April 14, 1999
Hyde Park youth serve in Suriname
___AUSTIN--Spiders, snakes and all kinds of creatures that go bump in the night didn't stop teenagers from Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin from sharing the love of Jesus with tribes in the interior of Suriname, South America.
___Twenty-eight Hyde Park members--17 teenagers and 11 adults--spent spring break spreading the gospel in the equatorial nation.
___"The trip was life-changing, to say the least," reported Jimmy Myers, the church's youth minister. "None of us had ever beenanywhere as remote and primitive before."
___On both Sundays of the trip, they worked with the Baptist churches of Paramaribo, Suriname's capital, and with Southern Baptist missionaries Tracy Adair and Courtney Street, Myers said.
___The Texans preached, sang, performed skits and did prayer walks and general evangelism both weekends, he noted.
___During the week, they traveled nine hours--six by truck and three by boat--into the interior of the country. There, they joined Southern Baptist missionary Tim McClard to minister to the Saramaccan tribes along the Suriname River.
___"We dug fresh-water wells, painted a building donated for a church, helped build a building to house future volunteer mission groups and did vacation Bible school activities with the children of four villages," he said.
___"Despite the tarantulas, crocodiles, bats in the hut, snakes, scorpions and the equatorial heat, God moved in our lives in an unbelievable way. The hardships were greater than we had anticipated, but the kids and adults responded with the greatest spirit you could imagine."
___Teenagers who made the trip echoed those sentiments.
___"This trip has changed the way I look at foreign missions forever," noted Sarah Myers, a high school senior. "Instead of just hearing about people who give their entire lives to preach the gospel to unbelievers outside of our country, I saw these amazing missionaries in action.
___"Every time I see a Lottie Moon Christmas Offering envelope, I will give more generously because I know exactly where the money is going and who it is helping."Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!