Guyana Mission Team Updates
Updated Thursday, April 17 at 10:30 AM
Wednesday, April 16 Report—Last one from Guyana (this year)
This will definitely have to be short and I hope sweet because it has been a very sweet day. I wish I had time and proper words to do this day justice. After breakfast the whole team (in fact this might have been the first day that we had the whole team together for the whole day) went to the Holy Family Home. This was the first time our gals had seen the almost finished garden and the start of the second garden in the second building. Deon's cement block addition and the raised garden with angel was a treat, but a better treat was seeing 3 of the ladies in their new dresses with matching necklaces.
I can't wait to have Molly Butcher see these pictures (she donated 35 beautiful necklaces from South Korea).
They were seated on the patio that the A team built last year and on one of two benches that we bought for their patios. There will be 2 benches for each building and yes they will be cemented to the floor of the patio so they will not disappear. All the ladies gathered, several in their new dresses and each one, if they didn't have a card with them for the Coker person that made their dress, they at least said to pass on their love and thanks. At this point, we sang several songs with Robin accompanying us on her flute. Then Pastor Sharon gave all the ladies and team members communion. She also gave us a short sermonette which was appreciated by all. Next we had our annual ice cream social and I remember thinking how special this seemed to the ladies. I saw the same joy on the faces of the kids as they ate their grapes yesterday. Makes you realize how we take these type of moments for granted back home. After saying goodbye to each lady several times and promising the ladies, many in their 90's, that we will return next year—each lady would say "if it's God's will."
We had our last tuna fish cup or chicken salad cup at the hotel and headed for our 3rd and last VBS session with the Hope Children's Home.
This time we were presented with cards made by the kids. I know I have arrived when some of the kids call me "Uncle Charlee" and we all received very touching cards. It was like Valentine's Day when we were kids (best I can recall or was that before they had paper for cards). My best card and perhaps my best moment here was when I received a card from one of the oldest boys (15) who had been very quiet and reserved. Ken and I played a lot of cricket with him and he really loosened up. He especially liked my sun glasses and I promised he and 3 other of the older boys that I would bring them sunglasses just like mine next year. We danced the chicken dance, cotton eyed joe and others. I dropped by the small kids to take pictures of Robin and ended up having to carry around a couple while we did a parade...Robin had the hardest job, but of course she really loves being with the littlest ones. A couple of them insist on Robin holding them all the time and these kids are being well fed and getting heavy.
I know I'm forgetting a lot of wonderful things that happened this week. One that comes to mind, are the 3 quilts that Chris made with the kids hand prints. There was one for Capoey, the Rhumveldt Home, and the Hope Children's Home. The largest was at the Hope Home, where they have 39 kids, and the quilt was hung on the wall. It was fun seeing if their hands still fit their hand prints from last year.
Thanks Chris for a job well done. For the rest of the story you'll have to wait until we do our presentation back at Coker.
Tonight we went to the Rodi Hut which is nearby and had a rather light dinner. After dinner we signed thank you notes and organized what we have to take back home. Right now it's 9:30 pm and we leave for the airport at 3:00 am and have to be in the lobby at 2:30. I just remembered that I haven't packed, which shouldn't be a problem since I don't have anything left that's clean. Here's a genuine "thank you" from the Coker Guyana mission team to each and every one on your end. Even if you didn't send or contribute we felt your presence through your prayers. And there's no need to thank us—we always receive much more than we give. We only wish more of you could share in this joy we have received from these warm, friendly people. God bless each and everyone of you. See you in Church.
In His Service,
the Coker Mission Team in Guyana
Tuesday, April 15 Guyana Report
This is our 8th day in Guyana and our Coker team is slowing some but we all know that we will be energized when we see the Holy Family ladies and the Hope Home kids, both of which are on our schedule today. Breakfast as usual at the hotel and we all make comments about how nice and helpful the staff is. After breakfast we divide into 2 teams: the shopping team and the working team. And I don't think anyone will be surprised that Emmitt, Ken, and I were on the working team and everyone else was on the shopping team and that makes 9 ladies on the shopping team. Kurt and our driver Trevor dropped the men off at the Holy Family home where we continued to work on the gardens. Kurt and Ken then went to buy some benches for the patios which the A team constructed last year. Fortunately Deon, who was the foreman of the A team last year, came by. I think I told you about Deon a few days ago. If not, he confessed to us that he is "using" again and he didn't look as healthy and was very quiet. Each one of us talked to him, I gave him my Cross, and it was encouraging to see him back on the job. Deon mixed concrete and began to lay the concrete blocks as borders for the gardens. When Kurt and Ken arrived back they were pleasantly surprised at how much we had accomplished. The benches will be permanently attached on the patios so they don't mysteriously disappear or walk off as they say. The team will be very happy to see the benches as we all remember the ladies sitting on boards over concrete blocks. Meanwhile the ladies were in a shopping frenzy—Sallie had already bought all the hand made baskets at Capoey, leaving Chris and Debbie with no baskets and she evidently started where she left off when she got to the market. Laurie wanted to buy an expensive set of ear rings that went perfectly with this dress she has, and I had the typical male response "why not give the dress away". Looks like we will be taking back a lot of the red trunks we brought down here but they will be filled with the spoils of shopping. We met back at the hotel and had our usual snacks for lunch and then off for the Hope Children's Home and our second day of VBS.
