Reflections
Well, it is the morning of my first day back home after a nights sleep. My mind understands that it is just after 8:00 a.m. as I begin this blog post, but my body remembers the time I was used to. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. after the travel day and I feel very awake yet. I’m guessing I’ll start the fatigue in early afternoon here. That’s part of the adjustments whether leaving or returning. Sometimes it’s a short adjustment and other times it takes a few days. We’ll see what this return brings.
Now to reflect on my trip…
My waking up reminds me that we live in very different circumstances here in the states which doesn’t make it better or worse, just that it is very different. I love the fact that I could visit Liberia and be part of their lives, if even temporarily. This gift from God helps me to appreciate the grace that He gives us…me, every day. I am reminded of the apostle Paul when he states in Philippians that,
Philippians 4:11-13 ESV
[11] Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. [12] I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. [13] I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
In God allowing me to visit Liberia, recognizing the extremes Paul is speaking of I can’t say I experienced these differences as Paul did, but I can witness and discern that God loves His children the same regardless of how we judge that love due to circumstances. What Paul was saying is we aren’t to judge God’s love for us based on these circumstances, but based on the whole of the Bible’s message. Again Paul in the book of Philippians…
Philippians 3:8 ESV
[8] Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
I guess what I am saying in my feeble attempt to put meaning to my trip and thoughts about the trip down in words is that I am blessed to experience God active and at work in Liberia and I am blessed to experience God active and at work in the USA as well. God isn’t differentiating his blessing like we would view this, but according to His grace in our lives. Our circumstances will never dictate the amount of love we feel from God. We do that in our minds, God does not. We rationalize that God somehow loves us in the states more because of our blessing in the physical realm. If that were true then our joy would only be dependent on our situation in our human bodies. We sanitize God’s love for us to fit into our life experiences.
If that were true, real joy in Christ would never be realized anywhere that hardship or pain exists. Liberia, being one of the poorest countries in the world, would never know real joy in Christ…Tell that to the congregation that thrives on ‘Praise and Worship’ time in the giving of offerings. Tell that to the many Liberian voices raising their voices to sing to ‘Yahweh’ each worship service. Or tell that to the parents that hear their children reciting the Bible verses like these kids…
The saying that Pastor Fred Haberland once told me is realized more and more as you keep your eyes open to God. ‘Never be surprised by God, but always be amazed by Him.’
This trip to Liberia helped me to see that I cannot change circumstances in people’s lives, but I can remind them to see God’s amazing work in their country and in their lives.
My prayer is that God will continually remind me of this and use me in whatever way He chooses. To God be the glory, great things He hath done…and continues to do!! First CBC missionaries and then memories of the people.
Back in the USA
Well, the first two flights are over for me and they went very well. I ended up having an empty seat next to me both times and on the long flight from Brussels to Washington DC I even got to sit in business class. Not sure how that worked out, but I’m thankful for a more comfortable seating.
It is starting to hit me that I will no longer wake up to the familiar sounds around Emmanuel’s home, but will face the familiar routines of being back home. I’m very grateful and look forward to seeing Jenny, but I will miss the communal pattern of life I found myself in over there. There may be a lack of the ‘comforts’ while in Liberia that we all are accustomed to in the states, but there is a special connection to people that I will miss from Princess Kou (corrected spelling) to all the people coming to the hand pump for water.
I still have 2 more flights to go, but it is good to be back in the states.
Brief stop
I am on my way. First stop along the way is Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Brief stop to change crew and refuel for the longer flight to Brussels, Belgium. I had an empty seat next to me for the first flight, but now they’ll be boarding more. I’m guessing I’ll have a seat mate. Here’s hoping it isn’t a big smelly guy. 🤓
Before I left today I took a picture of the little people brigade. They were dressed alike for school.
They were not allowed to run around in the good clothes so I didn’t chase them. They did eventually get tired out. What a fitting end to a great time with them and their energy.
So many memories and such a great visit. I already miss everyone there. I’ll continue to document on my way home.
Time to leave
Leaving people is always difficult, but leaving friends you’ve made over the years gets harder and harder each time I leave. Today has been a good day with time to go out and pick up a few things as well as visit with some. There was nothing on the schedule today except departure time around 5:30 p.m. to head to the airport. As if saying goodbye wasn’t difficult enough the news that Emmanuel got on our way was enough to bring silence into the car as we drive to the airport. Pastor Abel Smith, the pastor we tried to visit in Kakata, but he had headed for the hospital in Ganta, just passed away. He was at the hospital and I’m not sure what happened, but the grief of his wife and others calling Emmanuel is chilling as they cry out to him and look for comfort. Please pray for Herrietta, the wife, as she deals with this and the LCMI church in Kakata as they also deal with the loss of their pastor. We know that as a Christian, he is with the Father in heaven, but the grief is always difficult, especially with a younger person. I’ll write more later, but I’ll leave this post short as I also pray for those in mourning.
Last full day.
My morning started before Emmanuel got up this morning. I told Elizabeth I would visit her and go to see her land again and I wanted to say goodbye to Mercy and family as well. I told Emmanuel last night that my plans were to walk to the ‘last turnaround junction’ and get a motorbike taxi and take it to Elizabeth’s home at the ‘Mount Barcley junction’. He just looked at me and asked if I was sure and I told him yes so he said ok. Well, Emmanuel was the only one that I told until it was time go leave. I told George who lives with the ‘boys’ here and then I told the house general, ‘Princess Kau’. I told her and then I left to walk to the junction and get the bike. I found out later that Princess went straight to Emmanuel’s door and told him, ‘Dad Robin just left to get a bike! He’s going to get lost!’ I’m glad she watches out for me and Emmanuel told her that I’d be fine. She didn’t like it, but Emmanuel calmed her down. Elizabeth did receive a phone call from Mother Wintee double checking my arrival. I visited with Elizabeth and her daughter Mercy for a little while and I talked to Elizabeth to find out more about her life. Every Liberian has a story to tell and I want to tell her story so I need as many facts as I can get. After our visit we decided it was time to go see the property again. We walked down to their junction and got a couple motorbikes and headed out. We arrived at the drop off spot and walked in to Titus and Mercy’s house to visit and say goodbye. After this short visit we took some pictures and said our goodbyes as Mercy was leaving to do shopping at Red Light. That is one place that I didn’t even go this year. I don’t miss shopping that much and Red Light shopping is a whole different experience. People everywhere and with me not knowing what I’m doing I would just frustrate people.
We left Mercy and headed out to the property. (Here I’ve been calling it the property, but Elizabeth just calls it the ‘house spot’. ) I was here last time with her daughter, Patience and this time with her daughter, Mercy (2 Mercy’s gets confusing).
