Almost home
Jenny and I are boarded our last flight to Chicago. So much to tell with our last day and travels. I’ll try to fill in the last day after we get home. We are really tired now and we have to drive home from Chicago later. Pray for a safe trip. We will all have updates at church in hopefully a special meeting showing our pictures and telling our stories from all three of us.
What a great trip this has been. We thank God for His care as we’ve been with our Liberian friends.
Back in Monrovia
Our day started in Saclepea and ends in Monrovia. We woke up to a morning we knew would be the start of a busy day. As we got up at Emmanuel’s uncle, Pastor Dennis Monmia’s home, we had a quick breakfast and got packed up and ready to go, but before we would leave Saclepea we would stop by the Women of Purpose offices and meet with some of the officers and have a time of prayer with them. On our way there we stopped along the road for one of Dennis’s members who has a school. 
There are always kids around and where there are kids there’s a need for schools. We didn’t have time to spend with the kids and that was difficult to not go in and see them. They sang us a song and then Jenny prayed for them before we headed over to the Women of Purpose building. We had another short time with them before we headed out. They are doing so well that the different chapters keep on growing. This is a ministry that covets your prayers as they teach woman skills that they can use to help sustain themselves and they teach these with a Biblical training along with the skills. Here’s a picture of the ladies leading the ministry. 
We then headed back towards Ganta which would have the better roads. The ride to Ganta was very reminiscent of 2012 trip, but without the mud. There were the same type of bumps and swerving around to miss them.
We stopped for lunch in Ganta and it was nice after the rough road. Then we headed back towards Monrovia with full stomachs and a blacktop road. A couple short stops on the way and then we made it back to Emmanuel’s house in time to rinse off a little in the shower before the thanksgiving service.
The service tonight was so special and we feel as we should be the ones thanking them. Here’s a picture of the gifts they gave us. It was a great time. 
They are all busy around here with Abraham’s wedding on Saturday. We wish we could stay for that, but no such luck. Time to say our final goodbyes tomorrow.
Saclepea visit
This morning came fast after a late night visiting the children of the orphanage. I had so much fun talking and showing pictures of back home with the boys and girls. A few diehards stayed up longer to talk more and we finally went to bed just before 1:00 a.m. This is the reason for the shorter blog last night.
This morning began with devotions at the same time and Jenny and I joined Mike and all the kids to sing and again share testimonies of gratefulness for how God blesses our lives. Of course under it all we knew we were leaving shortly after breakfast and that made it feel somewhat sad as we will miss them so much. Emmanuel and I went over to the school where he had the kids come out for a picture. Look at how many children are being taught at the K-9 school. It is so great to see this. 
After this we shared a gift of gratitude for the workers and Mother Betty for allowing us to stay at the orphanage. Mother Betty was very emotional as she said her goodbyes. Ever since Pa Anthony passed on the goodbyes are more difficult and we do have a bond of friendship with her from the past years of visiting. She did call us tonight after church to thank us for the gift and she was back to herself which was great to hear.
We made the trip to Saclepea which consisted of heading back as far as Ganta and then heading south to Saclepea. The road from Ganta to Saclepea reminded me of the roads we faced in 2012, only now they are dry and very dusty. The road to Yekepa is good as far as Ganta then there is a stretch being worked on up to Sannequellie with the final stretch to Yekepa being a decent dirt road. I have seen improvements over the years on their roads.
Today in Ganta after getting a cold drink we headed south. The dusty roads and all the bumps made a short distance take a little over an hour to arrive. We came to a nice lunch followed by some down time to rest. We headed to church around 6:00 p.m. where Refuge Baptist church had a small group meeting for Bible study. It was so nice to worship with them tonight. 
We came home to have the ladies make some GB and GB soup. It was very good. We ate out on the front porch as I experienced something new. Pastor Dennis, Emmanuel’s uncle, has power wired to his home with LEC (Liberian Electric Company). That being said this doesn’t mean consistent power. The power was off all afternoon and it just came on as we finished our late supper. Now it’s nice to have a fan to sleep with.
Tomorrow we meet with some Women of Purpose ladies at 8:00 a.m. before heading back to Monrovia for a thanksgiving service at the church.
We are definitely making use of our time in Liberia. We are looking forward to seeing our friends from Monrovia again.
Last day in Yekepa
Our time in Yekepa seems so short. With only two days to connect again with the children we find ourselves wanting to spend more time with all of them.
We started out the day with devotions again and again we enjoyed the unique sound of the drums and singing.
After devotion time we had breakfast and made our plans for the day. We would begin by visiting the Randall Godfrey School right next door to the orphanage. They have grades K-9 available next door. We visited all of the grades and spoke with each class. It was a lot of fun meeting all of the students again.
When we finished it seemed like in no time they were telling us lunch was ready. I skipped this and Mike and Jenny ate lightly as we were not too far removed from breakfast. They do take good care of us.
After lunch we again went to the clinic to visit with Moses and Caroline. They work so well together.
The afternoon allowed me the chance to visit some of the children that were around from the first visit. I spent a good deal of time with Comfort as she shared some of her story with me. She is trying to get more schooling and she hopes to go into nursing. The path is difficult, but I encouraged her to work hard towards this. Most paths are difficult so encouragement helps, encouragement and of course prayer.
I’m really tired now as I stayed up to visit the kids. I’ll write more tomorrow.
We will leave after devotion time tomorrow morning and head towards Saclapea.
CBC Clinic and ABC
Today began with something that I had not heard for a couple of years. I woke to hearing the beat of a distinct kind of drum and high pitch voices singing. It took a few seconds until I realized where I was and I hopped out of bed and woke Jenny up saying ‘devotion time has started’. We are at the Betty Jonah Orphanage in Camp Four, Nimba County, Liberia. This familiar sound is the children of the orphanage singing along with one of the children playing the drum. What a sweet, unique and precious sound this is in the predawn light without electricity to light their way, just the song in their hearts coming out in a form of worship that for those that hear it will say it is almost angelic. Jenny and I make our way into the room filled with the children singing, while sitting on the floor or a few in the available chairs along the edge of the room. I see Emmanuel sitting in one of the chairs and of course Mother Betty sitting and singing along with the children. This is the normal routine for the children of Mother Betty Jonah Orphanage. The day starts with singing and today was a time of sharing things people are thankful for. We felt privileged to be mentioned as part of the thanks for the visitors who came to invade their little world of worship and life. We, of course, were asked to share what we are thankful for. This is all followed by a prayer to begin the day.
Before I was asked to pray for the day I notice the nurse, Moses, from the CBC clinic come into the room, sit on a small chair and wipe his face as if to remove all the signs of sleep on his face. It is a time of beginning for this small compound in Camp Four Unification Camp. A time similar to the day before and the day after with praise to the Creator that gives us each day. This truly is a day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Now, after I wax poetic about my response to starting the day, I’ll tell you how the day went.
After devotions, we went back to our rooms and got ready to come out for breakfast. We were served doughnuts, oatmeal and fresh pineapple. Great start so far.
We sat under the iconic bush at the orphanage that is known in the area. This bush continues to show beauty among the hard times. 
We watched as children emerge from their appropriate dorms dressed in their school uniforms and head next door in the compound to the Randall Godfrey school.
We then decided to head over to the CBC clinic to visit with Nurse Moses and assistant Caroline. We met a young lady who they just finished seeing and prayed for her. We then sat down and visited with them for awhile until we had them check mine and Mike’s blood pressure. 