Our second day at the Hope Home was about the same but also very different as each group rotated through Arts and Crafts and Games and outside trampoline and cricket. Yesterday one of the boys hit our ball over the house and the ball was lost. I'd like to say it was my hit but Ken and I are not very good at "batting" as they say. As the day before most of us and the kids had the most fun with songs like "Singing in the Rain" and each day more kids join in with "thumbs up, bottoms out chin up, chest out". We left around 4:00 so we could have time for showers, and then a devotional by Debra. She reviewed past trips to Guyana with pictures and stories and again a few "happy" tears were shed.
Tuesday night's dinner was a celebration dinner and mommie Sandy invited our drivers' wives, of course Kurt's wife Fayon, and a very exciting surprise, Tessa and son (and Tessa's boyfriend). Tessa is Derrick's daughter and the 5 year old boy is his grandson. Tessa is a beautiful girl and works at the internet cafe. Derrick has told us that they have started paperwork to get them to the states but it will take 8 or 9 years and a lot of money. Sandy selected the Pegasus Hotel, which is one of the best hotels in town, and we ate outside by the pool. The food was very good—they featured barbeque with chicken, steak, ribs and quite a selection of side dishes (and yes there was fish, they always have chicken and fish). And then Kurt took the floor and passed thank yous all around. Sandy responded with thanks to the drivers and to Kurt and Fayon for being such great hosts. Back to the hotel around 9 and we review the day with Sandy. All of these days have been so rewarding and it seems to be building up till tomorrow, our last day in Guyana. We wish all of you could join us with these lovely people down here. It would be hard to choose between the Holy Family ladies and the Hope Children's Home as to which gives us the most joy. Fortunately we don't have to choose. Tomorrow we go to the Holy Family Home for communion and songs and goodbyes and then out to the Hope Home for our third and final day of VBS. But from what I heard from all the team members, they all plan to return next year. Thank you for your prayers and I'll have one final report for Wednesday.
Monday's Report from Guyana
Hello again from the "soldiers of the lord" which is a term my mother always used. And we're pretty tired soldiers right now, but I think we're winning the war. Monday was another busy but very rewarding day. It started at 7 am as usual with one egg overeasy with toast, juice and coffee. Then off to the Holy Family home—it's a short drive and it's nice to have the whole team together again—but then Ken and Debra went off to visit with Clarence, head of Phoenix house. Laurie, Chris, and Elena passed out dresses and gift bags to all the ladies, I think there are 32 or 33 now. These beautiful dresses were made by Coker ladies and this makes it extra special to our receiving ladies. The gift bags contain a matching necklace, underwear, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, and even some chocolate. The labor force outside consisted of Sallie, Emmitt, Sandy, Cheryl, Pastor Sharon, and myself. We were joined a little later by Ken and Debra. The main job here was to replant the garden that had be ruined by the recent flood and raise it approximately one foot. We also brought a second angel to place in the garden for the second building.
All of a sudden it was 12 and we ate our diet lunches: mixed fruit, chicken salad, power bars, etc. Our rookies (Elena and Cheryl) say we are going to have a lot of leftovers from lunch that we will leave with Kurt or the work team at the Hope Home. Then off again for the Hope Home and the start of our 3 day vacation bible school with the kids although we were told to call it something else since the Church didn't want this confused with their own VBS later this year. The session begins with "uncle Ken" as he is called by all the kids and you can tell that they all really love him. Ken leads us in singing songs and then the children are treated with fresh fruit that they seldom get. Grapes seem to be their favorite, followed by bananas then apples. Then back to the songs—the favorite seems to be "Singing in the Rain" followed by "Father Abraham." Every time we sing "Singing in the Rain" a picture of Rev. Bob Allen pops into my mind with his bottom out elbow out chin in chest out...you get the picture, and I'm sure the team looks equally ridiculous while we're singing and the kids laugh and laugh. We divided the team into three goups: Arts and Crafts led by Debra B., Fun and Games headed by Laurie, Outside Games w/Ken and I, which is really only "cricket," the only game in town. I almost forgot Robin is the only member of the small kids group with the little ones—there is one small boy that cries every time Robin puts him down (and it's very hard to get him to go to anyone else). We are rotating the kids through these groups for the three days (the children were divided into 3 groups). 4 o'clock seemed to come very quickly but most of us welcomed it since we always have very long days, but very satisfying ones.
