Fifty-one Americans worked in Guyana, South America, under the direction of Partners In Progress. A medical clinic was conducted for 5 days at the Bagotville Community Center with the assistance of the Nismes church of Christ. Two thousand sixty-eight patients were examined and treated. Nearly every patient was taught the Gospel and given religious literature. Hundreds of Bibles were distributed. Attendance at the nightly preaching services grew from 120 to 306. Fifty-one people obeyed the Gospel.

A detailed account of this mission follows:

A day or two prior to the team's departure, American Airlines shipped our medical and teachings supplies to Georgetown, Guyana. At 4:30 on Saturday morning, 7 June, forty-nine team members arrived at the Fort Smith airport. We were quite pleased that the airline had arranged a special flight with a larger plane to accommodate the entire team so we would not have to fly on separate planes to Dallas-Fort Worth. In Dallas we divided into two groups for flights to Miami.

At the Miami airport most of us ate lunch at Burger King. We boarded our British West Indies Airline plane which was scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. departure. After sitting onboard for 2 hours, we were forced off the plane because of an intercom malfunction. About 5:30 p.m. we were sent to a distant departure gate and were finally able to depart Miami about 6:30 p.m. We changed planes in Trinidad and arrived in Guyana very late. The luggage of five people in our group did not arrive till 24 hours later. One person never got his bag.

On the way to our hotel, the truck carrying our supplies and luggage was hit by another vehicle while crossing a bridge. I was finally able to get into bed about 3 a.m. at the Pegasus Hotel in the capital city of Georgetown.

We ate breakfast together at 9 a.m. at the hotel, then left for the village of Nismes at 10:15. There we met with the Nismes church of Christ in the Bagotville Primary School. Bible class was taught by Brad Pistole. Roy Dunavin presented the sermon.

We left Nismes in 4 vans about 1 p.m. and returned to our hotel in Georgetown. There we had lunch for $6 per person. All other meals at the hotel were included with the room.

Many team members took a nap Sunday afternoon. At 6 p.m. we were honored with a reception hosted by the hotel managers. We ate supper at 6:30. Our evening devotional began at 7:45. Following a lengthy orientation by Steve DeLoach, we separated medical from personal workers. These two groups discussed those issues most pertinent to them, then dismissed about 10 p.m. Everyone was encouraged to get lots of sleep.

The usual morning schedule was breakfast at 7 a.m., immediately followed by a short devotional. We departed the hotel in 4 vans at 8:00 and arrived at the clinic site about 8:30.

On Monday we set up our clinic in the Bagotville Community Center and started seeing our first patients by 10:30. Patients were seen upstairs after Bible studies were conducted downstairs. Bagotville is the village before Nismes on the road to the left just across the Demerara River bridge. The Christians of the Nismes church of Christ assisted us (or, depending on your point of view, we assisted them) in doing Bible studies and in providing medical care.

We staggered lunch breaks each day at the clinic. We ate whatever we brought with us from the States. The temperature the first day in the clinic reached 88F. Other days were not quite that hot. Partners In Progress provided us with soft drinks and ice water in the break room at the clinic.

Each afternoon we would have to fully pick up the clinic area and secure our supplies. The fourth van left the clinic around 3:30 each afternoon. We would eat supper at the hotel at 5:30. At 6:30 p.m. we left for the preaching service, called a crusade in Guyana. We arrived about 7:00 and would sing for awhile before the preaching began. We had our meetings in the same big room that we used for the clinic earlier in the day. By the final evening we had standing room only. We would usually be back at our hotel about 8:45 p.m. Some evenings we would have all the fresh pineapple we could eat.

Angelique Cole and Julia Henderson, with help from various other young people, took all children between 4 and 10 years old to a room downstairs for a vacation Bible school. There were 30 kids the first night and 132 the last night.

Beginning the second day we daily sent different groups of Bible teachers (mostly teens) to 3 local schools where they would conduct vacation Bible schools. One met in mid-morning, one in the late morning, and one in early afternoon. All children were invited to come to the evening classes and bring their parents to the crusade.

On Tuesday our fourth van crossed the Demerara River just before the bridge closed. It was already 84F when we arrived at the clinic site at 8:30 a.m. Since we had to recreate the clinic, we were not able to see our first patient until about 9:30.

Culture shock kept one of our teens at the hotel on Tuesday. She went to the evening crusade at my insistence and helped teach the children. Another of our teens was experiencing considerable stress due to the daytime teaching expectations. Before the week was over, though, both were working hard and effectively doing the jobs assigned to them.

On Wednesday everyone in the group went to the clinic. We were so busy, we pulled a couple of our teens (who plan to go to medical school someday) out of Bible studies to help take patient vital signs. Also, we borrowed a couple other teens to help with eye glass fitting.

Wednesday evening many were able to send e-mail messages to friends and family in the States. On Thursday evening several in our group received e-mail messages from home. This use of e-mail was a first for West-Ark's seven trips to Guyana. During our first trip in 1991, it was very expensive and almost impossible to make a phone call to the States.

Our last clinic day was Friday, 13 June. We were able to see all the patients waiting that day before we had to pack up and leave. When we departed we were held up by the bridge for some time, but still arrived back at the hotel about 4 p.m.

We had provided medical care or eye glasses to 2,068 patients in five days. The patient load ranged from 234 the first day to 510 the final day. Every person was invited to study the Bible while waiting for the doctor. Nearly all did. We witnessed 51 baptisms during the week. Most were immersed in a portable baptistry fashioned from a common Guyanese plastic water tank.

On Friday at 7 p.m. our team left for the airport where we had a charter flight to Grenada. After a very busy week, we enjoyed ourselves Saturday on this Caribbean island by sightseeing, snorkeling, swimming, and shopping. After meeting for Communion at 5:30 Sunday morning we departed for the airport for our return to Fort Smith.

We give God the glory for all things He accomplished through our efforts during the week we spent in Guyana.