Travel Diary - Day Fifteen

Day Fifteen – Mission Church

An early start, not because I needed to be anywhere – we didn't need to leave until 10:30am, but everyone else was up and about early. Each week the family makes up 65-70 bread rolls with a cheese spread for the children who come to the service as a part of their helping the community with nutritional needs. Felicia, one of Keith’s daughters, and Patsy, his sister-in-law were busy on the task. I came out and sat and talked with Felicia. She is 23, has completed a law degree and is working as a teacher trying to save to go to England to do her Masters in Human Rights law.

Anyway, we all had breakfast at one point or another – the women don’t seem to eat with the men in this household, something I find somewhat strange. I went to have a shower and get ready and when I came out the women had already left since they run the Sunday School which starts before church. Keith and I sat and talked for a while and eventually a taxi arrived with Brother Patrick, the volunteer pastor I mentioned earlier. We piled in and were off to Sophia Mission Church.

I had been warned about getting to the church and as we got closer I could see why – some of the potholes seemed large enough to lose an entire car and where there was no seal the lumps and bumps were barely navigable. Today was a dry day – we are in the dry season, but it seems to rain on and off reasonably frequently – and so there was no problem getting to the church. The church is a small concrete building with a tin roof. It easily seats 50 people with a reasonable sized stage up the front. At a pinch I would think you could get 80-90 if you really worked at it but it would be tight.

The caretaker lives in a hut next to the church and there is a very ramshackle concoction of corrugated iron surrounding a long-drop on the other side of the church. A small wooden bridge crosses the trench that lies between the road and the church. Airconditioning is via lots of slits in the walls and three large doorways, two of which have doors attached, the other has an iron gate. The floor is concrete and the ceiling is not lined so I can only imagine what it must be like attempting to communicate in there when it is raining. Everything is tidy and well kept and you can tell the people take pride in their place.

The service was built around a couple who were renewing their vows of marriage. From what I could gather it amounted to a wedding service folded into a Sunday service. It was interesting that there were few differences between what we do in a marriage service here in NZ and what seems to be done in Guyana if this was anything to go by.  (No there was no bacon and eggs or pb&j sandwich – I said few differences, not none!) The service does raise something very interesting about this congregation. Unlike most congregations in Guyana – at least as far as I can work out – this congregation has a healthy mix of Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese and AmerIndians – most unusual and another sign that this congregation is most definitely a work of the Holy Spirit.

The service ended with the couple being presented with a cake which they duly cut and a bottle of sparkling grape juice, which once opened – no easy task it seemed – they shared together. The mix of ceremony from around the world was intriguing to watch and it was great to be there. Following that there was a mini-meal served up to everyone that included chickpeas, some Indian bread things, some peas and rice, and some wedding cake. There was also a juice distributed that had heavy lashings of ginger in it. Not bad, and although there wasn’t much on the plate it was definitely filling. That said, I have been eating less and less in the heat so who knows what I would have thought on a cold day J.

Following the meal everyone stood around and talked. As we were talking a young girl, at least she looked young, brought her baby forward to be prayed for by the Pastor. Rev Keith finished praying for the child and then the girl indicated very firmly although I couldn’t understand what she was saying, that she wanted me to pray for the child too. That was nice. As with everywhere else we’ve been in Guyana there was plenty of handshaking all around as people came up to say hello and gradually everything quietened down as people left to go home. A taxi arrived for us and we were off back to Kitty, the area where I am staying.

The afternoon was quiet, just some conversation with Keith and then I went into my room, lay down to read for a while and promptly fell asleep. When I awoke I came out and started naming my photos. That took a couple of hours and about half-way through Felicia came down and told me she was going to the bank and then to night church. I figured it might be my only chance to have a look and asked if I could go. She made a few excuses and I promptly felt bad for putting her on the spot and then she was off. I finished my photos and then sat down to read for a while.

All of a sudden Keith called to me and told me that Felicia had rung him, she had finished with the bank and was coming back to pick me up and take me to night church. Cool! I got changed back into some vaguely decent clothes and when she arrived we called a taxi and we were off. We were heading to an AOG congregation in the middle of town and just before we got there we came across what appeared to be a street demonstration of some kind. All the cars were backing out of the street and looking for another way around. We did three sides of the block and got out to find that the church was empty. Turned out the street demonstration was the church having its service on the street. We wandered along the road to see what was going on and stood and watched for a while. Mostly it was eerily similar to Petecostal services around the world. And then the ‘Evangelist’ stood up to speak and I’m telling you, everything you’ve seen on the movies is true. This guy was so like what they show on TV that I have no words for it. I tried to record some of it but I’m not sure yet how it came out. Amazing!

We both got bored after a while – you can only take so much of that sort of thing if you’re not used to it – and decided to go for a walk. We headed in the general direction of the centre of the city. As we went we talked about all sorts of aspects of Guyana, church, teaching and whatever. We stopped off and bought some fish and chips at what is apparently the best f&c shop in Georgetown. The fish was excellent, can’t say the same for the chips.

We then caught two busses, one to Starbroek Market and from there to the Seawall. There we sat and ate the fish and talked – well mostly I listened – about teaching. For someone who wants to be a lawyer she is one of the best teachers I have ever met and I haven’t even seen her teach. She has a heart for the kids that doesn’t come along very often. It would be a real pity if she goes off to do law. But that has nothing to do with me so there we go.

Of course the real irony of the evening was that we did pretty much all the things I have been told not to do – walking around Georgetown after dark, going to the Seawall with only one other person, and after dark as well. Goodness!! I’m lucky to be alive J. That said, it was a most pleasant evening and I learnt a lot about Guyana that would have been most difficult to pick up otherwise. When we got back to the house we sat and talked with Keith for another hour or so about all sorts of things. A thoroughly good way to end the day.