Martha and I winged our way from the United States to Guyana, South America on Tuesday, January 30. Five weeks later, we flew back to the USA on March 6.
During our 2018 visit to Guyana, we conducted simultaneously a workshop on “Back to the Bible” and a seminar on “How We Got the Bible.” The workshop was intended to edify and encourage Christians throughout the country, and especially the seminar was for enriching the knowledge base of preachers and teachers. Both teaching forums were hosted by various congregations throughout nine of the ten regions in the nation. Our modes of travel once inside Guyana included car, buses, small planes, a ferry and water taxis.
A hearty “Thank You” is due to brother Nigel Milo who arranges and directs the program annually. He also is one of the three speakers. Brother Thomas George and I were the other two speakers, and Martha had occasions during which she taught ladies’ classes. Brother George is a highly competent and diligent, as well as a humble, servant of God. We couldn’t have had a better companion for bringing about the workshops and the seminars than him. I believe that he and I established a good friendship. He and I also entered into a working relationship where brother Thomas George will mentor 16 small, remotely isolated churches of Christ among Amerindians. (He will be doing all of the work, actually.)
Some of the places to which we went with the Gospel this year included Lethem, Paramakatoi, Port Kaituma, Hosororo, Matthew’s Ridge, Kildonan, Kitty, Enmore, the Essequibo coast and Linden. We passed through such illustrious sounding named villages as Now or Never, Land of Canaan, and Garden of Eden.
The hospitality was grand, particularly at our base in Linden in the home of the Milos. Our strategy has always been and remains to major in edification and minor in evangelism, both thrusts being necessary to result in a spiritual harvest (1 Corinthians 3:6). We think that we achieved our goal this year, too; and we are already planning for 2019 workshops and seminars, if our Lord wills.
Included herein are some of the photos from our various venues. In addition, pictures and videos are available at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008025647862 Thank you for making it possible for Martha and me to help encourage and edify our precious Guyanese brothers and sisters.
Upon our return from a mission trip in three Asian countries, preceded by a mission trip of two weeks in South America, Martha and I found ourselves wearily entering into the Thanksgiving holiday. We flew into Florida and promptly drove to Mississippi, where we were joined by my daughter Rebecca. Later after a few days at the office, Martha and I returned to Florida, where we enjoyed Christmas holidays with my three children as well as one of Martha’s sons, his wife and their three children.
Recently, Martha and I traveled once more this year to Guyana, South America—this time for two weeks. Whereas earlier this year we conducted a workshop for six weeks in all 10 regions of that nation for all interested brethren, on this occasion I taught seminars in eight regions—a World Evangelism Expedited Course—for church leaders and workers. The subject for 2017 was “Bible Geography & Sacred History.” A goodly number of brothers and sisters in Christ participated. The following bulleted points summarize the event as it unfolded.
Saturday, September 2, 2017: Travel Day
Thursday, September 7, 2017—Industry Church of Christ
Tuesday, September 12, 2017—Bath Settlement Church of Christ
I worked on 
Aside from the uplifting and gratifying program, there were some minor abrasions obtained along the way. Martha was the primary recipient of the injuries, a slight scrap of her arm once in a boat taxi as well as at another time smacking a board with her head. She appears happier in the picture than she was about hurting herself. Fortunately for me, there was a whole room full of witnesses that I did not hit my wife. She seated herself behind a board across two pew packs for a makeshift table to hold the projector. When she leaned down to pick up something from the floor, the corner of the board struck her right between the eyes. The car in which we were riding experienced some abrasions and minor injuries in transit, too.
Upon landing in Lethem and checking into our hotel, I noticed that Martha’s face around her nose had turned purple. She was experiencing some pain also. Evidently, Martha’s injury a few days prior became more discernible all of a sudden, perhaps tied to the nearly two-hour flight over the jungle to Lethem. More ice.
Due to the nature of the program, Martha did not have as much opportunity to teach this time as she did earlier in the year. However, she did teach, and additionally, Martha had substantial interaction with sisters in Christ throughout our travels.
Sister Jasmine, brother Nigel and their son, Zab, hosted us in their home, as they always do. We are thankful for the Milos and their hospitality annually. Brother Milo is a tireless and an effective evangelist. He directs our workshops and seminars, and Nigel is truly responsible for any successes in which we participate. Of course, we are indebted to the fine brethren stateside who make our journeys and efforts possible in the first place. Thanks.
Wednesday, March 1 was seminar #15, hosted by the Ruimveldt Church of Christ in Georgetown, Guyana, South America. About 20 from Linden, including Martha and me, attended that workshop, besides members from every other congregation in the area assembled with the brethren of the Ruimveldt congregation from 5 p.m. to after 7 p.m. Brother Nigel Milo and I presented lessons to all in attendance, and then, upon dividing, Martha taught the women while I taught the men. Despite losing electrical power temporarily—really not knowing for how long we would be without it—we prepared to press on. However, the electric was restored.