Back to the hotel, quick shower and then our daily devotional. This one given by Emmitt with Sallie's help. As usual it was very emotional and very good. We got a very nice surprise at dinner: we had planned all along to go to the Grand Coastal Hotel but Debra, Sallie, Elena, and Robin had taken 4 of the older girls ages 13-15 to lunch there (they had hamburgers that turn out to be chicken burgers). Anyway, the owner of the Grand Coastal is a big supporter of the Hope Home and he was so impressed with what we're doing that he hosted us for dinner and what a great dinner it was. The rookies are all saying "do you eat like this all the time" and I tell them that I will water it down in my report to you so you won't think we're on vacation down here. Tuesday and our last day here Wednesday will be a repeat of today's schedule (Monday) and I'll try to get off a couple more reports but they will be short and sweet. Cheryl continues to be in the lead for the "hard hat" award, followed by Emmitt. She definitely lost some points by going shopping with the girls and not working with us guys on at least one occasion, but she had a big lead. Signing off for Monday, April 14, 2008, another day that the Lord has made and it was a good one. Love from all of our Coker team and thank you for all of your prayers and support.
Addendum to Saturday and Sunday Report: Kurt and Fayon Dinner
(This is an addendum to the Sat/Sun report). Kurt and Fayon hosted the group for a dinner on Sunday night. Kurt invited several guests that we were introduced to—he also announced that he and Fayon had formed a non-profit organization "Hands for Hope" and these 3 people and one other that were not able to be there, Joel Evans (Maurice and Bea Evans son) were their directors. This is a very exciting step and should be beneficial working with Heart for Guyana from USA. Fayon had prepared a wonderful dinner and it was a great night all around.
Saturday and Sunday Report in Guyana
I'm back on the air—thanks to Ken as they were very tired after a very rewarding trip to Capoey. As I have tried before, I will try to shorten the weekend report and get it back to you (it's actually Monday and we're all getting tired but happy that we're doing God's work)
After a good breakfast at the hotel, we returned to the Holy Family Home—it's always a joy just to see the ladies smile when they see you and say your name "Char-lee". One lady always sings a song when I see her . Last year when we painted their walls, Lauie noticed that there were very few pictures so that's when her idea of asking the church for calendars both old and new came. And you responded by donating many beautiful calendars—we hung a new one of each lady's wall (course each one took a long time deciding) and the old calendar pictures were laminated (Laurie sends thanks to staff members that did this) and these were put on every wall (two or three in each lady's room and many in the halls) and the ladies loved them. After this we started on the garden. Last year we worked very hard putting lovely plants and an angel in the 1st building area, but didn't have time for the 2nd building's garden. About six weeks ago they had a flood which covered the garden and destroyed all the plants so we are raising this garden about a foot and re-cementing the angel and then hopefully doing the same for the second building. We made a good start and will do a lot more next week with the full team. After lunch we made the short trip back to the Rhumveldt home and had 2 to 3 hours of play time with the kids. We had brought new games, puzzles, and Elena brought a battery operated car that was a big hit with the boys. The kids are so well behaved and loving and we each had 3 or 4 kids coloring, reading stories, etc. We also had time to visit with Angie and learned a lot about children with AIDS. As I have told you before the home is full with 16 children and we asked Angie about expansion—she certainly would like another home and she indicated that they could fill the home immediately. Also there is talk about adding a third floor to this building mainly for kids as they age hopefully into teenagers. She said they get free medication and as far as she knows the same as in the USA so we immediately thought of people like Magic Johnson that might live into old age. Angie explained that in Guyana she thinks the oldest child with AIDS has lived till 16; evidently it's much different when children with undeveloped bodies contract the disease, but everyone is watching Rhumveld children to see how with care, good food and medication, how these beautiful kids will fare. We left about 4 o'clock with smiling faces but also a little sad about these kids' futures. We talked about Angie and the care givers' feelings as they watch the ones they care for leave them. We all agreed that you would have to console yourself with the fact that you gave them a much better life than they would have had.