I really wanted to introduce Elizabeth to the lady I met when we ate our supper at Titus’s house. She lives in front of Titus and runs a block factory. I want Elizabeth to have all the contacts and connections that she can. I’m hoping to get the ball rolling for her to protect the property (read past blog on what can happen to undeveloped land). We walked from the ‘house spot’ and I went to where Lydia lives. She had a wall around her home and I wasn’t sure if I should just walk in or not. I asked some men outside who were selling scratch cards (for phones) and they said she was home and to just open the steel door and enter. When I say enter, it’s more of going in a compound with many buildings. I pulled the door open and called out to see if Lydia was around. A young girl went to get us chairs to sit in right away and said she’d go get Lydia. The custom here is if anyone shows up at your house you get chairs for them to sit. Lydia came out shortly and we had a great visit. I explained why I wanted her to know Elizabeth and her family and she offered to sell blocks and sand whenever it was needed once building could start. She also knows many other suppliers and that’s why I wanted Elizabeth to meet her. She was encouraging Elizabeth with the story of the faith of a mustard seed from the Bible. She even went inside and got some mustard seeds she got from Israel. If you look closely in the picture you’ll see her bottle of mustard seeds. We left with Lydia and Elizabeth getting along well.
From there we got another motorbike taxi to where Patience lives which was halfway home for Elizabeth. We stopped to see her daughter and granddaughter. I finally got the spelling of her granddaughter’s name. Georglyn George is her full name. The pronunciation with different sounds always confuses me. we visited a little while with her and had a nice cold bag of water before a few more pictures and the walk back.
The walk back to Elizabeth’s was probably a little over a mile. We walked rather than a motorbike for such a short ride. It was hot, but didn’t feel too bad until we arrived at her house and I stopped moving. Then the sweat and heat was felt. Mercy was going to ‘carry me home’ meaning she would ride the motorbike with me back to Emmanuel’s house. The two of us walked back to ‘Mount Barcley junction’ and found a driver and we hopped on. It was cooler as long as we were moving. We got back to the last turn around and walked the remainder of the way to Emmanuel’s house. Needless to say Princess was happy we arrived safely. I had lunch with Emmanuel and when I went outside Mercy was doing some dishes. She then ate some food so I guess she was working for her food. She is 16 and will graduate this year. That’s really early for Liberian girls (or boys). She’d like to go to school to be a doctor. I love to hear that she has plans. If she works like her mom she’ll be fine. She left shortly after eating to catch another motorbike back home. I teased her because she skipped school today to go to the house spot. She assured me she’d be ok at school.
The late afternoon was quiet so I was able to call my mom in Texas on a video call. It was good that my niece, Charissa, was there to repeat what mom could not hear. I showed mom some of the sites around Emmanuel’s home. We had a great visit. After that I actually came to my room to lay down a little while. I had been sitting outside dozing in a chair, but every time someone walked by they would greet me and I’d wake up. I thought I could rest a little without being woken up. I never did sleep. Just caught up on the news on my phone.
Church was good with a discussion on the apostle Paul. They are studying people from the Bible that ‘hold firmly to their faith’. Moses lead the class time. Immediately after church there was an appreciation program. I am honored that they put up with me and touched by all the kind words. I received some gifts and many thanks. I was able to talk some then and give my own thanks to many.
One last thing I did tonight (besides eating some rice) was to have a picture taken with Myay and Blessing. I’ve taken a similar picture each of the six times I’ve been here with these two I believe. They were both very young the first time I came. They are growing up.
Tomorrow will be difficult with final goodbyes. Thanks for following along and it truly has been an adventure. I’ll write more yet on my way home. Oh yeah, I’m all set for the plane ride.
pass to board
LBTS
Today I was awake early so I got ready and enjoyed the morning before breakfast. The same familiar sounds greeted me as I said hello to anyone I made eye contact with. I recognize that because of my color (or lack there of) I will get a second or third look even if they know me in the community. I don’t mind as I am able to strike up a conversation or at least exchange greetings. The funny ones are when the children are afraid. The older children will always laugh at the fear of the younger ones and even try to force them to come and see me. I never want to scare the children so I’ll keep my distance if they start to cry. Of course the little people brigade got over that and I’m their grandpa now. I had the chance to see them later on in the day. Breakfast was served so I came in to this nice warm plate.
After breakfast we did something we don’t do too often. We left early for Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary (LBTS). We were all ready to go so we left and ended up being 30 minutes early for the chapel service. This was a privilege to be invited to speak there and I enjoyed the experience.
We did have to adhere to the mask mandate for schools…kind of. Of course I didn’t have to wear a mask as I spoke which was a plus to being the speaker. As I was speaking I was looking at at least half of the students with their masks under their chin. They were at least wearing a mask though. They were very gracious to me and we were able to take pictures with Dr. Massaquoi and his wife Layahn after chapel.
After chapel we headed back to Emmanuel’s home to have a late lunch with a stop on the way back to pick up a few things at the wood carving shop. We also made a stop at Emmanuel’s uncle’s home in Monrovia. He just returned from India where he had treatment and surgery for a cancerous tumor in his neck. We were able to visit and pray with him. He was looking good considering what he went through. I saw pictures of the tumor that I wish I hadn’t. I did not ask for a copy of those pictures. When we got back to the house Princess Kau had GB ready for us. Emmanuel and I shared the GB and shortly after we headed out to Kakata to visit a sick pastor of the LCMI Kakata church. Before we left I had time to play with the kids.
We headed out with the intent of visiting Pastor Abel Smith, but by the time we arrived in Kakata (30 miles inland from Monrovia) Abel’s family decided to take him to Ganta to the hospital. From the sounds of it he has an ulcer, but we will wait to get a report from them. They should be arriving in Ganta real soon. Getting a diagnosis and treatment is always a challenge here.
We stopped by Abraham Youndo’s house to drop off his wife, Favor, who rode with us to Kakata. Oh yea, we made a stop to buy charcoal on our way back as it is $200 LD cheaper inland where they make the charcoal. It did pack the car a little as we bought 4 bags.
We’ll arrive home soon and have a late supper I’m sure. One final stop for rice and water. They have their own Walmart’s open to pick up things they need.
Another great day.
Covid test day
Woke up to another beautiful day here in Monrovia, Liberia. I enjoyed a breakfast and went outside afterward to visit with Elizabeth who came to do my wash. I know that sounds so bad when I say that, but I’m very grateful that one, I can get my laundry done and two, I can offer someone a job where ability to make money is always sought after here. Elizabeth was more than willing to come as we have become friends over the years. I met her in 2016 when Erik and Amanda traveled over with me and we were later joined by Bobbi, Micah and Luke. I have been learning a little more of her story each time I visit. I was so happy that Jenny could meet her last year and as expected, Jenny and her hit it off as well. Elizabeth has had a difficult life, but her attitude and love for God are amazing. I am inspired by what she’s come through and I hope to help her in some of her goals here.
