Twenty-four members of the West-Ark church of Christ spent a week in Guyana, South America. Several personal workers from Mayfield, KY, assisted us. We set up a clinic at a community called DeKenderen Plantation near the village of Meeten-Meer-Zorg, where a small congregation of the Lord's church meets. Nearly all of the 1,663 people who were given medical, dental, or eye care were taught one-on-one the Gospel of Christ while they were waiting to be treated. Prior to our coming most of these people knew little or nothing about Jesus and His church. Roy Dunavin and others preached to hundreds of people each night at the clinic site. One hundred sixteen people responded to the saving message of the New Testament and were baptized at DeKenderen. Jeff Sorrells and Vince Payne taught several of the employees at our hotel in the capital city of Georgetown, and 4 of them were baptized. A team from Birmingham, AL, simultaneously conducted a clinic at the village of Pouderyon where they treated 1,650 people and had 48 baptisms. This brought the total to 168 people who had their sins washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ during the week through the efforts of 70 American Christians working at the two clinic sites. Everyone worked cooperatively, enthusiatically, energetically, and lovingly throughout the entire trip. We appreciate the family members who stayed behind in the States, but allowed and encouraged their loved ones to go. Please let us all remember to continue to pray for the church in Guyana, especially for those converted because American Christians have a genuine concern for the lost. Above all we give God the glory, and praise Him for giving us the ability and opportunity to accomplish such great service in His Kingdom.

A detailed account of this mission follows:

The trip to Guyana and the work there went smoother than we anticipated. We flew out of Fort Smith about 6 AM on Saturday, 6 June. There were 26 people flying on one plane and 1 flying on another. The preacher going with us was first told he would not be able to get on with us, but they convinced a passenger not in our group to fly later. The 26 of us got to Miami without any further problems.

The one fellow who flew by himself is a story worth telling. His name is Vince Payne. Vince and his wife Greta were baptized last fall after searching for years for a church teaching the truth. While studying with a Baptist preacher last fall, they asked him a question and didn't like his answer. This Baptist preacher told them that based on their understanding of the Scriptures they ought to contact someone at the Church of Christ. Not long after they did, they were both baptized. Since January our congregation is helping them go to International Bible College. When they came home from college, Vince asked if there were any way possible that he could go to Guyana with us. Since he didn't have a passport, I thought it wasn't worth the trouble to try at such a late date. (It generally takes 10 to 15 days to get a passport and about 7 to 14 days to get a Guyana visa. It took over 2 months to get a visa for one couple in our group.) However, in spite of the odds, Vince wanted to try his best to go. The money wasn't a problem due to the airlines dropping prices and the group got enough of a refund to pay Vince's entire way.

Vince tried for three days just to get his passport application accepted at the post office. He didn't have any kind of I.D. with his picture on it. I am still not certain what he did to get such a thing. I wrote a letter for him, hoping he might get a passport faster if we explained why it was important to hurry. He mailed the papers on Thursday, 21 May, and got his passport back on Sunday, only 3 days later. On Tuesday, he got his application in the mail for a Guyana visa, which was returned by the weekend. At this point we were convinced that the Lord intended for him to go.

I was not eager to let Vince fly on a different airline from the rest of the group. But the plane was full that the rest of us were taking (actually, overbooked, we learned later). Vince had never flown before.

When we reached the baggage claim area in Miami, I was paged and given a message from Vince to call him in Memphis. When I called he told me that the weather had delayed his arrival into Memphis and he missed his connecting flight. There was no way he could leave Miami with the rest of us.

We met up with 43 other people in Miami and left in the early afternoon. After discussing the situation with Bill McDonough, Partners In Progress director, I sent a message to Vince that he would get in Atlanta when he changed planes there. We left his international airline ticket at the British West Indies Airline (BWIA) check-in counter in Miami. We were told that it would be nearly impossible for Vince to arrive in Guyana before Monday. I hated leaving the U.S. without everyone from West-Ark. We all thought that we wouldn't blame Vince a bit if he turned around and went back home to Arkansas.

After arriving in Miami late Saturday afternoon, Vince went to BWIA's check-in counter as instructed. There he was told that his ticket was at the gate, but he would have to go get his suitcase from his last flight first, and that it was unlikely that he could catch this plane going to Guyana. He ran to get his bag, but couldn't find it. He told them to just send it on to Guyana whenever it arrived. He then ran to the gate to board the BWIA plane, found no one there, so ran out the connecting ramp and got onto the plane just before they closed the doors. When he got on they said that they had sent his ticket back to the check-in counter as they were sure that he wouldn't make this flight. He did some fast talking and convinced them to let him fly on that plane, the last one going from Miami to Guyana till Monday. They warned him that when he got to Trinidad to change planes that it would be impossible to fly onward without the ticket. He told them he would worry about that in Trinidad. (Needless to say, the man does not understand, or believe in, "impossible.")