Our Capoey team came back around 6:30 very tired but bubbling over with stories about the AmerIndians. Someone told me that the AmerIndians were pushed back into the interior and I told them that we did the same and worse to our Indians. We ordered pizza in tonight and all agreed to wait to hear all the stories, but the best story was the person that was waving at them the second morning as they approached by boat. Don't recall but I think it was a lady and she was wearing the glasses that the team had fitted her with. "I could see you coming" this had to make them feel so good.
Sunday and the day of Rest which we all looked forward to. Church at the Rhome church starts at 8:15. Of course this is Guyana time and nothing actually starts on time. It rained most of the night and was raining on our trip to the church. This is Kurt and Fayon's home church and to our surprise, Rev. Litchfield was the preacher. Evidently he comes at least once a month. Kurt's mom was there but not his grandmother (she's evidently fine but the weather kept her in and also a lot of the congregation). Sandy and Pastor Sharon were asked to say a few words. We sang a few songs, this year without anyone playing the keyboard and surprise, surprise, we knew the words and the tune to most. After church we visited with most of the congregation and got some good pictures with Kurt's mom and her pretty bonnet. There were several bonnets in the church, must be the English background.
Lunch was at the Oasis and a lot of the crowd had local dishes of curry and rodi. Course the old fogies like me stuck with the fish and everyone was very pleased. Course Chris and Robin remembered from last year about their good deserts and of course all of us had to try them. (I just remembered that Robin played "Amazing Grace" for the church service and it was especially good)
We went to Kurt and Fayon' house for dinner. It was a special night and I need more time to tell you about it so I'll close for now and send info about it on next email. God is Good and your answer is???
Guyana—Saturday Night
Hi, this is Ken, we are giving Charlie a much deserved rest tonight from doing our daily e-mail report. We all appreciate his faithfulness and hard work in sending out these reports. What you may not know is that even after all the long hours of work during the day he stays up way after everyone else goes to bed in order to do the e-mails and deal with all the problems with the computer, downloading pictures (which is very time consuming here) and power outages which sometimes wipe out hours of typing. A huge THANK YOU Charlie!
Friday morning 7 of our Capoey Team (Rev. Sharon, Chris, Robin, Emmett, Sally, Debra and Ken) left for Capoey Amerindian Village (the indigenous people of the Amazon jungle). The trip is described as “Mission and Adventure” as it takes 3 bus rides and 3 boat rides to get to Capoey village, which lies on the northern edge of the Amazon jungle. One river (Essequibo) is 18 miles wide and can be very rough and get all traveling very wet even though we cover up with tarps. The boats are very small for such a big river! Rev. Sharon helped by praying all the way!!
Everyone was eager to get there and be greeted by the villagers who look forward to our annual visits. We have been to this village 5 times in the past. What a thrill to see them waiting on shore for us and call us by name. It was heart warming that one of the first questions put to us was whether we would hold Communion. The answer being yes of course and we received many smiles. What a great beginning. It can be a very long time between visits of medical people and pastors at Capoey.
God had a lot planned for us this trip. New friends to make, holding an eyeglass clinic for almost 150 adults and children (thank you Mike and Sharon Ford for making this possible!!), visits to the school to deliver the quilt that Chris McCabe made for the children which had their handprints on it. The children made the handprints last year when we were here delivering much needed medical supplies to their small health post (sometimes there are less than 3 or 4 bottles of medicine in their storeroom for a village of over 350 people) and supporting their school with some requested books and pencils.
Work at the eye clinic went very well. The clinic is so small that in order to put the eye chart 20 feet way for people to read we had to put the testing area set-up between two rooms. We were rewarded so many times with the smiles of adults and children who were helped to see better. We also check for a terrible eye problem called Ptergyium which is affecting way too many folks at the village. Scales grow over their eyes due to the bright sun, wind and dust blowing. Being able to look closely into the eyes of all the children will be a special memory all of us will keep. The good news is we spoke with Sister Shelia at the Mercy Hospital the day before and she said many could have the surgery done for free if they could get the funds to get to Georgetown. Through the generous donations from members of Coker and other churches to Heart for Guyana this will already be possible for some of the children. When we left Saturday we were doubly rewarded when several folks we gave glasses to beamed that they were able to see us clearly!
More on the Quilt: Chris presented it to the school (98 children in classes preschool to 6th grade in a one room school house only about the size of 2 Coker Sunday School rooms put together). What a sight to see some of the children come put their hands on top of the handprints they made last year. And ooh what laughter :-) !!
We all are so Blessed that God gave us this opportunity to come here. We just hope we served Him and Coker well.
The two day visit concluded with Pastor Sharon providing Communion under a beautiful tree in the village center. About 45 people attended (even some men, which is unusual here as they do not normally attend) and she was very skillful in getting the children and then the adults to sing. We all believe that she is also the only Coker Pastor that has had a chicken walk through her service. She didn’t miss a beat however and the service was wonderful. We are so proud of her.
