Home in Guyana

We have now settled into our apartment in Georgetown, Guyana where we have been called to establish an LDS Employment Resource Services center in this city of 240,000 residents. Our ERS assignment is to help members find meaningful employment in a community where the unemployment rate ranges from 15-33% and help "worthy, ambitious and needy" students further their education through the Perpetual Education Fund.

To do so, we will build our program around www.ldsjobs.org, researching job opportunities and teaching business people how to set up an account where they can post job openings. We will also connect with trade schools and colleges and identify businesses willing to provide on-the-job training. We will be working with job seekers helping them connect with prospective employers and with students wanting to further their education but without the means to do so. We will be teaching classes, providing one-on-one assistance on such things as how to write a resume and how to complete the on-line PEF loan application. Certainly not by coincidence, the ERS is very similar to the structure of the Volunteer Center of Washington County except we will be helping people find job opportunities instead of volunteer opportunities.

Oh, and did I mention we will also be overseeing a smaller version of the mission office in our living room? It seems, the office couple in Guyana was needed elsewhere, so in addition to our work with ERS, PEF and probably lots of other program acronyms, we will also be balancing petty cash, paying bills and “other duties as assigned.”

We are quite certain this is where we will serve the remainder of our mission; and, as fast as our mission is passing, we are convinced we will hardly have time to turn around twice before it will be time to go home.

PS: I study the scriptures each morning at our outside patio table, but my favorite room in the apartment is my big shower!!!