Each month, our three person staff goes into remote villages, usually spending two nights in each of three to five villages. Most of the villages have no electricity and are only able to be reached by boat or trails. There are many places that are almost impassable, especially in rainy season. During the day, time is spent with the children, making friends with the villagers and sharing Bible truths. They also distribute shoes, used clothing, and reading glasses to those who need them. Receiving these items is a real blessing because of the remote location of the villages and lack of opportunity to travel to locations where these could be purchased even if they could be afforded. At night, there are Celebration Services where there is praise and worship time, testimonies, and then the Gospel is preached in a very simple and clear manner so many can understand for the first time that salvation is through accepting Jesus and not through good works. Many times, there is a baptism in the river before the team travels on to the next village. Most of these villages don’t have a pastor so we are very grateful for the resource that has been given to us by InTouch Ministries. They are handheld devices that are powered either by generator or solar. They contain over 200 sermons by Charles Stanley. These villages use the sermons as their worship service content. It is a real blessing to them and gives them a way to grow in their faith. Also, we distribute Christian teaching literature that churches int the US donate so the churches can grow deeper in their knowledge of the Scriptures.
At one remote village, our Guyanese team was having praise and worship time and a young man and his wife walked into the open-air church. He pointed at Jai and whispered to his wife. Jai wondered what he was saying. At testimony time before the sermon, the young man walked forward and said that he never expected to see Jai in his village. He had just gotten out of prison that day and reached home and had heard there was a Celebration service. He said to the congregation that two years prior, Jai had led him to Christ while in prison. He had baptized him and he had gone to the services and studied the Bible our ministry gave him and had grown in his faith. Jai sees so many prisoners, he didn’t recognize this young man. The man told his village that he would like to work with the youth to help them make better decisions than he had. What a blessing that in God’s sovereignty, our team was in that particular remote village the exact time the man got home from prison. THAT IS NO COINCIDENCE!!!!!
The sound system that our team uses allows the content of the service to travel a long distance and many people have come to the second night of the Celebration and said that they weren’t in attendance the previous night but had heard the service from their home and had accepted Christ when the sinner’s prayer was offered. They came the second night to continue hearing the truth. On one occasion, police at a check point on the road a mile away from the village had heard the service. The next day, our team’s vehicle was stopped and they thought it was for a random search for drugs because it was on the road to the Venezuelan border but instead, two of the police officers said that the night before, they were able to hear the service and had prayed the prayer to receive Jesus as Savior. Our team was able to encourage them and give them Bibles.
We will continue reaching these numerous remote villages until we reach them all or until Jesus comes back.
