by Glenda Williams, BNc correspondent
GUYANA, (BNc) — Jerry O. Davidson, missionary to the Amerindians in Guyana, took another team of workers deep into the bush country of Guyana Mar. 8-29.
Davidson has been working with the Amerindians for 12 years. He takes a mission team three times each year into the deepest parts of the country, where the Amerindian people live in mud huts without electricity and running water.
The mission team in March included 10 Americans, approximately 40 Guyanese and two Trinidadians. One lady who went from the Summerdale church is already making plans for her next trip. Often those who go once want to return again and again.
Because of poor living conditions in the villages, Davidson has a one-man tent and sleeping pad that he issues to each worker. They set up camp in the area and work out from there. The caravan of two army trucks, five motorcycles and one SUV carrying Bibles, all personal supplies, generators, clothes and food, left on a Wednesday morning for the village of Yupukari for their first evangelist effort, and arrived that afternoon.
The village of Yupukari had no building available to use, so an open air service was held for eight nights. Lights powered by generators were strung up in the open area. People walked to the services, many carrying benches on which to sit.
Two preachers spoke each night. Services were from 6:30–8:45 p.m. The first night 275 people attended. When the campaign ended in Yupukari, they had baptized 37 people and had performed two weddings.
Weddings are conducted when an unmarried couple is living together and wish to become Christians. They first teach them about marriage, have a wedding and then baptize them.
Among those baptized in Yupukari were the former captain of the village, two teachers at the primary school, a council member and a health worker and his wife.
After the campaign in Yupukari ended, the mission team returned to Lethem, where there were two baptisms and two weddings.
The third week of the mission trip a campaign in Shea Village was held. The church was established last October in this village.
One week before the campaign began Marcia Peters, 23, mother of a two-year-old girl, gave birth to a baby girl in the bush, delivering it herself. She and her husband Romeo were baptized last October and have remained faithful. They have a farm four miles from their home. Marcia, carrying her one-week-old baby, walked to the farm, worked to gather the produce, and with a huge load on her back, walked back home. They attended the services all four nights, walking a mile from their home with their children to the campaign site.
The rainy season prevents the mission team from going back into Yupukari on the July mission trip. Plans are to return to Yupukari in October for a follow-up campaign.
Not only is Davidson leading teams of workers into the villages, but he is also packing and shipping forty-foot containers from the Summerdale warehouse with much needed items for the Christians in Guyana.
Anyone desiring more information may contact Davidson at 251-626-9578 or visit the website at www.amerindianmissions.com.
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