After visiting with her for awhile I had to head out to get my covid test before my flight on Thursday. Emmanuel took me to the testing site and it was over half an hour away. When we arrived I remembered I forgot my passport. The stress feeling of travel was on me already. I have not worried about a mask or any change in what I know about Liberian lifestyle while I’m here. The children wearing them to school is the only reminder I’ve had and that in itself is funny since I’ve visited 2-3 other schools in my travels and Monrovia is the only place I’ve seen them and not even all over here. I’ll never understand that I guess. Anyway, it turns out I have a picture of my passport and one of my plane ticket on my phone and that was all I needed. It didn’t take long to fill in the required form, but the wait for the test was a lot longer.
The test itself was anticlimactic as once I was in with the nurse and they double checked my case number and slammed a q-tip up my nose she just said, ‘You’re done. You can go.’ It felt funny just walking out to find Emmanuel waiting outside for me. It was organized, but I guess I was just impatient. From there we went to a wood carving guy that Emmanuel knows. Paul is the guys name and he went from carving things himself when we met him in 2012, to having his own roadside shop with carvers busy working for him. I counted 3 other carvers and one guy to run the shop. He’s quite an entrepreneur.
With the covid test and the carving shop we didn’t get back till after 3:30. When we got back Elizabeth was busy raking the yard around the church. She keeps busy all the time.
We had a late lunch of pumpkin soup over rice and it was very good. After lunch I varied my time from chasing the little people brigade as Grace and her two sidekicks, Praise and Praises showed up to play. They all call me grandpa. I gotta say I love it! When it was time for Elizabeth to go I walked with her to the motorbike junction and then came back and watched the pick up soccer game underway. They do love their soccer.
This evening it was nice to have a long talk with Jenny. I also was able to speak to Papa Mike when Emmanuel passed his phone to me earlier in the day. It was nice catching up with Mike since he knows what is going on here.
Tomorrow I speak at the seminary for chapel as my last official duty here in Liberia. I did work on that some today as well. I am already dreading the good byes.
Last Sunday
Another great morning this morning. I woke up and read through and updated my message for today. I then took my shower and got dressed for church. I came out of my room and it appeared everyone was a little slower getting ready this morning. The challenges of getting ready in Liberia from still needing water for the home to getting your Sunday clothes ready and maybe needing to iron your clothes with the coal iron, things just take longer. I feel very privileged to have my needs met as they go out of their way over here to make sure I’m watched over and anything I need is taken care of.
From my morning relaxing here on to Sunday school where we discussed Simon Peter. It was a good discussion of how God used him even with his shortcomings.
From SS we moved directly to the worship service. Today was special for me for two reasons. One, I was able to preach again and two, I was able to sing with the LCMI choir. I want to give a special thank you to our music team back home and especially Erik for preparing a recording of a song I hoped to teach the choir here at LCMI. Even though I was in Yekepa I left a copy of our practice time at CBC on a phone with Wonder, the choir director, and asked if she could teach a new song to the choir. When I returned late Friday night I didn’t want to ask if they had a chance to work on the song. It wasn’t until Saturday as Blessing was doing her wash next to my favorite spot to sit and she started to sing the song I brought over. I was excited and said, ‘Yay, you guys learned the song!’. Blessing just smiled and shook her head yes. As she started to sing the song again I joined her and pretty soon Abraham Youndo came out of the house singing and we all sang the song through. I knew there was a choir practice on Saturday night and I found out I was able to sing with them. The practice went great and I looked forward to today to sing with them. They have such strong and great sounding voices, so I was intimidated to sing with them. As we went through the service with the choir singing just before the sermon I felt nerves and excitement as I would be able to sing and preach. What a great opportunity.
One other thing that I was able to share, with Jenny at least, is I was away from her for her birthday so the congregation sang Happy Birthday for Jenny as I recorded it and later sent it to her. She was here last year for her birthday and they wished she could be here again so they wanted to wish her a Happy Birthday in song at least. From singing I went right up to speak on Daniel in the lion’s den. I pray that the teaching encourages people here.
After church and lunch we rested a little as we visited in the living room and I even recorded Wonder and Matthias singing a few songs. Then we headed out to visit. This time it was Wintee’s sister, Anti and her husband, Samuel. I’ve met Anti many times, but today was my first time meeting her husband. We had a great time of visiting there and before long it was time to leave and Anti, Samuel and Kristie, Anti’s daughter who I met on past trips, headed out. I had no idea where we were going as Abraham drove us around. Before long we pulled up to Princess’s house. Princess, who now goes by the name Success, was one of Jenny’s favorite funny people who could always make Jenny laugh. It was there I FaceTimed Jenny to wish her a happy birthday and it turned into everyone there singing to her. It was then Jenny got a special singing of happy birthday by Success (Princess). It was great because Jenny got to remember what she always liked about her.
Shortly after my call to Jenny Emmanuel got a call from one of the kids at his house and found out Titus and Mercy were at his house waiting to see me before I leave later this week. We hurried back and had some tea and cake with them. It was great to see them again before I leave.
After Titus and Mercy left I was able to meet the parents of two of the little people brigade. Praise and Praises parents.
Tuti told a great story about the twins when they were sick one time and she ended up giving 2 doses of medicine to one of the twins thinking she was giving one to each. She couldn’t imagine why one twin slept so good and all night. At least it didn’t hurt the one who had the double dose.
To end the night I went outside to find a game of Uno going on. That is always a must, taking some Uno cards, as they love to play the game. I always tease them that they cheat, but maybe that’s just because when I play I never win.
Tomorrow I have to start to plan for my return trip already. I need to go to get my Covid test 72 hours before leaving. Another $75 to be able to travel again. I still plan on enjoying my remaining time here. I’ll keep sharing.
I Can Only Imagine
Today was a cooler day for Monrovia and that was a welcome break. I woke up early and laid in bed listening to thunder outside and I thought what a good day to just relax a little. I listened to a podcast for an hour or so and then just drifted off back to sleep, waking up at 8:30. What a great start to the day. Getting up I went outside to work on my sermon some more as the sounds of a morning in Liberia surrounded me. I’m becoming accustomed to these sounds as if they are part of the pattern of my life. Each morning I hear the creak of the hand pump, the sweeping sound of the yard broom, the whine of a motorbike as it passes on the road and of course the pesky roosters that continually remind us the day has begun. These are peaceful sounds that will always be in my mind while I’m here and I’ll recall with fondness once I get back home. There is also the happy greetings from friends, neighbors and even those I’ve never seen before. They’ll greet me with a ‘Mornie-O’. At least that is the phonetic sound I hear. They will add the ‘O’ to the end words and also cut off the end of these words ending up with ‘mornie-O’ sound.
After my failed movie night on the big screen at the orphanage, I used today to also make sure I planned better so we didn’t end up with the movie night on the tiny screen again. I connected the computer to my phone hotspot and downloaded the Amazon prime app and went to my account and started to download the ‘Ten Commandments’ movie. That took about 30 minutes to download, but at least it would be on Emmanuel’s laptop. After discussing we decided to download a different movie for tonight since the 3 hour and 40 minute movie would be too long starting later at night. We decided on the movie ‘I Can Only Imagine’ about the song. Emmanuel has seen it, but I kind of pushed for this. I asked everyone else around and nobody had even heard the song so I wondered if I chose a good one or not. As it turned out it they loved it.
Here is the message I sent to Jenny right after we finished. ‘Just finished watching I Can Only Imagine. I had tears in my eyes and goosebumps as they all clapped and cheered after he sang. It was a beautiful moment.’ They loved the story and the song brought up great discussions later.
Overall it was a great day and I’ve just got a little bit of final prep to do in the morning. I want to review it and button it up better. I don’t have as many pictures today since we just stayed around home. I’ll let you know how our worship day goes tomorrow.
Catch up and travel.
I need to catch you up on my ‘adventures’ here in Liberia again. First a recap of yesterday which in itself was a very busy day.
Day 1-Catch-up.
We woke up in the morning with early devotions with the kids singing and Emmanuel leading the time teaching about prayer. During these devotion times everyone is still a little sleepy and most of the kids come in with their pajamas on to get dressed for school after. We finished and everyone headed out to their schedule with mine being a breakfast I was thinking I wouldn’t enjoy once I saw it. It was boiled yams and plantains with onions and sardines cooked and used as a topping over them. I believe I’ve had something similar before with eddoes (potatoes). It must be a normal breakfast over here. Anyway, I’m not a big fan of fish and sardines seem like they rate up there in being ‘fishy’. As I’ve always said I will eat any meal given to me and be grateful for it. I took my yams and plantains and cut them up and then I sparingly took some onions and sardines to put over them. I tasted it with a little hesitancy, but I was surprised at the way the onions overtook the fish flavor. I love onions and I continued to eat, adding more of this mixture of fried goodness until all of my yams and plantains were gone. I think anything fried in butter and onions ends up tasting good. That was my breakfast…yesterday.
After eating I came out to read and I had someone come to visit me that made me think of Cody back home. His name is Mr. Boo. Boo is around 13 years old and likes to visit everyone, even going to the market where he prays for the people selling there. His talking is more of yelling incoherent words (which is why he reminds me of Cody) Everyone knows Mr. Boo in the area.
Then a little girl from the orphanage came up and was looking sad. I asked her what was the matter. I tried really hard to understand, but I had to take her to Wintee to find out what happened. She told Wintee and she was at school (they wear uniforms at all schools and take it seriously) and she got sent home because she didn’t have socks. The socks should match the shirt and she only had her slipper sandals on. I asked if there was anywhere we could go and pick up socks for her so she could go back to school. I was told at the market and I said I’d go with her and take care of it. Well, Mr. Boo wasn’t going to be left behind so off we went to Camp Four and the marketplace. As we were walking Theresa grabbed my hand which was so sweet (she’s around 5 years old) and it reminded me of my grandkids. Well, Mr. Boo noticed and he wasn’t going to be left out so he grabbed my hand too. We continued to the marketplace and found someone who sold the light blue docks that match her uniform. The girl selling was a good salesperson as she said ‘She can’t go to school in those slippers. Try these shoes on and before you know it I had purchased socks and shoes for Theresa. Take a look at the picture and you’ll agree it was a good idea.
After getting Theresa back to school I had a visit from the Roff family (A family formerly from CBC-Jay & Jennifer went on the first mission trip to Liberia in 2012 and also love the people here so they are living over here with the family). Jennifer had stopped by the day before and said Jay and the kids would stop by. Jay, Ethan, Abbey, Brie and Kate came to the orphanage on two motorbikes with Jay driving one and Ethan driving the other. We talked for awhile and then planned to get together again.
In the afternoon we went into Yekepa to visit a Women of Purpose group at Emmanuel’s sister-in-law’s house. Amelia has just started a chapter in Yekepa and I even bought a cake from the newly trained bakers. It was good.
The plan for the evening was to show a movie and have some popcorn for the kids. That was the plan…but…this too is my not planning well. As we were out we bought popcorn, butter, oil and salt. Before I left home I purchased and downloaded the movie ‘Ten Commandments’ with Charlton Heston as Moses. This was a movie I remember watching when I was growing up. I thought the kids would like to see the Bible story come to life, even if it was a little old fashioned Hollywood. We bought fuel for the generator, fashioned an extension cord from a piece of romex and got the projector working and mirroring my phone. One problem, even when you purchase a movie and download it, Amazon prime licenses it in a way that it won’t play on a projector. If I had read up a little more I would have found this out, but nope, I just ran with how I did it so, if you remember this movie…3 hours and 40 minutes long…about 12-15 people watched my little phone for the whole movie. I was surprised, but they don’t see movies very often so they all stuck it out. Well, most of them. 3 or 4 of the youngest fell asleep in the middle of the movie. I was irritated at the situation, but lesson learned. I think we’ll try to show it in church here in Monrovia tomorrow. If you download to a laptop (I’ll download to Emmanuel’s laptop tomorrow) you can project it, just not from a phone or iPad. That’s crazy to me. I invited Jay, Jennifer and the kids to come too. The Roffs enjoyed it too and they send their greetings to all at CBC that remember them. Ethan specifically said to tell the Buckley boys hi from him.
The movie finished real late so that is why my last night’s blog was so short.
Day-2-travel day.
Woke up this morning for devotions again and made plans with Jay Roff the night before to have him pick me up on his motorbike so I could go see his home. He is staying in a guest house of another church in the area. After devotions Jay showed up, I climbed on the back of his bike and we took the 3-4 mile ride from the orphanage to his Liberian home. Here are a couple of
pictures of their home and family.
After visiting for a couple of hours over a cup of coffee Jay took me back to the orphanage to say my good byes. I was able to sing for and pray for Mother Betty before we left. She is, as they say here, trying, little by little. We did have her smile and laughing at me, but she still cannot speak after the stroke. I’ve had my picture with her each time so here is 2021 version. The first one is where she is laughing at me and then the look at the camera.
Saying goodbye is always difficult. I handed out all of the letters, coloring books and crayons along with Brenda’s care package for the girls. They loved all of them. The letters are planned to be opened later as all the kids weren’t there. I’m sure they’ll be surprised by the gift donated to them and left in the envelopes. Any money is so appreciated over here.
We finally got underway, but travel in Liberia always has other stops. The main stop was in Ganta to see the Women of Purpose class and speak to them and encourage them to continue to learn the skill they signed up for. Women are oppressed in Liberia and this helps give some usable training along with the Gospel presentation. Here is the group from today (just a couple of the training classes in Ganta).
After leaving Ganta we headed for Monrovia. One problem, the car started to make a noise at higher speeds. It sounded like a tire so in Palala, Emmanuel pulled over to a gentleman who had some tires hanging outside. He asked them to look over the tires to see if they could notice a problem. The left front tire had a bulge in it so it was time for a new used tire. The only tool with power was the compressor so I found it interesting when they worked on getting the old tire off the rim.
After a couple more short stops, one for fuel and the other to see a couple of people, one being a pastor of the LCMI Gbarnga (pronounced Bonga with a guttural B at the beginning.) we finally arrived at home for a quick shower and of course a meal which consisted of palm butter soup over rice.
This was a great couple days. I may even sleep in a little tomorrow morning since it is almost midnight now.
Just finished movie night
I’ll write about our day tomorrow. Late night. Check back in the morning.
Things are going very well.
CBC Clinic day
What a different experience being in Yekepa over being in Monrovia. First of all, last night was the first night I did not use a fan willingly while I slept. Of course LEC sometimes made that choice for us in Monrovia. The weather is so much more mild here. I did not sleep as well, but that was due more to the new location and knowing I wanted to wake up for morning devotional time with the kids in the orphanage and not wanting to oversleep since they meet at 6:00 a.m. I did not have any problem waking up and that makes me more tired this evening.
Once we had morning devotions Mother Wintee made us oatmeal for breakfast. They are taking such good care of me. I made one mistake today. I forgot to take my malaria med this morning so tonight just before my shower I took it…without having supper. I should know better as one time in 2018 I took my meds without breakfast and ended up throwing up. Well, I knew we were eating supper after my shower so I thought I’d have time. As I write this, after eating a light supper, I am still nursing an upset stomach for the first time on my trip. I pray the light supper settles it down. I’ll be fine, either way, just uncomfortable for awhile. I won’t be able to upload any pictures tonight since the cell coverage is quite spotty. I’m hoping to at least post this.
Back to the day…our first stop after breakfast was the Randall Godfrey School to visit each class. In every classroom I was warmly greeted with many remembering me from last year. Most of the orphans here at Betty Jonah Orphanage attend there. I recognized many of the children, but as happens each visit many have moved on and a few are added. When I first thought of the orphanage in 2012 I thought the children being here signified their parents had died and they were orphaned. Most of the children here are a result of parents not being able to feed and support their kids. That’s why many move on as they reunite with family members later on. Many of the children under Emmanuel’s care in Monrovia and also Titus’s care are similar situations where they step up and take care of these children when the parents aren’t able. Some are extended family and some are through contacts they have with families in need. That is how the connection works at the orphanage as well. One thing I’ve learned is that Emmanuel, I think, has a challenge from someone to see if he can stump me as in each classroom we visited he would tell the students that Dr. Robin (yes I’m still an honorary Liberian Dr., at least according to Emmanuel) will tell you this or that. One class I might be asked to tell about my family or my country or my job and in one class he even had me sing I’ll Fly Away for the kids. I have to admit I kept up with all his requests so far, but he gets challenging. We visited a lady after the school visit that just lost her husband and Emmanuel told her I was there to pray for her and my mind went blank when I was praying so I couldn’t say her name. God knows who I was praying for at that time. Her name is Ma Dahn if you think of her pray for her as the funeral is on Saturday. I am humbled by the appreciation of the people for our visit and I am also humbled when I think how I lack visiting skills back home. I say that now with the intent to let CBC know that I hope to continue to grow in this area. When I do visit you may not want to steer the conversation to Liberia unless you have time as I tend to want to share every story of every experience. I’m working on that too…not being overbearing. I have a lot to work on. 🤓
Also regarding the song, I’ll Fly Away, the video that Jenny took of the CBC congregation singing this on my last Sunday back home is a hit. I have showed that video most to others as they love to see Country Bible Church singing to them. One thing I’ll hear most every time I show the video to a small group is, ‘I see Papa Mike!’ They are so excited to see someone they know at the church. We may not always appreciate how our presence affects others. Papa Mike, you are loved. Almost as much as Mother Jenny, but you’ll have to work harder to pass her up. Jenny’s compassion for others doesn’t go unnoticed and they always ask about her. One girl here at the orphanage, Eunice, came out to talk to me and it was to ask about Mother Jenny. I am starting to get a complex. That’s it, Jenny will just have to come back with me next time. I even had one girl here ask me about my brother, Kelvin (that’s how they hear my pronunciation). She said I talked about him last year so she wanted to know how he was doing. A smart bunch of kids here.
After the school visit and the visit to the grieving widow, Ma Dahn, we came back to the orphanage to get the stuff for the clinic. (I just realized the clinic visit was still before noon and this blog is getting long). Well, I gathered everything I brought for the clinic and we headed over to see Moses and Caroline. Thanks for everyone’s generosity to allow blood pressure cuff, thermometers, glucose tester and strips and the many other supplies that I carried along to be presented to the clinic. They were very gracious and wanted to try the glucose or sugar test on Emmanuel. He declined to let them saying he had eaten breakfast already and the reading would be higher when the truth is he hates needles. We laughed at that and Moses tested Caroline’s blood and it worked well. They then graciously presented me, as the ambassador from CBC, with a robe and a hat that matches which they said signifies a chief or royalty. I don’t know about that, but I did enjoy teasing Emmanuel who always states that he is the ‘Chairman for life’ over everything. I reminded him that a chief is above a chairman. He didn’t agree so that debate will be ongoing. We had a great visit with Moses and Caroline. Of course I have pictures of all these things, but with the limited cell coverage you’ll have to see the pictures when I return.
We ran a couple of errands and came back to have lunch. Oh, I need to back up a little here. Moses, the head nurse at the clinic, is engaged to be married and he told us that his fiancé, Love (yes her given name), was bringing us some GB so we could swallow. I’ve mentioned GB before, but in Nimba County that is the dish the county is known for. Of course we could not or would not refuse. I was interested in meeting Moses’s ‘Love’ anyway. Before Love came with the GB we sat down to…eat lunch. Emmanuel informed me that it is normal to eat rice first and then swallow GB. So, that is what we did. We had our lunch and then Love arrived and we all swallowed some GB. As we were eating our second lunch I asked Love how she met Moses. I found out that she first met Moses as a patient to the clinic. We all laughed at how God brought them together. Wintee was teasing her about this too and we had a great visit. By the way she makes good GB and I just told Moses as he walked by before heading to bed to thank her for that when he sees her.
