Graduation

The weekend of the 14th was graduation here at BMMC. It was a touching ceremony with a message from the former president of the Guyana SDA Conference. He was pretty cool. Good stories. I was amazed at how many villagers from Bethany and Mashabo showed up to support the Graduates. After the ceremony we served some refreshments that ended up being a whole meal. It was really good! The whole event reminded me of my high school graduation. Everyone is having a fun time, thinking back on their year together, but feeling kind of antsy to leave and get on with life!

It's really neat because every year the Sissons set up a little stint of mission service for any of the graduated that are interested in some immediate experience. It's a nice way to get them out doing some independent work, away from the guidance of the school. This year almost every student and some of the staff went out for a couple weeks of service. When they return from that short term, many of them have also been placed in long term positions in various villages for the next year or so. It's really exciting to see the incredible motivation and energy these young men and women have to serve and teach others. I know they will all be successful in whatever they end up doing because every single one of them has a heart of strength and endurance.

I know my thoughts and prayers will travel with them as they strike out into a world thirsting for physical and spiritual healing. "Good luck graduates!"

Nighttime Adventure

One quiet night, after the whole campus was deep in slumber, I awoke to go to the bathroom. Though this is a common occurrence I have always absolutely loathed having to get out of my cozy bed just to go pee. The result is that I usually just lay in bed, putting off the inevitable as long as possible. So there I was, laying half awake in my bed when all of a sudden something happened that snapped me wide awake. The usual night sounds of the jungle (frogs, crickets, and the occasional bird) were overpowered by a new sound altogether.

The sound I heard was a low, deep, menacing rumble that sounded quite close. The instant I heard it my heart started racing as my thoughts reverted back a week or so ago to when I had heard the roar of a jungle cat thundering through the trees. It had sounded like an African lion at the time. I didn't even know pumas or jaguars could make that kind of noise! Nevertheless, now I was hearing it again, only this time it was a lot quieter, but also much closer!

Michael, who was sleeping peacefully at my side was oblivious to the little adventure I was having. I let him sleep. He didn't even stir as I launched myself out of bed and hurried quietly to the rail of our back porch. I peered eagerly out into the star-lit night, hoping beyond hope to catch a glimpse of the cat. I looked in every direction, but everything had quickly fallen back into the nightly routine, as if nothing had ever happened.

Sadly disappointed, I trudged to the toilet, relieved my weary body, and shuffled back to bed with one last glance out the window. Nothing. But no sooner had I crawled back in bed, tucked in my mosquito net, and laid back down then I heard the sound a second time! My heart picked up its tempo again, but this time I started to think things through a little more. Something, somehow was slightly different about the noise. I was definitely more awake now than I had been the first time and my sleepy brain was working overtime. I reasoned the sound out enough in my mind that I finally reached a startling, and rather embarrassing, conclusion.

This low rumble of a growl that I had heard twice now was not coming from outside at all. In fact, I realized, the noise was coming from our neighboring house, just a wall away, where Melissa's visiting mother was sleeping soundly. Yes, Barbara was snoring!

My discovery was confirmed just a moment later when I heard the sound again. Now that I had labeled the noise there was no mistaking it. It was indeed snoring. It had been so irregular, however, that it had me thoroughly convinced that my long awaited for jaguar was prowling around outside my house. I was glad Michael was asleep through all this. Though completely alone in my humiliation, I ducked a little deeper under the covers, feeling outlandishly sheepish about my mistake.

I have yet to see my jaguar.

This Really Sucks

As you may have noticed, our little college campus in the jungle always has several different projects going on at any given time. Lately, we've been working on a new and improved dust collection system for the wood shop. When the shop was built and ready for its first project there was no kind of dust collection at all. Dust collection is important in a wood shop because without it it becomes hard to breath very rapidly. Imagine trying to sand down a large board with a heavy duty sanding machine. The roll of sand paper is flying round and round, flinging fine particles of wood dust all over the place. Now imagine several of the wood shop machines all going at once, each spitting out more and more dust. Fun to breath? I don't think so! The simple solution for most of this problem is dust collection.

One of the machines that was first to arrive in the shop was a large dust collector. It is kind of like a giant vacuum with a big bag that all the dust gets sucked into. Some large PVC pipe was awkwardly wired onto a couple of the main machines that led to the suction valve on the dust collector so it could work its magic. But the were a couple of problems with this system. First of all the pipe was all laying at ground level, creating a bit of a tripping hazard in the work space. Also, the first time the dust collector was used the bag filled up in no time. This wasn't going to work too well with the non stop projects that are going on in the shop so Michael decided to create a chute out the unfinished window space so the dust could just be spit out the window and collect on the ground below.

Michael had also really been wanting to cut some holes in the floor and send the pipe under the shop instead of through it for a safer, cleaner environment. Unfortunately there just wasn't time or resources to make that happen for quite a while. But as my mom always says, good things come to those who wait. And now I am very pleased to announce that we have finally made it happen.

