Travel Diary - Day Forty Six

Day Forty Six – Courting Controversy
Wednesday 14 Oct 09

Up and ready to get going bright and early, well early anyway. I think everyone was looking forward to getting on with giving the presentations. As per most of our days here not everything went exactly according to plan but at least we had one thing go our way. We felt we were being dumped on with the morning devotions. The things that have been brought to ponder have either been poorly thought through, or not designed for working together to hear what God is saying. I volunteered to run a Lectio Divina since no-one else knew what it was or how it worked. We used the first few verses from Psalm 18. It went really well and I think it was a wonderful opportunity for all of us to just sit with God and listen together.

From there it became more difficult. In the first instance, Marlon was supposed to arrive early to collect our files for printing. What he hadn’t told us was that he had something else on that morning. Rather than turning up at 7:30 he didn’t arrive until nearly 9 – we were supposed to begin at 9. We settled back to wait, and we waited and waited and then I get a phone call to say that he can’t find my file on the memory stick. BIG Duh! on my part. I had saved it to the wrong place. Eventually he got back and collected my other memory stick, this time with the correct file on it. Unfortunately the process to get the printing done appeared to be just as long the second time as it had the first time. Not helped by the fact that my file was twenty pages long including the title page.

In the end everyone was becoming very edgy so at 11am I suggested that we make a start. Pitoi was ready to go with his presentation and so we gathered everyone together, prayed, and he began. I think Marlon and Kaoma were a little taken aback that we were just getting on with it, but I think it was the right thing to do. It seems to me that one of the things that people in leadership in Guyana need to do is learn to make commitments and then stick to them. The problem of time keeping is something that is constantly going to hold them back because people don’t trust commitments and so don’t trust the results of conversations either. It all just builds, one thing on another until the whole thing collapses under its own weight.

Pitoi’s presentation was a helpful look at what he had experienced on his placements and some of the issues that he felt needed to be addressed. It was a fascinating insight into seeing two very different cultures gazing at each other. I have to admit I probably didn’t hear it all quite as well as I might because I was focussed on getting my stuff together. Marlon arrived part way through Pitoi’s lecture and took over the moderation of the discussion. It turned into quite a long discussion but there seemed to be some good stuff in it. While that went on I was going through my paper, marking where all the powerpoint bullets needed to be. We had a brief break and then it was my turn.

Kelly had made a very big deal about things not taking too long. I had thought long and hard about how I would present, and in the end I decided to make my apologies and simply read my paper. I don’t think I would have been able to get the key points across well enough because everything built, one thing upon another, and I would only need to inadvertently miss one point and things could potentially fall over. Apparently it took me 45 minutes to read my paper – 7000 words is no small undertaking. It was fascinating watching people’s faces as I went through things. The best bit was unveiling the title – ‘The Sexy Church in Guyana: A Fashion Guide for the Discerning.’ There was all sorts of shuffling going on at that point!

Once I was done came the discussion. I was kind of expecting a bit of an uproar from the GCU pastors. First up I got was I was expecting. To be honest I’m still not sure exactly what he said because a good chunk of it was somewhat incoherent. I was asked if I would like to respond and said that since no question had been asked I was happy to leave it alone. That was a really good call, because the rest of the session consisted of people standing up for what I had said. It obviously had some kind of effect because toward the end my critic stood up and said that he didn’t want to be misunderstood for what he had said. Truth is, I’m not sure anyone had understood enough of what he said for it to be misunderstood. I felt somewhat vindicated when, later in the day, he stood up and quoted me in responding to another paper. Listening to a number of the other pastors as they spoke it was clear that what I had shared had struck some chords with people that were resonating through everything else they were thinking about and concerned with.

The rest of the presentations – we did five on Wednesday kind of came and went for me. David did a good one where he compared the Guyanese church with Isaac, condemned to redig his father’s wells. It was a powerful allusion and gave some good insights into some of the things that happen here in Guyana. Without running through the papers again I can’t really remember very much about everything else that was said – I was just a little bit out of puff, well a lot really. We did have a good break after our last presentation and then after dinner some of us went for a walk down the road to get away from the place for a little while and buy some drinks that weren’t bottled water or lemonade. Once we got back we sat around and talked for a little while but I think everyone was pretty bushed. I spent a little while trying to pull together our thank you video for the farewell night but I didn’t even have much for that either. Haven’t slept particularly well while we’ve been here and am getting more and more tired.