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.