ahead of time. I was impressed!

When the group arrived Friday morning, Michael and I took the Mule down to the landing to welcome them in. I was a bit culture shocked seeing so many white people in one place! It was sure neat to have them here though. We fed the group at the school and sent them off to Mashabo to get settled in for the night. Michael and I waited until the next morning to walk the 5 mile jungle road, enjoying one more night of the comforts of home before a week of tentless camping (we had had to leave our tent with a few other things in Paruima since the plane couldn't handle all the weight when we left).

The week of mission work was accompanied by a huge amount of hard work on the mission house, helping in the health clinic, running programs for the kids at the primary school, and having Bible studies every day and meetings every night for the villagers. Most of those projects were coordinated and run by members of the group from the States. It was actually very efficiently done with such a variety of talents and abilities. There was something for everyone to help out with.

Work on the house started that first Sunday morning. Watching the hubbub that was somehow workable was pretty interesting. The work site looked like an ants nest that had been stirred up. There were people milling about everywhere. I guess it looked a bit more chaotic than it actually was though because they complete the floor by the end of that first day. Not bad guys!



The walls were worked on for the next few days and by Thursday the roof and gigantic water tower were well on their way to being completed too. I think more work might have gotten done, but it's always hard for Americans to adjust to working full days in our lovely South American weather. The heat can be a bit much, though they did have a good amount of rain to work in the last day too!


I am so grateful to have such an enduring husband when it comes to hard work. Michael is a very dedicated worker and really likes to see things get done. He and Gilbert make a good team. I am sure that their example of constant work at the site kept the others going too. The visiting group had to leave Mashabo on Friday morning, having spent less than a full week in the village. Even though their visit was short, it was certainly a blessing. It was fun for us to get to know some new people, and such a blessing for the villagers to have had them there. Katie and Savy, the two Bible workers that will be living in that mission house, were also unspeakably grateful to have had the help with their new home.

These two girls have been living in a more public building right next to the primary school. It will certainly be nice for them to have their own space where they will not be constantly bombarded by little children looking through their windows and wanting to come into their house. That's nice every once and a while, but every day?

The reason for building this mission house is to support full time medical missionaries that can minister to the people of Mashabo. It has been said that the name Mashabo means "going nowhere." That certainly seems like it has been the case spiritually. For whatever reason, the villagers there have had a real problem taking leadership for religious activities and growth. So there they sit, stagnant. Savy, a graduate and last year's women's dean of BMMC has been wanting to do mission work out in Mashabo for a while now. Katie, a recent graduate from Fountainview Academy, is down here from Colorado for a while, helping Savy with the big job of teaching and directing the people to take leadership in their community. They have been living there for a couple months and have been doing a lot of house visits. They are trying to get to know the people well and build up a rapport with them. They both have taken a major role in the church, but are really trying to delegate more to the villagers. They won't be there to spoon feed them forever and there's no reason why they shouldn't have a very strong church running full time there.

So far they have been meeting in the upper story of the primary school for church meetings. Hopefully it won't be too long before God blesses our school and the community of Mashabo with enough funding to support the construction of a church for them. We were hoping to get that in this year, but we'll see.

For now we are preparing to host a group of possibly up to 60 people that will be here for a week of evangelism training that will be put on at BMMC through the union. I, for one, will enjoy the peace and quiet we have on campus for the rest of this last week of spring break. School will be back in full swing next week. We'll see what adventures happen in the mean time!

Stalked!

*Note* The pictures I have added to this blog were obviously taken after the fact, but in the same location. Bare with me and enjoy them anyway! Special guest appearance from our new little staff kitten, Joash (that's what I call him anyway since he thinks he's the young new king on campus). Look close for him, he's tiny!


Getting back to Bethany from Paruima after a month and a half took longer than Michael and I had hoped. But we made it back safe and sound and got back into our regular duties in no time.

The day we returned Michael talked to Gilbert about all that had been happening while we were gone. They chatted about the wood shop which had become operational in our absence, about the building project that was coming up in Mashabo, and a little bit about bee keeping. As they conversed about the latter, it didn't take long for Michael to realize that the bee hives had been grossly neglected ever since the little bees had come to live at BMMC. Michael decided to go check them out that night.

He was prompted to check the hives immediately because they happened to be resting on top of the large, wooden structure that housed the school's water pump. The water pump seemed to be broken, leaving the whole campus without water. Naturally they wanted to see what was wrong as soon as possible. But no one would go close to those bees so it had been put off. Though there was no bee suit available on campus, Michael was confident that the bees wouldn't be too aggressive since they tend to settle down after dark.