We then got the tour, showing Mike around as Jenny and I have been through this before. We recognize some needs in the clinic from lab supplies (consumables such as blood strips, slides, etc. ), more medication to a reliable phone with data available to Moses where he can use it as a hotspot for the computer to use to look up any help needed to diagnose issues that come up. Moses shares his 2019 year end report that I will present to the church and Mike shares the medical supplies that he and Kim picked out for Mike to take over. Moses and Caroline are great to talk with and completely open to answering all of our questions.
We leave from there to have lunch and we rest for an hour or so and then we head to ABC (African Bible College) to meet with the president of the college for a great discussion. There are 4 students at ABC that came from Camp Four and 3 come from the orphanage. What a great representation of the orphanage and testament to the teaching that begins each day during devotion time. 
We took some time to walk around the campus with many faculty willing to stop and visit. They all mentioned that if we know of any teachers that would like to come and teach at the school to pass on the word that they can use more teachers. So, if you have your masters in anything (that is a prerequisite) and you would like to teach young Liberian men and women from a Christian perspective, you can have a spot on the faculty at this fine institution.
We returned back to the orphanage on clean up and have another fine meal followed by some more time enjoying the breeze and the coolness of the evening (I mean this as a relative coolness).
We then had evening devotion time followed by a partial viewing of Father Anthony Jonah’s funeral service from video taken of this ceremony in 2017. This is Mamma Betty’s husband who did much work for the furtherance of the Gospel.
We came to bed after this where we enjoyed the generator running again which allowed our fan to run. This was nice until the fan quit so Jenny and I figured they decided to shut down the generator for the remainder of the night. I was wrong. I did not finish my blog so when I woke up (a little hot) I thought about finishing. I looked for my phone and I noticed the light from my charger in the wall socket. I may be tired, (it is now 2:52 a.m.) but I knew this meant power was coming to the socket. I slid down the bed with my phone as my light to the socket and there it was, the fan’s plug had fallen out enough to break the connection. Well, Jenny woke up at the same time and as I started the fan up again I told her. All I got for an answer was ‘Are you serious?’, before she contentedly slipped back to sleep. I will do the same, enjoying the breeze from the fan. I’m sure I will wake up to the sound of drums and singing again soon.
Arrived in Yekepa
It’s been a long day as it began like a normal Sunday over here. We woke up, had our breakfast and then made sure we were packed for our trip to Yekepa. We plan on today as the travel day, stay for Monday and Tuesday and leave Wednesday for Saclapea from the orphanage. We will stay one night in Saclapea with Emmanuel’s Uncle Dennis, a Pastor in Saclapea.
We had a great day at Sunday school and the service that followed. It was the last time I will preach in Liberia on this trip. Time to start planning the next trip and my next sermons. I really enjoyed serving in this manner.
After church we had a lunch of palm butter soup over rice with cucumbers and pineapple. It was very good. We got on the road by around 2:15 p.m. local time. We had a few stops on the way, but far shorter than I’ve experienced before since we left late and Wintee was worried with us traveling the last part of the trip with the roads the worst, in the dark.
We arrived around 9:00 p.m. local time. We were able to visit with the children a little, but with it being dark and late it is harder. They fed us when we arrived as they always do and we are so thankful. We will see them tomorrow as we look forward to looking around again. Mamma Betty received us with hugs all around. It is so nice to see her again. While I was talking with her and she was asking about my family I realized that the last time I ‘saw’ my father alive was on Facebook messenger video while I was here at the orphanage. Mamma Betty reminded me that she spoke with them and saw them at my last visit. That was a special moment for me, remembering speaking to Dad and Mom and showing them around the orphanage. I am so thankful for this memory as this place will always remind me of that video call.
We have the generator on tonight giving us a fan, but we feel bad as they need to watch for thieves as they would love to steal the generator again. It was stolen from here two times previous. We agree that we can go without the fans so they can secure the generator better, but they offered to have it run overnight at least for this night. We are grateful for their care.
I don’t have pictures this time as the cell coverage seems a little less and I want to make sure I can post at least the update. I’ll send pictures later.
Thanks for reading along and praying for our travels. We’ll see what adventures come tomorrow.
Football and Kickball.
Today started out with pancakes and pineapple for breakfast. It was really good. We then got ready for Abraham to come by and drive us to get some things we wanted to pick up before we head home. He took us into Monrovia to the Waterfront Market. 
We found what we were looking for and we even met a few nice men that helped us to pick things out. We had Justin and Jackson willing to go find what we wanted as we waited for them to take it to us. They did a great job. 
We returned back from town in time to eat some lunch. it was then time to head back out to see the girls kickball game and the boys football (soccer) game. LCMI played Rapture Missionary Baptist. The girls ended in a tie and the LCMI boys won 3-2 in the soccer game. It was a lot of fun watching them play. 
As they headed home we were able to get a picture of the bus that both girls and boys teams rode in. Of course most of the boys were on top or riding the back bumper. It was quite a sight.
We came home, had a little supper and I needed to go work on my message for tomorrow. I’m still not done so I’ll be up early to finish.
We leave for Yekepa directly after the morning service. It will be fun to head cross country.
Jenny’s Birthday
Birthdays over here are a big deal. I remember when Bobbi was over here for her birthday and the care the Liberian people show when you celebrate your birthday is special. Jenny’s was no different in their care of here. She was given two cards, the first from the Jonah family with everyone signing it and she was to read this before 8:00 a.m. and another from the LCMI school to read before 9:00 a.m. Just before 8:00, having gotten all ready and reading the first card she came out to the living room with a chorus of the family singing Happy Birthday to You. Wintee had made this cake and decorated it after we went to bed last night. 
The candles on the cake were even fireworks as everyone cheered when they went off. 
It was very sweet. Of course there was another special song planned as a group of children from the school came down and sang to her again around 9:00. They really want to celebrate with someone when it is their birthday.
After all the fun and singing Emmanuel wanted to take all of us to Liberia Baptist Seminary. One of his sons, Cyrus, is applying there and they needed to pick up his registration papers. He will take an entrance exam and pray for the funds to be able to go. Cyrus along with another boy Chirlon from the church want to attend there.
When we arrived we met the new president of LBS and he gave us a tour of their campus. It is not a big college now. It was bigger before their civil war, but everything was bigger or better before the war devastated so much. They are still trying to build everything back up. The college has from 120-150 students now with the need for 200 to break even with their expenses. Here are a couple pictures of their campus. 
These are the girls dorms. The school is on break until March so the students are gone now. It was good to meet the president and speak to him about the challenges of running a school when the students are all having a hard time with the funds.
The cost for students to attend and stay in the dorms is about $600.00 / semester and the food plan with the cafeteria on campus is about another $200.00 / semester for a grand total of $1,600.00 per year. For most in Liberia they can only pray for a scholarship of sorts or a sponsor. So, if anyone is interested in learning more about how to help, just let me know. If you’re interested in being a teacher for a couple weeks in the semester, again let me know. They work with short term missions to teach like this a little.
They are located right on the ocean. It is a beautiful campus.
After our visit to the campus Emmanuel wanted to treat Jenny to a special meal at an oceanside restaurant. 
It was a beautiful setting and we had a good meal also. Although, our meals at the Jonah home have been great all along.
We came home afterward and rested until prayer meeting. Mike found out that Emmanuel will plug you in if you show any willingness to help as he was able to do the lesson time for prayer meeting. After prayer meeting we had a light supper and of course more cake.
It was a fun day.
Of course Jenny had time for Esther and her sister in the morning. 
I suspect they will be back tomorrow morning as well.
End of revival services.
