Daily Prayer Guide for Summer Mission Trip
/DAILY PRAYER GUIDE FOR THE 2023 SUMMER TRIP TO GUYANA
SATURDAY- July 15—Please pray for our travel day as 11 of us from the US join our Guyanese team of 5. Here is the list so you can pray for us by name:
Kay Jones
Sue Boehme
Hayley Hollier
Megan Tuttle
Sherry Ferguson
Yvonne Freeman
Kristi Buttles
Ned Lewis
Charles Hite
Steve Puckett
Beth Puckett
Jai and his wife Tracy
Alex
Michael and his wife Vanessa
We are to arrive in Georgetown, Guyana at 10:40 PM then go through customs and drive an hour to our hotel. Please pray for a good night’s sleep after a long travel day, especially for our Bluffton ladies who flew out of Savannah very early and their day was a lot longer than the rest of us.
SUNDAY—July 16 —We will spend some time doing a meet and greet with our Guyanese team. We will have our own church service with music led by Megan and Steve will bring a Bible lesson. We will have a wonderful time worshiping together and bonding as a team. Then we will head to Hauraruni Girls’ Home where we have worked many times. We will take a pizza lunch and spend time with them, encouraging them and their house mother and will play games and paint fingernails. Then it is back to the hotel where we will spend some time making bracelets in preparation for the next day. Every inmate and every child we interact with this week will get a bracelet with five beads on it. The colors represent the plan of salvation so we can refer to it when we talk to them. Here are what the colors stand for:
Black Bead- Represents the sin in our lives which we can’t get rid of on our own no matter how good we are.
Red Bead- Represents Jesus’ blood that He shed on the cross to pay the price for the sins of the world. Those who accept Him as Savior and receive the free gift of forgiveness are born into God’s family.
White Bead- Represents being clean in God’s sight. If we accept Jesus’ free gift and are forgiven, our sins are gone and God sees us as clean.
Yellow Bead- Represents the streets of gold in Heaven. That is where we will spend eternity if we have had our sins forgiven and are deemed clean by God.
Green Bead- Represents growth as a new believer. Just as grass and leaves are green and grow, we must grow as Christians so we can serve and tell others. We do that by studying the Bible, praying, hearing the Scriptures taught, encouraging other believers and sharing what happened to you with others who need to ask Jesus to be their Savior.
After we make bracelets, we will have dinner and then team time. This is when we take turns sharing testimonies with the team, either how we came to know Jesus or what He has been doing to grow us and use us. During the week, we will each have a time to share with the team.
MONDAY—July 17—We will have the same schedule each day except Tuesday and Friday. We will have team devotionals and work at the prison from 9:00-11:30. There we will greet the inmates as they come in and tie a bracelet on each of them. The new prison that has just been built houses about 1200 inmates. Each day, we will have about 200 come to a service. We will sing worship songs led by our Guyanese team then have special music by Megan. Charles will give his testimony about struggling with addiction and even jail and rehab. So many of the inmates will relate to him and be able to see the power of forgiveness and Charles’ life of effectively serving God after the years of bad choices. Then either Jai or Alex will preach a short sermon and then Kristi will give her testimony, calling inmates to trust in God’s sovereignty in every situation. Then Jai will clearly explain the plan of salvation and explain baptism. We love to teach these men that even though they are behind bars, they can be spiritually free if they accept Jesus as their Savior and ask for his forgiveness and repent of their sins to have a new life as a part of God’s family.
After the service, each person on our team will sit across from a chair with a basin filled with water in front of us. They will bring the prisoners one at a time to sit with us and have his feet washed. We will have one on one conversations with them, answering questions they have about what they heard in the sermon and just listening to their hearts and encouraging them. This is where we use the bracelets to make the plan of salvation very simple for them. Some will have prayed the prayer asking for forgiveness during the service and others will want to do it with us if they make that decision after more discussion. Some aren’t interested and we respect that and just pray for them and show them that we care. We will then give each one new flip flops, toothbrushes and toothpaste and a Bible that holds a tract that again explains the plan of salvation. Those who choose to seriously study and learn more will be given one of the Bible studies that Kristi wrote. Our team will follow up closely with these men as they go back to this prison for services weekly even though it is about 2 hours drive from where they live.
For those who accept Jesus and want to be baptized, we use a baby pool or 55 gallon drum and have a time of baptism each day. We carefully explain that baptism doesn’t save anyone but is an outward symbol of what has already happened in their heart; when they prayed the prayer to accept Jesus and were forgiven, their sins were buried and they were raised to walk in their new life.
Each afternoon, after lunch, we will have some rest time, make more bracelets and place the tracts in the Bibles. We will have team time where we share testimonies, pray and share the events of the day. We will have dinner and play games or just visit.
TUESDAY—July 18—Today we have the same schedule as yesterday except that after lunch, we will go to Mahican Girls’ Home where before covid, our team went weekly. This is the first time the government has given us permission to go back. Many of the girls will be thrilled to see the Guyanese team back. There are 40 girls here ranging in age from about 5-17. The girls have been abused at home or abandoned by parents. We will greet them warmly and try to establish a connection. (Many are very shy.) We will have fun songs with motions to get them engaged. Then Beth will teach a Bible story ending with the simple plan of salvation, using the bracelet colors to help them understand God’s plan off forgiveness. Then we will wash their feet and talk to them and pray for them. Please pray that God will open their eyes and hearts to His truth. It is such a joy to know that our Guyanese staff will be able to follow up with them often.
WEDNESDAY—July 19—-See schedule for Monday.
THURSDAY—July 20—See schedule for Monday.
FRIDAY—July 21—Today after devotions and breakfast, we will go to a church to do a children’s service. See Tuesday for what the schedule will be serving children in a church this time. We are thrilled to be sharing Christ with these children, never pushing them to make a decision but offering the answer to questions and praying for the needs they tell us about.
After lunch, we will have a little touring and shopping. Then it is back to the hotel for rest and team time before we go to our final dinner together at a special restaurant. There will will not only share a nice meal but each team member will take time to tell the team what there one or two most special moments were for the week. It is always a time of rejoicing, laughing and always some tears. Then we will go back for a time of packing and early bedtime because of a very early flight.
SATURDAY—July 22—Please pray for problem-free travel. We have to get up at about 3:30 AM for a 4:00 departure from the hotel. The airport is about an hour away and we have to be there 2 hours early for a 7:00 AM flight. We will look forward to getting back and sharing with you how God blessed the trip and changed lives. Thank you for praying for us.