Michael took Andre, one of the students, with him and they went to go lift the hives and get them safely away from the pump. As they walked down the steep incline to the creek, Michael heard something that made him slow his steps. It was a low, guttural sound coming from the distant darkness. He couldn't really tell what it was or where it was coming from, but it put him on his guard. When he heard it again, louder and closer he stopped dead in his tracks. There could now be no mistake that this was the growl of a large jungle cat. Andre was oblivious that anything was wrong until Michael urgently grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to his side, alerting him of their perilous situation. In the dim light of Michael's headlamp two glowing orange eyes appeared stalking purposefully toward them. Feeling uncomfortably vulnerable, Michael started to back away, keeping a close eye on the cat. Andre, on the other hand, bolted back up the hill totally abandoning his companion. Michael, not particularly interested in lingering either, followed close behind, peering over his shoulder as he went.

The cat seemed content that the intruders were gone. It remained in the peaceful shadows of its banana grove by the creek. Needless to say, the breathless Michael and Andre didn't move the bees that night. They ran hard toward the Sisson's house laughing their heads off. The people in the house saw them running and thought for sure they were being chased by angry, stinging bees. When the rest of us heard what had really happened, more than one of us were just a bit jealous at their exciting fate. However, you can be sure that I said an extra special prayer of thanks when Michael returned to my arms that night without a scratch.

Rain Mountain

Behind DIIC, beyond the farm, stands a cliff-laden mountain called Rain Mountain. This mountain is named for its constant flow of spring water. It's really nice to have the reliable supply of water on campus. What's even nicer about the mountain is that it is an amazingly beautiful backdrop for the school.

To our delight a trail leads up to the top of this steep mountain. So, naturally, we hiked to the top one beautiful Saturday afternoon. The length wasn't very long, but the trail was pretty slick. It was very steep in some places and I found myself almost wishing for some crampons and an ice ax to dig in to the earth to give me some semblance of security as I glanced over the unfriendly drop to the side of the narrow trail.

The top of the flat mountain was covered in an almost forest like grove of huge jungle trees. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to see more than 10 feet into the bush. It was airy and free up there. The short walk over to the lookout was pleasant enough, and the view from the top was awesome. We could easily see the full of Paruima, the distant mountains toward Kamarang to the east, and the jungles of Venezuela off to our west. I felt very small up there, and I loved it! It is neat to know that God has created such a big, wonderful world for us to explore!


One of the students that had come along for the hike had brought a mirror to try signaling to the village below to see if anyone could see us. Michael took a turn with the mirror, lining it up expertly between the glare of the afternoon sun and a chosen house down below. The students got all giddy when someone from the house returned the signal with a very large mirror. They told us who's house it was and it turned out to be one of my English students who had the mirror. What fun!

Jungle Oranges

Fiber is an essential in the human diet. It keeps the body functioning beautifully when consumed in the proper amounts. Unfortunately fruits and veggies are sometimes difficult to obtain here in Guyana so we have been having trouble in this particular area of our diet. Every opportunity we get to have these coveted foods is taken full advantage of. Just such an opportunity presented itself to us one weekend at DIIC when a farmer named Danny offered to take us to his farm and harvest as many oranges as we could from his trees. We had heard wondrous things of these oranges so we arranged to leave with him at 8:00 one Sunday morning.

That Sunday turned out to be a very wet, drizzly day. Danny never showed up, most likely due to the poor weather. Michael and I decided we wanted to go anyway. We got two of the students (Mark and Devanish) to go with us. They knew the way so they could lead the expedition. They would also prove quite useful for getting the oranges once we arrived. We were told that the only oranges that hadn't been harvested yet were the ones at the tops of the tall trees, roughly 45 feet high. Because of their small stature, these boys would be much better able to climb out on the lofty branches that we would.

We started our hike full of vigor. I was kind of surprised that both of the boys opted to hike barefooted. It didn't take long for my surprise to melt away into jealous admiration. The trail was well endowed with an awesome amount of thick mud from the rain. It made travel incredibly mucky. Naturally I tried to avoid the worst of the muck as long as possible, but man was it hard! Not far up the trail we had to cross the river to pick up our trail again on the other side. We had gone out in good faith that we would be able to find someone who had a boat we might be able to use. When we got to the last house before the crossing point we saw a sweet Venezuelan lady named Annie out making Cassava bread. She doesn't know any English at all but we were still able to communicate our need of a boat to her. She directed us farther down the trail where we would find one big enough to fit the four of us.

