February Newsletter

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST MISSION C/O Corriverton Baptist Church
5440 Highway 202 99 Line Path D, PO Box 936
Anniston, Alabama 36201 Corriverton, Berbice, Guyana, S. America
Jon Cardwell, Jimmy Turner, Pastors 592-339-3448
sgbcanniston@gmail.com j-khunter.gbca@juno.com;
February, 2009 hunter.jhkp@yahoo.com
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your prayers and bless God for His answers.

The Church here in Corriverton has picked back up in attendance and people seem to be more interested and we have had more men in the services. This Church needs a real movement of God's Spirit. But there are signs of life and hope.

At the Center a number of young people have indicated a real interest in Christ. The girls' class I have on Thursday mornings is very attentive as we go through the life of Christ. My second boys' class of the day have been a real encouragement as they listen and indicate a readiness to follow Christ--pray that this is real and not just a temporary phenomenon.

The folks at Roadside Baptist Church at #68 Village are always attentive and seem to be growing. Brother Terry Rohit has been both a dutiful and caring Pastor to these people in Brother Katryan's absence. Brother Motil Harlall assists here as well as leading the #57 Mission. Brothers Troy and Hemdath also work in this Church. Brother Troy also leads a home Bible study at #69 but I do most of the preaching there. He also works with the youth at #68.

This work at #57 has been a blessing by and large but we have had our share of trouble here, too. Sister Faneeza has been in the hospital with female difficulties and now her husband Birbal has been bitten on the foot by an alligator. The damage has been less that you might expect but there is danger of infection.

The #57 Mission building is going fast forward ever since God led us to a good hardworking, honest carpenter with a good crew of men. This Saturday we will provide a meal for this crew because of all the help they have been to us. Pray for these men as most are Hindus. It is very unusual to find Hindus with a good work ethic like these men have. Although the carpenter's work is finished, we need to paint and do all the electrical work as well as fit out the building. All this must be done on the smallest of budgets since the bulk of the money sent from the States has about been exhausted. The Guyanese have little in the way of resources beyond regular expenses. If you can help, please do so by designating for this work and sending it to the Sovereign Grace Baptist Mission address above.

I am not a "soul counter" but I do believe we are seeing the movement of the Spirit in some lives. We are encouraged to say the least. Ellen and Katie have a gift for being able to talk to people. They engage the students at the Centre frequently in conversations about the Lord as well as appropriate behavior. They take the "bull by the horns" when they see young people that need some correction. The young people have taken a real liking to them and usually receive their instruction well and have asked for other sessions!

Ellen and Katie have been busy filling up their blogspot. They have lots of pictures. You can find them at: www.ellenandkatieinguyana.blogspot.com. The computer crashed a while back and we were without it for a week. Needless to say, it was a difficult time until we got it to Georgetown and got it fixed complete with our files in tact. We were concerned about loosing all our pictures and data. The Lord was gracious.

In three months we will be headed home looking to the Lord for His further direction. Please pray with us that we will know the Lord's direction and Christ will be exalted in our lives.

In Christ, John Hunter

Information

To anyone reading this blog and interested in further information, I would be glad to hear from you at the Juno email address or you can send an email to hunter.jhkp@yahoo.com. We are presently experiencing difficulties with our computer and don't know when we will be able to put much information up or more pictures on like we would like to. We will have to take our computer to Georgetown to try to get the files off of it before it is reformatted. We would appreciate your prayers in this matter.

We continue to be very busy. John has cut his time down a bit at the Centre but has had to go almost daily to #57 Village to deal with suppliers and carpenters on the new church building. We praise the Lord for the way the work has gone forward as it nears completion. We hope to be using it soon. Our thanks to all who have prayed for this project as well as those who have contributed to it. The Lord has graciously supplied for this work.

Katie Mathews and Ellen White continue to be very busy as well. They came to Guyana to work and the Lord has opened doors for them to teach some at the Centre as well as teach music to individuals and literacy to some students needing help. They have helped out with young activities as well. They are constantly cooking for us and half of the people in the Churches and Missions. We had a Corriverton Baptist Church Prayer Breakfast on Saturday morning and they used their culinary arts to help make a delicious meal. I did the scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese, Katie and Cynthia (a teenager from #57 Village who spent the night) chopped and cooked onions and garlic and bell peppers for topping eggs plus chopped other vegetables. These toppings were available for hash browns which Ellen and Christina (Cynthia's older sister) made. The night before they had made cinnamon raisin bread. Though poorly attended because of lack of communication and availability of the people of the Church, those of us who indulged were well satisfied with the results. John had to leave as soon as he ate to take a young woman to the Doctor, so we had a time of devotion from Matthew 6 about prayer and then had a season of prayer. It was a blessing to all the ladies who came.

