Friday we planned to get some paperwork copied and shipped to our supervisor, but the power went out in the city and we couldn’t find a copier that worked. We ended up at the store and bought the scanner/printer/copy machine that we saw yesterday. It cost about $150 American. We had planned to go with another missionary couple and take President Stanley (our Branch) to bring a food order to a disabled man in his ward. The other couple called and said they were tied up getting a couple of elders established in a new apartment (buying furniture, etc) so we picked up President Stanley at the grocery store and took him an hour outside of Georgetown to visit this man. It was a wonderful experience. He has spent his life in a leper colony beginning as a child. When he went to the US for surgery in 1985, missionaries found him and he was baptized. He spent about 3 years in the hospital in the U.S. and then returned to Guyana. He went back to the leper colony and worked there for the rest of his life. He is the first Guyanese to join the church. We spent about 45 minutes visiting with him. He is delightful. The building is really run down – ramshackle by our standards, but inside, it is clean and comfortable. He is teaching a 16 year-old girl how to read and write. She has never been to school because she is too poor. She comes to his apartment and he works with her. He is in his late 70s and is still serving. We fell in love with this man. I also have in the bottom of a box I found in this apartment, some literacy materials. I’m going to take them out to him next week.
2 comments:
I have never done this before. My friend from Lynnwood, WA showed me your blog. I served in Guyana and Trinidad for one year each as a missionary from 2001 to 2003. I went through the photos that you have posted and saw only a couple of people I recognize. President Stanley, who lived near Kitty, Guyana when I was there, and Bro. Ramsey, who lived in Albouystown. I doubt they would remember me. Are you serving in Berbice? or in Georgetown proper? I love the Guyanese and miss them fiercely. I better end this note to keep it short; it I entertain these emotions too much I may end up asking too many questions for an initial contact. I don't know you but I can appreciate the service you are doing. I know it is especially hard as a couple with so much to stay home for. You have my prayers. (I live in Wenatchee, WA and served under the Van Noys. He assigned me, as a young elder, to work in the primary to teach the children the songs; they had never heard primary songs before then. That still stands as my favorite memory of my mission. If you ask people if they remember me, mention to them that I smiled a lot.)
Dear Jared:
Thanks for your message. We have only been in Guyana for 3 months, but love it. We are CES missionaries so we travel. We have 3 districts to serve, Georgetown, Canje and Suriname so we are in Berbice from time to time. All of the couples are new. The senior couple has been here 8 months. You picked Mahaica to comment - is that because you recognized President Stanley or because you knew Brother Jardine? President Stanley is migrating to New York in early April. We'll miss him. He is very gregarious. The two districts in Georgetown were combined into one district several months before we arrived. They have just opened a Diamond Branch. There is a new building that will be finished on the other side of the Demerara River to serve both Vreed-en-Hoop and Patentia. I can't ask if people remember you because they won't know "Greg" even if you smiled a lot.
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