“So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” — 1 Cor.3:7

INTRODUCTION

Excited and full of expectation is how I would describe the group that left Georgetown on Saturday morning, August 9, 2025, of about 47 persons. The group consisted of seven children ages 6 months to 10 years old. There were another 11 persons ages 65 to 81. Apart from the 6-month-old baby, every single individual participated to make the camp and campaign a success.

We were headed to Anna Regina, the main town on the Essequibo coast, a distance of 78 km (48 miles) by road and 2 hours on the ferry across the grand Essequibo River from the capital city of Georgetown, our departure location.  This was our first attempt at combining a youth conference and preaching campaign in Guyana, organized by the Guyana Christadelphians and the Caribbean youth camp committee.

ANNA REGINA TOWN

Anna Regina is the main town, and central business area in Essequibo.  Essequibo is one of three counties that make up our country Guyana, and is by far the largest of the three but the least developed. This county is about 2/3 of the area of Guyana, and there are no ecclesias there.  It has been developing rapidly over the past 5 years or so, to become quite a commercial area, though it still is thought to have the least population of the three counties. It still clings to its old culture of becoming completely closed and quiet after 6pm each day. It brings together a great percentage of Guyana’s large-scale rice farmers, among other agricultural businesses. Construction is now the fastest growing area. There is a healthy mix of indigenous peoples (Amerindians) from surrounding secured villages, African and Indian descendants, and Venezuelan migrants who congregate each day at the car park which is alongside the market. This car park takes persons to adjoining villages ending at Charity at the northern end of the coast, some 38 miles (25.3 km) away, and to the south, the road with its sharp twists and turns ends at Supernaam, 21 miles (34 km) away. Daylight traffic is sometimes slow to accommodate the tractors and combines, trucks and trailers, silent electric bikes and umpteen cars, also plying this narrow two-lane highway countryside main road.  It moves past extended rice fields, and houses of various sizes and descriptions reflecting the wide economic differences in the population.

PLANNING

This effort started as a direct result of two different requests made at the recent GUYEXPO national fair in October 2024, in which we took part, made by visitors from Essequibo coast to our booth. It looked like a huge undertaking at the time because none of our brethren live there presently, so we had not much information about the area to work with, and the travel seemed a long one to most of us who had not visited in decades, and had no idea of what to expect.

The committee of 12 brethren from the current ecclesias in Demerara and Berbice after much discussion decided to take up the challenge.  We met every Monday evening at 7pm, along with our link brother, Rafeek Soolaman. We did the groundwork of visiting, seeking suitable accommodation, writing letters for permits, etc. We faced many challenges, but God opened every single door that was threatening to keep us out! For this, we were constantly finding reasons to be grateful, keeping everyone in the loop via WhatsApp.

We finally settled on being accommodated at the Essequibo Technical Institute, which had well-kept dorms, nestled just at the back of Anna Regina along the road to the tourist attraction of Lake Mainstay with rice fields stretching northwards to the horizon. There was a huge auditorium, which allowed us to have the option of games at night. The quiet neighborhood road provided space for the morning exercise and daylight team games. There was adequate parking facilities, cooks that catered cleaners, guards and gardeners. For our purposes, it was ideal.

CAMPING

We were blessed with a unique group of elderly sisters who meet at 4:30 am each day for daily readings and fervent prayers. They had a room that was separate on the female floor so that the sleeping campers were not disturbed.

Our main speaker was bro. Nigel Small of New Jersey and his theme, ‘As a man thinketh in his heart’. His wife Sis. Devonna and Sis. Alyssa his daughter accompanied him. Our link, bro. Rafeek Soolaman came with his wife sis. Rosita. Bro. Tyrone Smartt from New York visited on Thursday, and four brethren from Trinidad and Tobago joined us. They all added to our understanding of the scriptures with talks and group discussions in the camping aspect. We were blessed with a few Bible talks by bro. George Constantine of Trinidad.

On Sunday morning, we held the memorial service, the exhortation being given by bro. Nigel. In the afternoon, we had a training session for about 2 hours on how to approach strangers to share the gospel. This activity  included role-playing, which was hilarious in some respects,  with some brethren pretending to be difficult,  and some so practical, that it opened our eyes to make changes to our original plan of campaigning 4 villages, to just focusing on the one we were housed at.

It is noteworthy that we also had a mini VBS with the children among us spearheaded by sis. Kendra Trim, and supported by sis. Abigail Babb. They kept the smaller children engaged, and happy while the learned about obedience in various situations, using Bible characters.

Sis. Atiya Simon was our doctor on site, and assisted with the medical side of things. Bro. Devon assisted in transportation of our brethren and getting any needed items from the marker/ supermarket to the campsite.  Bro. Derek ensured each day that the tent was set up, and any electrical repairs were quickly done.

The camp program required us to be awake at 6:30 am. We had the usual morning exercises led by bro. Derek Babb, breakfast, devotion, one talk by bro. Nigel, group discussions and presentations and lunch.

CAMPAIGN

After lunch, the 30-seater Institute bus made two trips to take our equipment and us to the car park. We set up our tent, prayed, got into groups and set out to assigned locations to knock on gates and talk to residents, inviting them to come out and listen to us. Everyone happily got on board, children and all, most dressed uniformly in their polo T-shirts with the words at the back which said, “Have you heard the Good news? Ask me!”

