Parika, Guyana Day 1: Arrival and visiting the neighbors

Parika Help Team Members and Home Country:
Steve: U.S.A.
Jaimee: South Africa
George: Swiss
Anderson: Trinidad & Tobago
Anna: U.S.A.
Eszter: Hungary & Germany
Josef: Faroe Island
Simone: Swiss
Fabian: Germany
Rebecca: Austria
Elyse: Madagascar
Micha: Germany

Thursday, December 10th we left the ship with luggage to last 5 days, then we drove for almost two hours to the YWAM (Youth with a Mission) camp in Parika. Our 12-person team's goal was to help with different building projects. When we arrived in the small jungle town, we were given a tour of the YWAM property, our cabins, and went over the plan for the rest of the day. We wanted to play an evening movie in our rec. center (two-story cement building pictured above still under construction) for the neighbors. So we broke off into small groups after I gave a local boy a ride in a wooden pull trailer. My team took one section of the street and visited about 15 homes and spoke to locals, asking them to come to watch a film. Everyone who was home made us feel very welcomed and one Hindu lady took us inside and gave us tea made from tree bark. We handed out a Gospel of John to every house and most people took it and thanked us for coming. By the time we all finished and head back to camp it was time to start the movie and we had a turn out of almost 100 people from the neighborhood!

Guyana arrival

Last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving around 10am we made it safely to Georgetown, Guyana. It was the first port where instead of being docked in an ocean or bay, our stop was up a river. The ship's drinking water which is normally supplied to us via port will be delivered by truck because of contamination. It is by far the most dangerous place as well on account of the high level of murders and theft in the nearest town. The country's problem with AIDS is growing rapidly and there is constant heavy fighting between political parties. Please pray that our visit here has a lasting affect on the Guyanese people.
We were greeted with waving Guyana flags and a steel drum band as you can see in the picture I have posted. I will have the opportunity to be a part of a challenge team where I'll be leaving the ship on Dec. 9th for 5 days with a small group to build projects such as wells, shelters, and means of transporting water to people's homes. I will be staying at a YWAM camp in Parika. Please keep us in prayer for endurance, team unity, and health. There are over 20 different challenge teams performing different tasks during our three week stay and everyone on the ship is taking Malaria tablets because of the high risk.

First time preaching

Hello again,
Last Sunday, Nov 8th, While we were anchored because of the storms earlier, church teams were still on schedule and we went out via lifeboat to the closest dock. The life vest made my nice shirt dirty, but it's a laid back island so no one besides my friends commented on it. My team consisted of two other people: Jereme' from France and Woo-Young from S. Korea. Can you guess from the picture whose who? They both gave a missions presentation and I preached for my first time. It was exactly 6 months after my 25th birthday..or 6 months to my 26th birthday I suppose...It was a Pentecostal church of about 40 people. I spoke on Romans chapter 6; no longer being slaves to sin. After church, the pastor took us to get some coconut water from street vendors, then out to lunch...yes the place is called Brown Sugar!

Deliverance Baptist Church

I had the opportunity to speak at this church in St. Lucia Sunday night at the 6:30 service. My aim was to excite and encourage others to step out into missions and it seemed as though they enjoyed the message. The pastor there surprised me by explaining how he has been in the states many times...even to Pennsylvania! Small world. Yesterday we had an all-time record for amount of visitors to the ship in one day; over 6,500 people came aboard and heard the Gospel possibly for the first time. I'm always so humbled to be apart of this ministry and send you endless thanks for your support. We leave for Barbados in two days, so please keep our travels in your prayers!

Castries, St. Lucia Arrival at sunset

The Logos Hope made it safely to Castries around 6pm Thursday evening just in time for a beautiful sunset. We are all very excited about being here and look forward to being used by God to make a large impact throughout this island. We will be docked here for two weeks before heading to Barbados. We were all completely blown away with the response we had in our previous port in Trinidad with almost 100,000 visitors. I will update you with more information about that when it's officially available.

Trinidad to St. Lucia...Dolphins

The trip from Trinidad to St. Lucia was a very pleasant one with wonderful weather. We saw many dolphins swim next to the ship and I was able to capture one jumping.

Brazil Pentecostal Church

Last Sunday I visited with two other guys a church in Brazil, Trinidad of about 50 people. There we gave a presentation about the ship and general missions. Are goal was to encourage others to consider evangelism with our interactive program that gives a global view on the church and the need for more missionaries in the unreached areas.