FOUNDERS AND HOW IT ALL BEGAN

The growth of International Celebration has been a surprise from our Heavenly Father. Steve and Beth Puckett each grew up in Christian homes where the Christian life was lived out and not just talked about. Both are from small towns. Steve is from Old Hickory, Tennessee and Beth is from Fairfield, Alabama. Both have always wanted to serve God and as a married couple looked for ways to minister to people but never dreamed they would be deeply involved in foreign missions. They had each done some short term mission trips but trips to the island of Nevis in the Caribbean developed into a lifetime of love for a country in South America. As part of a mission team from our local church, Steve went on a men’s building trip to Nevis and 4 months later, Beth went to the same island for a Vacation Bible School trip. On the men’s trip, a 21-year old Guyanese man named Jai was led to Christ by one of the mission team. He had come to Nevis to work since the jobs were so hard to find in Guyana. He was a Hindu who was so discouraged that he had tried to commit suicide shortly before the church team arrived. During the VBS trip, God connected Jai’s and Beth’s hearts as the American team began to disciple him in the afternoons after their time with the children.

To make a long story short, the Holy Spirit grew Jai spiritually at a rapid rate as he became a leader in the church and began to evangelize the island and work with children and prisoners there. I forgot to mention that Jai was illiterate which makes this story even more amazing. Beth sent a tape player and batteries because Jai’s family lived in a shack with no electricity. As he received sermons from Beth and Steve’s church as well as the Bible on cassette, Jai’s faith and knowledge grew beyond belief, thus his effective leadership. He was so grateful that he had become a “new creation”, in Christ that he was willing to serve wherever God gave him an opportunity. He said that wherever God would open a door, he would walk through it and serve.   

For fourteen years, the Puckett’s continued to occasionally go back to Nevis to do ministry projects, one being an island-wide evangelistic event. At that time, they formed this non-profit called International Celebration Association. Jai decided he wanted to move back to Guyana to minister to his own country so the Puckett’s felt God leading them to support him full-time in that endeavor so he didn’t have to have a secular job as he had done in Nevis and could spend all his time serving.

At 37 years old, he and his family moved back to Guyana and started the work that has grown from initially working with children to now including major prison work and trying to reach all the remote river villages where the indigenous people, the Amerindians, live. In fifteen years, we have seen 27,000 people accept Jesus as their Savior and we have only begun. There is still a lot of work to do as our three full-time staff work tirelessly and as we often lead mission trips for those from the USA.

Check out the story behind the Bible Study that we are using in Guyana to help new believers learn and grow as Christians.

The NOC, New Opportunity Corp, was the juvenile detention center in Guyana. For years, International Celebration was very involved in encouraging and discipling the teens there and sharing Christ’s love. The government decided to send these teens either home or into foster care so we no longer do this ministry but pray for all the teens that were touched with the love of Christ while we worked with them.