God rewarded us with many hugs from the children and villagers as we left to go back to Georgetown and join the rest of our Team who had been mixing concrete for the Hope Children’s Home while we were gone. We REALLY got the best of this planning.
Looking forward to church Sunday at Rome Church (Kurt Jordon’s home church) and seeing old friends including Kurt’s mom. Can’t think of a better way to end our trip to Capoey than by going on to church to praise and thank God for allowing us to be the lucky ones down here experiencing all that we do.
Blessings to all.
-Your Coker Team
Guyana Update Thursday—4th Day
It's 6 am Friday morning and again I seem to be the only early riser which works pretty well here since I'm using the computer that the hotel office uses for their business. We brought 2 laptop computers but I've had trouble adjusting to the new technology without a mouse. Something about "the early riser and the old dog can't learn new tricks and something about a mouse and a worm." I can't remember exactly how it goes, but you get the picture.
Thursday morning was a little different, as I mentioned in yesterday's report: the Capoey team were preparing to leave on their voyage. I say voyage because the trip is on three different waterways on three different boats and each boat gets smaller and rougher. More from them when they return on Saturday.
The other team members, namely Mommie Sandy, Elena, Cheryl, Laurie and me (or is it I, Lord) met in the lobby with Kurt and walked some 3 blocks to our favorite breakfast spot, the Roti Hut. Those of you that have been here can remember how exciting a three block walk in traffic in Guyana can be but we arrived safely. Crossing the street Kurt had his arms stretched out behind him and we were following like chicks follow a mother duck. Elena, Laurie and I had the egg, cheese omelette while Sandy and Cheryl had something called eggplant currie with a large portion of native bread which Cheryl later fed to one of the dogs on the street—she is a real animal lover.
After we ate, Laurie and Elena went with Maurice Evans to deliver gifts and Sunday school material that we brought for the Houston Methodist church. They spent the morning, had a nice lunch prepared by Bea and also were able to meet with Derrick and Jennie's daughter and grandson. Meanwhile the worker bees that were left (Sandy, Cheryl, Kurt and I) went back to the "stone" pile and worked with the crew at the Hope Home. The day was a little overcast and there was a breeze so we faired a little better. Sandy and I filled the sand buckets while Cheryl, Kurt, and Mike (our driver) filled the stone (gravel) buckets. Again Cheryl scored points toward the "hard hat award". We arrive back at the hotel around 3:30, cleaned up and left with Laurie and Elena to take gifts to Sybil Hart for the David Rose Center ladies. We were disappointed that they will not meet while we are here. Last year that was one of our highlights when they sang us in and sang us out and Pastor Sharon delivered an inspirational talk and there were many hallelieyahs (sp—as you can tell I'm not taking time to check my spelling; I don't think God thinks that's too important). We visited with Sybil who is the leader of this 100-strong Christian ladies group. We gave her one of the pretty dresses that the Coker ladies made with a card signed by which Coker lady made the dress. This is such a great project and we are thankful for all the dresses made by Coker (about 50). She also received a matching necklace, one of some 36 donated by Molly and Joe Butcher—they are made of silk and from North Korea and beautiful and no, Molly, Laurie and Debra did not take one although they were tempted. (Good thing God was watching). After many pictures of Sybil and closing with one of her best tearful prayers, we left for the hotel and decided to eat in since Mike's (our driver) daughter was 8 years old today and we decided that he should take her out for dinner on her birthday. It was a quieter day and we skipped devotional because we got the equivalent of two or three with the Sybil Hart visit. If you've spent any time with her, you would know what I mean. She's 88 years old and going strong for the Lord in spite of many Job experiences that would have stopped most of us. I'm going to try again to shorten these emails as it's harder to find time to compose. And I'm still trying to send pictures but something is slowing down the process. I'll try again to attach, but no promises. Remember us in your prayers as well as these great needy people in Guyana.
Thursday Report (Our 3rd Day in Guyana)
Hello again to all of God's children—it's actually Friday morning and I just witnessed our Capoey team leaving for Capoey. There was room for only 8 people and since I went last year, I gave up my "bumpy" seat to Pastor Sharon. Ken and Debra as always head up the team and they were accompanied by Capoey veterans Chris, Robin and rookies Sharon, Sallie and Emmitt. Kurt's wife, Fayon, rounded out the Capoey 8. Of course we always joke about how bad the hotel is (rusty water, un-air conditioned, mosquito nets, chicken necks for food, small boats with bumpy rides, and I almost forgot: very small lumpy pillows). Unfortunately most of these are true, but we make it sound worse (if possible) for the rookies. This morning after Pastor Sharon told us that she hardly slept last night worrying about the trip, what did I say after they carried out 4 large red cases of supplies: "last year we only had 1 case, I'm not sure the boats will be able to float with 4 heavy cases". The Capoey team will return tomorrow night with new wonderful stories about the AmerIndians.
