Greetings from the Wilkerson family! We would like to share the following story from our AWA Guyana Project.
For four days, we hosted a series of special worship services commiserating the last days leading to the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb. Our desire was to draw our worship center family closer to Jesus, and remember what transpired over the last days of our Savior’s life on earth 2000 years ago.
Each night, selected members read the different gospel messages from the Bible beginning with the Lord’s Supper on Thursday at 5:30 p.m., commencing just before sunset. This was an extra special service since it was the Center’s first communion service and the first for several newly baptized members. After the solemn spiritual event, one of our young people that helps Monique up front, asked to be baptized! She is very knowledgeable of the Bible and we prayed specifically that sometime soon she would make her commitment to follow Christ.
On Friday after summarizing the Gospel messages from the previous night, we continued to read and reflect on the messages the four Gospels shared about Jesus and his mock trials, crucifixion, death and burial.
On Saturday, we held our regular Sabbath services as well as our afternoon Branch Sabbath School at the bigger Khan Hill Warao camp. That night, we continued our Easter program series. After reviewing the highlights from Friday night, we read the Gospel of Matthew about the sole recorded event that took place the day after Christ’s death. After the service, we received another surprise blessing when a couple asked if they could dedicate their child as soon as possible! They also expressed a desire eventually to be married, and baptized after studying the Bible further!
The Mabaruma area has been without a pastor for nearly 6 months and we are waiting the assignment of a new pastor. Since Pastor Branford was arriving Sunday morning to conduct a different wedding later Sunday afternoon, we quickly arranged for him also to conduct the baby dedication and the baptism early Sunday morning.
Then on Sunday morning at 6:15 a.m., we hosted a sunrise service at our AWA Worship Center where we, in the same way, reviewed the Gospel message from the previous evening and then read the gospel account of what happened resurrection day.
We had a short appeal at the end of the service and to our surprise, two more people asked to be baptized—praise God! Previous missionaries had a couple of studies with one of the candidates in the past, but now she was passionate and resolute about dedicating her life for Christ. The other is one of the students that Monique tutors and attends our weekly worship services with her grandparents. What a joy and blessing this was for us! God is good, all the time!
Pastor Bradford had planned to travel to Mabaruma to perform a wedding, and now we had a baby dedication, multiple baptisms, and a wedding! We conducted the baptisms at 10 a.m. as soon as we could, and then moved on to the baby dedication, before the 3 p.m. wedding. Pastor Bradford was a willing participant and joined us in thanking God for these surprising blessings! It has been a joyous, tiring, and blessed four days! Wow!
As we reflect on the week prior to Easter, we feel overjoyed with how the worship activities turned out and we were awestruck with surprises. It is amazing how God rewards our meager efforts. In 1 Corinthians 3:7 it states, “So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” Thank you, friends, for your love and support of the work here in the interior of Guyana, South America. Your partnership and involvement is resulting in more fruits for His Kingdom.
Your AWA Mission Family at Mabaruma, Guyana,
Monique and Bruce
Prayer Requests:
- that the Warao people will see Christ in our efforts to help them
- that God will show us how to reach the Warao people with His love
- for the newly baptized members
Project Needs:
- Continued support and prayers for our planes and pilots at our AWA Guyana base
- (6) 600 gallon tanks at $500 each for water storage
