[Guyana-Mission-Report] Grave Top Ministry

New Years was a sad day in Shea Village.  A young man in his early thirties who had been partying all night, came home, beat up his wife and then took his hammock rope and hung himself on a cashew tree behind his house.  This is the second suicide for the year, and 6-7 unsuccessful tries were made. The sad part is that the church which he belongs to was unwilling to help the family dig a grave.  Everyone was recovering from the nights revelry and few people wanted to get out in the hot sun and pick out a proper hole.  I was informed that a few elderly people dug a foot and a half down with a hoe and buried the body.  I was alarmed when I heard this, envisioning some dogs digging up the remains.  So I talked another church member into helping me give the guy a proper burial.  At first we weren't quite sure what to do.  We didn't want to dig the body back up after 36 hours.  We had an extra bag of cement at the church that needed to be used up, and so we spent a couple hours and cast a 2 inch slab over the top of the body.  Just enough to keep the dogs from exhuming the corpse.  A bunch of kids and youth showed up to watch what was happening.  After I finished troweling the top of the slab and inscribing the name and date with a nail, I took off my hat and we had a little grave side service.  I looked them each in the eye and appealed to them that they never ever even consider the idea of taking their lives.  It leaves so many hurting people behind.  I also had prayer with the family who weren't at the grave side service.  The father in law of the deceased man has opposed the building of the church, and has gone so far as to call our church members snakes.  I hope and pray that this little gesture will help to break down prejudice and maybe open their hearts to the gospel. One of our church members also had a close call.  He had been imbibing some alcohol, and came back to his house in the early morning and promptly got into an argument with his wife.  I don't know all the details but he nearly choked his wife to death, and then in a complete reverse of emotion he tried unsuccessfully to drink poison and kill himself.  Somehow the mother in law and wife were able to wrestle the bottle out of his hand and pour it on the ground.  I paid a pastoral visit to him the next day when he was sober and we had some pretty straight words about what happened and the terrible effects of alcohol.  When they drink their local Para Cari drink it makes them almost demonic in nature. There is good news!  After catching our breath a little on the building project, we're hard at it again.  This time we have both bible workers out in the field, cutting boards for the benches, doors, and pulpit.  We'll need to get windows installed as well. It's now time to finish what we've begun.  We're so thankful for everyone who has helped us with this project.  We'll continue to send pictures as things progress. God bless, James James & Joy Ash 121 Durban Backlands Georgetown, Guyana 011-592-629-5141 http://guyanaaviationevangelism.blogspot.com/ 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