Meanwhile, back to Thursday report: the day starts about 7:30 with another great breakfast with friendly, helpful staff. Each person had a frog at their table. I suspect the ministers of fun (the Bakers) were responsible. We all named our frogs: one unique name was "frog"; I named mine "Jeremiah" remembering Rev. Bob Allen's song burst one Sunday, "Jeremiah was a bull frog, he was a good friend of mine". After breakfast Pastor Sharon gave the devotional—I'm not sure why the devotionals tend to be so touchy down here, but I hope it's because God is here and approves of what we're doing.
After breakfast, we headed for St. Joseph's Mercy hospital for a visit with Sister Walsh. Evidently she has worked with Kurt, Ken and Debra on ways to help the AmerIndians. Sister Walsh is from Rochester N.Y. and has been here many years. She informed us that Guyana is 2nd only to Haiti in AIDS victims. Sallie and Emmitt presented her with some gifts: there were 2 bears with cowboy hats and other things that she said she would pass on to some of her resident kids. Then load back up with Mike and our new driver, Trevor, and off to the Phoenix house. There are now 2 houses, side by side, the Phoenix house for men and the newly painted and renovated Phoenix house for women (for those of you who might not know, this is a home for recovering drug and alcohol addicts). Lucinda, who is Clarence's assistant, greeted us and gave us the cook's tour of the women's house. They do not have their first lady but expect one soon. This is a very exciting development and I'm sure Bob Coltrin and Debbie Miller would love to be with us to see this. We then went next door to the men's house where there have 9 residents. I don't know what we expected but we had a really fun time. Someone asked one of the more outspoken guys if they were musical and the next thing we know there were 4 of them performing a wonderful what I might call "rap opera" on the dangers of drugs and alcohol. I recorded some of it and I told them that they should take it on the road. It was quite good and I'm sure it would help a lot of people. Kurt told me later that they do go to schools and perform similar routines and I'm sure it is very helpful, especially coming from these guys. We said our goodbyes and told the guys that every day gives us a new chance or a "do over" to set our lives on the right course.
We arrived at the Hope Children's home just as the work crew that is working on the new children's home was knocking off for lunch. So our 2 rookies Cheryl and Elena, who were lucky enough to be put in charge of food, brought out our lunch which everyone had brought with them: favorites seem to be ham salad with crackers, tuna with crackers, fruit cups, etc. Two years ago, we ate big regular meals for lunch and everyone decided it was too hot and they do not have siestas down here after lunch. Laurie gave the devotional after lunch: it was about the "pocket angels" she passes out to all team members. She explained that it was not an idol to worship and I was happy since our dear departed mother would have paid close attention to these words. We then joined the work crew of some 8 paid workers but we later heard that several are members of the Church of Christ church where the new home is being built and they are working for about $9/ day which is approximately 1/2 the normal pay.
We were at first concerned that we might be helping them finish the job quicker and therefore eliminating some pay from these workers, but the foreman explained that he was short 3 workers who had left for higher paying jobs and they had plenty of work after the floor was finished. They did have a concrete mixer which is a big improvement from past jobs where the concrete was mixed by hand. For you that intend to mix concrete soon, the formula is 5 buckets of water in the mixer, 7 buckets of stone (we call it gravel), 6 buckets of sand, 1/2 bag of concrete and wet concrete comes out the other end of the mixture. To give you an idea of our work force: we had Sharon, Chris, Robin, Momie Sandy, Sallie, Kurt, and me filling buckets of sand and rock while Cheryl, Emmitt, & Ken were getting the wet buckets of concrete from the mixer and giving to the wokers above, who were pouring and leveling the concrete floor. And if you're wondering about Debra, she was collecting the leftover concrete in each bag and later they used her 1/4 bag in the mixer. Laurie and Elena, who cannot take much of the heat, were our water angels who had to bring us water from about 100 yards away. I hate to say this being the macho man that I am, but Cheryl is well on her way in winning "the Coker Hard Hat award" given to the hardest worker and she's a rookie and also, if you can imagine, a girl. Cheryl was bouncing from carrying concrete to the floor and then filling buckets with stone (you should know now that this Guyanan for gravel.)
I'm going to try to cut this short as I'm using the computer in the office and I'm hogging the time. We worked for 3 hours or so which is a lot in this hot weather. We then went in with the 3900 kids (or was it just 39?). Each one of us had several kids hanging on us. I know I had 4 or 5 at one time while I was reading a story, performing coin tricks, etc. This was even more exhausting but in a very good way. When you see these kids laughing and smiling and having a good time just holding your hands, it's all worth it. We left very tired but filled with images of a very satisfying day. After a long shower (and this was long because we had a power outage) Pastor Sharon was one of the unlucky ones that hadn't showered when the power failed. She called the front dest and they sent her up what looked a little like a small kiddy pool and a jug of water...Sandy took a picture that I hope I can pass on later. The power finally came on 30 or 40 minutes later and most had time to shower except Chris—she had to sit alone at the end of the table at the restaurant. We ate at the Brazilian restaurant (this was Rev. Bob's favorite place), where they have large skewers of all kinds of meat. Our favorite thing at this place are the small pitchers of lime-ade. Back at the ranch or hotel, everyone fell into bed except for me—I had to write emails back home. I'll try again tomorrow to send pictures . Ken and I have tried to make them small enough to send but we still have problems. Pastor Sharon says "God is Good" and your answer is "all the time."
Talk to you tomorrow.
Second Day in Guyana Report
Hello again from Guyana—this will be a report on Wednesday activities and I'm entering this on Thursday morning after breakfast while the team is sorting through some 12 red cases of supplies, bible school materials, work supplies, medical supplies for Capoey, etc. ( no one is bothering me so I guess reporting to you is a legitimate excuse).
I think I left off after breakfast on Wednesday. Kurt and his wife, Fayon, joined us for breakfast and like I told you the hotel is lovely, the staff couldn't be more helpful and delightful. I told the team last night that I was going to tone down my praise of the hotel and staff so you all wouldn't think we're down here on vacation. After breakfast, Kurt passed out the schedule and in his best delightful bass voice (he should be a minister) went over a full week of activities. Today we will spend the day visiting the locations and reacquainting ourselves with the ladies from the Holy Family Home and the children from the Rhumveldt Children's Home and the children from the Hope Home.
We spent the rest of the morning at the Holy Family Home which is just a few blocks from our hotel. The ladies were very happy to see us and of course many pictures were taken. The ladies delight in asking us to guess how old they are. And we remember from past years that they are much older than they appear so we guess in the 80s and several are in their 90s—I remember one 93, one 95 and one 96. They had lost one of the ladies recently (Chris said she remembered her well). They have such a wonderful attitude toward death which hopefully we will learn as we age. I think most of you will remember when one of the ladies died a short time after getting her dress. All the ladies were asking "who got to go?"
At lunch we stopped at PopEyes and had chicken (what else would you eat in Guyana) and then went by the Rhumveldt Children's home. As we walked in we all remembered how we felt last year when we saw this wonderful structure that we helped build and "we could only imagine" (to coin a phrase from a popular Christian song) how Sister Diana felt as we walked in with her. There were six beautiful kids last year and now Angie tells us that they are full up with 15 kids. One of the little girls from last year was in school but she returned before we left and we got reacquainted. This was the little girl that posed with Diana for my favorite picture from last year (out of 600 or so). We had some time to play with the kids and of course, Robin would have anyway. I mentioned yesterday about the check from Hearts for Guyana and thanks to everyone that supports this effort. This is such a great home and you can tell that God is there with Angie and every member of staff. We'll be back later in the week and play games and dance with the kids—last year's "cotton eyed joe" I'm sure will be repeated.
We piled into our two taxi's which are really 8 passenger vans. One of our drivers is Mike who is a repeat from the last couple of years, but we all miss Derrick and the Jesus Mobile. A lot of you will know that Derick and wife are now in North Carolina where he has a job with a car agency and is doing very well. Derrick is such a hard worker so we felt like he would make it—he is a recovering addict and we continue to be very proud of him. I'm sure he still wears a large cross around his neck and thanks God for every drug free day. We headed for the Hope Children's home where we will spend the majority of our time this week. This is a large orphanage run by the Church of Christ church and is 30-40 minutes out of town and always a very exciting ride, dodging cattle, dogs, and people in the street.
We were greeted by Pastor Kenneth who thanked us for coming and explained where we could best assist them during our stay. They now have 39 children and are full (seems like every place we visit is full) and are in the process of building a new facility for the children nearby that will really expand the number of kids they can handle. This will be our main work project—some contract workers are pouring concrete for the first of 2 floors and we will assist in finishing this 1st floor—some 3 days work. We will also have 3 days of vacation bible school with the children. We spent the rest of the day playing with the kids and everyone found themselves surrounded by 3,4, 5 or more kids. The rookies (Cheryl, Elena, Sallie, Emmitt) were covered with kids and almost attained veteran status in one day.