It’s almost bittersweet that our revival services are finished. It was such a great week where we got the chance to know the church very well. As Pastor Titus said when he spoke, revival services are for the faithful of the church to be recharged and revived. Our prayer is that God does this in LCMI and the members in turn share this renewal with others. It will be nice to have an evening off again. We’ll see if our schedule stays open.
Our day started early as Mike and I were up before 7:00 with Mike making his French press coffee shortly after we got up. Its nice that he shares as I enjoy it also. Before breakfast was ready I walked over to where Wintee was working by the kitchen area and I found her frying pancakes. They were just like the Swedish pancakes my father used to make. Needless to say I really enjoyed them and so did Jenny and Mike.
We waited around a little bit as we were going to ELWA when Emmanuel and Wintee were ready. This waiting gave us time to play with a neighbor girl, Esther, who comes to see us, at least the last two days, in the morning after breakfast. 
Jenny always seems to have something to play with for them.
We left for ELWA (Eternal Love Winning Africa) which is where the hospital that Wintee was treated for her broken leg is located. I had the opportunity to drive there and back with Mike, Emmanuel, Wintee and Jenny riding along.
We dropped Emmanuel and Wintee off so they could go have her leg X-rayed to see how the progress is going. (The doctor said it was looking good, but she will need to walk with at least a cane for a year). She’s a very patient lady and I’m sure she’d love you to pray for her.
We drove Mike around ELWA showing him the guest houses we’ve stayed in on previous trips. We even stopped by the beach and went for a walk along the beach. I know Bobbi will remember the good times here with Micah and Luke. 
It was very relaxing walking along the beach even if we weren’t able to go swimming.
We went back to the hospital to find Emmanuel and we took a walk in the garden area. It was sobering, remembering the reason this new hospital was built, which was for the Ebola outbreak from 2014-2016. 
Liberia has been through many difficult times with the civil wars and then Ebola which was a devastating time.
We found Emmanuel and Wintee and we headed back to the house. It would soon be time for our last revival service.
The service went well and we really enjoyed the meal along with everyone else enjoying also.
We are now headed to bed and we’re a little tired so I’ll end now.
Mike’s big day
Mike had a big day with the last day of the men’s conference and he was the speaker at our revival service tonight as well.
Our morning was relaxing as we all sat outside early to drink coffee and watch the morning begin. A little neighbor girl came over to sit in Jenny’s lap while we sat outside. She didn’t mind that at all.
Once our morning finished and it was time to set up for the men’s conference I carried chairs to the church with a couple of other ladies and Jenny set them up for us. They have to do this every time they have a service since the church isn’t secure enough to leave the plastic chairs. They remove all the speakers, fans, chairs, etc to the annex building next door to Emmanuel’s home that has a steel door and a lock.
The men’s conference went well as we sang, Mike spoke and we broke into groups to discuss some questions to make each of us think of how we can be better Godly men. 
As you may notice the men attending seem to have matching shirts. We were able to purchase shirts here in Liberia after the Monday conference and they were delivered on Wednesday. Pretty good service. They all say ‘A Godly Dad’ on the front and back. Here is a group picture at the end of the conference. 
Mike and I were the only two without a shirt. Perhaps that will help you to find us in the picture. 🤓
The evening revival service started about 30-45 minutes after the men’s conference ended. It was a busy afternoon. We had a great time there with Mike, Jenny and I singing ‘In Christ Alone’ as a special. We are singing again tomorrow and our last day song will be ‘I’ll Fly Away’ which should be well received as this is a song I first sang with the Jonah family on our first visit in 2012.
Mike spoke tonight and that went well also. He enjoyed sharing with LCMI as he is really connecting with all the people here.
We came home to another snack before heading to bed. Tomorrow should be a little lighter with the men’s conference finished and only the final revival service scheduled. Women of Purpose will be making the meal for our ‘hand to mouth fellowship’ as they call it here. They are already busy working on things starting tonight. I even had a chance to try my hand at it before heading to bed. I can say the women here must have strong shoulders to do this for any length of time. 
We are looking forward to the fun and fellowship tomorrow night.
Luggage arrived.
Yes, Mike’s luggage arrived. We woke up this morning, settled on what we would do in the morning and we decided to stay home while Emmanuel left to go to a meeting and he would check at Brussels airlines. He was able to pick up the luggage at their Monrovia office. Mike was not informed at all so it was good that Emmanuel stopped by.
While he was gone Mike, Jenny and I went to see LCMI school as Mike had not been there yet. It was good to visit all of the classes again. It was very hot today and when we made the decision to go for a walk around the community I kept close watch over Mike and Jenny. I say that because I tend to wander and get far away, but we made it back to Emmanuel’s house and I was the one complaining. It was so humid that our shirts were just soaked and that was at 10:30 a.m. We were in for a long hot day. Here is a picture of what caused us to stop when we had Jenny along. 
The two kids in the back were scared of us until they saw that Jenny had a sucker for them. She plans ahead when it comes to the kids. There are so many kids in the community. 
Of course every baby needs to be held too.
I had my chance to hold a baby tonight. Actually we all did. Mike was missing his grandson, Anthony, so he held this little guy too to get his baby fix. 
The remainder of our morning was spent cooling off on the covered porch and stay out of the sun. We had a good chance to visit with each other as this was really the first time we had alone with Mike and some time to talk. Emmanuel returned just after noon and Mike gladly went to change into fresh clothes for the men’s conference that would start again at 1:00.
The men’s conference went well and didn’t complete until 4:00 with the revival meeting to start one hour later. We also needed to practice a song as Mike, Jenny and I would sing again tonight. We had Matthias and Phillip join us to sing ‘All in All’ which is the song we taught to VBS 8 years ago. Tomorrow night I think we’ll sing ‘In Christ Alone’. We are saving ‘I’ll Fly Away’ for Thursday night when we’ll also be having the meal sponsored by CBC. It’s been a really busy, but good week. Tonight Emmanuel spoke on Ephesians 4:1-6, unity in the body of Christ. It was good to hear him again. Tomorrow Mike will be speaking on chapter 5. He’s really enjoying the men’s conference and he is ready for tomorrow night as well.
Tomorrow morning I don’t think we have anything planned again so we should have a chance to rest and visit. Once 1:00 p.m. comes we are busy til 8:00.
I am amazed at how resilient the people of Liberia are. They live in a manner that I’m ashamed to say most of us would complain a lot. I’m not saying they don’t have bad times or bad days, but to see the people of Liberia welcome us and encourage us in their situations shows a strength of character. They deal with the heat, the humidity, the challenges of daily life and they come to church and praise God for His blessings. I’m so grateful that God makes things possible for us to be over here and visit our friends.
We will be having a change of schedule as you follow along. We will not leave for Yekepa until Sunday after the morning service. With the passing of Deacon Delt Cooper in December Emmanuel doesn’t have a regular leader to preach in his absence. Oh, by the way, I’ll be up again this Sunday. I’m grateful that we can allow Emmanuel a short break and that I’m given the opportunity to speak to my Liberian brothers and sisters again.
One nice thing with the change of schedule is that we will celebrate Jenny’s birthday here in Monrovia on Friday. That will be fun. We may also attend a soccer game with LCMI playing another church on Saturday. I can’t imagine running around that much in the heat. It’ll be fun to be a spectator.
A couple more pictures showing the poise of a typical Liberian women. This is common to see with loads we guessed up to 50 lbs. They move so gracefully without fear of whatever they are carrying falling off. 
And another picture of a girl separating palm nuts for sale at the market. 