We were well received expressions of appreciation, not only for the night’s program, but also for the books and tracts that I have been shipping to Guyana and that have been distributed to the churches of Christ throughout Guyana. One brother had my tract, “The One True Church,” taped to the outside of his Bible, and another Christian had a tract by J.C. Choate taped to his Bible.
Thursday, Martha and I joined the Sunshiners group, to which we had been invited to tag along, and 15 of us traveled to a park some distance out of Linden. The Sunshiners are “mature” Christians who get together once monthly for devotionals, a meal, snacks and games. Martha and I each had our turn to present a lesson. Of course, Martha spoke to the Christian ladies in the absence of Nigel and me—the rest were women.
Friday February 24, throughout the day, I worked relentlessly on The Voice of Truth International, volume 92. Though I much prefer working with the alphabet over working with numbers, immersed in proofing and layout all day non-stop, nevertheless, leads to extreme dreariness. It was a relief of sorts that evening when Nigel Milo, Martha and I boarded the Toyota and headed toward our next World Evangelism Nationwide Guyana Workshop. At Georgetown, we took a left to cross the Demerara Harbour Bridge. Guyanese know what rivers are, and the Demerara is a good specimen of a real “river”—one and a quarter miles wide. The bridge spanning the Demerara River is a floating (i.e., anchored on barges) toll bridge with a peaked portion to permit small watercraft to cross beneath it and an additional retractable section to grant passage to larger river traffic (e.g., freighters).
On the other side and not far from crossing the river, we proceeded to lodge at a “resort hotel” in preparation for continuation in the early morning (just a few hours later) onward toward Lima Sands, Guyana on the other side of mammoth Essequibo River—20 miles wide at its mouth!
Friday night was a restless one for Martha and me as we made use of the modest accommodations (hot water not included). Noisy roomers adjacent our quarters and light leaks over the wall between the two rooms, from the hallway and above the curtains only contributed to our anxiousness as we awaited our 3:30 a.m. alarm to rouse us in anticipation of our 4 a.m. departure.
Saturday, Brother Nigel drove the remaining 30 minutes or so to Parika, a river port on the eastern bank of the Essequibo River. By 5:10 a.m., we were aboard a car ferry as pedestrians and on our way for the approximately one hour transit across the big river, weaving through a sprinkling of islands. After disembarking and selecting a taxi, we headed over an hour away to Lima Sands, reachable for the last many minutes with extreme care over a muddy, rutty, gouged and grooved sand road.
Doubtless, daily rains hampered travel for all attendees. Eventually, the little church building literally overflowed with Christian brothers and sisters. People were seated on the porch and in the yard, too! Attendance by several congregations swelled the attendance to over 100.
Nigel, Martha and I presented lessons; Martha spoke to the ladies for the last hour. The program was punctuated with a lunch and snacks also. Brethren appreciated the program and look forward to repeating it next year, Lord willing, at a sister church in the area.
Making a few stops along the way, we retraced our path back to Linden. We arrived, completely exhausted, about 8:30 p.m.
Sunday back in Linden, we worshipped once more with the Amelia’s Ward Church of Christ. Again, I taught the morning Bible class in the auditorium, and then, I preached during the evening worship assembly.
Saturday we completed 14 of the 16 scheduled programs at the various venues. Two more sites this week will complete the nationwide workshop for 2017. However, there remain some locations on which we are waiting to hear back about even more seminars before Martha and I return to the USA on March 9.
There is no better “tired” than being tired for the Lord and in His service. Personally, I’m planning on resting when I’m dead!
Monday, February 20 was another day that the Lord has made, and Martha Lynn and I tried to use it wisely and effectively. Finally, I was able to complete and publish the January 2017 edition of Gospel Gazette Online to the Internet. (Tuesday, I made corrections to it that my daughter Rebecca came across as she proofed it.) Martha and I set up our mobile office on the Milo dining room table and did not accompany brother Nigel and sister Jasmine along with other church members as they went out into the community with the Word of God—as they do Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week. We stayed behind to try to catch up on some of our office duties, which were hindered somewhat by our forays to all 10 regions (states) of Guyana over the past four weeks. (Two weeks remain for our efforts this year in Guyana.)
After lunch, brother Nigel, Martha and I set out on a 4-hour road trip to the community of Rose Hall, Guyana, South America. Brethren from several congregations of the Lord’s church assembled in the meetinghouse of the Williamsburg Church of Christ. The building sits on the main road, unlike most of the sites where Christians assemble in the venues to which we have gone lately; sometimes in some places, especially in the interior of the country, there is no road at all!