The youth circlers were a joy to watch as they progressed from timid to bold, going into homes and returning with smiles and loud chatter with the residents. Some residents were so happy to see young people so involved, that they were kissed, prayed for and encouraged to keep on sharing.

UNFORGETTABLE MONDAY EVENING

We were back from leafletting, and ready to have our brethren speak, but a dark cloud was gathering all around us. The car park at 6:30 pm was almost completely deserted.  Then a very strong wind began to blow. Sand rose into the air, and we had to scramble our leaflets and invitations that were going to fly away. The place became quite dark and a huge rainstorm with lightning threatened to blow away the tent (which is fairly heavy). The brethren each held on to the six tent poles to try keeping it grounded. In some cases, two were on one pole taking the deluge of the storm. The wind was so strong it blew some of us off our feet, and lifted us with the pole we were trying to hold down. By then, we were all in peals of laughter.  The older brethren got sheltered by a nearby shed. Looking at the situation, right there and then after fighting  for what looked like half an hour, we decided to abandon preaching that evening,  and return to camp. Immediately the wind and rain stopped, as if to remind us of Jesus in the boat with his disciples of little faith.

We packed up and the Institute bus came for us in three trips. That is when we had a chance to talk with the driver who told us that no one would be there to hear us at 7 pm.  That is their culture.  Everyone is home and locked in by 6pm.

That evening after we were all dried, we called a committee meeting to discuss what we learned. We moved our preaching activity to 4pm, and finished each day at 5:30pm. We concluded that it was the Lord in our midst, guiding us to make the changes that will actually reach the people, and we were very happy to see him work among us.

Tuesday went smoothly as planned, except that the audio speaker we took from our ecclesial hall which sounds so loud in the hall made very little impact on the car park. Persons far away were not hearing us. Therefore, we had another committee meeting when we returned to camp that evening.  We were given the feedback, and immediately started asking the workers at the institute to assist us in finding someone who has a system to rent us. God blessed us with such a set up for the remaining days, and we were able to focus on the task ahead.

Our convincing speakers included brothers:  Rafeek Soolaman, David Andrews, Clement Williams, Trimal Accra, Nigel Small and Tyrone Smartt. While they spoke the rest of us were the foot soldiers, speaking to people and sharing leaflets/ invitations. The smiles were infectious.  Our teams were able to reach other villages nearby such as Richmond, Henrietta and LA Belle Alliance.

Each night we returned to the campsite for dinner and evening activities.  Understandably, the older participants were tired after dinner and retired to chatter in their dorms.  The youths gathered their strength, and had fun, quite evident from the laughter and screams outside, with their leaders guiding the games.

RESPONSE TO THE OUTREACH

Seven persons at the time registered to know more.  One, a preacher had a discussion for about an hour with the senior brethren.  Another who is a taxi driver came for prayer and continued in conversation for an hour as well. Two came to the tent to be prayed for, and others including a nurse and government worker chatted and said they will start by visiting our zoom online Bible class.

To date, one week later, they have all been contacted. Two have started first principles, one having classes every day, and one three times per week. Three visited us on the Wednesday Bible class. The two who have started the First principles seem quite excited to hear more, since one of them never read the Bible, and the other knows very little. We look to God for the increase.

OUTING AT LAKE MAINSTAY

On Thursday morning, we all headed to the lake for swimming and beach activities.  It was very enjoyable to all, even those who just sat in the benabs, reminisced on old times, and discussed current issues.  The fellowship was awesome.

CAMP CONCLUSION

At the evaluation exercise, we shared that while there were mostly positives, there was room for improvement. Most outstanding was how the youths conducted themselves impeccably, and that the committee happily received criticism and feedback without murmuring or upsets, and made necessary changes on their feet to suit the current situation. There was a great willingness to assist which lended itself to comfort at the camp.

For improvement, among other suggestions, the campers desired more evening camping activities. We also need to have a review of our outdoor sound system for any future event, as well as advertising via social media and their local radio station.

RIDING THE CAMPAIGN MOMENTUM

On Saturday August 16, we returned to Georgetown, and after uplifting luggage, our campers departed for home, with the furthest travelers heading to Kilcoy, Berbice.

The following week, Bro. Tyrone spearheaded yet another medical campaign at the Georgetown hall on Thursday and Friday, August 21 and 22. He was well supported, especially by the elderly group of sisters and their friends called “Daughters of Jerusalem”.

While some were in the hall praying, some were meeting the passersby and offering to test their blood pressure, and give free reading glasses to those who needed. There was a good turnout.  We hope to do more community outreach among our ecclesias, especially for awareness purposes, since the constant response is that persons have never heard of us before. We hope to see some sort of response with consistency and determination.

YOUTH CONFERENCE

On Saturday August 23, 2025, all the youths met again for a Youth Conference, to discuss issues related to our reducing numbers at CYC. Again, about 40 persons attended. It was a meaningful session, and each CYC contributed to the discussion identifying causes and suggesting solutions.  The team of youths were able to put together a road map that each CYC is using to help make the suggested improvements.

In conclusion, we pray that as we continue working in the vineyard, that others will be inspired to add their efforts, and that God will help us to witness his hand working among us for the salvation of all. We would also like to thank our sponsors, the CBMC for their assistance in making this effort possible.