My activities have changed from bookkeeping to librarian. I was to work at the Corriverton Baptist Library when we came but my time was limited there with the amount of time I spent at the Roadside Baptist Church Skills Training Centre. I was working 3 days a week doing bookkeeping for them and I have been cut down to one day a week and spending the other 2 days trying to get the Library into shape. The numbers are falling off of the books and some you can't read at all. It looks like someone shuffled the books as they are not in numerical order. I began Thursday and have the promise of one of the ladies who is a Librarian at the City Library and a member of the Church who is going to help on several afternoons. We hope to get it organized and more useable.

The Lord continues to be gracious to us in giving us good health and safety on the "obstacle course" highway here in Guyana. We are happy to have the bridge open now so we can drive straight through to Georgetown and not have to wait for the Ferry. We praise the Lord for this new addition and hope it doesn't develope any problems. We haven't been able to use it yet but will have to go to Georgetown soon to have our Passport stamped so we can stay until April 30. Our present stamp runs out on January 28. (Also, to get the laptop fixed.)

Many of you are in our thoughts and prayers and trust the Lord is blessing in your lives. We hope to hear from some of you in the near future. We enjoy any news we can get from home.

May Newsletter 2008

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST MISSION
5440 HIGHWAY 202
ANNISTON, ALABAMA 36201
j-khunter.gbca@juno.com; hunter.jhkp@yahoo.com
May 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” Mark 13:33 Please forgive me for not letting you know more of the ministry here. We stay so busy that we have little time to do all we ought to. But I cannot complain because I asked God for this and He was pleased to give it. Kathy, too, stays busy.

This past week we had a consultant for the US Government teaching all NGO's (Non-Government [non-profit] Organizations) how to best govern their organizations to accomplish their goals and be transparent in their operations. We were grateful the woman who did the consulting work was a Christian who truly knew the role of faith-based ministries. Roadside Baptist Church Skills Training Centre seems to have a good reputation with all the agencies that are at work here in Guyana for which we are grateful.

The Roadside Baptist Church went ahead with a project to build a house for a poor family in the Church from the #57 Mission. The family was living in one room below their in-law's house. The room had a dirt floor and rainy season is coming on. Because the need was so pressing much of the necessary funds came from my bank account, but there are some funds coming to replace them.

Both mission works are doing well. We have had up to 35 or so people at the #57 Mission. Those attending listen attentively as the Gospel is preached. We will not try to access the spiritual impact until we see how the fruit develops. The #69 Mission is a smaller group. Both these works have a lot of children attending. We have also been invited to restart the #77 Mission and hope to restore some Church members.

Brother Terry has taken on most of the pastoral responsibilities at the Roadside Baptist Church. He is doing well but needs our prayers as this is a new responsibility to him. He attends our Pastor's training School, works as an electrical teacher at the Centre and he and his wife have a one year old son.

Brother Moti has most of the responsibility at the #57 Mission. He preaches each Sunday evening at the Mission as well as once a month on Sunday morning at Roadside. This, of course, along with his full-time job of selling vegetables as he rides his bicycle around the villages.
Brother Troy is only 21 but he helps teach the youth at Roadside as well as leads the Mission at #69. In the daytime he works as a joiner (furniture maker).

I am now the Managing Director of the Skills Training Centre as well as Pastor at Corriverton Baptist. Kathy teaches a Sunday School class and a children's group on Saturday as well as helps in the office at RBCSTC. I continue to teach 5 classes a week but am helped by using Moody Science videos and the flannelgraph.

I have had a bit of a time keeping up with repairs on the two Church vehicles. The 1984 Datsun pickup (double cab) has a cap that allows us to accommodate extra people. This vehicle has had extensive repairs lately by a mechanic that has returned from Canada. He has really helped us to put the truck back in shape. The Lord is kind to allow us to keep it going. It is the major transportation for Church goers at Corriverton.

God is so good to us. His people seem to be growing and much Gospel seed is being sown that we hope will spring forth into everlasting life. Thank you for praying and please continue to do so. Pray for the Katryans as they are in the States. If any of the Churches have a chance to have him come, he can tell you all about the work here for over 35 years. His email address is: almondkatryan7@hotmail.com.

In Christ, John Hunter

Kathy's thoughts-April

April 2008
Kathy's Thoughts
Hi!