The promised dugout canoe needed a bit of bailing before we piled in, but it did the trick. We were across before we knew it and on to some even more intensely mucked up trails. The slick mud had me on edge the whole time. I thought for sure I would plummet down into the glop at any moment. I was concentrating hard on keeping on my feet, watching each step, plotting the best course I could, while Mark and Devanish practically ran the trail. I don't know how they do it!

After a while of being left in the watered down dust, wobbling along at the very edges of the trail so as not to get my only pair of shoes completely soaked in the flooded mud, Lauren logic set in. Now Lauren logic always makes sense to Lauren. She thinks, "this will do the trick for sure!" To anyone else it may be a bit unrealistic, but to Lauren.... This time the logic went a bit like this, "Mark and Devanish are the two smart ones that don't have shoes to worry about. Look how fast they are going. I bet if I was barefoot I would be just whisking along pretty fast too!" Off came the shoes. Off came the socks. Into the squishy muck went the toes.


Meanwhile Michael was slogging along, no longer caring if his shoes and socks got thoroughly drenched. After about an hour and a half of schlopping along we finally reached the farm. The trees were quite tall and had a wonderfully wild look to them. I was very surprised that these tall scraggly tress produced oranges. I guess in the back of my mind I am forever swayed by a lingering image of the manicured Redlands orange groves in California.

When we arrived at the start of the farm we had a really nice view of the boulder strewn river. We took a nice detour to rinse off our feet and enjoy the view a bit.

My role in in the orange gathering process made me long for a catcher's glove. Mark and Devanish climbed the trees, worked their way carefully out on the spindly top branches to bunches of oranges and then tossed them down to me and Michael. It was a the most challenging game of catch I have ever played. Those little balls of citrus were very unpredictable, as they tended to hit little branches on their downward journey. I did my best to catch them to keep them from bursting open on impact with the ground, but it is much easier said than done. The oranges I did catch made me wonder how black and blue the palms of my hands would look the next day. They hurt! Most of the oranges that evaded my hopeful grasp didn't fare too poorly. Most of them were safe to put in my gaping backpack. And the ones that did burst became a tasty snack.




We all filled our bags and packs as much as we dared and then headed back on the treacherous trail. Lauren logic hadn't actually done anything to speed up the walking process earlier so I decided to try Michael's method and just forget about trying to keep dry. With a heavily loaded backpack on I really needed the extra traction my shoes provided. It was nice having the river that we still had to cross. We took the opportunity to wash our shoes and socks and cool off a bit before paddling back over. We walked the rest of the way barefooted.

We figured that we had brought back around 250+ oranges that day. Everyone enjoyed them so much that within three days, every single orange was gone. Yippee for vitamin C!

First Impressions

Our first weekend was spent getting used to things at DIIC. On Friday Byron was kind enough to give us the full tour of the campus so we knew what was what. We started up a the very top of the school (it is all on one big slope) where the farm is located. As our tour guide met us for the tour his outfit caught me a bit off guard right at first. Byron is a very proper and reserved Canadian boy. He is always seen in nice pants and button up, collared shirts. So when I saw him coming in a pair of athletic shorts, a mud stained t-shirt, galoshes and a funny farmer hat I had to smile.

It is a bit of a hike to get to the farm. I think if we were here permanently we'd be in pretty good shape. Once we reached the farm I was blown away by how gorgeous it was. An interesting variety of produce swam among a glorious spattering of boulders. Up in the hills stood dozens of banana and papaya trees, surrounded by dense jungle. It was breathtaking. We wound around the maze of trees, locating all the key spots for collecting fruit.

As we made it back down to the main part of campus we viewed all the various buildings and got a little history on them. A couple of the building particularly stood out in my mind. They were memorable to me because they were a bit dilapidated from what I imagine they should look like. One of these structures was the dining and cooking area. The dining area was open walls, an uneven dirt floor, and a simple zinc roof held up by a few spindly and very bug eaten poles. I felt that if I so much as sneezed the whole thing might fall over.

The shower areas for the two dorms were fixer-upers too. They were located a bit of a walk from their respective dorms and looked like someone had halfheartedly pounded together some old boards to create walls and then plunked them down in the middle of the bush. Whatever works, right?

Our tour ended at the Administration Building. This building is used for a variety of things. The downstairs is half classroom and half chapel. The upstairs is home to the library, a staff room, the classroom where Michael and I would be teaching, a bathroom and our bedroom. The room we would be living in was a bit of a shocker when we first saw it. It had obviously been used as a storage room for years. There was random junk laying around that hadn't had a chance to be cleaned before our arrival. The busy staff apologized for the mess with all their hearts and spent the afternoon with some students helping us clean up. Many hands make light work and with in no time we had a livable home.