[Guyana-Mission-Report] Dragon was Wroth with the Woman...

Here is a fresh report that indicates how the Devil is working overtime to undo the gospel work in Shea. The Church of Christ has been very active in Region 9 and is doing a strong evangelistic push into the villages. Wherever they go they preach a watered down gospel, and offer all sorts of material gifts (i.e. food, clothing, T.V.'s, VCR's, Bicycles, and even money itself!) Naturally thousands are flocking to the free "loaves and fishes" and are getting baptized. The sad part about this is that it makes a mockery of the true gospel, and feeds the covetous spirit of the poor Amerindians. Just within the last two weeks a group from this church traveled up to Shea Village to meet with the Adventist members to get them to join their church. They met with the new Adventist believers and began to tell them erroneous teachings, such as 1) The Sabbath has been switched from Saturday to Sunday due to Christ raising on Sunday. 2.) Pentecost happened on a Sunday (flatly false) 3) The Law was nailed to the cross, therefore we need not worry about keeping Saturday Sabbath. They also brought out gifts and offered the Shea church members money if they would become baptized into their church! Many prospective Adventists were taken by their ploy, and at least one known Adventist member was "baptized" into their church. Also they performed an instant wedding service for the deputy toshao and baptized him and his wife. The new Adventist Members were confused and many were inclined to join the movement. Fortunately the leader (Sandra Rodrigues) sent a letter to Sand Creek telling them what was going on and implored them to come quick otherwise everyone (including herself) would join the Church of Christ. A group from the Sand Creek Seventh-day Adventist Church set out immediately for Shea. When they arrived the Church of Christ group was just leaving. The Church of Christ people were planning to stay another three days, but when they heard that the Adventist members from Sand Creek were coming to town, they decided to leave early, promising to come back to baptize the others. The group from Sand Creek has spent about a week with them doing bible study, and answering their many questions directly from the bible. Fortunately most of the members didn't apostatize, and the one who did confessed with tears his error and wants to be rebaptized. The members have also talked with the deputy and explained how marriage in Guyana works, and that they aren't legally married. Needless to say he's pretty confused as well. The good news is that the group from Sand Creek helped the Shea members frame up the new temporary structure. This fulfills the Shea Council requirement of starting the building within eight months. This coming week, I'll be traveling with a team into Shea Village and we'll begin building the permanent structure.. I know this report may be shocking, but this underscores several important things. The Devil is not happy that the work is going forward in Shea, and he's going to do everything that he can to disrupt the gospel. The Church of Christ group has promised to come back at a later time to rebaptize the other members. We must not leave the Shea members open to attack until Joy and I can move there permanently. Please pray for the last documents to be written giving us permission to move out there. Part of the group from Sand Creek are staying in Shea until we can go back there to work on the church building. We must work diligently to ground these new believers in the word of God so that they will not be blown about by every wind of doctrine. We must move forward quickly with the church structures as it will encourage the members and send a statement to the community. While it is true that the devil is hard at work, it is also true that the Lord is even harder at work. We praise the Lord that a major disaster has been averted. Please pray for the work. We're moving forward together with NAPS to finish the first phase of the church building and prepare the way for the second phase when plan to come on a mission trip in December. Sincerely James Ash James & Joy Ash 121 Durban Backlands Georgetown, Guyana 011-592-629-5141 www.guyanaaviationevangelism.org James & Joy Ash Gospel Ministries International Project Name: Guyana Aviation Evangelism 874 South McDonald SW McDonald, TN 37353 1 (423) 473-1841 or 1 (423) 473-1842