I decided I would add my thoughts and describe our life a bit to show you what its like in Guyana. It's kind of like comfortable camping. We live in 7-room house with 2 baths, a stove, refrigerator, and microwave hot wired because the motherboard doesn't work. We live comfortable but keeping up with filtered and boiled water and having milk made up at the appropriate time is interesting. We awake about 6:00 each morning as the noise level in the community starts to rise with roosters crowing and people traveling up and down the street chatting on their way to work or to pick up breakfast supplies. The street is about 30 feet from the window. All windows are open at all times so you hear everyone's conversation and music(don't ask!). Houses are very close together as well. We get showered and dressed for the day, do some Bible Study, eat breakfast and around 8 are picked up to go to the Roadside Baptist Church Skills Training Centre (RBCSTC) about 10 miles away on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I change from Friday to Thursday as of this week. Sometimes we have the vehicle and pick Katryans up. We are getting acclimated to driving on the left. You dodge pot holes, animals, bikes, people, tapirs (taxis), minibuses, and other vehicles on the way. There is one main road with very narrow mostly dirt side streets. A few are paved including the one in front of the church/house where we live. It also has speed bumps mixed in with numerous pot holes. We live on the third block from the main road.

On days we aren't at the Centre, we work on studying, ironing, shopping at the market or supermarket, working with the computer, running back to RBCSTC for Board meetings and visiting. The supermarkets are about the size of convenience stores but packed with all kinds of items. We have found a few things we normally make in which we have all the ingredients but most have at least one or two things missing. Also, on Tuesdays and Thursdays about 5:30 P.M. we are picked up to go to the Missions. Saturday, we have prayer breakfasts occasionally and John has his class at 3:00 with the men in training and I serve refreshments in the middle. Most Saturdays at least one of us goes to the market. On Sundays, Sunday School starts at 8:15 A.M. with the morning service at 8:45. By 10:00 we are loading the minibus to take people home or to go to Roadside Baptist Church for their 10:30 service. John, being the Interim Pastor at Corriverton Baptist Church preaches here and Brother Almond at Roadside. The bus is loaded again and heads the opposite way while we wait for them to return for us and we journey home arriving around 12:30. We eat, have our Sunday afternoon siesta, and prepare for singing practice at 4:30. At 5:00 the evangelistic service starts. Occasionally John and Brother Almond switch churches in the evening so Brother Almond can maintain contact with his home church. (They are scheduled to got to the States on April 26.) We are through around 6:30 after John takes a few people home.

We walk to a little store around the corner for basics or the next corner on the other side for ice cream, if the truck has come, and there is a supermarket across the main road about 4 blocks away.

We are up and down stairs a lot as our bathrooms are on the second floor and the office at RBCSTC is on the second floor. My knees are stiff and achy at times especially if I sit or stand for very long. I have had trouble with my feet swelling but keeping them up on 2 pillows at night (which is interesting) has caused them to improve. I am grateful for our good health as the medical situation here is not the best.

There is much to rejoice in the Lord about and yet there is so much we could be doing. They would like us to have a literacy class at the Church here and have the library open as well as teach a Bible Club some afternoon. The Library needs a lot of work—someone shuffled the books and the numbers are falling off of the books. Many are not numbered correctly and there is no card catalog. I don't have a lot of time to spend on it so it is slow going. We are grateful to be able to be here and do what we can. The Lord has given us a task and by His grace we hope to fulfill it.
In Christian love, Kathy

Pictures from April Newsletter

Katryan's Farewell at Corriverton Baptist Church.

John service at the Police Prayer Breakfast held in April.

Brother Troy conducting the Mission meeting at #69 Village.

April Newsletter 2008

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST MISSION
5440 ALABAMA HIGHWAY 202
ANNISTON, ALABAMA 36201
John & Kathy Hunter; j-khunter.gbca@juno.com; hunter.jhkp@yahoo.com
April, 2008

Dear Friends,

Praise the Lord for all His goodness and grace. The work here in Corriverton, Guyana, goes on well. The two Churches combined to have a farewell service for the Katryans. We wanted to glorify God and honor his servants and I believe both these goals were accomplished. All the men training for the pastorate had a part and did an excellent job. I spoke from 2 Timothy on Paul's directions to Timothy. There were over a hundred people crowded into the smaller of the two church buildings at Corriverton.

The Roadside Baptist Church Skills Training Centre has started back in full force after a 2 1/2 week holiday celebrating 3 different religion's holidays and having a spring break. My schedule has been somewhat cut back. I am only teaching 5 classes now but Kathy is busy all day doing clerical, accounting, and library work.

