Williams coming home!

2017-04-12

Dear friends and family,

We will be returning to the States on May 12 to visit and do some recruiting. This has been a very eventful and busy year, and we would love to tell you all about it! Since we have had no internet it has been very difficult to get updates sent. We are working on this problem, of course, but internet is expensive and most satellite companies want us to buy new equipment before they will sell us service. (If anyone knows a good solution to our problem, please let us know!)

Our plans for this spring/summer include visiting at least two churches in Tennessee during May 12-26 (we miss you all after 3 years!), the Upper Columbia and Idaho conference camp meetings, the Ritzville SDA Church, and anyone else who tells us they would like us to come! Our stay will only be about 7 weeks, so if you want to reserve some of our time, please let us know very soon. We are headed out to Paruima soon to start the third term of school and will not have easy access to communication, but we should be in Georgetown until April 17 or 18.

As we hear from churches and others we will work on finalizing our schedule. Keep watching for more updates soon!

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Work here in Guyana is getting more difficult, though the Lord is also giving us reasons to hope and be encouraged.

Alice has been able to grow a beautiful garden that has supplemented our diet with lots of fresh vegetables, even though we have had some very discouraging insects–corn stalk borers, striped and spotted cucumber beetles, thrips, squash bugs, leaf-footed squash bugs, cutworms, and ants. And pickleworms. (These have been the worst. They have been eating the flowers of the summer squashes, the young fruit of every vine crop in the garden, and the leaves of the New Zealand Spinach.) We are very thankful for all the garden books left here by previous missionaries, as well as the few we brought along, as they have helped us to identify our pests and work to destroy at least some of them.

Steven is growing into his work as principal, and our little team at the school is growing to help him keep things running. We are so grateful for the families that God is bringing us. Edwin and Laura Davidson and Allen and Sara Griffin are going to be working with us, and their help and companionship are invaluable to us. Mission work can be lonely, and having friends to smooth the way is such a blessing. Edwin and Laura are in the States waiting for the birth of their second child and will be returning to Guyana once the baby’s passport comes through. Please pray for the safe delivery of the little one and for God’s will to prevail in the government agencies so nothing will hinder their safe and quick return.

We still need more helpers. Right now we are losing several of our teachers for next year and need replacements. We would love to have some more families, but right now we don’t have any more housing. There are two houses on campus that are in progress, and probably two or three more that will be needed in order to be able to invite more families to work with us. Our biggest barrier to finishing the current houses has been time and manpower–we just don’t have anyone with time to work on building. If anyone would be interested in coming to help us, please let us know. There is at least one mission trip in the works, but there is plenty of work to be done!

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We need each one of you, and are so happy to know that there are people at home who love us and pray for us.

God be with you all.

In His service,

Steven and Alice Williams

PS: Pictures to follow…