We got back to our 3rd rate run-down hotel (oh yeah, I forgot I had already told you how nice the hotel was) around 5:30. After showering we met on the upstairs patio and Sandy gave the devotional. She told her "story" and said she didn't intend to cry, but when almost everyone else cried she just joined in. Sandy reminded us how fortunate we are to be team members and on God's team. And when we go through troubled waters, we not only need God's help but we need our team members. Then off for a nice dinner at Buddy's, which is a strange name for a Chinese restaurant. As always we take a second look at the prices: their dollar is 200 to our $1 so a $10 meal would read $2000.00 And they say the dollar is losing its value. Someone tell Rev. Bob that Robin and Cheryl ate the hot and sour soup with only a few tears. And also tell Anita that the Southern Cross Watch read: Baker's 35 minutes, Anita 0 minutes.
Another wonderful day that the Lord has made here in Guyana. Must sign off for now. Keep those prayers a'comin.
-Charlie Miller, the Coker Guyana Team
1st Official Report from Guyana
Hello to everyone from Guyana—this will be the first official memo from God's 24 hands and 24 feet from Coker Methodist Church and a Methodist Church in Minneapolis. For you that couldn't handle the math, that's 12 of God's children trying to do God's work. Namely Guyana veterans: Sandy Cooley, Ken and Debra Baker, Pastor Sharon Stewart, Chris McCabe, Robin Simmons, Laurie Miller and yours truly (Charlie Miller); and newcomers: Sheryl Smith, Elena Adams (Minneapolis), Sallie and Emmitt Owenby.
As I mentioned this morning, yesterday was a long day and Sandy took complete responsibility for not finding a time to pray before we left. These new security checks and 50 lb limits on all we have to bring, coupled with the Final Four crowd all trying to leave S.A. etc. and sometimes we forget about the one that takes care of us. We made it to Dallas fine only to sit in the terminal for almost 3 hours waiting for a plane that was in "maintenance". Our plans were to meet with Bill Upchurch and our Minneapolis member at Chili's in Miami and have our traditional hamburger in a leisurely manner and catch our plane to Guyana at 4:45. I guess God's thinking was if we didn't have time to pray then we wouldn't have time for burgers. Looks like we humans would learn something this simple. We barely had time to catch the one and only daily plane to Guyana (we did have time to pick up a cold sandwich and ate this on the plane). We especially thank Robin's mom for the wonderful raisin bread and chocolate chip cookies that we ate many hours before. But we arrived safe and sound at the hotel around midnight (Guyana is the same time zone as Miami which is one hour different than S.A.). As I said this morning, the hotel is very nice, not as much room as we had in the Sea Breeze, but everything else is great.
We met this morning for breakfast at 7:30 and what they call continental was juice, eggs of your choice, fruit and toast—no beanie weanie meat which our past team members will recall with "mouth-watering" delight. While we're mentioning past team members, Ken and Debra said to tell Anita that they have seen the Southern Cross several times already.
It's getting late and for some reason I'm very tired so I'll fill you in on a few more details from our travel day (Tuesday) and save our 2nd day report for tomorrow morning. I have attached 2 pictures: one is of Pastor Sharon who was "Pretty Princess for the Day" yesterday since it was her birthday.
We must have sang happy birthday 5 or 6 times at the most improbable times and Sharon was embarassed each time. As she said in Church Sunday, she's sure she turned red. We're all trying very hard to fill the void left by Anita and Klaus (did I just call Anita and Klaus a void??)
The second picture is from today and I wanted to send it because it is very special: it is Ken and Sandy presenting a check for $8500 to Angie from the Rhumveldt Children's Home for AIDS Victims.
This is the dream child of Diana and Bill Upchurch and what a success story. They are full up with 16 beautiful children which I will report on later. The check was from Heart for Guyana and represented gifts from Coker and 3 other Methodist Churches.
That'll do it for tonight—I'm trying to pass on a small part of the feelings we get to you, but as Bob Coltrin knows, that's almost impossible. Thanks again for your continued prayers and continued support.
-Charlie Miller, The Coker Guyana Team.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008 9:00 AM
Hello to everyone—with God's help we made it safely to Guyana and to bed by midnight last night. Will give you details later as we are about to leave for a visit to the Holy Family Home. The hotel and staff are lovely and much different from the Sea Breeze that we have stayed in on previous trips. I'll give you a full report tonight and thank you for past and continued prayers. In God's service.
-The Coker Guyana Team.