My name has been put on all the accounts for the Churches and missions as well as the Centre. No checks can be cashed without my signature. The Centre's next Board of Directors meeting is this Thursday at which time I expect to be made Chairman of the Board. I'll have enough titles then to qualify as a big wheel. A big wheel, of course, is one who is always going in circles. Pray that I will be able to meet everyone's expectations and please the Lord.

More than ever I am trying to exalt Christ is my preaching. For that reason on Sundays in
the morning I am in Romans; Sunday evening preaching on marriage; and Wednesday going through John. At the Missions, I have preached all over the Bible. At the Centre I have gone through most of the historical chapters of Daniel and now have started the life of Joseph in between showing the Moody Science DVD's.

Kathy is teaching a Sunday School class for the older children and this Tuesday is hosting a women's fellowship. At home she is helped by Anita, a young woman who lives behind our home in a tiny apartment with her 8 year old son, Daniel. Pray for these two as they have had a very difficult life because of a drug addicted husband and father.

We are to have our second prayer breakfast with representatives of the police department this Saturday. This is another outreach that needs to be prayed for. The police here are poorly paid and equipped. Many make up for these deficits by taking bribes. It is our hope that some of these men and women will come to Christ and turn the whole department around. Remember Guyana is a third world country and the taking of bribes is a normal activity.

Time to close although so much is untold, but the Lord knows it all, just pray fervently for us. Praise the Lord that we have been approved to stay in Guyana until September, at which time we will have to apply to extend to April, 2009. Thank you all for your prayers and gifts that sustain us and help so much in this ministry.
In Christ, John Hunter

Corriverton Baptist Church, Lot 99 Line Path D, PO Box 936,
Corriverton, Berbice, Guyana, South America

Phone: 592-339-3448

March pictures

Left: Mission meeting at #57 Village

Right: John teaching a class at Roadside Baptist Church Skills Training Centre.

John leading a song at Roadside Baptist Church.

March Newsletter 2008

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST MISSION Corriverton Baptist Church
5440 HIGHWAY 202 Lot 99, Line Path D, PO Box 936,
ANNISTON, ALABAMA 36201 Corriverton, Berbice, Guyana, South America
MARCH, 2008 592-339-3448 or 339-2286
We praise the Lord for His goodness and grace. This week a man of 80 with a Hindu background asked to be baptized. Brother Katryan questioned him before presenting him to the Church to make sure he was not just adding Christ to his Hindu concepts. The man indicated he was not but wanted to identify with Christ. It is hard to go against Hindu family members, so we are particularly happy with his man's profession. Pray for him.

The work at the 2 missions continues to move forward under the leadership of the men responsible for them. Brother Moti is at #57 Village where the new building is to be built. He has over 20 regular attendees. The weather seems to be drying out so we expect to make real progress soon. Brother Troy is at #69 Village but this work is so close to Roadside Baptist Church that a new building is not necessary.

Both Troy and Moti are attending the Pastors' Training class I teach on Saturday's with a growing number of others looking to serve the Lord. This past week I also evaluated 3 of the mens' messages at various services. They all did quite well overall but had some difficulties that we are hoping will be solved over time. All my students are willing to learn and are ready for correction. We are going to have another member in our class this week—the first to come from outside this Church ministry. It will be interesting to see how he does in our elemental theology class.

Kathy and I continue to make cultural and language adjustments. The people are very patient with us. Our driving is coming along as well. The Lord has not allowed us to make any serious mistakes. Most of the police know us from visits or their coming to our prayer breakfast. The Katryans try to promote a healthy community image and have opened new evangelistic opportunities by these prayer breakfasts.

The Skills Training Centre has given me the opportunity to start an after-school Bible Study on Fridays. We will start next Friday. Pray for students and staff at the Centre. I have so many opportunities to present the Gospel but so little tangible results. although some staff and a few students show real interest. My flannel graph stories are very popular with the students, even the older ones.

This Sunday is, of course, Resurrection Sunday and I will preach from I Corinthians 15:1-10. The churches have responded well to my preaching. Attendance is good at all services though people here don't mind being late. Kathy and I say they live on “Guyanese time”. It does not appear that anything outside Roadside Baptist Skills Training Centre starts on time.
This is getting a little lengthy so I will close for now. May the Lord bless; thank you all for your prayers and keep praying. Pray especially for the men in training, their financial situation, the new building, and the salvation of souls!
In Christ, John Hunter

February Newsletter

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST MISSION
5440 ALABAMA HIGHWAY 202
ANNISTON, ALABAMA 36201

February 19, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Well, by now I guess you are saying, “What happened to the Hunters?”. Kathy and I have not dropped off the face of the earth. We arrived in Guyana on the 22nd of January. After a long trip by car and ferry, we came to the Corriverton Baptist Church for a wonderful welcoming service on Wednesday at which all five of the men I had worked with last year spoke.

