How?

     Guyana is a long way away from North Carolina.  There are many miles between here and there, as well as many obstacles between now and then.  Those obstacles that are in our pathway are merely mirages which God will overpower.  Romans 10:15 starts out by saying, “And how shall they preach unless they are sent?”  We are in the process of being sent.  This process has three steps and they make up the ‘How’ of our mission.

     Step 1.  God has called us to go to Guyana, plain and simple.  When we started this whole journey, we felt like God was giving us a slogan, “If God calls us to it, He will get us to it!”  Lindsey and I are trying to follow God with the understanding that if God has called us then He will pave the way.  This requires faith not just on our part, but on the part of our families and our church also.

     Step 2. You, our church family, are sending us.  There is no way that we could do all that needs to be done apart from the love and support of you.  Some of you reading this blog live in North Carolina, and some of you do not even live in North America.  You are all our family and your encouragement is priceless to us. We need your prayers, your words of encouragement, and your financial support.  This is why at the top of this site you can sign up to become a prayer partner and a financial partner.  As members of Wycliffe, we have to raise our financial support.  Last week we told you our monthly budget is set at $2500 a month.  When that is broken down between two people, Social Security, taxes, insurance, retirement, and operational overhead, you find that amount of money to be just right.  Wycliffe requires that we have raised 100% of that amount before we can go overseas.  As of today as are at 23% of that and for every $25 a month given we go up another percent.  This will be met by friends and family like you, giving each month through this website or by check. 

     Step 3. The final step is, ‘How will we learn the language and translate the stories in time?’  Well, we will be meeting someone there in Guyana who speaks both English and Carib.  We have talked to a missionary who used to live there who is going to try to connect us to this tutor.  Lord willing, we will build a relationship with him and he can help us learn the language, and perhaps translate the stories.  Also we will be building friendships with other natives once we learn the language that will also be helping us.  The goal is for them to translate the stories with our help, instead of us translating the stories with their help. 

     All in all, this is a huge task and it will require many people, not just Lindsey and I.  We will need you, the natives, people we haven’t even met yet, and mostly, a God who can move mountains!  We ask you to go before God and ask Him, how you can help take the Gospel to the Carib’s of Guyana?  How can you send us?  Will that be through prayer?  Through notes of encouragement?  Through financial support?  We are all a part of this mission!  Thank you for giving of yourselves for the glory of God!

~Electronic gifts can be made through this site.  Just click on the tab at the top and follow the instructions.

~Checks can be mailed to: PO Box 628200, Orlando, FL 32862-8200.  Please do NOT write our name on the memo line of the check but include a slip of paper and on it write Jason & Lindsey Lawson, #235891 

When

     I will start this blog entry with a precursor.  Just because I say a date or time for us going overseas, that doesn't mean that we will leave at that exact day and time.  James 4:15 is clear, saying, "Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."  So, the timeline we lay out today is what we are thinking at the moment, but God is the one who is in control of our coming and going!

     How do you come up with a time and day to say, “Ok now we are picking up and leaving what we have always known as home, and we are moving to another part of the world, very far from our families and friends?”  Let me tell you, there is nothing easy about it.  The thing that keeps us on course is knowing that God is always with us and He has called us not to stay home but to go into all the world, baptizing and teaching!  Therefore, we are going!

     Basically, two things are between us and leaving for Guyana.  1. God’s timing: When He says, “Take off,” we will know it is time.  2. Money: Wycliffe requires us to have 100% of our monthly support pledged before we can leave.  The budget that Wycliffe figured for us is $2500 a month. (Check out the blog next week to find out ‘How’ this happens and where we stand in the process.)

     When we were starting this whole process, Wycliffe asked us to set a ‘Faith Goal’ for when we would have our funds raised.  We prayed about it and came up with May 6^th.   So we have faith that by May 6^th we will have donors in place to support us as missionaries.  We will then tie off any loose ends, step out of our current jobs, say very difficult goodbyes to family and friends, put our belongings into storage and then we will, sometime around June, head out on the adventure of a lifetime!  Lord willing that is.

     This past week at our training in TX, we learned we have another training coming up in March.  This will be our Language and Culture Acquisition, meaning we will be learning some tips on how to learn a language.  It will be a five day training (March 7-11) in Greensboro, NC.  After this, we will have finished all of our stateside training. 

     Again, Lord willing, we hope to have a great opportunity to go with a missionary to Guyana at the beginning of May for a ‘Vision Trip.’ This will be a short trip to go down, establish a relationship with the people we’ll be working with, see the house we will be living in, and learn some things that we will want to pack, and some things we will not want to pack.  (Please be praying that if God wants us to go on this vision trip that He will provide a way!)

     After all this is said and done, we will put our seats and tray tables in their upright positions, fasten our seat belts and soar above the clouds to a new opportunity to share the love and hope and joy of Jesus Christ to people who may have never even heard His name!  Praise God!

     Check back next week for the final post in this series.  We have enjoyed informing you, our missions family, about all that God is doing in our lives, today and tomorrow! Together we are the body of Christ!

What?

     Now that you know that we will be working with the Carib people of Guyana because God has called us and they need to know, another question remains, “What will we be doing?”  This is an interesting question seeing that Lindsey and I are sitting in Tyler, TX at OneStory training.  We are learning the “What?” first hand right now!