It was a bit of a process, requiring some of the more unique pipe fittings to be purchased and delivered from the USA. Not to mention getting the time away from other projects to actually get it done. But this week was our time to shine. With 4 helpers working together we got the whole project completed in one day. That's pretty amazing as far as I'm concerned. Nothing seems to get done in one day around here!

Life in the shop will now be much safer and more pleasurable for our hard working men. So no more excuses boys, back to work!

Joash/Lucky/Special Ed/Farrari

Me and little Joash. He likes to hang out on my shoulder.

Getting a nice drink of water

Joash is hilarious when he hunts. He's still learning.

He is cutest when he's sleeping,

Especially when he curls up in my hat like a little nest.

This is how he use to sit. That's how he earned the name Special Ed. As for his other names, as I mentioned before I call him Joash because he is the child king (or so he thinks). The people from the visiting group called him lucky because there were so many times he should have been stepped on and smushed. And his most recent name is Farrari, names for the fact that his hind legs are longer than his front legs giving him lift like a racing/sport car.

Pathfinders

The Bethany Seventh-Day Adventist Church elected members to fill certain slots in various church ministries a couple months ago. As they were choosing leaders for the Pathfinder club someone mentioned the Gregory’s. The more they talked about it, the more they thought we would be a good choice for the roles of Deputy Directors (assistant directors). They elected us and let us know about it a little later. I was interested in the prospect of getting the dormant club going again, but Michael quickly discovered that loosing an entire afternoon of work every Sunday was not really going to fly for him. So it stands that I became the Bethany Timberwood’s Deputy Director.

I wish I knew more about how to run a club. I am quite rusty as my last experience in a club was when I was in 8th grade! It doesn't help that they do things very differently here as well. For example, their hand salute looks like they are suffering from head pains, with the knuckles of the back of their hand are up flat against their forehead. Also I am actually embarrassed to be part of this club when they march. They march with their arms, stiff as a board, swinging up to eye level as they march.

Regardless, we just had the first ever induction service this side of the Essequibo. It seemed to be a pretty big deal and that’s why I got a bit frustrated when I found myself doing the majority of the planning for the program. We have a VERY laid back director who doesn’t seem to ever take initiative for anything really. He’s a great guy, but not the best leader ever. I don’t want to direct the club so I get frustrated when I find nothing getting done unless I do. At any rate, the program went surprisingly smooth and was very well received by the parents who came to support their kids as we initiated them into the club.

Evangelism Training

The second week back to school after spring break was flooded with a host of new faces to the campus. The next week and a half was totally dedicated to evangelism training led by five different pastors who apparently do these meetings all over Guyana each year. This year the meetings weren't just for the students and staff of BMMC. In fact we had people from all over the place. Most of them were pastors and elders from Bethany and Mashabo, but we also had a few that had traveled hours by boat to be blessed by the training.

BMMC once again became what we like to call "Hotel Bethany." Every spare room, mattress, and mosquito net were called to use. It was a pretty drastic change for me. Just the previous week Michael and I had pretty much been the only ones on our end of campus. During the week of training our little neighborhood was bustling with activity. We had a new neighbor every other day as the speaking pastors came and went. We also had a newborn baby arrive on campus with the return of Andre and Natoya, our two students from Barbados. I guess they planned the arrival of their baby girl pretty well. She was born over the break so they didn't have to be gone from school for too long.

The evangelism training itself was very well received. While meeting underneath the women's dorm, the various pastors covered a wide range of topics from family life and how to counsel others to how to function within the range of your church district and what words are overused in church services. I think they really did cover everything. I didn't stay for all of the talks since many of them were definitely not applicable to my particular spiritual gifts or goals in life, but the talks I did stay for were very well done. They even had a baby dedication in one of the morning sessions. That was cool!

I know that this training will further strengthen the education our students. I'm expecting great things from this batch!

Easter

As spring break was coming to a close we were looking forward to celebrating our first Easter in Guyana. It's always interesting to see how the various holidays differ from those in the US. One of the major differences with the Easter holiday is that here in Guyana they always celebrate it on Monday. Easter Monday? That's right. Really that's just an excuse to have more holiday time off work, but it still strikes me as very strange, especially from a Christian point of view.

Another major difference between the two countries is that the Guyanese have never even heard of an Easter egg hunt. Their way of celebrating is to have a national kite flying day. It's actually really fun. Everyone everywhere flies kites. In Georgetown everyone gathers in the "botanical garden" just outside the zoo to celebrate. In our neck of the woods people travel out to the coast where one particular beach is jam packed with hoards of people. In both of these places it sounds like people stay pretty much all day, flying kites and picnicking. There is music and the playing of games along with loads of good food, drinking, family, and friends. Easter has been described (in the secular world) as the most exciting holiday in Guyana.







We spent our Easter in our quiet jungle haven. We prefer it that way. Still celebrating on Sunday like the good Americans we made sure to join the Sissons for some kiting around campus. I had purchased a nice big kite in town the week before and had been aching to try it out. It looked kind of like a sting ray. Our ray swam trough the sky pretty well if I do say so myself. We ran all over the place with Abby and Josh until we were so hot and tired we could have melted. It was grand fun!