After two more days of settling in and visiting, Kathy and I went to work at the Skills Training Centre where Kathy is helping with bookkeeping and library work. She is also teaching a teenage Sunday School class, working in the Library at the Corriverton Church and is supposed to teach remedial reading in our local community one afternoon a week. At the Centre I am teaching 9 classes a week and presenting flannel graph Bible Stories. I also act as a counselor and disciplinarian. I have been called as the Interim Pastor of the mother church at Corriverton although it is the smaller of the 2 churches already established by Brother Katryan. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings we are usually at one of the 2 mission works. On Saturdays I spend 2 hours teaching a class in Theology and one on Old Testament Survey. The attendance at these classes has been running at 5-6 adults. The Lord has been gracious in providing strength for our busy schedule.

But I have not explained why it has taken so long to get in touch. In Guyana nothing works with any kind of efficiency or speed. Dial-up Internet it is so slow that you may be over a half hour getting to your email then it will not allow you to send more than a few lines. We have applied for DSL but it has taken several faxes, and a trip to the nearest outlet in New Amsterdam to sign up and then had to wait for their installer to come and hook us up. We will still have our same email address at j-khunter.gbca@juno.com but we have also added another address at hunter.jhkp@yahoo.com. Some of our emails sent from the Yahoo address have come back as undeliverable so I don't know how much we will use it. We hope to be able to talk to folks via SKYPE when we are set up, so if you are on SKYPE let us know. We will be using the Yahoo address for that since our other computer is using the Juno address.

Prices in Guyana have risen dramatically with a 16% value added tax and the rain that has spoiled 2 rice crops. Cement, paint and other building materials have soared because of the fuel costs and increased demand. I am glad the Lord knows it all.

We have had to make many adjustments and the work load sometimes it seems heavier than we are able to bear, or at least far beyond what we are used to or expected. But our God is able. Those who promised to pray for us, please hold us up daily. There is great need all around us. The mission at #57 Village has been trying for weeks to get a start on a church building but the biggest hold up has been the rain. So far about half of the money for the project has come from right here and half from the States. If you would like to help, send money to the address above and designate it for the building project. Your money will be well cared for and be a great encouragement to the Church here.

I would like to help all the men who are presently serving in the Missions as mission leaders but not allow them to be come dependent on overseas money. I believe the way to do this is to help each of them to start their own little business. This would allow them to set their own hours so they can do more of the Lord's work. If anyone wants to help, here again designate your offering for the church workers.

Our setup expenses have been much higher than expected but we hope after this month that will settler down to a much more manageable amount.

Sorry to ramble so much, but so much has happened and there is so much to tell. With all the difficulties there have been more than equal blessings. The people here have received us so well and seem to be responding to the Gospel. The seed is being sown and we look for the Lord's harvest. May Jesus Christ be praised.

To contact us here, our address is: Corriverton Baptist Church, Line Path D, PO Box 936, Corriverton, Berbice, Guyana, South America. (Please be sure to include South America because it does get confused with Africa.) We appreciate everyone's interest and trust the Lord is blessing in your lives as we continue to remember you in our prayers.
In Christ,
John Hunter

More information

John is pastoring Corriverton Baptist Church and assisting the men who are pastoring the Roadside Baptist Church in #68 Village. Brother Terry Rohit is the primary pastor and he is assisted by Brother Motilall Harlall. Brother Moti is also handling the #57 Baptist Mission where a building is being constructed so that they can have a regular meeting house and hopefully be constituted a Church soon. The building is close to being finished. We rejoice in the Lord's provision for it and for the good progress working towards its completion.

Before I write more about our present situation, I will post our past newsletters and that will catch you up on a number of things without me having to rewrite what is contained in the newsletters.

Greetings from Guyana!

I am just trying this out to see how it works.

We have now been in Guyana almost a year. It has been a blessed and rare experience. There have been many growing experiences as well as many times when there was a special blessing from the Lord as we have fallen in step with the job responsibilities that we were given to fill. Often we have been inadequate for what was expected of us, but we have done what we could and sought to please the Lord in our doing.