GRADUATION 2009 NEWSLETTER

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST MISSION
5440 HIGHWAY 202
ANNISTON, ALABAMA 36201
MARCH, 2009

Dear Friends,
March 19th Roadside Baptist Church Skills Training Centre graduated 147 persons. I thought that deserved its own news letter, so here goes.

The centerpiece of our Centre was the Educare Program which has been funded by the good old USA. The program took students from 14 to 17 where were dropped out of school and trained them in either electrical skills for the boys or garment making for the girls. We started with 56 and finished with 50 which I think is great considering these were all at one time dropouts. All of these students went through my classes on Bible in the counseling segment of our training. At graduation I had one set of parents with twin boys in the program thank me that the boys had "reformed". A group of these boys paid especially good attention in my class and said that they wanted to follow Christ. Time will tell the reality of their commitment.

We also graduated classes in computer literacy, advanced computering, computer repair, cooking, and cake decorating. The graduation was attended by several high level education department officials and was covered by the television news media. The young woman from the TV station told me she was very impressed by the Church's commitment to the community.
The program consisted of: Mr. Wilfred Gomes as Master of Ceremonies, who did a great job of handling the proceedings; an opening address by Ms. Patricia David, Adult Education Association; a brief address by Mr. Claude Johnson, Education Officer II; featured address by Ms. Sandra Hooper, Community Development Specialist for Educare; distribution of certificates by Terry Rohit and Lucy from the AEA; Varsha and Mr. Claude Johnson, and Stephen Bactawar and Mr. Simon (N.A.T.I.) for the various programs. Shaminee Rohit read the names of the students receiving trophies and Hani from Educare presented them to the following students: Overall Best - Satesh Kumar Singh, Most Disciplined - Kumar Bissoon, and Most Improved - Dhanmattie Ragnauth. The students presented 2 songs as well.

During the ceremony they surprised my wife, Kathy, and I with a tribute for our service and we were indeed surprised.

As I write some of our students as well as teenagers from the neighborhood and from the #68 Church and #57 Mission are having a pizza get-to-gather hosted by Ellen and Katie, our volunteers from Rhinelander, Wisconsin. These two Christian young ladies have helped us a great deal with their fine testimonies and personal work abilities.

Keep praying for the Centre. This was the last year for the Educare program. The Centre will miss that funding and avenue into the lives of these teenagers. We also want to be more focused on presenting the Gospel.

In Christ, John Hunter

Please visit: ellenandkatieinguyana.blogspot.com for more pictures and information.

March Newsletter

I haven't learned to do blogs very well. I was trying to put the pictures after the Newsletter and they are in the opposite order in which I expected them to upload so the first is last and the last is first.....

This is Katie and Ellen working with some of the young people at #57.

This is the 3rd night of the Crusade. John led them in an action song before the message to wake everyone up. This was at someone's request.

This is part of the crowd that attended the Crusade at Ronald's house. We were seated in an "L" shape. Some were under the house and some extended out to the main road which is immediately behind those standing in the back.

#57 Group song at the first night of the Crusade.

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST MISSION
5440 HIGHWAY 202
ANNISTON, ALABAMA 36201
March, 2009

Dear Friends,

We have had quite an exciting few weeks with the final stages of the #57 Village building project going on and our four-day Crusade just past. The Lord has blessed us on every hand in these last days of our 15 months in Guyana.

The Crusade was a highlight of our time, but God has crowned much of His work with blessing. The girls, Ellen and Katie, were a real help in the special meetings singing often at each of the four nights and organizing the special music. They sing a lot here! The music when we first arrived was in need of help and they have been teaching all of us proper timing and harmony. Many folks from the Churches helped with the music and the teens and pre-teens from #57 delighted everyone. The Lord gave good liberty in my preaching and I believe Christ was exalted. I will not speculate on how many were saved or otherwise positively affected by these meetings but we are hearing good things especially among the teens.

Attendance at Corriverton Baptist is up although it could be better in our own feeble estimation. Those who come give their full attention.

