Welcome to Guyana

Almost two weeks!

It may not seem like it's very long but so many things have happened that it almost feels like a lifetime.

Of course, travel aside, we have been accomplishing so much here on our island.

First I think we should mention our new home here. It's new to us at least. Right now we are living in the upstairs apartment. There is still quite a bit of work that needs to be done but we have all set aside some time in the afternoon to help make it the best place that it can be.

Our first few days here we were surprised to see that we had two bats in the house of course this discovery was met with a lot of yelling and walking closer to the ground. They only came out at dusk though and it wasn't to much of an inconvenience but having them in the rafters meant that it smelled like bats and that was something we were ready to fix.

The only way to get rid of a bat living in your house is to kill it otherwise it will fight to get back inside. None of us wanted to be the one to end them (even if they do carry tons of diseases) and luckily enough our amazing neighbor Salem was good enough to climb into the upper crawl space and take care of them for us. Only there wasn't two there was six!

Salem also helped us by building a closet for us so that we could finally hang up all of our clothes. The one thing that our house is lacking desperately would have to be storage.

We are currently in the process of cleaning out the outside kitchen so that we can move our cooking operation downstairs.

We also spent a day digging through scrap piles to find things we could use to build shelves.

One of our sisters was so nice and came over to help us screen in our balcony so that we can sit outside in the evening without the threat of mosquitoes or other bugs getting in. Though our house isn't entirely bug proof anyway.

One day after finishing service we came home and took up the plastic flooring that the Guyanese seem to love here. It was in our living room and Kitchen area and it was very difficult to walk on without slipping. It came up very easily but we did have to move all of the furniture and kitchen appliances. But now we can walk with ease.

The days here are still very hot, today especially (There seems to be a bit of a heat wave going on right now.), but we are now entering the rainy season so at least we can take long showers to cool off.

All of our water is collected in large barrels and we then have to take a water pump and connect it to the piping and plug that in to pump up our water.

We will have a post that goes into more detail about our daily chores here soon.

Last but certainly not least would be our ministry here the last few days.

People here are very eager to listen to you when you come to their door. Many invite you inside so that you can stay a while and talk about what the bible has to say.

Right now we are in a special campaign where we get to show videos in Guyanese Creole. It is amazing to see someones face light up when they hear the bible being explained in their own language.

For many years people have felt that if they speak using creole that they will be looked down upon but letting them know that God cares so much about them and loves them that he wants everyone to learn about him even the Guyanese.

Right now we are even able to invite all of the locals to a special talk that will be here on the island. It will be given in Guyanese Creole!

Only being here for such a little time though means that we don't have as many experiences to share with you all when it comes to being in the ministry. However, we will soon post another segment in more detail once we have been here for a little while.

We are very happy to be able to share in such an amazing work. We love all of your messages of encouragement back home and can't wait to hear from you soon.