Monday 2/5/18

Monday February 5th

It is now the end of my day here. Almost 6:00 p.m.

overall it was a relaxing day. I woke up at 8:00 a.m., catching up on my lost sleep from traveling. Pastor Titus Namen came to visit me at Emmanuel’s home. Mercy, his wife, is up in Nimba County back where her family is located. I’m hoping to see her later in the trip along with her children, Diana and Yaytowee. It was great visiting with Titus for awhile. I will be speaking at his church on Sunday. He is the Pastor of an ULIC (United Liberian Inland Church) located in downtown Monrovia. I look forward to seeing his congregants again too.

When it was time for Titus to leave we were also headed out so we gave him a ride. We dropped him off and headed to get my phone activated for Liberia. After buying a SIM card and converting my iPhone to the new SIM along with a scratch card for $5 that is data only and spending a total of $15 my phone is up and ready to go. My family is an iPhone family so I can FaceTime with them on data only as well as update my blog. I’ve already been texting them and talked to Jessica and Heather also with Adelyn and Ivory. What a special thing to hear ‘Hello Poppy’ from Adelyn when she saw me. It made the miles disappear.

We then went to visit Boye Nelson’s (a driver who drove for our first trip back in 2012)mother in a clinic where she is recovering from a stroke. I was able to pray with her family for her continued recovery. What a privilege. We then stopped by a place for Daniel McCarthy to purchase a new crutch. Daniel had polio when he was young and he can’t get around without the one crutch and the terrain he uses it in wears them out. We then stopped by the Exclusive store (mini Walmart type that has many American products) for Emmanuel and Wintee to pick up some things. They graciously bought me a couple of things I needed and also treated me and Daniel to an ice cream sundae. That was quite a treat. We then came home and, yep, we had supper. That in itself was interesting. They had potato greens as well as another soup topping for the rice called ‘rock meat’ or ‘kiss meat’. I tried some of it since it was new to me. Emmanuel told me they ate it a lot during the war. It is a snail like crustacean with a spiny shell.

If you look closely you can see the spines. Now to why they call it kiss meat. It’s because you have to suck the meat out of the shell in a kiss like fashion. Not really a fan of kiss meat, especially when potato greens are available.

I took a break from writing to take a walk around the community with Emmanuel. It is now after 8:00. He wanted to visit a member who was sick so we went to pray with him and his wife. Joseph, the man’s name, believes he has malaria. The lack of money causes people to make self diagnoses and they just try to fight through things. We continued through the neighborhood visiting other members and encouraging some that haven’t been coming to attend. We were returning after dark and when almost home we found out that Blessing, Emmanuel’s daughter, was taken to a clinic herself. We walked back to the local clinic and Emmanuel stayed while I came back home. I believe she may have a bug of some sort. We are praying it’s not malaria as that is harder to deal with. I’m still waiting for them to return.

I came back, took a shower and then decided to try my malaria meds again. Since I got sick yesterday morning I waited until tonight to take the pill in case it does make me sick I can lay down and rest. Other than being sick yesterday I’ve felt good today.

I look forward to tomorrow. I will be meeting with some church leaders to go through the Trusting God book by Jerry Bridges. I studied with Emmanuel this morning going through the first chapter.