Kathy has the Library in better order now and we are adding some new titles. Part of my work on returning home will be to collect a number of Christian books for the Corriverton Library. It is open to the public 2 afternoons a week. We have a number of children and young people coming.

The portion of my own library that was shipped to Guyana for my own and the Pastors' Training School will apparently remain. It would have cost me well over a thousand dollars to ship it back. The Katryans will buy the books at a bargain price and I will replace what I can with the money. It was very good of the Katryans to help me out in this way.

The Centre at #68 is about to graduate another group of students from the electrical, garment making, computer classes, and some other smaller courses on the 19th of March. Most of these students have heard the Gospel many times during their education. This is a good group and we hope many will come to Christ. Some have attended at Roadside Baptist Church where Brother Terry Rohit is presently pastoring. He is one of my students in the Pastors' Training School.

Kathy and I hope to arrive in Florida on April 30 and spend some time with the Katryans before they fly out on the 1st or 2nd of May to return to Guyana. Our return to Guyana depends on this visit and Kathy's knees and a few other considerations. The Lord's will be done. I have filled out all my paper work for Social Security, but that is not enough to sustain she and I if we return. If the Lord closes the door here we will look for some ministry elsewhere. Please pray with us about this.

The Lord bless you for your prayer support while we were and are here and a special thanks to all who helped with financial needs all along the way.

In Christ, John Hunter

Our Day Camp plus 2 extra

We had a Day Camp on February 16 in which Katie and Ellen conducted a time of singing, a flannelgraph story, games and refreshments. The pictures loaded the opposite of what I expected, so they are the opposite of chronological order. This is the group of children who got tagged and were out of the game. We were lined up on the stairs to the Library.

This is the beginning of the game where Katie is explaining the rules. Dian is catching 2 little ones that needed to be somewhere else so they didn't get mowed down by the children running from the back wall to the opposite side of the court trying to not get tagged.

This is Ellen giving the flannelgraph lesson. She chose Nehemiah. There were about 25 children when she was finished with the lesson. The day was a great success and the children all wanted to do it again the next Monday. We decided once a month was good. We will have another on March 16th. Pray for these children. Several have come to the services. They come to the Library too and always ask, "Where are Ellen and Katie?"

This is our neighbor, Kenneth, taking his donkey cart out to the main road to sell his food. This is as close as you get to "fast food" here in Corriverton. I shouldn't say that as we do have a Church's Chicken in town. I took this from the Library window. I want to get a picture of him on location but haven't had my camera ready at the right time.

In all fairness to Ellen, I felt I needed to post a picture of Katie in one of her study poses, too. She is out on the court. They both will plop down on the ground most anywhere to sit and relax or study. Ellen likes to go to the sea wall.

Characters

The Centre had some bicycles that they are letting Ellen and Katie use. This was their first ride on them. Unfortunately, though they looked like great bikes they are not the easiest to ride. They have some problems. Many Guyanese ride bikes. Brother Moti sells vegetables from his bike. He travels on the main road about 5-6 hours a day serving his customers.

This is the Pastoral class that John is teaching. The men are: L-R, Brother Terry Rohit, Brother Motilall Harlall, Brother Hemdath Balgobin, John, and Brother Troy Dhalu. They are meeting on the court as it is cooler there. The men's class is a great group of godly men who are interested in being used. They are characters in their own way.

This is the group at the #69 Village where we meet at Brother Harry and Sister Mary's. Brother Harry is in the back by the post and his wife is sitting in front of him. This is not the whole group but it's hard to get a picture when they are all there. I don't always think of it or it is too dark to take a picture.

All children wear uniforms to school. This girl attends the Nursery School on the street behind us. I thought they had cute little uniforms.

This is our "slasher", or lawn mower. You can see our yard is not very wide so it doesn't take him long.

I have labeled this "Characters". These are typical Guyanese activities and people. Guyanese pronoun "characters" -- car-rack-ters. It took us a while to figure out what they were saying.