In Trinidad he had incredible problems indeed without a ticket. They made it clear to him that they could not just keep letting him hop on airplanes and fly around the world without a ticket. Since he could not stay in Trinidad, he talked and talked until they let him on the plane to Guyana. He called me at the hotel at 6:20 Sunday morning. I was shocked that he was in Guyana. He wanted to know how to get to the hotel from the airport, but without waiting to see what I could arrange, he asked a cab driver what it would cost to take him to Georgetown to the hotel. When Vince was told that it would cost $20 (U.S.), he complained that it was too high. Instead, he took a bus for $2. He called me from the front desk of the hotel about 7:30. I went out to help him get a room, but was told that it would be in the afternoon before one would be free. In the meantime, someone came up, excited to see Vince made it, and told us that Vince's suitcase was in their room. I learned that Vince's bag arrived at the airport when our group did, but it is still a mystery how it did! I walked Vince to the room where his suitcase was and they let him take a shower and get ready for church.

That is more than enough of the details of Vince's travels. It is such a fascinating story, that it will be repeated for years to come. The director of Partners In Progress stated that he wished he could figure a way to get all of us to Guyana without tickets. Those of us who have much experience with flying continue to be amazed that Vince was able to fly from Miami to South America without a ticket in hand, never having been on a plane nor been out of the U.S. before.

The original 69 of us arrived at the hotel in Guyana in time to get to bed about 2 AM Sunday. Most of us went to breakfast together at the hotel on Sunday morning. Staying together as a big group, we all walked about a mile to church where services started at 10 AM. With so little sleep the night before, it surely was difficult to stay awake throughout class and the worship service. We all walked back to the hotel in smaller groups. One of the girls from West-Ark, while walking with 4 others, was attacked by someone trying, but failing, to steal her cheap wristwatch. She screamed and the assailant ran away as quickly as he appeared. She wasn't really hurt, only getting a couple of finger-nail scratches on her arm. (She just graduated valedictorian from her small high school. This was quite an experience in real life for her.)

Sunday afternoon immediately before supper we had a surprise 16th birthday party for one of the girls from West-Ark. Up until that moment she thought she was going to miss out on a party. About a dozen of us did miss the party and almost missed supper. The physicians and a few others went out to the clinic sites Sunday afternoon to figure out how we were going to set them up for business on Monday.

We had 24 members from West-Ark on the trip. We recruited a dentist from Kansas City (the brother of our pharmacist) and a family physician from Tahlequah, OK (who was a classmate of mine at Harding University in the mid-1970's). A teenager from Stillwell, OK, also flew with us out of Fort Smith. He was the boyfriend of one of the girls on our team; they apparently broke up while in Guyana. The dentist recruited a dental assistant from Kansas City, but she did not fly with us till we reached Miami. Nine personal workers from Mayfield, KY, worked with us at our clinic every day. That made 37 people working at our clinic. There were 3 doctors, a dentist, and a nurse, who works for an ophthalmologist in Fort Smith, who fitted eyeglasses. We had 5 other nurses, one of which mostly did personal work. We had a pharmacist and a lab tech. Our dentist worked at the other team's clinic on Friday. He pulled 390 teeth in 5 days.

Our clinic was at a community called DeKenderen (also known as DeKenderen Plantation). It is near the village of Meeten-Meer-Zorg. The church had recently moved to DeKenderen from Meeten-Meer-Zorg because they located a place there in which to meet. We turned their meeting house into a clinic shortly after arrival on Monday morning. The Sunday we arrived in Guyana there were 36 in attendance at their worship service. We had 116 baptisms at DeKenderen during the five days of our clinic. We treated 1,663 patients. Nearly every patient studied the Bible with a personal worker prior to being treated. I averaged seeing around 100 patients daily, from about 8:30 AM till about 4 PM, except on Friday, when we had to close up about an hour early. Each personal worker studied with 6 to 12 people daily. I think every one of our personal workers participated in converting at least one person. It averages out to over 4 conversions for every personal worker.

A group from Birmingham, AL, brought 27 people. There were 5 people on the trip that were not connected with Birmingham, Fort Smith, or Mayfield. These 5 worked all week at the clinic helping the Birmingham group at a village called Pourdorine. Birmingham's Homewood congregation apparently sponsors the local minister there. This is the same village where they worked last year when they had 40 baptisms. I was concerned that they would not do so well this year. However, they saw 1,650 patients and had 48 baptisms. They plan to return to this same village next year. (These village clinics help build the small churches and give them more credibility and respectability in a community.)

Pourdorine was only about 20 minutes from our hotel. DeKenderen was about 45 minutes from the hotel. We rode out there twice daily. After supper we would go back out for a gospel meeting, which the local people called a crusade. By Friday we were happy to be finished with cramming so many people into the vans each morning and night.

The "auditorium" for this congregation at DeKenderen was much too small for all of us so we met under the house on the ground level. Kerosene lanterns were used the two or three nights there was no electricity. Most of us from the States stood up through the entire service each night as there was no place left for us to sit.

We had one local fellow who kept showing up drunk at the clinic and services. He was very big and strong and would often be quite disruptive. Being a little guy, I let the larger men on the trip keep him under control. No one in the village seemed to like him, and everyone was a bit afraid of him.

