Guyana Mission Report: It’s the Devil!

 

Read more reports at: www.guyanaaviationevangelism.org

 



  John Keith         Falconer

I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light.”

   Missionary          Summit

A week ago the Guyana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists held a missionary summit with some special visiting speakers from the United States and the Caribbean Union.  Whenever these events happen, it’s always a challenge to get the bible workers out of the interior, and return them back home.  Pictured above are two bible workers that we flew out of Region #7, and below are two other bible workers returning back to Region #8.  

 New Hymnals for the Villages

This summer when I attended the Stateline Adventist Church, the Junior & Early Teen Sabbath School Class raised over $200 for some hymnals for the villages.  This last week I went down to the ABC and we were able to purchase 16 new hymnals with these funds.  In the interior, there is a severe shortage of hymnals.

Stuck in a Rain      Shower

Supposedly it’s still dry season, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t get thunderstorms, and rain showers.  Usually they hit at the most inopportune times, when you are getting in the airplane to take off (above).  But rain can cause some of the most beautiful pictures. Of course riding it out on the ground is much better than flying through it!  A week ago I rode a stormy updraft that carried me up over 2500 feet in two minutes! 

Prayer & Praise

PRAISE: We were able to sell an airplane here in Guyana, and now we are overhauling the new engine for our new Cessna 182 (N9113M)!!!

REQUEST: Please pray for Todd and Cassie Anderson who working on the new missionary airplane in Collegedale.  Pray that this airplane comes together quickly because we desperately need two airplanes flying down here.  The stress is turning my hair grey!

1 Horse Power    Tow Truck

When the old Mercedes refuses to run, who do you call?  The tow truck of course!!!  I couldn’t help but take this picture as I drove by. 

It’s the Devil!!!

I watched quietly as the tractor drove toward the plane, with one

lone patient jostling around on the crude wooden platform on the

back.  I was on a routine flight up to Kaikan Village, (or so I

thought).  Several weeks before I had been asked by an

Amerindian gentleman who works for the Ministry of Agriculture,

if I could fly him and his son over to Kaikan and Arau Village, so

he could fog the Acoushi Ants.  The “leaf cutter” ants were on

the move, and the Villager’s farms were being decimated.  To

destroy these nests you have to blow an insecticide fog deep into

the ground to kill the entire nest.

No sooner did I touch down, and chop the power, then the health

worker walked up to to the plane and informed me that Brother

Reeves Gomez had just been bitten by the big Labaria snake. I

groaned when I heard the news.  Labaria snakes come in two

varieties, big (5-6 ft) and small (10 – 12 in.).  Both are dirt brown,

which makes them very hard to spot, and both are hemotoxic,

which means that the poison diffuses through your tissues into

your blood stream and breaks down the platelets in your blood.

If untreated, one could bleed to death internally.  Not pretty!

But to make matters worse, Reeves is one of our steady

workers on the Bible School Project.  In a village in which most

are trying to scratch out an existence, it’s hard to find workers

who will volunteer their time to build a missionary school.

Most spend their time working hard in the gold mines.  But

Reeves was one of those few dedicated persons who wouldn’t

give up on the bible school project.

I knew that this would be a big blow to the project.  But what

could be done?  As the tractor backed up to the plane I put on a

brave smile and said, “Reeves!! What happened?” He grimaced

in pain and said “It’s the devil!  It’s the devil!”  Then he told me

the story, “I was walking down the trail, to get my hacksaw at

my house.  As I stepped over a log, this snake bit me.  It’s the

devil!”

I couldn’t help but agree with him that the Devil was behind

this unfortunately event. From the very beginning the Devil has

maskedhimself behind the guise of a serpent in his all out effort

to hurt God’s chosen people.  Revelation 12:9 calls him, “That

old serpent”

As we talked a small crowd of villagers gathered around the

tractor to pray for brother Reeves.  With much emotion, began

began to talk with his fellow villagers.  He talked about the

bible school and how he wanted so much to see it completed,

but unfortunately he had to leave because of the snakebite.

He concluded his emotional exhortation by saying, “…I don’t

know what will happen to me, but it is in the Lord’s hands.”

As I flew him to Kamarang hospital, my mind started thinking

ahead as to what sort of options were available.  Fortunately

some kind soul had put an activated charcoal poultice on the

wound within 30 minutes of the bite, but now it was needing to

change the dressing, and I didn’t have any activated charcoal

with me.

When I arrived in Kamarang I immediately asked the two

Medex ladies whether they had any activated charcoal at the

clinic.  Years ago, some other missionary pilots had distributed

some containers of activated charcoal around to the different

villages, and I was hopeful that there may still have the bottle

stuffed in a corner somewhere.  No Luck…

So then I hit on a bright idea.  It was the end of dry season, and

people were slashing and burning their farms to get ready for

their new crops.  So I asked, “Has anyone been burning a farm

close by?”  It turned out that they had been burning right behind

the hospital.  So we all trooped out the back of the hospital to

see if we could harvest some of the charred wood.

We picked out a couple pieces that looked good, and I showed

them how they could scrape off the charred areas and crush it

up into charcoal.  With a few last careful instructions on how to

make more dressings, I left and flew back to Paruima.

The next day Reeves caught a government flight to

Georgetown where he  spent a few days at the government

hospital recovering.

We’ve encountered more problems with the building of this bible

school in Kaikan.  The old serpent knows that if this school is

completed that it will deal a deadly blow to his kingdom of

darkness.  So he is doing everything he can, to try and hinder the work.  Please join me in prayers for this project, and especially for protection for those who work on this project.

Missionaries Wanted

We have openings for missionary workers:

  • Bible Workers to do training and evangelism.
  • Construction Workers for different projects around Guyana.
  • Media Worker to help run the video and print work.
  • Pilots and Mechanics to build up the aviation program.

Fill out an Gospel Ministry International Application today and indicate your interest in Guyana

Join the Team

If you would like to help the missionary work go forward, you can send a tax deductible donation to:  Gospel Ministry International, PO Box 506, Collegedale Tennessee 37315.  Kindly write on a separate note that it is for Guyana Aviation Evangelism project (GAVE)

Copyright © 2015 Guyana Adventist Medical Aviation Service, All rights reserved.
Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp