Volunteers form heart of work in Jamaica

KINGSTON, Jamaica — If the Bible Society of the West Indies had to depend on its paid staff to provide all the Scriptures needed by its target audience, it would face a hopeless situation. But with volunteers like Fredericka Gwendelin Gaynar and Keith and Elaine Laing, lives are being changed daily.

Bible Society volunteer Elaine Laing is prepared to share Scripture materials with anyone she meets. Jamaica. Photo: UBS/Larry Jerden (JAM01DJ-46)

Mrs Gaynar has been distributing Scriptures for the Bible Society for about 30 years. She is also active in the School Christian Fellowship, focusing on Kingston High School. “I am now retired,” Mrs Gaynar says, “but I am still trying to do the Lord’s work.”

Her affinity for students makes her value the Bible Society’s New Reader Portions. “I particularly like them because they are for children,” she explains. “They teach them about the Bible and keep it before their eyes.”

Mrs Gaynar’s focus on children has led her to distribute the Bible Society’s Bible Reading Guide to young patients in Kingston’s Children’s Hospital, at the Kingston High School, in the Kingston Anglican Parish Church and at St George’s Church, Sunday School and Day School. She has also given impetus to a scholarship program for students from Saint George’s.

“In the past they had received scholarship money from Shell Oil,” she explains, “but the company changed its policies.”

So Mrs Gaynar went to her pastor and suggested that individuals contribute J$1,000 (US$20) per month – or whatever they could – to help the students. Today the church is helping send 18 students to university.

“Finances are getting tighter,” the widow admits, “but ways are open. If everyone helps a little we can make it. God’s work will continue to prosper, praise the Lord!”

While Mrs Gaynar focuses on youth, fellow volunteers Keith and Elaine Laing concentrate on reaching a slightly different audience.

“I have been a volunteer for the Bible Society for nine years,” says Mrs Laing. “My husband and I think it is important to witness with Selections. It is our way of serving God.

“When you cannot talk, the Scripture Selections talk for you. Before I hand out Selections, I pray over them. I pray that whoever receives them will be converted. I just enjoy doing it for the Lord.”

Among the places where Mrs Laing takes her tracts are buses and hospitals. “Every day we put Scriptures in a pouch and keep it with us wherever we go,” she says.

Mrs Laing adds that she and her husband always write down the names of those who have become Christians as a result of their witness.

“We have a book where we write the date and the name and their telephone number and their address and we pray for them,” she says. And the prayers seem to bear fruit.

“We hear from the people we have led to the Lord,” Mrs Laing notes. “Sometimes they call us and sometimes they come by.

“Once we were at a petrol station and a man was all excited and said, ‘Don’t you remember when you witnessed to me in the hospital and I got salvation? You shared the Gospel with me.’”

Along with the Selections and Portions, Mrs Laing also gives out what she calls ‘an encouraging word’.

“I was encouraging a taxi driver to serve the Lord,” she recalls. “I told him that man was made to serve God and that if you put God first he will put you first.

“That’s the way I witness – I give encouraging words along with Selections. But if I’m in a hurry, I just tell them that Jesus loves them and this is his Word.

“We have sowed a lot of seeds with the Gospel tracts,” she says, “but we have also given out a lot of books from the Bible Society, especially to children. They love the books, and they read them and pass them on to their friends.”

The books have been especially helpful in their apartment outreach. “We work in a complex with 16 apartment blocks,” Mrs Laing says. “There are a lot of children there, and we give them the Bible Society New Reader books about Peter, Jesus’s life and the Sabbath.

“If we give the books to two children, they will spread them throughout the apartments, because the children all love the stories. We want children to know about the Lord from the time they’re very young.”