Into the Jungle, Imbaimadai.

As we flew over 1 hour of dense jungle and beautiful waterfalls, at the end of the flight as the town of Imbaimadai came into view we saw the mountains surrounding it which coupled with the hundreds of hundreds of miles of jungle makes it nearly impossible to get to by anything other than by aircraft.

Annieke in the co-pilot seat

Inside the Plane

Imbaimadai is small mining town way in the interior of Guyana and was founded by miners for the high nearby concentration of gold, diamonds and other precious minerals. Most of the inhabitants were miners who worked in miners or ‘Dredges’. Many of the miners work months or even years at a time before going back to their homes elsewhere. Unfortunately in the area there is a lot of people with alchohol problems, illiteracy, prostitution, many families with problems and many people lacking hope.

In our time there we worked with Pastor Orrin and the full gospel church who helped organise and find ways for us to help out in the community. In the days we worked in the local school teaching and helping with the School feeding programme which involved  cooking and serving 75 hungry kids with a cooked hot lunch.

My sleeping place for two weeks!

Front of the Imbaimadai School

In the afternoon after school we visited houses and shops in the community, making new friendships and trying to bring the hope of Jesus into the hopelessness of many lives.

The meals set out for the school kids

Kids having the cooked lunches we made for them.

God really opened doors for us there with the biggest bar/club/”rumshop” called Spice allowing us to do an informal evening service with some testimonies, puppets, worship and then afterwards staying around to chat with some of the locals there. The culture there is warm-climate’ relationship based so people love to talk!

After being in Spice the first night the other bars in the town were more than welcome to allow us to do similar services throughout the two weeks aswell as allowing us to use the projector and show films like ‘Fire Proof and Faith like Potatoes’ which were good thought provoking Christian films. These times in the bars were so valuable and gave us many opportunities to chat, build relationships and pray with many people who really appreciated it, some telling us their life stories, wanting prayer, and to accept Jesus.

We were invited into many homes and even met the bossman of some of the local Gold mines who organised  for us to have a tour of some of his land and water Gold operations. On Sundays we were in charge of doing the kids Sunday school, we taught them fun kids songs, games and a Bible story. In our time there we built up such close relationships with the kids as we walked with them to school, taught them at the school aswell as being with them for Sunday School and on film showing nights. Other highlights were visiting the Amerindian village of Kembaro deep in the jungle where we had opportunities to share, encourage and spend time with the villagers another was having an intense but good-natured debate with a guy brought up in a Christian family who became and rasta and then converted to being a muslim!

Locals Goldmining

I learnt alot from the two weeks in Imbaimadai. God really did open up doors allowing us to connect with people in a way we never expected, they allowed us into their lives.

Although it is frequently thrown around illustration we felt that God worked through us to really sow seeds in peoples lives, causing many to rethink their purposes and to show Gods love breaking down negative stereotypes of both Christians and of white people. People in the community remarked on the effect we had and what we had brought into the community.

Before I came away on DTS some people told me they believed short-term missions  had little meaning as “you can not make some kind of significant impact for God in such a short period of time in my time”. I’ve seen that view couldn’t be further than the truth and actually is limiting Gods in our minds, and lacking in faith. God is more than able to having a lasting effect on a community in a short period of time and in our case he did, helping people in a big way as well as opening many doors for those who will next come their to work and help.

On a personal level I felt God has helped me to grow in confidence as I stepped out ( maybe pulled out!) of my comfort zone, preaching a sermon in a church service or giving my life story at a bar. Previously I was very hesitant  and afraid of  public speaking but by the end of our time in Imbaimadai I felt I was able to speak with greater confidence. I also gained a greater understanding of different cultures but also the pains and struggles we have in common in each of our lives. I realised in my time here also how much I enjoy and seem to grow when working with kids aswell a working in projects to help and benefit a community.

Me with one new little friend, Bendigo

As they say “you get back what you put in” as a team and on an individual level we all learnt and changed from our time here as we gave it our all. Looking back now we’re amazed to see all that happened in our 14 days in interior.

"Team Unity is Vital Man"

Evening Worship Time

A Nearby Waterfall, we visited up the river from Imbaimadai