Nigel and I spoke one lesson each to the combined group of attendees before splitting into classes for men and women, whereupon I taught the men and Martha taught the women. This was one of those occasions in which far more sisters in Christ had come versus the number of men present. The same was true formerly from time to time when Bonnie and I traveled to various places in several countries. I’m pleased that God is served and glorified while brethren are edified, even if my wife headlines and I happen to be the opening act, to borrow terminology from the so-called entertainment industry. To God be the glory!
By the way, Martha happened on another, younger version of Martha. I snapped a picture of the two of them together. Especially Martha makes friends everywhere she goes; she is more outgoing than I am or Bonnie was. That’s a good thing. Truly, brethren we have not met are only Christian friends to whom we have not been introduced yet.
Nigel and I each taught a couple of lessons, and Martha taught two lessons. Brethren were thankful for our presence and requested that we return again next year and spend more hours with them, during which we could present even more teaching from God’s Word.
Monday, February 13 came early at 2:30 a.m. in Linden, Guyana, South America for Martha Lynn and me. We hadn’t been in bed probably more than two and a half hours. To say we were less than rested would be a huge understatement.
Ambling down the outside stairs from the Milo living quarters, brother Nigel and we, along with a backpack apiece, settled into his Toyota car for the hour and a half ride to the Ogle airport. However, as it turned out, we arrived about an hour ahead of time to check in, and so we slept in the car to a little past check-in time. Checked in, we deposited ourselves in the “departure lounge,” awaiting our flight in a Cessna Caravan to Port Kaituma. It was at that town’s airstrip and outside of the village that several years ago the Jonestown episode unfolded with the suicide-murder of several hundred misguided religionists.
All three of us snoozed on the 50-minute flight from Ogle to Port Kaituma as the aircraft first climbed into the sky over the Atlantic Ocean before traveling northward along the Guyanese coastline. Then, it turned inland and flew over jungles and forested hills.
Nothing I could say to forewarn Martha could prepare her for what we found upon our arrival. Upon departing from the “airport,” after we registered with the local officials, a local taxied us to our lodging through muddy, boggy craters that passed for the arteries through the community of Port Kaituma. There may be worse roads on planet earth somewhere, but I haven’t found them as yet—and I don’t want to experience such!
As it was last year when I came to Guyana alone, this year we took a room at a small and humble establishment dubbed “The Ranch.” The motto on the sign there says, “Stay & Play.” Certainly, the accommodations and amenities were adequate for our purposes, but don’t anyone be misled by the company motto to imagine that we bedded down in some lush resort. The electric to the community was off, and so there were neither lights to mitigate the darkness were we to shut the door (blacked out window) as we fumbled our way to the toilet nor fan to dull the warmth of the day or stir the air. When the electric did come on is when we found that of the three light sockets in the room, only one had a working bulb in it. We literally borrowed a light bulb from the home of our host Kishore Etwaroo, and we procured a second pillow and a second towel.
Late afternoon and early evening we three along with other brethren assembled at the Estate Church of Christ in Port Kaituma. Martha taught the ladies for two hours, and brother Nigel and I each taught the men an hour apiece. I was so tired that while brother Milo was speaking, I nearly fell off of my plank bench to crash into the seat ahead of me on my way to the rough, concrete floor.
Tuesday morning, after breakfast at the Etwaroo home (we enjoyed their hospitable meals the two days in Port Kaituma), we took a taxi to the port to board the “church bus”—a large boat, since the day’s destination is only accessible from the river. From 9:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m., we three travelers taught classes in the meetinghouse and on the grounds of the Turu Mission Church of Christ. Several congregations were represented, each bringing boatloads of brothers and sisters in Christ from as far away as 22 miles. Attendance was in the neighborhood of 75. It was a full day of fellowship and edification via prayers, singing and biblical lessons. Brethren made a point of thanking us for it all, as well as for The Voice of Truth International and additional literature made available to all of the churches of Christ in Guyana from our World Evangelism base in Winona, Mississippi. Nearly 2,000 pounds of literature awaits my return to the States to haul to a shipping agent in Nashville, Tennessee.
Nigel, Martha and I have a sense of gratification for how these two days in Port Kaituma progressed. We made a concerted effort therein and thereby to glorify God and edify our fellow man. Praise God and may His name only be blessed. Brethren, please continue to pray for us in harness for our Lord Jesus Christ. Tomorrow, we travel by boats up two large rivers as we snake our way through the jungle to our next venue, pausing for a 2-hour seminar along the way. Wednesday night we expect to lodge in Mabaruma, Guyana.
Louis & Martha Rushmore 
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