~Featured Missionary and Country of the Week - Steve/Cheri Smith, Guyana

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Steve and Cheri Smith

Region(s): Central America/Caribbean
Field(s): Guyana
Poster: download PDF
Website: click here to visit
Bio: Steve and Cheri Smith were pastoring in Illinois when they felt God’s call to serve in Guyana, South America. They served first as AIMers for a year and a half before receiving their appointment as full-time missionaries in 2002. Presently they have been working in Guyana for the past six years between AIM service, deputation, and are now into their second year of this term. Smith serves as the superintendent of the work and as the Bible school president. He and his wife both teach in the Bible school. She serves as the national Sunday School director, and they pastor two churches, including the headquarters church in the capital city of Georgetown. Their three children Alexia, Steven, and Cameron, are all involved in the work and enjoy serving the Lord in Guyana. He states, “We’re so blessed to be missionaries in beautiful Guyana, the ‘Land of Many Waters’.”

Guyana

Cooperative Republic of Guyana

Area Coordinator: O. Steven Smith

Population: 700000

Area: 83,000 sq. mi.

Capital: Georgetown

Languages: English (official), Amerindian dialects

Religions: Hindu, 34%; Protestant, 34%; Islam, 9%; Catholic, 18%

The Cooperative Republic of Guyana, about the size of Idaho, lies on the northern coast of South America, sandwiched between Venezuela on the west and Suriname on the east. Brazil is Guyana’s southern neighbor. Tropical forests cover 80% of Guyana. An extensive network of north-south rivers drains Guyana’s highlands and flows to the sea. Politically, Guyana is the only nation state of the Commonwealth of Nations on the mainland of South America. Culturally, Guyana is Caribbean rather than Latin American, and it is considered part of the West Indies. The United Pentecostal Church of Guyana began as a mission of the UPC of Jamaica in 1976 with the appointment of Devon Dawson. It came under the auspices of the UPCI in 1982. It has 1,396 constituents, 15 churches and preaching points, and 26 licensed national ministers.

Additional Informational:

Background - Originally a Dutch colony in the 17th century, by 1815 Guyana had become a British possession. The abolition of slavery led to black settlement of urban areas and the importation of indentured servants from India to work the sugar plantations. This ethnocultural divide has persisted and has led to turbulent politics. Guyana achieved independence from the UK in 1966, and since then it has been ruled mostly by socialist-oriented governments. In 1992, Cheddi JAGAN was elected president in what is considered the country's first free and fair election since independence. After his death five years later, his wife, Janet JAGAN, became president but resigned in 1999 due to poor health. Her successor, Bharrat JAGDEO, was reelected in 2001 and again in 2006.

Guyana (pronounced /ɡaɪˈænə/ ( listen) gy-AN-ə), officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana[1] and previously known as British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana has been a former colony of the British, Dutch, French and for 200 years the Spanish. It is the only state of the Commonwealth of Nations on mainland South America, and is also a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which has its secretariat headquarters in Guyana's capital, Georgetown. Guyana is also one of the few Caribbean countries which are not islands. Guyana achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 26 May 1966 and became a Republic on 23 February 1970.

Historically, the region known as "Guiana" or "Guayana" comprised the large shield landmass north of the Amazon River and east of the Orinoco River known as the "Land of many waters". Historic Guyana is made up of three Dutch colonies: Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice. Modern Guyana is bordered to the east by Suriname, to the south and southwest by Brazil, to the west by Venezuela, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean.


At 215,000 km2, Guyana is the third-smallest independent state on the mainland of South America (after Uruguay and Suriname). Its population is approximately 770,000. Guyana is one of the four non-Spanish-speaking territories on the continent, along with Brazil (Portuguese), Suriname (Dutch) and French Guiana (French).

Guyana was inhabited by the Arawak and Carib tribes of Native Americans. Although Christopher Columbus sighted Guyana during his third voyage (in 1498), the Dutch were the first to establish colonies: Essequibo (1616), Berbice (1627), and Demerara (1752). The British assumed control in the late 18th century, and the Dutch formally ceded the area in 1814. In 1831 the three separate colonies became a single British colony known as British Guiana.

The first slaves were forcibly brought to Guyana under harsh conditions in the early 17th century in order to provide free labour for the development of the local economy and production of goods for export to Europe. Escaped slaves formed their own settlements known as Maroon communities. With the abolition of slavery in 1834 and after the five year apprenticeship period, many of the former slaves bought and paid for land which they then used to form other communities e.g. Buxton, Plaissance, Victoria, Queenstown, etc. Indentured labourers from modern-day Portugal (1834), Germany (first in 1835), Ireland (1836), Scotland (1837), Malta (1839), China and eastern India (Madras, Bengal and Bihar primarily, beginning in 1838) were imported to work on the sugar plantations.

Since Independence in 1824, Venezuela has claimed the area of land to the west of the Essequibo river. Letters from Simon Bolivar warned the British government about the Berbice and Demerara settlers settling on land the Venezuelans claimed was theirs. In 1899, an international tribunal, with no Venezuelan representation, ruled the land belonged to Great Britain.

Map of British GuianaGuyana achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 26 May 1966 and became a republic on 23 February 1970, remaining a member of the Commonwealth. The United States State Department and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), along with the British government, played a strong role in influencing political control in Guyana during this time.[6] The American government supported Forbes Burnham during the early years of independence because Cheddi Jagan was a self declared Marxist. They provided secret financial support and political campaign advice to Burnham's People's National Congress to the detriment of the Jagan-led People's Progressive Party, mostly supported by Guyanese of Indian descent.

In 1978, Guyana received considerable international attention when 918 almost entirely American members (more than 300 of whom were children) of the Jim Jones-led Peoples Temple died in a mass murder/suicide in Jonestown – a settlement created by the Peoples Temple. An attack by Jim Jones' bodyguards at a small remote airstrip close to Jonestown resulted in the murder of five people, including Leo Ryan, the only congressman ever murdered in the line of duty in US history.

In May 2008, President Bharrat Jagdeo was a signatory to The UNASUR Constitutive Treaty of the Union of South American Nations. Guyana has ratified the treaty.

Flag of Guyana