SUBJECT: Betsy's Letter #14

AUTHOR: Betsy Burgdorf, her husband Ted, and three girls - Heidi, Kristen, and Kara, work with her sister Becky Gates and family in Guyana.

DATE: May 13, 1997

Dear Family & Friends,

It's hard to believe my parents have been here 2 weeks already. It seems like they just arrived! We've really been enjoying them, and they felt right at home when they got here. We have gladly let Mama take over seeing patients, since we don't enjoy it so much. Both she and

First extraction. We now have gloves & better instruments

David have been busy pulling teeth. That is a BIG need here, since they are lucky to see a dentist here maybe once a year. We've had so many people come by wanting teeth pulled, and we couldn't do anything. So it's nice having Mama and David here to do that.

Daddy started work right away on the garden and has cleaned it up and planted several new beds. He's still trying to figure out a bicycle trail. I don't know how that's going to work, since it's quite hilly here!

David also arrived the same day Mama and Daddy did, which made Becky and the kids very happy. He had been gone for 8 weeks! We all hoped he would be here with the plane, but things have taken much longer than planned. Tomorrow David is going back to the States to get the plane. Becky is going with him so she can go to her daughter Katie's graduation. Then she will fly back with David in the little plane. They hope to be back in 3-4 weeks. The kids are all staying here. The good news is that David has received official permission to fly the plane in the interior. That means that as soon as the plane gets here he can fly it to Kaikan. We were afraid the plane would be stuck in Georgetown for weeks, waiting for permission to fly it in the interior, so we really praise the Lord for working this out. Now we just need the plane here!

We have had 3 marriage classes now with a great turnout of about 40 people, including some non-church members. The classes are held Sundays from 3-5 pm. It is interesting to teach a marriage class where several of the couples do not even sit together in the class, but we are thankful they are coming and hope they will benefit from the class. We certainly are not experts and wish Nancy Van Pelt was here to teach the class, but at least my parents brought her book The Compleat Marriage to help us out. We have received some very challenging questions, but we feel the Lord is blessing the class. We have 2 more weeks on marriage, then we begin parenting classes, which is another needed area. Lina has had a good turnout at her courtship class, for ages 12 and up.

At the last Pathfinder meeting, my Mom talked to the kids and told them about the money that the Chowchilla Church raised at a yard sale to help our club with uniforms. I thought we could take about 15 minutes to have everyone write thank you notes, but it took the entire meeting to do it. Most of these kids had never written a thank you note in their lives and had no idea how to do it.

Working with the youth

With a lot of help and coaching we finally got them through it. After half an hour some of them were still staring at a blank sheet of paper. I finally told them just to draw a picture, so that's what they did.

The Pathfinder uniforms have been coming along VERY SLOWLY! We finally got Becky's sewing machine from Georgetown, which was a big help, since I can sew at home now. Ted modified it with a crank handle so it's easier to turn by hand and faster than before, but it still goes painfully slow! I have now completed 6 skirts and 1 pair of pants. Only 62 more to go!!! We are hoping the generator will come on the plane today, and then sewing will go much faster. I also made a Pathfinder flag which turned out really nice.

We started swimming classes with the Pathfinders since everyone is supposed to have Beginner's Swimming. We assigned 2 units to come each day after school so we wouldn't have such a huge mob at once. The kids are very enthusiastic about it, and we usually have to chase numerous kids out of the water who aren't in the class.

Last Sunday was Mother's Day. On Sabbath there was a nice program at the church. I read a short story about mothers for Sabbath School, and Mama taught the Sabbath School lesson. The church service was done entirely by mothers. There was not one man on the platform! Becky gave the sermon (I was glad they asked her and not me!) and did very well even though she was extremely nervous.

On Sunday the community had a dinner for all the mothers and afterwards had a pinata for mothers only. I got the lucky hit that broke it open!

Sister Lillian, the blind diabetic lady who burned her foot, is doing much better, thanks to Becky's tender loving care. The foot is basically healed now, but Becky still visits her daily to read to her and cheer her up. Mama goes with her now that she is here.

Emelda's baby has an umbilical hernia. The reason is because the baby's daddy went out and cut down a banana tree right after he was born. He should have known better because about 3 years ago Candy's daddy cut down a tree right after she was born, and she got an umbilical hernia. It happens every time!

We appreciate so much all your prayers and support. Continue to pray for us here in Kaikan.

Love,

Betsy

You may write to Betsy at: gates@andrews.edu

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Last Updated: May 13, 1997

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