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.