Our Vision
Our Vision For Guyana
David And Kathy Rice
The Vision for Guyana is to establish a Christian Education Center on the Pomeroon River in Guyana. The Center will not be a Bible College, as such but rather a place to hold one or two week seminars for the benefit of Pastors and Christians in Guyana. The idea is to bring in the best teachers from the U.S. and the world to teach short seminars and to bring in the best of God’s servants in Guyana as students.
My desire is to be there as much as possible, but I will not live there. A resident family will serve as caretakers and a Guyanese Pastor or layman will coordinate the recruiting of students. My function will be to recruit the teachers and arrange for their travel to and within Guyana.
The first step towards that goal is the Mission Trip, June 2nd to 10th of this year. This trip is the first (although Kathy was born there and David and the kids have visited the family there) and is above all a learning trip. We will seek to make contacts and identify needs. This will assist us in planning future trips. While we are there we will seek to address several needs already known:
1. Evangelism. People need Jesus.
2. AIDS. Guyana is among the Worlds hotspots for HIV / AIDS. We have been asked to address the problem and intend to do so by teaching facts, abstinence, purity and the Gospel as the power to live such a life.
3. The needs of local Pastors, Spiritual, financial and material. Things that will assist them in accomplishing the vision God has given them.
The second step is moving into full time ministry; a step that will provide the time necessary to accomplish the work. Before stepping out into fulltime ministry I will need at least three months salary in the ministry account. Fulltime work will involve:
1. Fundraising.
2. Planning.
3. Preaching and teaching as God opens doors.
The third step is a mission trip in the fall where we meet needs identified in the first trip. There will be new ministry opportunities and the chance to serve God’s servants we meet on the first trip. This will be the beginning of regular trips. We will seek to take Pastors, teachers and laymen with specific gifts that meet specific needs.
The fourth step is to purchase a boat capable of traveling on and between the many rivers of Guyana. The word “Guyana” is an Indian word meaning “many waters”. It is an apt description of the land. In a country with few roads, the rivers are the main highways into the interior.
The boat we need must be capable of housing at least five or six persons for several weeks at a time. It needs to be capable of making the rough ocean passages between the mouths of the rivers and fast enough to make headway against the rapid currents of the larger rivers.
The plan is to make many trips up the rivers. We will carry teams of Christians who will minister to the people. We will carry movies, projectors and screens bringing light and the hope of the Gospel to a remote and impoverished people; a people starved for God.
Through repeated mission trips, fund raising efforts and a preaching ministry we will build the financial base needed to construct a permanent center in Guyana; a center that will meet the needs of teachers and students.
The center in my vision has a central Auditorium / Cafeteria capable of seating a hundred people for a program or fifty at a time to eat. On either side, a wing with a bathroom, shower and a dorm for sleeping up to fifty people, men on one side and women on the other. In the back is a wing with the kitchen, classrooms and office space. There would be a separate caretaker house in the front, cottages for families on the side and a dock for the boat on the river.
We will bring the best of the best of the Pastors from around the world to teach seminars. We will bring the best and the brightest of Guyana’s Pastors, teachers and laymen to a safe and comfortable place where they can learn what it takes to bring their nation to Christ.
The situation in Guyana is so desperate today that the United Nations predicts that their population of 763,000 will dwindle to fewer than 500,000 in the next decade. Only Jesus can address such an awful situation. This is our calling and our vision.
David And Kathy Rice
The Vision for Guyana is to establish a Christian Education Center on the Pomeroon River in Guyana. The Center will not be a Bible College, as such but rather a place to hold one or two week seminars for the benefit of Pastors and Christians in Guyana. The idea is to bring in the best teachers from the U.S. and the world to teach short seminars and to bring in the best of God’s servants in Guyana as students.
My desire is to be there as much as possible, but I will not live there. A resident family will serve as caretakers and a Guyanese Pastor or layman will coordinate the recruiting of students. My function will be to recruit the teachers and arrange for their travel to and within Guyana.
The first step towards that goal is the Mission Trip, June 2nd to 10th of this year. This trip is the first (although Kathy was born there and David and the kids have visited the family there) and is above all a learning trip. We will seek to make contacts and identify needs. This will assist us in planning future trips. While we are there we will seek to address several needs already known:
1. Evangelism. People need Jesus.
2. AIDS. Guyana is among the Worlds hotspots for HIV / AIDS. We have been asked to address the problem and intend to do so by teaching facts, abstinence, purity and the Gospel as the power to live such a life.
3. The needs of local Pastors, Spiritual, financial and material. Things that will assist them in accomplishing the vision God has given them.
The second step is moving into full time ministry; a step that will provide the time necessary to accomplish the work. Before stepping out into fulltime ministry I will need at least three months salary in the ministry account. Fulltime work will involve:
1. Fundraising.
2. Planning.
3. Preaching and teaching as God opens doors.
The third step is a mission trip in the fall where we meet needs identified in the first trip. There will be new ministry opportunities and the chance to serve God’s servants we meet on the first trip. This will be the beginning of regular trips. We will seek to take Pastors, teachers and laymen with specific gifts that meet specific needs.
The fourth step is to purchase a boat capable of traveling on and between the many rivers of Guyana. The word “Guyana” is an Indian word meaning “many waters”. It is an apt description of the land. In a country with few roads, the rivers are the main highways into the interior.
The boat we need must be capable of housing at least five or six persons for several weeks at a time. It needs to be capable of making the rough ocean passages between the mouths of the rivers and fast enough to make headway against the rapid currents of the larger rivers.
The plan is to make many trips up the rivers. We will carry teams of Christians who will minister to the people. We will carry movies, projectors and screens bringing light and the hope of the Gospel to a remote and impoverished people; a people starved for God.
Through repeated mission trips, fund raising efforts and a preaching ministry we will build the financial base needed to construct a permanent center in Guyana; a center that will meet the needs of teachers and students.
The center in my vision has a central Auditorium / Cafeteria capable of seating a hundred people for a program or fifty at a time to eat. On either side, a wing with a bathroom, shower and a dorm for sleeping up to fifty people, men on one side and women on the other. In the back is a wing with the kitchen, classrooms and office space. There would be a separate caretaker house in the front, cottages for families on the side and a dock for the boat on the river.
We will bring the best of the best of the Pastors from around the world to teach seminars. We will bring the best and the brightest of Guyana’s Pastors, teachers and laymen to a safe and comfortable place where they can learn what it takes to bring their nation to Christ.
The situation in Guyana is so desperate today that the United Nations predicts that their population of 763,000 will dwindle to fewer than 500,000 in the next decade. Only Jesus can address such an awful situation. This is our calling and our vision.
posted by Guyana River Ministries at 1:24 PM
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