Bearing Good News
Sharing joy and hope with the struggling peoples of Guyana who welcome us with friendship and hospitality
October 2005
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Kate and Radesh. She writes: “For the last year my heart has gone out to Radesh whose mother died of AIDS. Radesh has been abandoned and is living in the hospital. I am trying to find out his date of birth. I think he was about 18 months old when I started visiting a year ago but he looked about six or seven months. He is slow in his progress, but is growing. He does not crawl but can now stand if he is holding onto something. He likes to laugh and is beginning to make verbal sounds.
My first year in Guyana has been one of excitement, challenges and abundant blessings. In reflection, I find that it is the simple things that seem to make a difference: Taking time with people I meet on the street and with street vendors. Helping a young boy push his cart over a rough road. The cart is filled with snacks to be sold by his mother. Helping “Auntie” on my way home from morning mass to carry wood to build her market stall. She is past 70 years of age and assembles her stall about half a block from where she stores her wares. Lending a steadying hand to seniors who must walk down a shaky plank of wood to reach the pension office to collect their pittance of a pension.
Helping a young woman being released from prison. She was not from this area and did not know how to get to the ferry. I took her there after we went for breakfast. On my way back I talked to a young couple who sell vegetables on the street and I listened to their concerns about their children and their daily struggles.
Yes, the rest of my work is interesting and challenging, but as St. Therese says, it is “not to do extraordinary things, but to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.” I may not do them extraordinarily well, but I do try.
Natasha and Radesh are two children who have been a constant during my hospital visits in the past year. They stay at the hospital because they have nowhere else to go. Through my involvement with Alpha House orphanage, we are trying to open a home for abandoned children like Natasha and Radesh who are suffering from HIV/AIDS. There are many of these children in Guyana because of the tremendous stigma against people with this dreaded disease, as if these wee souls are not suffering enough. A Peace Corps worker is here doing AIDS education and awareness, so hopefully this will help the community to be more accepting and compassionate. In the meantime, we continue to trust that somehow our awesome God will supply the means for a home for these children. “Suffer the children to come unto me...”
Children at Alpha House orphanage helping at mealtime. Alpha House is one of the volunteer ministries for Scarboro missioners serving in New Amsterdam, Guyana.
Through my involvement in prison ministry I have learned that there is no halfway home or support for ex-prisoners. They often end up back in prison again. I have been gathering information and hoping to meet with prison officials about implementing a support group within the prison, which might help prepare prisoners for their release. It would be wonderful as well to have a halfway house in the community where ex-prisoners can come for fellowship and support.
Please continue to pray for our mission team here and the people we accompany, as we witness to them that Jesus came so that “their joy might be complete.”
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