Tuesday, September 24, 2013: Worship Symposium Day 1

Today was more chillaxin with sleeping in and relaxing around the Caines' house for much of the day. This morning we had my favorite Guyanese breakfast. Its called a "bake" which is a pastry that, when cooked, puffs up. Then you pry open one end of the pastry, which is hollow inside, and stuff it with anything from meat to eggs to whatever. This morning was a more traditional bake using salt fish stir fried with peppers and onions...delish! We also had fresh pine (pineapple to us Americans) and the small bananas. Pictured below is Tammy helping with making the bake (left) and the breakfast table (right)

During the chillaxin I decided to take a wee bit of a nap. One must, you know, because it is hot and...well...it seemed like the right thing to do...

That evening was the Worship Symposium, Day 1. I spoke about worshipping in Spirit and in Truth. Although the crowd was small, God still got His message to the ones that He wanted. The worship was great and the prayer was awesome. Here are some pictures from tonight...

Clifford on drums

Pastor Caines and I praying a this young man

 Last night after writing yesterday's blog, a lady from next door, Sheri, came over and I got to meet her. Very interesting woman. She is the region counsel in this area and she represents the opposition party to the current party in power in Guyana. I learned a lot about Guyanese politics and how they operate. Needless to say it is not any worse than ours...its not any better but its not any worse.

Monday, September 23, 2013: Chillaxin Day in Georgetown

This morning was a "sleep in" day. Didn't really do too much except for a little ready and some nice conversation. In the afternoon we decided to go into Georgetown and do some shopping and some sight-seeing.

One of the places we visited was St. George's Cathedral. Although the history of this church can be traced back to 1781, the current building, which is the 4th St. George's church, was completed in 1899 and is now designated as a National Monument.  It is one of the tallest wooden structures in the world.

After visiting the church we did a little shopping in the main shopping district. Because we were looking for something specific, we happen to pass by this guy that was selling drinks. The first time we passed by him he just hollered something out to us as we passed by, I didn't pay any attention to him. The second time we passed by him we called out "hey white boy, want to buy something to drink." This time I said no, I was good. The next time we passed by him, he called out "hey American dude, come and buy something to drink." Again I said no, but told Tammy when we pass by him again, I'll buy something from him...and I did. It seemed, however, that total strangers were wanting me to give them the fist-bump greeting, not sure why? To reward ourselves for not spending too much, we went to Bruster's Ice Cream (yes they have that in Guyana). I got a single scoop of coconut chip ice cream...delish!

When we got back to the Caines', we had one of my favorite dishes and one of my favorite drinks...Banana soda and cook-up. Cook-up is a Guyanese dish made of rice cooked in coconut milk, chicken, vegetables/bean, and spices...delish!

Tomorrow is the first day of our 2 day worship symposium. I will be teaching on Worshipping in Spirit and Truth, focusing more on the truth part than the Spirit part. Wednesday will be the second night of the symposium where we will dedicate the whole evening to worship and prayer.

Sunday, September 22, 2013: Sunday Service

It's been an awesome day...its also been a very HOT day, not much of a cool breeze, but it is Guyana in the hot season. Anyway, the day got started off well with church service at Shekinah Worship Center. Worship was great, led by Mahalia and Marie with Lizzy on background vocals, Clifford on keys and Curtley on drums.  After that, Pastor Caines introduced myself and Tammy and then I spoke on the "How's and Why's of Worship...why we do what we do"

My lesson on worship went really well, the people seemed to get more into the message, mainly because I had them "practicing" each form of worship that I discussed, ie clapping, shouting, lifting hands, kneeling, singing, etc.  After church was over we came back to the Caines', had lunch made by Lizzy and Marie (see photo below of Lizzy at the stove), then I took a "5" which Marie calls it. I call it a nap.

We had a service during the evening. It was a DVD, using the new projector, on Love and Sex. It was very good. What is even better is that Pastor Caines is getting many ideas on utilizing the new projector and the new possibilities! Later we went to eat a Marios Pizza where we, that is myself and Tammy, Foster and Marie, Clifford, Mahalia and Lizzy had a nice dinner. Across the street was a steel drum band playing...check out the video....

Earlier in the day, right before we left for church, Tammy said a bunch of cyclists went by. A little later Marie said they were coming back. Apparently there was a race, not sure what it was, but is was interesting to see cyclist in a race here (especially for as hot as it is here).

Saturday, September 21, 2013: MFWI Conference

Today we got an early start. I know, we didn't get to sleep until after midnight, but the rest did us some good! Got to get use to the sun rising around 6 AM (but it also sets around 6 PM...go figure). We went to the MFWI (Ministers Fellowship West Indies) conference held over in Georgetown. At the conference was a pastor from Las Vegas, Pastor David Walker, and also a pastor from Trinidad, Pastor Trevor (can't remember his last name). Small world, both knew Rick Snow, my former pastor from Atlanta City Church. Below is a picture of Pastor David Walker speaking.

There was another pastor from Trinidad (can't remember his name) but had a great message that really applied to my church (Connection Church). I am going to try to get the CD of it. At the very end of the conference they introduced Tammy and I and had us speak a few words.

During the middle of the first session, Pastor Caines and I had to get away for a few minutes to meet up with Pastor Roberts (also from Trinidad). He organizes trips into the interior of Guyana to do mission work with the Amerindians. I talked with him for a few minutes before he had to head to the airport. It was good to meet him and I look forward to working with him on future trips into the interior of Guyana. He has also invited us to come to Trinidad and spend a few days.

On our way over the Georgetown we had to pass over the worlds 2nd longest floating bridge, pictures below. According to Tammy, it wasn't that bad!