I’ll be back in touch tomorrow night.
Mike’s first day.
It was good to wake up this morning to Mike bring here. He was up and ready to go when I got up. After his morning coffee and a breakfast we headed out to get Mike a SIM card for his phone. It was easier to get one for him because we were able to go to a main office. We then headed to the supermarket to buy some supplies, the main one being water as we are always drinking some since we lose so much from sweating. (It’s not like that back home I’m guessing)
We now had what we needed and we could get ready for the men’s conference that Mike is heading up. One thing missing is that his baggage from the airline hasn’t arrived yet. Mike said in Brussels the weather was bad, so the crew would not switch the baggage from the one plane to the next. Wait a minute, they won’t transfer bags, but they will take off in that weather. Yep! That’s what happened. Anyway Mike is going to have to wait until they get his luggage here before he can hand out his booklets that he made for the conference. He went full steam ahead anyway with a testimony of his life and at least 50 men in attendance. It was great to hear a room full of men singing together today. Even if the booklets don’t arrive we will make do. I believe Mike really enjoyed the time. Emmanuel was a great help to him.
After the conference we ate a meal and got ready for the revival service. This was really a good night. Pastor Titus spoke on Ephesians 3:14-19. It was a great message on Paul’s prayer to know God better. It was so good to see him and Mercy at church tonight. We are praying he can come back on Thursday early so we can visit and we plan to have an abbreviated service time to enjoy a fellowship meal thanks to CBC. The Women of Purpose will prepare the meal. Tomorrow Emmanuel, Mike and I will meet in the morning to review the teaching for the conference, especially if the baggage doesn’t arrive on time.
After church tonight we had a great time with Abraham, his fiancé, Favor, and Abraham’s brother, Isaac. What a great family they are. We enjoyed talking so much that we didn’t head to bed until 10:30 or so.
We look forward to a repeat of busyness tomorrow without the trip out. Here’s a couple pictures from today. 
I’ll type more tomorrow. I’m a little tired tonight.
Feeling more like home.
Today was definitely a busy day as we had our normal Sunday services at LCMI as well as the start of the revival services tonight. I was privileged to speak at both the morning and evening services. The day started with the normal flurry of activity with people working around the home to get things ready for the day. I got this good picture of Jehoshaphat and Blessing working on dishes before church. 
This is one of the many chores that need to be done, just like back home.
After church we had to say goodbye to Sharon, so Jenny and I had our picture taken with her (Moses was photobombing here). She is headed back to school where she will live near the campus. We will miss her.
That is probably one of the hardest things to get used to is the moving around of people. They may stay for a day or two a week and then somewhere else or move away for a month at a time. A lot is just the practicality of life. It is easier to live where you have to travel less as most Liberians depend on either motorbike taxis or car taxis to get around. Especially with the gas being less available they limit their travel. I do want to correct a previous post about the gas prices. Their gas price is 675, but that is LD which means with an exchange rate of 196 that means in USD it is only $3.44 per gallon. If you wonder why there can be confusion of understanding, come on over and you’ll see. Although we speak the same base language the colloqua or mix of English and local slang can make it seem as if there is a complete different language. I’m getting better at understanding and I have one young man willing to teach me colloqua if I will move over here. I’ll have to work that one out with the family first.
Tonight’s service went well and it was so nice to be able to speak again. We pray for the church and the continued revival services this week. Tomorrow night Pastor Titus Namen is scheduled to speak. He is another one of CBC’s missionaries. We look forward to seeing him and Mercy. Emmanuel will be the speaker on Tuesday and our very own Mike McMahon from CBC on Wednesday. Mike, by the way is now traveling to Emmanuel’s house with Emmanuel. They should be here within the hour.
I look forward to working alongside Mike the next two weeks.
I forgot to tell you that Jenny helped make fried plantains tonight. She really only put them in the oil and take them out. The women want to teach her how to cook Liberian style. She enjoyed herself. They’ll work on a harder dish next time. 
Tomorrow we will fill you in on Mike’s first full day over here. I’m sure Mike will fit in right away.
Saturday, a day of rest…not so much.
Here we are at the end of the day again and I can say, today felt very busy. Not that we did do much, but we were going all the time.
The day started off quite restful with a time to sit outside and study while Jenny had a chance to sleep in. We had breakfast together and sat outside as we watched the Liberian morning unfold. It was cooler in the morning, meaning it only felt like 80 degrees out. To sit and watch a different culture as they go about their day is very enjoyable to me. Our plan was to wait for Abraham, our driver, to arrive and take us to get more data on our phones as now we understand what we want.
Abraham arrived and we realized that Mother Wintee needed a ride to Women of Purpose work training so the car was packed up and we headed out. Going to get the data for our phones was easy and we finished and came outside to the car. Three people from Emmanuel’s community were there and we had more riders. We left, went to buy diesel at the first station, but no fuel. We took a bypass around Red Light and came to another gas station. Yes, they had diesel so we filled up. Fuel lines seem to have lightened up which is good. We left there, arrived at the Women of Purpose school building, which is a school building for another church a ways away from Emmanuel’s community. We dropped the ladies and all their supplies off and headed back. Jenny and I wanted to give a gift to all the people at Emmanuel’s home so we decided to take them to Red Light and let them buy some clothes for church or whatever they needed. Here is the group that left after we ate a hasty lunch. 
The only one who didn’t go along was Cyrus, at the far right, as he volunteered to stay home and watch over the house. When we got home later Cyrus went by motorbike to Red Light to get what he needed.
Red Light…what a place. People all over and like a Walmart or Menards back home…they have everything if you know where to look.
We spent time walking around, found out they have a second story and all kinds of options of where to shop. Being that Jenny and I stand out we were always a target of the sales people. One even offered to have Jenny to sit down and they would bring whatever she wanted to their store. Very accommodating. Inside, on the second floor, Jenny was starting to feel a little weak. Since she hadn’t eaten a lot lately and with the heat we decided to head outside. We found all the people we took shopping and rather wait for them to find something to buy we gave each of them some money and let them buy the things they needed. Great plan since Jenny, Abraham and I just headed back to where the car was parked. We found a little shop with an awning and chairs underneath. We confirmed we could just sit and rest so Jenny sat in a chair while she sent Abraham to find a ‘cold’ drink. That is the biggest thing Jenny misses. We’ve bought a couple before this, but when we say cold, they are usually slightly cooler than lukewarm. Abraham came back and had what was the coldest Pepsi I think I’ve seen. Probably because of the heat I can say that. Jenny took a big drink and felt much better. I had a drink too and wow, that was good. It didn’t last long, but it did the job. The girls eventually finished and arrived back at the car, but not the boys. What to do? I know, we will leave them there. They know how to get back. The youngest was 14 and the oldest around 17. This is their culture and sure enough about an hour after we got home the boys showed up with their goods. They weren’t bothered in the least that we left. I finished up my morning sermon, got most of the evening one all laid out and then we took some time to call some family and touch base.
A short while later I was just walking around the front of the house and I hear ‘Dad Robin’ so I looked and it was a couple boys that wanted to take me somewhere. I followed and before long we had 6 of us guys walking up the ‘dusty’ road. I was informed we were going to see someone about a guitar. We arrived, the lady at the house said she knew Matthias, (Emmanuel’s son) so yes he could take the guitar. We invited her to the revival services starting tomorrow and we invited others as we headed back. On our way back Jenny and Elizabeth met us since Jenny didn’t know where I was heading she and Elizabeth headed out to find us. 
We all walked back together singing some songs and getting quite the looks. Oh, and Jenny officially heard (or understood) a little boy yell out ‘white man’ today. She said that was the first one she heard. Not the first for sure. The kids love to yell that out, have us wave at them and then they smile really big. We do scare some of the really young kids.
Anyway, we got back and were reminded of the marriage counseling for the night. Two couples showed up, but no Wintee, no Emmanuel. Did I mention that Emmanuel went to Nimba (6+ hour drive) on Friday to return tonight as we got to bed. He’s a busy guy. Wintee did make it home and our counseling session would begin just after 8:00. Only 2 hours later than planned. The popular saying here is, ‘This too is Liberia’. It was a good time again , but Jenny and I were tired out from a busy day. We ate some supper, took our showers and got to bed. It is just after 11:00 as I type this out. Another busy day tomorrow and I forgot, we have word from Mike that he’s on his way. We’ll see him soon, tomorrow evening around 10:00 here. We can’t wait.
Kid’s club last day.
As I write this I am sitting down (finally) after our kid’s program. Tonight, because we wanted to give out popcorn and treats for the kids, we had only myself and Winston to deal with the kids. Jenny, Herrietta and Wintee were doing the packaging of the popcorn and other treats. We had a good lesson time about David and we’ve been teaching the kids the song, ‘Only a Boy Named David’, which they learned pretty good. It was only planned for an hour of time, but with the packaging running longer Winston and I had to make things run longer also. Winston was a great help as between the two of us it was almost impossible to keep everyone quiet at the same time. Did I mention that we had over 150 children this time. At the end we had them go single file out the door to get their bag of popcorn and then some koolaid to drink. It was all done very orderly….nope, that is what we hoped for, but it was chaos. I love the kids as so many just would come up and hold your hand or just stand by you, but get between them and their treat and things were different.
We did have a good time and we taught them all about David and Goliath tonight. They know the story, but they don’t mind the rerun as told by the big white man. I’m always amazed at how well versed the children are in the Bible over here. We’re happy that God is using the local teachers so well to teach the children.
Our day started out good with Jenny feeling better and eating breakfast. It is good to have her back up. We finished eating, sat outside for a little while and then when Abraham came by with the car we piled in to go see Deacon Delt Cooper’s widow, Becky, and her family. Here’s a picture on our way over and you can’t really see Esther sitting in the way back of the car. 
We had 2 more on our way home. It wasn’t bad as they were 2 of Becky’s children to come to kid’s club.
It was a sweet time at Becky’s home. We went over there because it is her wedding anniversary today. Being Valentine’s Day and her anniversary it was a big reminder of Delt’s passing. We had a sort of service at her house with praying, singing, a time of sharing and of course followed by food. We had GB, which is a traditional dish from Nimba County. It was very good. And, Jenny and I even had a cold Coca-Cola. You can’t know how nice it is to have that unless you’ve been in the heat without it for quite awhile. Here is a picture of Becky on the right with Mother Wintee alongside. 
I was just informed that we have prayer meeting tonight so I’ll finish later.
Prayer meeting just ended and it is about an hour later. The generator was just started as we wait for the lights. There they are. 
I was able to pray for many back home as we had prayer time for many different subjects. It was good to remember many of the requests from Discipleship Hour as well as the local ones here. Their prayer time is when a subject is introduced and everyone prays at the same time and then it ends with another subject brought up. I love the cultural differences in how they have the prayer time.
Tomorrow I’ll need to go out early, get more data for the phone and then spend most of the day finishing up Sunday’s sermons. I’m looking forward to Sunday. We may go out a little in the community inviting people to come. Emmanuel mentioned another marriage counseling too so I better be diligent in my time to finish everything.
Happy trails to Mike as he leaves tomorrow. We pray that we see you here safely Sunday night. I won’t be able to meet you at the airport since I’ll be preaching as the flight comes in.
Not Mañana
At the start of today we expected to have Mike on his way to Liberia with the plan to pick him up at the airport tomorrow evening. Well, God had a different plan as Mike’s first flight was canceled creating a delay in his trip to leave on Saturday. He will arrive Sunday evening now. We do look forward to seeing him and everyone here is excited to meet him.
The day here was restful, especially for Jenny as she is recovering from her stomach issue. As the day wore on she was feeling better and better to where she was ready to eat some toast and fresh cucumbers. This was the first solid food she ate all day so we were happy to see that. Looks like she’s on her way to a full recovery.
As for me it was a study day for speaking on Sunday. I got a big part of my sermon finished for Sunday morning and I’ll still have to finish it up and complete Sunday nights as well. It’s a good thing to work on when it’s so hot outside that you want to stay out of the sun.
The only activity that Jenny and I did today was to join a premarital counseling session with a group of couples that Emmanuel is doing counseling for. Emmanuel figured we have been married for 36 years so we should have some advice. We ended up having a great time and the couples asked really good questions. Some of their questions were more culturally related so we deferred to Emmanuel and Wintee who chaired the meeting. Here is a picture of the group with us. If you count you’ll not see even numbers and that’s because the lady on the right had her fiancée missing because of work. 
We laughed a lot with them. The couple on the far left is Abraham (our driver) and Favor and they will be married on February 29th. I think I mentioned that in an earlier post. The others from left to right are Samuel & Princess, Naomi & Roland and then Comfort. They will be coming back on Saturday night for the next installment of counseling. You never know what you get involved in when you are over here.
Tomorrow is the last day of our kid’s club. I hope Jenny is feeling up to teaching, but I’ll be around to help as needed. We plan on having a treat for the kids of popcorn, suckers and balloons. We were telling Emmanuel about water balloons, but I don’t think we’ll attempt that.
Mike, we’ll continue to pray for your trip and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday.
Down, but not out.
Today was the day for us to actually have a time to wake up so I set the alarm for 7:00 a.m. not that I really needed it since Jenny and I slept very lightly. The power goes off around 5:00 in the morning so after that time without the fan it is a little harder to go back to sleep with it hot. I know most back home are suffering through the snow and possibly below zero tonight so I won’t say that we have sunshine and 90’s during the day with upper 70’s at night. We can go without the fan for a little while I guess.
Anyway, we got up to have some oatmeal and scrambled eggs, but Jenny wasn’t feeling too well. She ate a little bit, but that didn’t last too long. She decided to stay home and rest with her stomach acting up. I finally convinced her to take the Zpak later on in the day so she started that. I’m making sure she drinks plenty of water too. At least I’m trying to. Pray along with us that she feels better tomorrow.
Emmanuel, Wintee and I left to go to the consulate and arrived to find out that they really don’t want to see people in person. If I were an American in trouble I’m guessing I would be seen, but as it was we were directed to the website to fill out any visa request online. I was just hoping they could help us to know what we could do to help Wintee with the application and to assure them her stay would only be a visit as a tourist and not someone who would overstay their visa. We’ll do what we can with the online application.
We left there to head to the waterfront market. It was similar to red light. We were able to pick up some things at a sundry shop, then to a market of a man from Lebanon and then over to an Asian family who sold decorations as Wintee is in the middle of wedding planning for some couples. It was very interesting to see the different cultures in the market. Wintee knew where she wanted to go to get what she needed. I would equate it to us knowing which aisle to look in at Walmart to find the things we need, only it’s mostly outside.
We left there with a few other stops along the way. One of those stops was at a Christian bookstore that sold the hardcover Bible for $5.00 each. We thank CBC for supporting this as we purchased 50 Bibles for Mike’s men’s class.
We stopped to pick up some rice and other groceries at different ‘aisles’ as well. All in all we had a full car on our way home and we would have had a hard time fitting Jenny in with a small barrel, 50 Bibles, various bowls and measuring cups (for Women of Purpose) along with the other odds and ends that we picked up.
We got home shortly after noon and I checked in on Jenny. I was happy she could rest even without the fan on. She had a little rice and of course more water and her pills at that time. I got her to eat a banana later on.
Today was a preparation day for other ministries as Women of Purpose, Mike’s men’s seminar and even the kids club we had later on needed supplies.
Since Jenny wasn’t up for it I had to plan to teach the kids. I had time as I had a couple of hours to study before the class began at 4:00 p.m. We qhad a good time with the kids as we had fewer, probably just around 100 today. Great helpers were there again with Herrietta, Winston, Albert and Emmanuel. I just love being with the kids.
Directly after our kid’s club time we had Wednesday evening Bible study. Emmanuel led this and it was on forgiveness and acknowledging our sins as well as confession. He did a great job stirring our thoughts.
After this was time to rest at home until it gets dark around 7:00 p.m. It was nice to sit around and rest a little. After eating a light snack I started showing pictures on my phone to people. We ended up going through over 1000 or more photos. I realize I have many of our grandchildren as well as past trips to Liberia and Thailand. Maybe it’s time to archive my pictures.
Now it’s time for hopefully a restful night. I’ll leave you with one picture I captured of the meal prep for tomorrow’s meal. Princess and Meko we’re preparing things. I believe we’ll have cassava soup with this. 
It should be a great meal again.
Armed Force’s Day in Liberia
As I mentioned yesterday, our plan today was to go to the American Embassy in Monrovia and investigate how we can improve Wintee’s chances of visiting the US. We headed out late morning after a light breakfast of oatmeal and fried plantains with a cup of coffee. All of us headed out, Emmanuel & Wintee and me & Jenny. We had an interesting ride as we drove along. We noticed a police presence and we were wondering if some of the gas lines were getting unruly. A short time later we were waved over to the side of the road with all the other traffic on the road. We then saw a police motorcycle leading the way with lights flashing followed by multiple cars with lights and some SUV’s, presumably carrying the Liberian President, George Whea. We assumed there was some celebration he attended for Armed Force’s Day and he was headed back home. I was going to take a picture of the motorcade, but Emmanuel felt it was better to not draw attention from anyone so I didn’t take any pictures. It was rather interesting though.
We continued on our way, fascinated at the gas lines at every gas station that still has gas available. 
People are lined up more than 1/4 mile with cars, motorcycles or standing in line with as little as gallon size jugs. Later in the day as we stopped for diesel, one of the gas stations was out of gas and diesel, but the next station had diesel and no gasoline. We are not sure what will happen, but it is affecting all the people of Liberia. We were told that a government official was at the gas station telling them that their next gas shipment would be at the end of the month. I’m not sure how news like that will go over. Perhaps they’ll find a way to improve their delivery schedule.
When we got to the American Embassy we did find that they were closed in observance of the Liberian holiday. We thought that might be, but we went to check anyway. As we left the Embassy Emmanuel thought it would be good to take a tour of Monrovia, something I hadn’t done before. We passed a building that their Declaration of Independence was signed. It reminded Jenny and I of our trip to Philadelphia. A couple places were closed, but this one building was opened I guess to the public as there were some students taking a tour. Emmanuel went out to see if it was open to the public and of course Emmanuel knew the person giving the tour. They let us in and we were able to tour almost alone. The building is their inauguration hall where the President is normally inaugurated. The current president was inaugurated at the soccer stadium as he was a popular professional football (soccer) player. They have pictures of all the past presidents and their years of service. We saw the chairs where the President and First Lady sit during the inauguration. You can’t just walk by when you have chairs there to sit in. 
We even got to stand on stage. 
I thoroughly enjoyed this stop.
We continued with a tour, first looking at the past presidential cars up on blocks. We were informed that we couldn’t take pictures of the 3 cars that were on display. We aren’t sure why. You can see the cars in the background of this statue that still has bullet holes in it from the civil war. 
Admit it, you zoomed in on the cars. They are all Mercedes Benz. The one you can’t see as it is in the middle, is an SUV type Mercedes Benz that we were allowed to open up and look around. There is a single seat in the back almost like a throne. It was pretty impressive in a couple ways. One, the fact that the Liberian President, Charles Taylor, who is in prison in the UK for war crimes actually rode around in it and two, they are leaving it outside to rust and ‘spoil’ as the curator type person stated.
After looking through the cars we headed into a museum which only cost $5 per person. That wasn’t too bad. I love to learn history of Liberia and there are so many things to look at from past to present. I really enjoyed learning more about the country of Liberia.
We finished at the museum and headed back towards home. Emmanuel decided to treat Jenny and me to lunch at a very nice restaurant located in a hotel. We had a great time visiting and laughing at many things. We feel so at home with them that it’s just like they are part of the family and we’re part of theirs.
After lunch we headed home with a short stop to visit Wintee’s sister, Anti. We only stopped for a few minutes, but Wintee told us that she had to live there for the first month after she had her broken leg because it was closer to the hospital for checkups and the roads were so bad in the rainy season that she couldn’t be bounced around that much. As we were leaving, Emmanuel driving and me in front on the passenger side with Jenny already sitting in the back and Wintee was working at getting into the car as it is difficult with one crutch and her leg that doesn’t work real well yet. Well, as she is starting to get in, Emmanuel decided it’s time to back up. He puts the car in gear and of course there were 3 people informing him to wait as he realized Wintee wasn’t in yet. He apologized to Wintee as I teased him. A short while later Wintee starts laughing in the backseat as she remembers another time of Emmanuel’s forgetfulness. She told us that one time she was going to get in the car and was going to ride in the backseat, but the car took off without her. What made it funny was that Emmanuel didn’t know that Wintee wasn’t in the car. He swears he heard the back door close so he drove away. He realized it after driving a ways and he turned his head to find nobody in the car with him. We all laughed at that memory.
We came home afterwards with plans to head back to the Embassy for 8:30 as the guard suggested coming at that time tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.
Here’s one more picture of our time at the museum. 
Be careful what you ask for.
Well today was a good day. We were able to take our time in the morning getting ready and then having breakfast. We wanted to head out to the cell company to get our cards for the phones, but our first stop for the day was walking down to see the school and the stage of their church building project. It was so good to see the administrator, Winston Monmia, all grown up. Our first visit here I remember Winston trying to drive a car when nobody was around and backing it into a muddy lawn and getting stuck and getting in trouble from Emmanuel. Winston was staying with them at the time. Each time I’ve seen growth in him and now I call him the ‘boss-man’ of the LCMI school. Here is a picture of him from our tour. Others who came will remember him. 
It was so good to visit all the classes at LCMI school.
Right next door is their church building project. The first time we came there were some foundation walls and grass was overgrown all around. Now you can see they are making progress, even if it is ‘small small’. 
They would like us to pray for their progress as they move towards a roof on the building.
After walking back to the house Jenny met Herrietta, the lady that would be helping with the kids, and they went over the lesson plan and the schedule.
Then it was time to head out to get our cell card for more data on our phones. It turns out it isn’t unlimited, but 2 GB which to them is a lot. Our driver was Abraham again. He took us to a Lonestar store located in red light. It was a small glimpse of red light as we didn’t go all the way through. It is just as busy as I remembered and we were just on the edge of the busy part. 
The second picture shows the steel plates over the entrance drain or the lack of plates over this ditch that is probably a foot deep at least. As the car front tires fall into the bent plate it makes for a precarious revving of the engine to push through. The car in front of us had to try a few times to back up and go to a better location with less bend in the steel. Everyone takes it in stride. We made it in, got our cell coverage, and left without incident.
The title of this days blog needs some explanation. Jenny had said to Emmanuel that she would teach Bible to what she thought was the class at the school. Emmanuel thought, since she wanted to teach kids, let’s bring in kids. He scheduled Jenny’s class from 4:00-5:00. At least he only scheduled an hour. Anyway, the candy Jenny planned for would not be enough for the new plan of 100 kids. At least that is what Emmanuel was planning. We decided to stop at a store to pick up some suckers and candy for the other two days, Wednesday and Friday. We’ll see if we have enough now. We picked up the candy, more water, something to pick up each time we go out, and we bought a cold drink for us and Abraham.
We got back to Emmanuel’s house and had our lunch, palava sauce over rice. It was very good along with fresh cucumbers. After lunch Jenny wanted to make sure everything was ready so I left for a walk around the community. The trails I was taking were not roads, but more wandering trails, like cattle trails. I thought if I got lost most people know Emmanuel so someone would help me. I would get calls as I was walking of ‘Dad Robin’ which warmed my heart. I love that I’m recognized in the community. I eventually found a road of sorts and I was pretty sure where I was. I kept walking and of course scaring the youngest children outside since they don’t see a white man very often. It is so cute how they’ll stare and want to watch, but if you move closer to talk with them they’ll run to their mom for safety. The mom’s will just laugh at how their little ones react. Not all the little ones react that way. Most Liberian children want to be near you. For example, I came home from my walk and Jenny had little helpers to get ready for her class. 
I think Jenny was enjoying the help. I jumped ahead a little bit since I forgot to tell that in my walk I had a man call out ‘Dad Robin’ and I waved. A minute or two later this same man kept repeating louder as he called to me ‘Dad Robin’. He was motioning behind him and I turned to see a lady trying to get my attention because she wanted to talk to me. Turns out I wasn’t the only fair skinned person out on that road. This lady is from the UK and she operates a school not too far from Emmanuel’s home. They are just completing another building so they can house 500 students. We talked for 20-30 minutes and I invited her to stop by Emmanuel’s tomorrow. Hopefully she’ll stop by. She says she’s a Christian, but she is not operating a Christian based school. She does not live here, but it sounds like she visits often. She has a principal and CEO to run the school. She now lives in London and is originally from Scotland. She is a very interesting lady. I’m hoping Jenny can meet her tomorrow also.
Well, back to our day. I came back, helped Jenny get the coloring book pages separated and we were ready for her class. It started out slow with 20-30 kids, but by the time Jenny’s story was over and it was time to color I counted 113 kids. More showed up and we were too busy to count again anyway. We are so thankful for all the help we had, including Emmanuel. He was a big help. We’ll see how the numbers change as we go through the week. Here is a short video of the kids with their papers finished afterwards. You can see Jenny in the back. She really enjoyed it, but is glad for a day break between.
Tomorrow we are going to try to go to the US embassy to work on Wintee getting a visa. We have no idea if we can help her get a visa, but we’ll go ask questions. Pray for this as we try. It is Armed forces day tomorrow which is a holiday for Liberia, but it may not affect the US embassy. We’ll see tomorrow.
Thanks for following along.
Sunday service at LCMI
Today was our first opportunity to be with the full congregation at LCMI. Our day started out with a light breakfast of bread and hotdogs with coffee and ‘tea’.
We then headed over to the church for Sunday School where Solomon Browne was teaching. It was good to be there for his lesson. This started at 10:00 a.m. and was followed right after by the morning worship service. It is always interesting to worship in Liberia. Through the songs and offering that is always an experience to a special ‘rally’ which was a way to collect money for the building project. The Women of Purpose baked a few cakes that they were selling to raise money. It was led by Becky, the lady who lost her husband in December. She did a hood job during this. Jenny and I don’t have the accent down yet so we were both a little lost on what they were saying. Overall the congregation enjoyed the rally and at the end of the service much cake was shared.
I was blessed to speak today. What a privilege to offer the message to another culture in another country. The service ended shortly after 1:00 p.m.
It was quite hot just after, but we greeted many old friends and met some new ones. After a time Jenny and I headed home to have our lunch. Wintee had a meeting right after and Emmanuel left just before I preached as he was meeting up with a Pastor, Bask Johnson, who was visiting a few local places and Emmanuel planned to take him around.
After lunch Jenny and I decided to sit outside (in the shade) for a little while and we were surprised when Pastor Titus Namen, one of CBC’s missionaries, drove up on his motorcycle. It was so good to see him again. We were able to sit and visit for over an hour together. Emmanuel came back and he wasn’t kidding when he said we’d be busy today. We needed to go to visit some of the small group studies called cell groups that the church has going on for Sunday. We said our goodbyes to Titus with a promise to get together again soon with he and Mercy, his wife, as well as their children. We haven’t worked out the details, but we will.
Anyway, we got in the car with Emmanuel and Pastor Johnson and headed out. After quite a few ‘dusty roads’ we showed up at a nice home with an anniversary party underway. This couple normally has the cell group at their home, but they wanted to have a party with their friends for their anniversary. We arrived and they brought out a plate of food for each of us. It was good food and there were a bunch of kids around. I had a lot of fun playing with them. We left there to go to a wedding planning meeting with our driver from the day before, Abraham. For those that were here before, Abraham’s best man is Shaddrach. It was good to see him. We stayed for only a few minutes and we hit the road again. I was dropped off at a cell group of young men. It was good to study with them for awhile. When we were finished I realized that we were close to home so we just walked home. The boys decided to play UNO so I joined in. Jenny came back as we were playing. We must have played over 10 games and I didn’t win even one. I don’t think I like that game. It was a lot of fun.
Now we are sitting here, generator on, with fans blowing on us and Jenny preparing her lesson for the children tomorrow afternoon. Pray that she feels confident as she leads. She has a great helper, Herietta, planning to help her. It should be a good day.
Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get our infinity card and we can send pictures. Until then, goodbye.
First full day.
It is now at the end of our first full day here in Monrovia at Emmanuel and Wintee’s house. After waking up refreshed, somewhat, we got up to a good breakfast and a little time spent with our hosts. I treasure these times in the busyness of a day. After sitting for awhile Wintee and Jenny headed over to the church for an usher’s meeting. The women assume the role of the ushers in their church they went over all of the duties and responsibilities they expect and they encourage them and ask that they remember to pray for the congregation as they serve. One thing Jenny told me the ushers reviewed that I found interesting is that they watch for anyone sleeping and they want to gently and respectfully wake them up. Hmm, I wonder if we should mention this back home. Just knowing this would help keep people alert.
While Jenny was over at the usher’s meeting I sat with a couple of gentlemen, Pastor Paye and Solomon Brown. Pastor Paye is starting a church nearby and he is encouraged by visiting with Pastor Emmanuel. Solomon is a member of LCMI and he definitely knows his Bible. I enjoyed speaking with both of them as the morning wore on. Emmanuel, being his normal busy self, excused himself and went somewhere with the car. As the two men left and Jenny was still in her 3 hour plus meeting, I also had an opportunity to visit with some of the young people around the house. Matthias, one of Emmanuel’s children, was there as well as a young man, Abraham, 23 years old who will be getting married on February 29th. We had a great discussion about Liberia and America and some of the differences in our countries.
When the usher’s meeting ended, Jenny and I then presented many of the things we brought over for Emmanuel and Wintee…seeds and Ovaltine from Mike and Brenda Gustafson, to eyeglasses from Jeremy and Faith to sewing supplies from Bobbijo. It is so nice that many people back home have a part in this visit. We were also able to bring ‘Women of Purpose’ certificates and embossing seals for presentation to WOP graduates. It is a joy to be part of these ministries in a small way.
After a lunch (that I skipped due to a queasy stomach from taking my malaria med too long after breakfast-lesson learned again) we headed out to try and get SIM cards for our phones. The main office for Lonestar, one of their cell companies, was closed for a Saturday so we stopped to have some young men who sell their service on a street office. Basically a table with an umbrella and a bunch of guys carrying wads of Liberian cash. The exchange rate from US $ to Liberian $ has changed from 85 LD to 1 USD in 2012 on my first visit to now the exchange rate being 197 LD to 1 USD. In other words the wads of cash ranging from $5 to $100 don’t amount to a large value. Anyway, this group of young men guessing their age from 20-30 ran alongside our car as they saw us pull up. They then argued on who was there first. After this was established they began the process of popping out our existing SIM cards and getting the new ones registered and installed. This was rather interesting as they had a lot of paperwork required and I had to have my picture taken for each card before they could activate. This took about one hour to process the two phones. Then came the bill…they wanted to charge $15, but our guide, Abraham, said this was too much and he said this was worth $10 plus we’ll buy the scratch cards for minutes on the phone. I was more than willing to accept their first cost, but I initially deferred to Abraham’s judgement. He paid them $10 plus bought 5 one dollar scratch cards. We installed the minutes on the two phones and while we were doing this the group of young men came over to request a couple more dollars for their work. I handed them three more dollars and they proceeded to barter further as they said they have 5 of them so how about $2 more. I thoroughly enjoyed these guys as they did a good job and I wanted to recognize this on my payment. I decided to have a little fun with them like Monty Hall on ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ (for you young people look that up on YouTube). I asked the lead guy if he was willing to trade what he had in his hand for what I had in my front pocket. He was hesitant at first but the others were more than willing to chance it. He held $13 in his hand and I pulled out a $20 bill. They were pleased with their negotiations. In the end I gave him $20 with thanks since they did a good job. The only thing I didn’t realize is that $1 scratch cards do not give you much data. When turning on my data I received a couple of pictures from Jono and Hanna in our group family text. These pictures used up one of the dollars’ data right away. I enquired of Abraham on whether there are other options for data with this carrier. He said at the main office they have an infinity card which offers unlimited data and calling for one month for $27 or somewhere around that cost. We plan on going to the main office on Monday to do this. So, long story longer, we have ‘limited’ data hopefully enough to post this blog. We should be back online full time on Monday. It is surprising how much we rely on data for contact with others.
When we got home from our phone experience Jenny went to rest as we are still feeling the effects of the lack of sleep on the trip over. She ended up staying in bed and we are currently settling in for the night. I, meanwhile, sat with Emmanuel and a few other men in the church for a coffee meeting. They try to meet once a week, review some Scripture, discuss and then have coffee and a time to visit. Reminded me of our Discipleship Hour at CBC. Anyway we had some great discussions and I am getting to know more of the men in the church.
One thing I forgot to mention is a prayer request for Becky Cooper. She is the widow of Delt Cooper who passed away in December. She shared some of the struggles of being alone. She has four children, ages 19, 17, 11 and 6 years old. She has one more year of schooling in nursing to graduate. She would have completed already, but she took the past year off to care for Delt during his illness. Now it is more difficult to attend nursing school due to finances. Please pray for her as she deals with the loss of her husband as well as her plans for future care of her family. We were able to pray with her as she and Jenny shared tears together. I’m so thankful for my caring wife in cases like this. I do want to encourage Jeriann back home who is dealing with a similar loss. Becky was encouraged by her story and her understanding that God is good, all the time.
I don’t mean to bounce around with details from our day, but there is so much new information that it’s easy to overlook a discussion or experience. With that I want to share the struggles that Liberian’s are facing above the normal ones. Gasoline is normally between $4-$5 a gallon. For some reason the gas prices rose to currently $6.35 / gallon with the fear that gas supplies are low. There was one time recently that all the stations ran out of gasoline. While driving to get our phone cards we witnessed lines of cars at all gas stations. Jenny made the comment about them running out of gas while waiting in line. Just after she said this we witnessed this as one car had people pushing the car as the line inched forward. We noticed another man carrying a plate of food he got from someone and he was walking to get back in his car to wait in line. That’s how slow some of the lines are moving. Emmanuel’s cars are diesel which is more expensive at $7.35 / gallon, but more available without the lines. The discussions we have inevitably touch on this new problem they face as a country.
Overall it was a good day and we look forward to worshiping at LCMI tomorrow. Hopefully we can begin to share more pictures after we upgrade our cell service. Good night to all. We hope you enjoy our account of the experiences we have in beautiful Liberia.
Arrived in Monrovia
Anytime you travel, especially abroad, the travel days merge into a confusion of time.
Jenny and I left Chicago on time yesterday evening with an uneventful flight to Brussels, Belgium where we arrived at 9:00 a.m. or so. Wait, was it 9:00 or was it 2:00 a.m. (central time)? After waiting a few hours in Brussels we boarded our plane for Monrovia via Freetown, Sierra Leone. As I type in this portion of our experience we are sitting on the tarmac in Freetown waiting for clearance to takeoff. The next flight is about one hour and then through Liberian customs and then meet Emmanuel for the ride back to his home, about an hour from the airport. We land at around 8:10 p.m. Monrovia time or 2:10 p.m. central. Again, it takes a couple of looks at the world clock on my phone to keep up with the current time zone we are in.
Airborne now on our way. It’s been a great travel day, but we are looking forward to some sleep, even at the early time back home.
We thank God for His watching over us and for the safe travel and interesting people we’ve already met.
Here now with Emmanuel.
Another adventure about to begin.
It is very humbling to realize we are such a small part of God’s big world. Today marks a special day for Jenny and me as we begin a journey back to Liberia, West Africa. We feel very blessed to be able to travel back to a country that is very dear to us. The people of Liberia, especially the friends we’ve made over our past visits, are a huge part of our lives.
We appreciate Pastor Emmanuel and his wife, Mother Wintee, as they open their home for our visit.
Jenny and I leave in four hours +/- as we travel through Belgium on our way to Monrovia, Liberia. Upon our scheduled arrival tomorrow evening at 8:10 p.m. local time we begin the three weeks with our friends that we pray God will use us for His glory.
Emmanuel has informed me that on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. we will be welcomed officially by LCMI church with a brief welcome service. He also informed me today that he has four young couples that he wants me to aid in pre-marital counseling. He figures that as Jenny and I have so many years together we must have some wisdom to offer. My advice, recognize your own failings and not your spouses. We’ll see how that goes. Emmanuel has a way of hitting the ground running if you’re willing to serve. We appreciate his love for service as well.
We don’t know what adventures we will face, nor what hardships may come, but we leave all in the hands of God who created us to serve Him. We hope to share our experience on this blog. We ask that you pray for us and Mike McMahon, who will be joining us one week after we get started. I look forward to sharing these experiences with Mike. He is a great friend and we thank Kim, his wife, for sharing him in service to the Liberian people.
We already had a good start to today with a visit with our dear daughter, Sarah. We had a good breakfast before she dropped us off at the airport.
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God bless and bring on Liberia.
Liberia Mission Trip 