     When we get to Guyana, our first 6 months will be dedicated to the learning of the Carib language and culture.  We will be connecting with an individual there in Guyana who speaks both English and Carib.  He will be tutoring us and helping us learn the language.  We will also spend a lot of time in the village, getting to know the people and building relationships, with the hope of learning the Carib way of life inside and out.

     After this initial six months, we will start our actual OneStory project.  What is a OneStory project you ask?  Well, OneStory is a program used to share the Gospel with people around the world who do not have a written language or do not have the Bible translated into their language yet.  We will translate between 40-60 stories from the Bible into the Carib language.  If you think this sounds like a huge task, you are correct!  We will share the stories with a native, who will then tell it back to us in their language so that we can record and study their words.  We will be checking for Biblical accuracy, where as they will be checking for cultural understanding.  This is a very fine line to balance on.  We will be documenting these stories and testing them with other natives to make sure they can be retold without changes.  If there are changes then we have to go back to the drawing board and run more test on the words in the story, until the story can be told multiple times with accuracy and understanding.

     Finally, we will work on getting these 40-60 stories into the hands and hearts of the Carib people.  This will take place through a variety of means: 1. Church plants, 2. Audio, which we record and distribute, 3. Local radio stations, 4. Home meetings, where people come over and we share stories, or 5. Carib people being touched by the stories and going themselves and telling others what they have learned.

     Basically, the “What?” can be answered in the Bible: Eph. 5:1 says, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”  Jesus was always telling stories to teach others, we want to imitate this method of teaching because for a culture who cannot read, they have to learn by hearing.  Our hope is that we will be able to imitate the love of God for the Carib people so they will know there is a God and He loves them enough to send His Son to the earth so they may be saved!  OneGod.OneWorld.OneStory!

     Check back next week to find out the “When?” of this adventure!

PS, look below to see these new pictures of Guyana, courtesy of a man we just met while in TX.  He was apart of the team that translated the "Jesus Video," into the Carib language! 

Pictures of Guyana!

These are people from the Carib tribe!  Please pray for them!

This is a river near where we will be living.  Pray for those who live along the banks of the river.

This is a traditional dugout canoe, used for fishing and transportation. "The Vehicle of the Jungle" Pray for the Carib people to find God in their day to day lives!

This is a Carib house in the village.  The man with his back to us is the missionary we will be renting a house from.  His name is Greg.  He is now a professor at a College in FL.  Please pray for him and his family.

Why?

So why Guyana?  Why now?  Why the Carib people?

The funny thing about the question 'Why' is that it is a question that releases a million other questions.  If you need clarity about this then just spend five minutes with a four year old.  'Why is the sky blue?  Why is the earth round?  Why do burgers taste good?...'  So allow me to answer a hand-full of the "Whys"  here, and if you have any other specific questions please email us at jasondlawson@gmail.com.

Why Guyana?  Well, in short Lindsey nor I are linguists, and since Wycliffe mainly focuses on translating Scripture, we were very limited as to what jobs were available.  In fact there were only two, Guyana being one of them.  The job there would be in a tribal setting, so since both of us enjoy the outdoors, camping and hiking, we felt like God was pointing us to Guyana.

Why now?  Lindsey and I just passed our 1 year anniversary back in November so we are at a great place in life.  We do not have children, therefore we are a little bit more free to be mobile.  Also, Lindsey had to work four years as a teacher to fulfill her obligation as a Teaching Fellow (college scholarship program).  She just finished her fourth year last June, so she is not tied down to a full time job. 

Why translate into Carib if the children are learning English in School?  Well, everyone has a language that they speak in the mind.  That is what is called their heart language.  It is the voice that you think in to make decisions or to figure things out.  You may be able to speak a number of different languages but to think through difficult situations in another language would be very difficult.  So when it comes to the biggest decision of all, Salvation, we feel everyone should be able to understand that decision in the language they speak in their heart.  English may work for the Carib's in the realm of business, but in Spirit-filled living they need the Bible translated into Carib.

Basically to understand the Why? you have to read Romans 10:13-15.  We are going to Guyana to work with the Carib people because if no one goes to share the love of God, they will never know Salvation!

Check back next week to find out the "What?" in what we will be doing.

Who?

Of all the people on the earth, of all of the nations in the world, God has called Lindsey and I to work with the Carib people of Guyana.  But the question remains, who are the Carib people? 


The Carib tribe makes up around 2.9% of the population of Guyana.  They come from the Caribbean people who, because of war and slavery, have migrated to almost every country bordering the Caribbean Sea.  The Caribs of Guyana live mainly in the interior of the country.  This is unique considering 90% of the population of Guyana live on the coast. 
These people live fairly simple lives--farming, fishing, mining, and taking care of their families.  Usually this is done without the aid of electricity or cars.  Boats are a big part of transportation for the Carib because they live on or near rivers.
They do not have a written language, which means their communication system is oral {spoken}.  Most of the older generations solely speak Carib, but the younger generation is taught English in school.  Even though there are Caribs in almost every country boardering the Caribbean Sea, each of them speaks a different dialect.  This means if you were to get Caribs from each tribe together they would have difficulty understanding each other.
Lindsey and I are very excited about meeting the Carib people and sharing with them that God has sent His Son to die for their sins!  Please join with us as we pray for this small tribe in Guyana.  They may be few, but they hold a mighty special place in God's heart! 

You might be wondering, how will we translate the Bible into their 'heart language' {native language} if they do not have an alphabet?  Or, if the younger generation is learning English then why not just give them the English Bible?  These are great questions--check back next week for answers to these and more in our "Why?" post!