Blackwater Part 1

Some of my favorite Sabbaths down here have been spent going out to the community of Blackwater. Blackwater is located about an hour and a half up the Barima river from where we are in Mabaruma. Wings for Humanity has a former crab fishing boat that we pile into for the ride through the jungle. The river is large, brown, and flat. In contrast, the jungle is filled with different shades of green. Mangrove trees grow right out to the edge of the river and on a typical trip we see scarlet ibises scattered in the trees at least once. We are in a coastal region, and the ocean tides ebb and flow in the Barima and streams that feed in. Houses along the river are built on stilts sticking up from the mucky intertidal zone. They often have little “driveways” cut back into the house from the main river course. “Blackwater”, as far as I can tell, is a loose collection of homes along the river. When we arrive at the church (we think the Catholics built it), Jake or Zack sound the air horn and we wait for people to show up. Once, a while back, someone did an evangelistic series and there are a few baptized Adventist members. Lots of other people come to join us in worship though. I get to pick the story and teach the lesson part of the children’s program. We usually have 20-30 kids. I have been reading stories to them out of the "My Bible Friend" books (the red books) and then we do a craft or color. I love working with the kids out there. They don’t seem to have heard many of the Bible stories before and it is incredible to sit and read to them. My guess is that few of them have been read to before either and the pictures in the books I carry out are fascinating. Being from the river, they have even less exposure to textual materials then the children in Mabaruma do. It is awesome tinged with sad to go through the book with them. Wonderful to get to share, heartbreaking to see beautiful, intelligent children who will probably never get a real shot at a decent education. In general, the “river people” are fairly quiet. These kids don’t talk a ton. They don’t often ask me questions and when asked a question are more apt to smile than reply. But when I point to Jesus, then turn the page, Nalene, Lisa, and Ron (three of my favorites) will search for him and then chorus in soft, high voices “Jesus? Jesus?” as they point. Sometimes I have trouble speaking a response. 

After Sabbath School, we have church and I try and find some kids to “help” me find the songs in my hymnal. Some of them know the songs, some just the tune, but I point with my finger and try and show them that the symbols on the page relate to what they are hearing. During the sermon we look at pictures in my Bible and practice turning pages. Two Blackwater trips ago, a women approached me after church asking if I could bring some books like I was using to teach the children. She wanting to teach the kids on the Sabbaths we aren’t there. Last time we were out there Karen gave me some things to give to her and I got the opportunity of teaching her how to find verses in the Bible. Her Bible did not have a table of contents. With no background, how could you expect someone to know how to find a text!? I hope my explanations made sense and I am interested to hear how things went when we go there this weekend. We also plan to start some health talks out there this trip. I will post on what we learn.