After the conference we were all hungry and went to a really nice Chinese restaurant (pictured below). Tammy tried the beef with bitter mellon. I have to admit that the mellon was too bitter for me. I had the pinecone fish, very good. It was as close as you could get to sweet and sour fish without being sweet and sour fish.

Foster drove us through downtown Georgetown after we ate. It may look like chaos, but it is an organized chaos...I love it!

During the evening we went over the the church and set up the projector that Connection Church donated to Shekinah Worship Center. It works great and looks fantastic! I will be using it tomorrow for my first installment on Worship during the Sunday morning service.

The weather wasn't too bad today. It started out rather warm but cooled off in the afternoon when outflow from thunderstorms to the south blew in rain-cooled air making it rather pleasant to sit outside on the deck of the Chinese restaurant.

Friday, September 20, 2013: Enroute to Guyana

Our morning started off VERY early. We were up around 345 AM and on the shuttle to the airport by 430 AM. Our flight from Atlanta to Miami on American Airlines was good, no problems, in fact we were a little early getting into Miami.  While we were waiting to board, we saw Clint and Sara Byars who were on there way to St. Martin for a vacation. They are the pastors at Forward Church.

After getting on the plane, Tammy chose to adorn herself with her "chicken" hat....

Now for those who have not been to Miami airport, let me tell you...Atlanta airport has a better layout than Miami. At Atlanta airport you have north and south terminal and it is all fairly close together. With Miami airport it is spread out in a big "U" shape, and oh so fortunate for us, the American airlines concourse is at one end of the U and the Caribbean Airlines counter is at the opposite end of the "U"...UGH!!! While we were able to check out bags from Atlanta all the way to Georgetown, we could not get our Caribbean Airlines boarding passes until we got to Miami, and even then the counter didn't open up until 1130 AM...and it was 900 AM when we got there. So we decided to get our boarding passes after we met up with Dre.

We had a great time with Dre and Eddy. We went to Latin America restaurant for breakfast, Cuban steak and eggs (my first time having eggs since my food poisoning episode...still couldn't eat all of them). After breakfast we hung out at Dolphin Mall and then they dropped us off at the airport.

When I originally booked out flights on Caribbean, we were not able to get seats together, in fact we were 3 rows apart. When we got to the counter, they were able to get us 1 row apart. When we got on the plane, a lady on the plane said she would swap seats with Tammy and fortunately we were able to sit together on the flight from Miami to Trinidad. Our flight was "suppose" to have a layover in Trinidad with us staying on the plane as it was the same flight. I've taken this flight before and no problems. However, this time they canceled the segment from Trinidad to Guyana and transferred us to another plane, a 767 that was headed to JFK but had the layover in Georgetown. It ended up being a nice flight, beautiful pictures from the flight of the sunset and sky. We made it into Georgetown early, got through customs...no problems...and was headed to the Caines in less than an hour from landing...incredible!!! It was so good to see the Caines! We got to their house, had a little bit to eat (we were starving! Except for our breakfast all we had was a small turkey sandwich and some goldfish crackers). What a day!!!! Needless to say, we are tired!

Thursday, Sep 19: Our Adventure Begins

Although our flights haven't left yet, we are at the Country Inn and Suites near Hartsfield Airport. With us having to be at the airport by 5 AM, we thought it best to get to a hotel and catch the shuttle to the airport.

I had one of those experiences this afternoon that made me sure this trip was going to be alright. I had booked us at the Hyatt at the airport, through hotels.com at an unbelievable rate. Well when I went to print out the confirmation late this afternoon, I realized I booked for the wrong date. I called hotels.com and told them the situation. Now when I booked, I booked it as a non-refundable booking. The lady at hotels.com tried to find a room at the Hyatt but the price was much much more, out of the question. She took it on herself to find a place around the airport, talked to her supervisor who said we could transfer the booking without any kind of penalty fee. She found a room at the Country Inn and Suites, and check this out...we have a $14.00 refund coming! Woot! Woot! Way to go hotels.com!

I know this doesn't sound big, but in my experience, when something like this happens, the rest of the trip is fantastic. It's just these little things that God does that mean a lot.

Anyway, Dan drove us to the airport, but we stopped at the Downtown Grill in Tyrone for dinner before coming to the hotel.

Our schedule tomorrow is as follows....
Leave Atlanta and arrive in Miami, FL around 9 AM. Our good friends Dre and Eddy will pick us up and take us out for breakfast and we will hang out with them until around 2 PM when we need to be back at the airport. Our flight leaves Miami on Caribbean Airlines and we arrive in Georgetown, Guyana at 945 PM Guyana time (which is 1 hour ahead of Atlanta time). We probably will not be at the Caines house (where we will be staying) until around midnight-ish. So in light of this, I probably will not make any entry on Friday, Sep 20...but you never know!

Pray for us and this trip, I know God is going to do some great things!

Guyana Short Term Mission Trip 2013

Yes, it is almost here, our short term mission trip to Guyana, South America. We will be leaving next week Friday, September 20 and returning on September 29. We will be working out of Shekinah Worship Center just on the other side of the river from Georgetown, Guyana. It will be just Tammy and myself and although we are only two people, we expect to see God do some wonderful things through and around us.

We will be staying with Foster and Marie Caines while we are there. Our current schedule has me speaking the Sunday message at Shekinah on September 22, then doing a Worship Symposium on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 24 and 25 where I will be teaching on worship on one of those nights. Tammy will be doing some women's ministry on Thursday, September 26.

We are so looking forward to this trip and have been for about 3 years now. Come back to this page daily for updates of our day and some pictures.