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For too many people, all that Guyana summons up is a gruesome recollection of the Jonestown massacre of 1978. No one who saw the reports of the 900 members of Jim Jones’ cult who died after swallowing poison are likely to forget them.

But the South American country bordered by Venezuela, Suriname and Brazil also boasts an unspoiled tropical rainforest teeming with wildlife and the world’s longest single-drop waterfall. Natural resources that include gold, diamonds, sugar and hardwood timber, should have made the country prosper. Unfortunately, the majority of Guyana’s under-one-million people live on less than $100 USD a month. Fighting disease, drugs and destitution, they are desperate to escape.

Past conquests by a series of other nations have left Guyana with a curiously un-Latin culture and language. Europeans made slaves of the indigenous Indians in the 1600s. When the Dutch came they imported African slaves. Finally, in the 1800s the British took charge and slavery was abolished. Large numbers of East Indians were brought in to work the land as indentured servants.

Today, East Indian descendents form 51 percent of the population, closely rivaled by 43 percent Afro-Guyanese. Only about four percent are Amerindians, and most of the remaining two percent of the population are European and Chinese. Add to this ethnic mixture generous dollops of Hinduism, Islam, spiritism and Christianity, and you have a cocktail potentially as lethal as any concocted by Jim Jones.

Murders and crime of all sorts commonly erupt on the streets of Georgetown, much of it motivated by racial hatred. The Afro-Guyanese government was ousted by Indians in 1992. People tend to vote their race rather than issues, feeding the general discontent.

Guyana has about 900 churches, 400 of them in the capital city of Georgetown. The 50 percent of the population who call themselves Christians attend a wide spectrum of denominations. Anglicanism, the state religion of British Guiana, claimed the largest number of adherents in the ’90s, followed by Roman Catholicism and Presbyterianism. Newer evangelical and charismatic congregations are usually small, forcing a number of pastors to rely on secular jobs for support. Nominalism is a serious problem. “Being baptized and being a Christian is the same to most people,” explains one local believer, “And there’s a lot of prejudice within the church. Only a few have mixed congregations. Most are either black [Afro-Guyanese] or [East] Indian.

Guyana enjoys freedom of religion, which means that Christian churches, Hindu temples and Muslim mosques co-exist almost side by side. The situation of one Muslim taxi driver who has a Hindu wife and Christian daughter is not uncommon. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons are also gaining followers, and Obeah spiritism, a folk religion originating from Africa, has attracted both Afro- and Indo-Guyanese. Obeah mixes practices from all the immigrant groups with witchcraft and sorcery, and is a dangerous influence that has even been known to incorporate human sacrifice as part of worship.

But evangelical influence is growing too. The indigenous Full Gospel Fellowship has gathered 14,000 members in ten years and now ranks just after Catholic, Anglican and Seventh-day Adventist churches in terms of members. Pentecostal, charismatic and evangelical fellowships are called “clap-hand” churches in contrast to the older and more formal denominations. George Otis Jr.’s “Transformation” documentary, detailing God’s dramatic work in four cities in response to serious intercession, has greatly impacted pastors within the Guyanese Evangelical Fellowship. Many meet weekly to ask God for revival in their country, as well.

Last August, the visit of the Operation Mobilization ship MV LOGOS II demonstrated to Guyanese the possibility of “unity within diversity.” The multi-ethnic crew ship welcomed nearly 49,000 visitors during their 13 days in ports, and at least 85 out of 200 crew members joined outreach teams. Two groups worked in ethnic neighborhoods with local churches and another two shared Jesus with Amer-indians in the interior. The ship’s doctor and six nurses held clinics in remote settlements along the rivers. Two groups of builders completed much-needed projects for a Christian orphanage and elderly peoples’ home. And daily teams left the ship for prisons, children’s homes, a night shelter for the homeless and AIDS wards.

“I didn’t feel prepared to see the peoples’ suffering,” admitted Uruguayan crew member Lilliana Torres, after going to the Georgetown hospital. “On the first visit I prayed with the daughter of a lady who was very sick [with AIDS]. The next day when we returned, the woman had died. So many are alone….They die without hope.”

An estimated one in four persons in Guyana is HIV-positive. The runaway epidemic prompted a conference on board the LOGOS II titled “AIDS/HIV and the Church.” Displays and practical information—much of it supplied by guest speaker Dr. Michael Ali and Youth With A Mission—helped to impress local pastors and leaders with the seriousness of the situation. The meeting also challenged the church to become more proactive in preventing the disease, since rampant immorality even among Christians is one of the root causes; and urged believers to reach out to victims who are often deserted by their families.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once set a story in Guyana, called The Lost World. Judging solely by its social and economic decline, the label seems appropriate. But crew members of the LOGOS II discovered that to God, there is no such thing as a lost cause. He has put his heart inside selfless missionaries, pastors and lay people like YWAM worker Saji Abraham, who gives many of his days to caring for dying AIDS patients. And inside local doctors Peter and Michelle Shiwnandan, who chose to remain in Guyana when their families emigrated. Besides pastoring a church and running separate practices, the couple conducts a pregnancy counseling center and arrange regular jungle clinics for Amerindians. They also hope to start an orphanage.

Rev. Fay Clarke’s family emigrated from Guyana to Florida years ago. But recently she obeyed God’s call to return to her home country, and now serves as an unpaid volunteer chaplain for the prison system. Thanks to Clarke, inmates are meeting the Lord and joining Bible studies, and churches are getting more involved.

“It was awesome. A humbling experience. I can’t describe it,” OM crew members reported of their experiences in Guyana. And although they sailed away, others would remain. Christ’s followers offer the only effective antidote to the Enemy’s promise of death.