After eating such a heavy lunch we felt like sleeping a little, but we all found something to do. The kids started walking back from school so I got to visit with many of them as they went about their afternoon. One girl, Eunice, who asked me about Mother Jenny, was carrying a large can of sweetened condensed milk. I asked her what she was going to do with that. Now I like sweetened condensed milk. That is a favorite ingredient for bars back home. I was curious what she was going to do. She said she was making some milk candy. She said they put it in a pot over the fire and it thickens and turns color where they then form them into cookie shaped and they cool to form a hard candy. It sounded good, but what wouldn’t with that much sweet to it. I wasn’t sure, however, when I was speaking with Helena and she was cleaning some ginger, scraping the outer skin from the ginger. I asked what it was for and she told me it was for the milk candy. I kept saying, ‘Ginger, you put ginger in there?’ And making a face. She just laughed and said it’s good. I told her I really wanted a piece when they were finished. It wasn’t too long later that I walked upon them and the finished product was cooling in a container with many cookie shaped pieces all set for sale. They sell them for $10 LD each (about 6 cents) to the kids at school. Most everyone sells something to earn some money. Money is difficult to come by so they are all entrepreneurs. I was surprised, as I’m not a huge fan of ginger, that with the toasted milk flavor they were pretty good.
I was also surprised by a visitor here that many know from back at CBC. Jennifer Roff stopped by to see me once she heard I was in town. Her and Jay and 4 of their kids live up here in Yekepa now. She works at a local clinic herself and was on the way home and stopped by to see me. We had a good time catching up and I plan to see their family tomorrow sometime. That will be nice.
This evening at the Wednesday church service I was able to present to the Redeemer Baptist Church about our desire to set up a board of sorts to help in the ministry outreach of the clinic. It was a very good meeting with plans to move forward with email being a primary contact for the board. I was especially excited to have 3 of Betty Jonah Orphanage’s own, Justin, Milton and Alvin all interested in being part of the board. They are all 3 seniors at ABC University and will be graduating in December. Milton already is a Pastor of New Yekepa Baptist church, Justin is an older senior hoping to become a Pastor and Alvin is graduating in education with Emmanuel hoping to groom him as a future principal of the Randall Godfrey School. They all seemed to understand the ministry outreach CBC is striving for and I love the youth being willing to serve as they have a heart for spreading the Gospel. I plan to write up a more formal report for back home after we set things up. I will try to have a discussion with these guys before I leave, but if not I like the fact that they want to communicate via email. Phone calls with Liberian dialect are difficult as they struggle with my American dialect. I believe we will be much more effective if most of our communication is done this way. We also had Pastor Ezekiel of Redeemer Baptist interested as he understood the need for the local church to be involved. The 3 younger guys are also part of the leadership at Redeemer. The fact is the community knows them and their churches. We also discussed follow up with the patients to try and get them into a good church nearest them. If they are members of another church we still want to follow up to make sure they understand the clinic is a ministry and all care about their souls as much as their bodies. I’m excited for this direction. Pray along as we set things up to see how God can use them as people who live in the same community as the patients.
All in all it was a good day. By the way, my stomach is feeling better as this took almost 2 hours to write tonight. God bless.
Arrived in Yekepa
Today was a travel day so I woke up in the morning and planned what I needed to take along. Since I have one suitcase almost exclusively for the clinic thanks to the generosity of so many back at Country Bible Church. I also passed on the eyeglasses sent from Jeremy and Faith. It’s interesting how prescriptions are filled for glasses over here. I laugh to myself as I write that since I am told most people don’t ever see an optometrist and if they have trouble seeing they try on glasses that help them to see. If one helps they will keep those glasses and their eyes adjust to the prescription. I’m sure there are doctors over here, but the vast population will do what I described due to lack of means. The eyes are less important than feeding themselves every day.
I get sidetracked easily. I was packing and I ended up taking two suitcases and my backpack while Emmanuel and Wintee took a bag slightly larger than a Walmart bag for both of them I believe. That doesn’t mean that we had room in the car. They had so much stuff for the orphanage that Wintee, who allowed me to sit up front, was packed in with everything else. She had things all around her. The original plan was to have Abraham come along as a driver, but those plans changed when the car filled up so much.
We got on the road just before 11:00 a.m. which was really good timing. You never know where you might stop on the way. One stop I’ve always been able to plan on is in Ganta to fuel up at the Total station. Anyone who’s been on this trip will remember that stop. I was also able to connect with an old friend, Abraham Gardour, who lives now in Ganta. It was good to see him again.
In Ganta we went to a store where Emmanuel and Wintee know the owners well. We bought some things there and ended up having some topigee or bitterball soup over rice. It was good. Emmanuel told me if it was truly topigee there would be more peppers in it. I’ve been warned that the peppers in topigee can give some stomach issues so I was glad it was milder than normal. Ganta is the end of the paved roads for the most part and you travel by ‘dusty’ roads as they say. We got as far as Sannequellie, which is about 1/2 way to the orphanage from Ganta, when police waved us off the road. We knew the Liberian President was traveling to Yekepa today as well and we were directed to clear the main road for his passing. It turns out that his plans were to stay in Sannequellie after his visit to Yekepa, but they were clearing the roads. It is a good thing that Wintee’s mom and dad live in Sannequellie so we took the back ‘roads’ to their home and stayed there until we could head out. Once we were able to get on the road we stopped by a school we visited last year to see Wintee’s brother and sister-in-law. While there I decided to go see a group of kids that were staring at me. As I walked over to them it was like a chain reaction that one ran and then soon 6 children were running away from the big ‘white man’. Some of the other, older kids were laughing so hard at them. One brave girl, still younger, maybe 7-8, came up to me and shook my hand so most of the group that ran came back to shake my hand. I love to interact with the kids. I ended up showing them pictures on my phone from home of snow and my family to break the ice. I then encouraged them to ask me questions about America. One question that I got was do I know George Konah? Evidently he traveled to America and lives there now. The concept of how large America is doesn’t set in when their lives are so community connected.
After leaving this group we heard President George Weah had passed our location so we were free to go. We arrived about 40 minutes later. Now as I sit outside typing this on my phone it is very cool outside. The stars are brilliant in the sky. God’s universe is so amazing. The coolness is so different from Monrovia. I’ll take the break from the heat. I’ll see what tomorrow brings in the morning.
A surprise while visiting Elizabeth’s house.
