Trinidad and Tobago
So finally we are on the plane from Caracas after all the crazy that was Venezuela, and then the dreaded announcement “can everyone please go back to their seats and put on their safety belts, we need to make an emergency landing”, tum tum tum. No not true. Actually our flight was very chill, the only excitement was to have English air hostess again. The first leg of our flight took us to Trinidad that has a big airport. The second leg of our flight went to Georgetown Guyana, but the flight was delayed with 2 hours and that meant we had time to go out of the airport. So we got our passports stamped and out we went, out of the door, took a photo and went back into the airport and spent some time oogeling at stuff in the the duty free zone, much to the excitement of the girls on the team when they found Cadbury chocolate. And then on the plane to Guyana
The amazing link up
So there we were in Guyana airport, not knowing anyone there or having a place to go. So the travel team started asking around on how we can get to a backpackers or similar, and when I wanted to draw money I were informed that there is only one bank in Georgetown that we will be able to draw, so add without money to the list. Max and me were speaking to a man that were waiting to be picked up and just after he left Arthur comes to us with a one of the airport transport men, Rauul. Rauul was asked earlier by our travel team how much to get to town and where can we stay and that we don't have the kind of money that were asked, but then he heard Arthur play guitar and sing Afrikaans worship songs, went to ask Arthur if we are a Christian group and then he phoned his pastor to ask if the church could help us out. All without us knowing a thing. Then Rauul came to us and told us that he can take 2-3 of us to see his pastor at church that is 5 minutes away from the airport. So 3 of us went, met pastor Deoram and told him what we are about and what we are doing there and found out what they are doing. Then pastor Deo said ok, they will take us in and that we can sleep in the church that night and that they have a few things for us to do, and if Rauul wife Denise will make us dinner, so before we knew it and without us doing anything we had a place to stay, dinner and most important a church to link in. That evening as we spoke to pastor Deo and Rauul and the significances of what happened became mind-blowing, Rauul does not normally go to the airport for the flight that we came in but his wife sent him to the airport since she felt that he should go. Pastor Deo does not live that close to church and he only comes in on Wednesdays for a bible study, and if our flight was not delayed by 2 hours we would have gotten there to early also, there were so many things that worked together so we could meet them, it is really mind-blowing how God wove it all together. That evening we had more time with pastor Deo and we found out a bit more of what he and the church does, that they are part of the Full Gospel Fellowship, a local church group with about 120 churches of which he is overseeing 19, he is also part of the missionary training base where he lives and oversees a safe home for abused girls. Talk about finding someone with a wide ministry that we can link that week and send future teams to.
The ministry
So 2 hours after touchdown in our 4th country in 4 days we were all systems go. And after our session with pastor Deo we had divine dinner number 1 of a few at Denise and Rauul. The next day some of our team went to a school, and we did a youth meet that evening. The next day we went to the Hararoni missionary training base where we met and shared a bit with the students and that afternoon our time started at the girls home where we spend the next 2 days. The girls home was a difficult place for me due to the nature of it and the feeling of oppression that was there due to the situation the girls came from. The girls in our team had some time to spend with them and speak into their lives and it was good to see some breakthrough after the 2 days. I was lucky to spend most of the Saturday in the kitchen with Diann, a qualified social worker who did the bible school at the Hararoni base 20 years earlier and have been in missions and social work since then and was starting to help out at the home just a few weeks earlier and was helping with the cooking for the weekend we were there. It was good having a place to hide from the girls and to hear some of her stories and pick up a few more cooking tips. The Sunday it was back the church in Timirhi were we let the service the morning and Sunday school that afternoon (and I got to open up a hairy coconut). The evening we had an open session at church just to minister as we felt let. The last 2 days we had a chill time to take a breath in the team, we got a tour of Georgetown from Rauul and Denise on the Monday and we got time to spend some time with pastor Deo on the Tuesday that was also very good. Then our time was up in Guyana and we got on the plane to Barbados.
Provision
I don't like to make a big deal of God's provision under normal circumstances since we should not be focusing on the things God gives, but on the people that we are given. And if the focus is on stuff and not the people the focus is wrong, but I want to write the below as testimony. So we went into Guyana with 25 USD cash and some money in our bank account for the week. But what we found out during our first day there is that we could not pull money from any of the banks and that we will need to pay 20 USD exit fee per person (11 of us thus 220 USD) to leave the country. So beside not being able to leave the country we would also be unable to pay for food or lodgings even if we had the money in the bank, but that is where God stepped into the picture. During our whole week there we were hosted with people inviting us to come eat, or bringing us food, people not knowing our situation and not even part of the church or training base, but people living next door or friends of Rauul that brings us bananas, coconuts paw paws, we even got ice cream twice. And the last 3 days people also kept giving us cash so in the end we had enough for the exit fee and some more. The cherry on the cake was the last day we were invited to go eat dinner at a couple that just moved back to Guyana from Barbados. On the way there Seeta asked us where we are staying in Barbados and where we are going, since our only contact in Barbados had been quite we did not have any place to stay or an idea of what we will be doing. When we were eating they came to us and told us that we could go stay in their house in Barbados that they are still in the process of moving out of and they spoke to their friend Sybil and she will go pick us up at the airport and take us there ect. To add more the house is on a property with a shop that they own but are renting out and they spoke to the renters and got us 250 USD credit at the shop to use for food. So basically free food and lodgings in Barbados the day before we left and a link to the church they use to attend in Barbados.
Journey of humbleness
Guyana for me was a time of sitting back and marvelling at how God puts things together when you are walking in His will. The amazingly complex plan God has and how he wants us to reach people, and I just had to stand back in wonder. I could not help but laugh in pure joy that first night and stand in awe and bring all honour and praise to God for what He has done, all glory be unto Him. Once we got landed in Guyana it was also as if the intense weight of intercession that pressed on me during our time in Santa Martha and Venezuela was lifted and I could start reading my bible again. After a few days of being a bit sick and feeling a bit disconnected I was able to take up my journey of the life of Elisha again, but also a want to focus on Revelations was put in me. And God started to take me on a journey on revealing a bit more to me of who He is and how BIG He is and and what the glory, honour and praise is due to Him. To be honest it is in part to humble me and show me that there is no place left for pride in me.
F