The dentist on our trip used to sing with Harding University's Chorus and was an excellent song leader. He and 7 others "performed" for us two of the nights, mostly to teach some new songs and let the locals hear 4-part harmony. The teenager from Stillwell and one of the men from Mayfield led the kids in VBS type songs on two nights. We gave away candy to the kids each night after service, but by Thursday night the kids were getting too wild about it. I think everyone just left the remaining candy with the local preacher on Friday night for him to use for Sunday school.

The area we were working in mostly grew sugar cane and some rice. We really missed getting dozens of pineapples like we did last year. We did manage to get several pineapples as well as order them at the hotel to eat. Many of us especially enjoyed the fruit salad that they served at the hotel in a hollowed-out pineapple half. Also, the pineapple sherbert was good.

The hotel had made many improvements since last year. We no longer had to go to the bar each night for a Coke. We were able to sit about the pool or in a quaint, air-conditioned cafe. Many went swimming, even at night. With my wife along this year I tended to socialize a bit more and averaged getting to bed about an hour later than I had last year. I became much more fatigued on the trip and had more trouble getting rested up after returning to the States this year.

Coming back from services our first night out, we had a flat tire about 5 or 10 minutes away from DeKenderen. It was dark and we were in the last van. Fortunately, the driver had a spare. However, he didn't have a jack. We all climbed out and lifted the van while the driver changed the tire. It was much heavier than I thought it would be. It was essential that we get across the bridge before 9:30 PM or else we would have to wait till it opened back up at sunrise. We did not enjoy the thought of spending the night away from the safety of our hotel. The next day when we told the story, we claimed that the women wouldn't get out and we had to lift the van with them in it! That got lots of laughs except from the women who helped lift the van.

Friday while we were there was a Moslem holiday. They sacrificed a cow or bull at each mosque in memory of Abraham's near-sacrificing of his son. One of the vans in our group stopped at a mosque and took pictures, but left before they sacrificed the cow.

There are many more Hindus than Moslems. I have wondered what the Hindus thought about these cows being killed. There were cattle wandering all over the place wherever they desired. The drivers had to constantly be especially careful to avoid hitting a cow on the highway.

We were quite disappointed that the study guides that the personal workers used were not available to us this year. There was supposed to be a study guide to send home with every person with whom we studied. Somehow, these booklets did not get sent to Guyana with us. We also had problems with not having all the supplies and medicines we expected from Partners In Progress. Hopefully, we have learned that if we do this again next year, we will take EVERY thing that our team will need.

We took and distributed 250 New Testaments. We took about 2000 of the tracts that I wrote. The doctors and dentist gave one to every patient (or family) we saw. Had it not been for the tracts, we would not have had any biblical literature to send home with people. We shared hundreds of the tracts with the other clinic to use.

On Saturday, we had a free day to see Georgetown. Most of the group from West-Ark walked to several shops in the morning under the guidance of some local Guyanese (most were Christians). We even went to the market that last year we were told was too dangerous to visit. (When one of the waitresses at the hotel heard we were planning to go there, she told us that even she was afraid to go to these markets.) After lunch most of us from West-Ark took two separate vans and went to the zoo and a few other places.

By accident the two vans met up at the Anglican church. It is the tallest free-standing wooden structure in the world. I am still not quite certain how we managed it, but we all got to sing together in this cathedral. The sound was incredible! It was truly one of the best moments of the trip.

After leaving the cathedral about 6 or 7 of us returned to the market just before it closed, mostly because I had too much foreign currency that my wife thought we should spend. We bought a pair of gold earrings worth 3 or 4 times what we paid for them. By the time we left, the market was closing down.

Many in the group did not go to bed at all on Saturday night. Vince Payne and another fellow from Fort Smith studied late into the night with several hotel employees, baptizing 4 of them in the pool. We had to leave the hotel at 2:30 AM. Most of us met for a Communion service at 2 AM. That service was one of the high points of the trip.

We had much more trouble checking in at the airport than we did last year. They would not let us check in as a group. The director of Partners In Progress had returned to the States 2 days earlier, so 3 of us had to do his job. We did not know the right people with whom to talk. We had equally as much trouble getting through customs with the system seeming very peculiar. I was the last one to get on the plane, over 3 hours from when we started at the airport. On the tarmac I had to point out every piece of luggage that belonged to our group from Fort Smith before they loaded it on the plane. The whole process seemed very confusing and disorganized.

We changed planes in Trinidad without a hitch. In Aruba we were all made to get off the plane and go through U.S. emigration. (We were all surprised there was such a station there.) Several had just enough time to buy a T-shirt with "Aruba" on it.

In Miami we really had no problems, but at the time it seemed quite stressful bringing these medical supplies and drugs back through customs. It was a lot easier last year when someone else was responsible for everyone. We had no significant problems getting everyone on board the plane in Miami though a few in our West-Ark group had seat assignments that were the same as other passengers. Fortunately there were enough extra seats to get us to Dallas.

At the Dallas airport we had one person too many. When they asked for volunteers and bribed us with a travel voucher, the young man from Stillwell, Oklahoma, stayed behind to catch the next flight to Fort Smith, scheduled to arrive about 11 PM. He had commented earlier that he wouldn't mind doing that since he had friends in Dallas that he could even spend the night with if he wanted.