Today I had no plans. Let me say that again…Today I had no plans. At breakfast time we did discuss future plans which include leaving for Yekepa tomorrow and reviewing what our travel schedule looks like. I’ll fill you in on those plans as they take place because I know that in Liberia we will have a change of plans. After breakfast Emmanuel had some errands to run, Wintee was at the school so I decided it would be a good day to visit Elizabeth and her family. Elizabeth is a good friend that I met in 2016 while she worked at Emmanuel’s home and she helped take care of us during our stay with helping Princess with the food and cleaning. I met her again in 2018 and in 2020 both Jenny and Papa Mike got to know her as well, also at Emmanuel’s home. She is now working at getting her own place built as she has some land and she wanted me to see this. She is renting a room at this time from a lady, but this is short term. Anyway, now that I made these plans how could I carry them out? Emmanuel was leaving with the car so I told him I would take a motorbike to the junction where I would meet Patience, Elizabeth’s daughter, and she would direct me to their home. Emmanuel likes to know that I am taken care of, but he reluctantly agreed. I like the different experiences so I looked forward to the day. Emmanuel called a motorbike driver he knows (always watching out for me) and we made the arrangements. At least plans were made. Emmanuel wanted the driver to take me there, wait while I visited, and return me back home. The first part worked out well.
The driver took me to the junction, about 4-5 miles at best guess, and Patience found me somehow in the crowd of people. 🤓 She hopped on the bike with me and the driver and it was only a quarter mile or so off the main road from there. I came up to where Elizabeth and her daughters are now living. I felt bad for the driver so I told him he could leave and return in a couple of hours to pick me back up. I paid him and he said something about calling him. I never did see him again. We visited for awhile and then Elizabeth asked if I’d like to see her land where she’d like to build a home. I agreed and we walked this time, back to the junction where I originally met Patience. By the way, a junction is where the motorbike taxis congregate and people know they can hire a bike at the junctions. These junctions are all over and they each have their different names. It’s kind of like the L in Chicago where you can get off at whatever station you want. These are all organically named as the name just came about, usually by some identifiable location. One in particular is called Parker Paint junction appropriately named after Parker Paint had a store there…back in the 90’s. The civil war ended the business, but the junction lives on. The junction we went to is called the Mount Barkley junction named after a past president. When we got there it was interesting seeing Elizabeth looking over the choice of motorbike taxis around. She chose the oldest driver for her and I to ride with and Patience got on another bike. We headed down the road a couple of miles and we came to a familiar place to me. I was just there on Saturday. When we stopped I was all excited to tell Elizabeth that Titus and Mercy lived just back there off the main road. Well we walked to there land just past where we would go to Titus’s house and walked a quarter mile or so further to her land. She had recently brushed or cleared the lot as things grow so fast here in Liberia. She needs to keep trying to do something on the land or people could try and sell the land again causing confusion for all people. They would say they have land for sale, convince someone to pay for it and leave. The new ‘owners’ will start to build and then the old owner may show up arguing that it is their land. The police get called and since there is not good title searches or always good transfer deeds there can be fights. A lot of the time it’s the strongest that wins out regardless of who is the proper owner. I really pray she can get something built soon. I’ll try to work on this with her.
After being at their land for a little while we walked back with the intent that I would show them where Titus and Mercy live. We walked up into Titus’s yard and the kids saw me and came running out and gave me a hug. Most of them I just met 2 days earlier, but it made me feel good. Titus’s mom looked up and was surprised as well. Mercy came from the house just as surprised. Titus was at school as I expected. We had a bag of water and visited for 30 minutes or so before telling Mercy we needed to go.
We walked back to the main road where there was a sort of mini junction with about 5-10 bikes waiting across the road. Patience just called out ‘bike’ and two drivers drove across to us. We rode back to Mount Barkley junction and walked back to where they live. Elizabeth’s other daughter, Mercy, got home from school and ran up and gave me a hug. I hadn’t seen her since 2016. It was great to visit with them again. We even FaceTimed Jenny so she could visit with Elizabeth a little.
Now it was past time for the 2 hours for the original motorbike driver to arrive. I really didn’t expect him back. We visited some more and eventually I called Emmanuel and he said he’d just send Abraham to pick me up. That worked out well. we had a great visit. Elizabeth was getting ready to make Fufu that she sells around the community. That is one of her means of supporting herself. It’s a difficult life, but most people don’t complain so much. I am humbled when I consider how spoiled I am. That’s a common feeling over here.
I came back to Emmanuel’s home to check out the new water tank. It was delivered and installed today while I was gone. Emmanuel knew I was interested in seeing them lift it so he took these videos that he shared with me.
When I got back I took a video of my own. The little people brigade came out tonight and started to play with me. I would roar and chase them into the kitchen. One time I hid in the garage area and they went looking for me. The other kids thought it was funny too.
I have such fun with them. I’ll miss them for the few days we’ll be gone. Tomorrow brings the new travel adventure. Up to Yekepa and the Mother Betty Jonah Orphanage as well as the CBC Medical Clinic.
2nd Sunday and 1st wedding
It is hard to believe how fast this time is going. I’ve been here over a week and I’ve been through two Sunday services where I was privileged to speak. This morning was a gloomy morning with heavy humidity in the air. I was hoping for enough rain to break the humidity. I hope for that every day I guess. That is one thing that always takes some time to get used to. The heat and humidity are always there. Well, the rain didn’t come, but it did get sunny again after church and it was another nice day. Here’s a picture before church and you can see a couple of ladies sweeping and getting things set up for the service. They are two of the ushers.
The service went well and I took a video of the choir singing a song. It is too long to upload, but I love their powerful voices. I can show this to you when I return home. I do have a few pictures of people you may know (if you’ve been here before). I was especially impressed with Blessing and how much she’s changed since the first time I came. She was 3 years old then. These people are all so special as I get to know them better with each trip.
I had a great surprise after church when the girls put the food out to eat. Right there on the table was an American pizza. Mother Wintee wanted to have this made for me and they did a great job. The pizza sauce and cheese fit in real well with the veg-all and hotdogs used. It was like a deep dish Chicago style pizza. I really enjoyed that. Of course it was served with potato greens over rice.
After our pizza dinner we headed out to a wedding where on the way I joined the zoom meeting back home to listen to Papa Mike as he lead the Discipleship Hour at Country Bible Church. I was able to listen all the way through the start of prayer time. It was great hearing them discussing Psalm 35. We were bouncing around in the truck so anyone else on zoom may have noticed us bouncing around. We lost the connection and we arrived shortly after at the wedding. I have a program for the wedding stating the start time to be 3:30. We arrived sometime after 4:00, took some time to get a picture with the groom, go inside the church and get seated up front on stage (Emmanuel’s connections) and we still waited for the wedding to start. This too is Liberia.
