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![[Betsy Burgdorff]](../images/betsy.jpg)
SUBJECT: Betsy's Letter #19
AUTHOR: Betsy Burgdorf, her husband Ted, and the youngest of their three girls - Kara, work with her sister Becky Gates and family in Guyana.
DATE: July 30, 1997
Dear Family and Friends:
We are in the middle of having a Vacation Bible School this week. Kaikan has never had a V.B.S. before and they’re all very excited about it. We are having it here at the mission house. We told the kids to come at 9:30 a.m., but by 8:00 they were already starting to show up! We’ve had 37 kids so far. We plan to do another V.B.S. just before school starts for all the kids who are gone with their parents to their farms right now. With no ready-made materials, we’ve just had to try and remember what we’ve done in previous V.B.S.’s. Kristen and Kara have been putting on a little puppet show everyday with the nurse and superman puppets that Ted’s Mom brought, teaching health principles. Everyday we have songs, stories, Bible Baseball, the “health spot” with the puppets, crafts, and exercises. The crafts have been the tricky part, squeezing 37 children plus adults into our kitchen!
The first day they made caterpillars from egg cartons. We had lots of egg cartons, paint, and Q-tips for paint brushes. We have a roll of 2” wide tape, so yesterday they made bookmarks by putting flowers and leaves between layers of tape. Tomorrow they will make mice from scraps of cloth. Unlike some kids in the U.S. who would probably take these things home and throw them away, these kids will treasure these items for a long time! Kristen, Kara, and Katie have been a lot of help. We could sure use Heidi, Lina, and Katrina also. We really miss them!
Well, David flew his first patient in the airplane last week. A 78 year-old man in Paruima got bit by a snake on his arm. By the time they carried him from his farm to the airstrip, it had been 12 hours, and he was only semi-conscious, with his whole arm swollen. David flew him to the hospital in Kamarang, where they started an I.V. and antibiotics. That is their standard snake-bite treatment, nothing more! By the next day the man was dead. We all felt sad that the first patient David transported in his plane had died.
San Juan (in Venezuela) had their graduation on Sunday morning, July 13. They had exchanged names with the Kaikan school and planned a gift exchange at the graduation. So a large group from Kaikan attended the graduation. Kara and I went along with my Mom, Becky, and Katie. About 20 of us piled into the boat for the 1 hour trip down river to the landing. From there it was about a 15 minute hike to the little village of San Juan.
The graduation was very nice, but unlike any I’ve seen before. They started out with a flower girl and Bible boy, just like a wedding! After all the graduates marched in, the parents marched in behind them, arm in arm, all dressed in black and white. But instead of sitting together, the ladies all sat on the left, and the men on the right! I’ve never been to a graduation that was a mixture of 3 languages: Spanish, English, and Akawaio. They asked Mama to pray and give the opening remarks, so she marched in with everyone. Her remarks were off the top of her head, since she had about 1 minute to think of something to say! I was glad they asked her and not me! After the graduation they had quite a feast for everyone. In the afternoon they had the gift exchange. Even though we had not picked names, we were each given some beautiful handmade baskets. We left at 7:00 in the morning and arrived back at Kaikan at 6:15 p.m., just in time to make a final radio contact with the girls in Georgetown before they left for the States.
Becky has been having her sewing class work on Pathfinder Uniforms for the past few weeks. We only have about 10 more to go now. We’ve made over 30 so far. Maybe in a couple more weeks we can have them all finished. It takes a long time with only 1 machine! Whenever we finish, we will have Pathfinder Induction.
We have had Francey and Corwin with us for 1 month now, and are really enjoying them. We still have not heard any news from the lawyer in Georgetown. Last week there was supposed to be some news, but there was nothing. David is supposed to be meeting with her today, so hopefully we’ll hear something by this evening. I think God is trying to teach us patience and teach us to “Wait on the Lord”. We continue to pray that God’s will, and not ours, be done regarding this adoption.
We have finished the marriage class and started on the parenting class. We were very happy that Ted’s Mom sent us Nancy Van Pelt’s Parenting seminar on video tapes. We thought the parenting class would be very easy; just put in a video tape. But after the first session we realized that most of what she said went way over their heads. Her illustrations are very American and don’t mean much here. So we’ve decided to watch the videos ourselves and then summarize in very simple words for the class. Their English is not very good, and if you use big words, you lose them.
Our experience here in Kaikan has truly been a faith-building experience for us. The Lord has been so good, and has provided for all our needs. We have not gone hungry yet! And we have been blessed as we have tried to help out this little village of Kaikan. So many of you have helped us in so many ways, and we hope and pray that you also have been blessed. Thanks to each one of you!!!
Love, Betsy
You may write to Betsy at: gates@andrews.edu