The wedding was on the campus of Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary. It was really pretty and high energy at times.
We stayed to eat and now we are headed home. It has been a long day. I also had some time to speak with Jenny while the wedding pictures were being taken. It was nice to speak with her. She got to see the wedding party and the campus she and Mike visited last year.
Tomorrow should be a rest day. I’m not sure when we’ll be heading to Yekepa, but we can decide that tomorrow. Tonight I’m looking forward to a cup of Ovaltine before bed. I’m getting used to that.
Thanks for following along on my trip.
Titus & Mercy
So today the plan was to visit Pastor Titus and Mother Mercy. Since the trip from Emmanuel’s home to Titus’s home is 30-40 minutes I figured we’d leave mid morning or so, but in Liberia you tend to find out later that plans aren’t always what you think. This morning actually worked out great for me since I still had work to do on my Sunday sermon. After a quick breakfast I asked what time we planned on leaving and Emmanuel said he had to go and do some things first. Knowing how things can take longer than you think I got right on my study time on the front porch. Of course it didn’t take long for Grace and the little people brigade to interrupt.
around.
The girls eventually tired of me because I was boring to them. It was then I was able to focus and finish my message for tomorrow morning. I was ready to head out to Titus and Mercy’s home. There was one problem, Emmanuel wasn’t back yet. I took this time to just play some music on my phone and lay down on the couch and rest. Maybe 4-5 songs in I heard Emmanuel return. He came in to say he’d been speaking with Titus and Titus said it would be good to arrive between 1:00-2:00. The time was 1:45.
There was just one more thing to do…eat a little something before we left to eat at Titus’s home.
I learned all about some Liberian proverb about a chicken eating before it leaves the house so it can be wary of the hawk when it goes outside. I think Emmanuel was making that up, but either way we had some jollof rice. It was quite good. Now with a little food eaten it was time to go. I thought it was nice of Emmanuel to call Titus as we were going to arrive well after 2:00. I could hear Titus on the phone about to give Emmanuel directions when I heard him ask, you’re leaving now? Emmanuel confirmed that we were indeed just leaving. I thought there would be a sigh or a long pause, but Titus just said, ‘I will be leaving where I am in about 15 minutes so can you tell mother Mercy I’ll arrive soon after. I guess we weren’t the only ones that were running behind. When we did arrive it was so nice to see Mercy and all the kids. We were only a few minutes ahead of Titus. Titus and Mercy have two children, Diana and Yahtoowe, but various nieces and nephews also live with them keeping Mercy very busy. Titus is in his MDiv classes 5 days a week and gone from early in the morning until evening. It’s a tough schedule, but he’s enjoying the training and they are both committed to his finishing. Here are some of the pictures of them and their family unit.
All in all we had such a good time visiting. A neighbor lady, Lydia, kind of came along when we were walking around and joined us for the meal. We enjoyed her company as well. It was good for Titus and Mercy to get to know her also. There is so much more to share about all of my visits around here, but I’ll save more for when I return. If you think about it remind me to tell you about Women of Purpose near Titus’s, also about the Zo-Go’s (sp). I’m going to get some sleep for Sunday worship tomorrow.
Relaxing Friday
It was another warm day…hot day, in Liberia again. I say that for my family and friends back home that are enduring the first real cold snap of the winter and I hope the last. At one point today I checked my weather channel app and it said the temperature was 86 degrees, but feels like 102. Much like the wind chill back home the heat index dictates how hot it feels. Funny thing is that nobody here really cares what the temperature is and they wouldn’t even know what the heat index means. Yes, the sun is hot, but it should be. They would simply say, this is Liberia.
I took my time getting ready this morning as I took my bucket shower, enjoying the cool water. I came out of my room and made a cup of my instant coffee and walked outside to enjoy the sights and sounds of the morning. I enjoy greeting everyone in the morning as many come to the pump outside of Emmanuel’s home to get their daily water needs.
After visiting for awhile I decided I needed to eat something so I wouldn’t get sick from my malaria medication. I came in and had some spaghetti with tomato sauce and fish. Can I say I really enjoyed the banana that I also had? Regardless, I now had enough food to offset the upset stomach that comes with the meds on an empty stomach. Since I will be speaking again on Sunday I decided to sit in the porch area to study and prepare. There is a breeze and the morning sun doesn’t reach inside the porch area. It didn’t take long before I was discovered again outside.
As I mentioned in the picture caption, the crew that first found me now feel as if they are my personal guardians and they will seek me out anytime I’m outside. The exception is when Marvelous is around. He will seek me out anywhere. I forgot to mention yesterday that I went into my room and of course LEC wasn’t working so it was dark in the room with the curtains drawn to keep the heat out. I lifted one of my suitcases onto the bed and as I did I noticed something move. Little Marvelous had somehow come in undetected and was standing right behind me. I didn’t cry out, but inside I jumped straight up. I just took him back outside and this time I watched as I closed the door.
Today with the others in the little people’s brigade I think they had too early of a start. They got tired out before the end of their first shift.
I do enjoy the little ones coming around so much. Their genuine love for you will warm your heart. The only thing is if you have 6-10 of those little ones crowded around you it won’t just be your heart that is warmed. They are all like little ovens that emanate extra heat. I can tell you it this way…I was FaceTiming with Jessica in Thailand this morning and I was telling her about the little people brigade and that’s why I was sitting on the porch so when I started to study again I would be able to without distractions. Let me explain here. If you really want to encourage the brigade you talk on a video call. The kids all know when your talking with your phone held out in front of you there must be a video call and they want to be part of it. Well, Jessica had just begun to talk and the four initial members of the little people’s brigade I mentioned earlier came barreling in. Of course I guess I encouraged them by scaring them when they came close. They would squeal, run away, but immediately start back so I would scare them again. We did this quite a few times and each time I would show Jessica their reactions. After awhile I wanted to talk uninterrupted with Jessica so the only way was to go and take a walk. I walked all around the community showing Jessica and Paw Mu Day what the school and surrounding buildings looked like. I really enjoyed that time speaking to Jessica. Isn’t technology great.
I did eventually get a couple uninterrupted hours of work done on the porch. Lunchtime came around so I stopped to eat and we ended up having a great discussion about women being Pastors of a church. This is fairly common over here and I was able to Biblically share my viewpoint. Emmanuel and I, with the same point of view, both kept referring to the Scriptures as we pressed on the importance of following the Bible. The only tense moment came when a sweet lady, Emmanuel’s cousin, mentioned she was going to be the lead Pastor of her church since men were lacking. I told her, that although I respect her Bible knowledge, if I were to live in Liberia I couldn’t be part of her church because it would be contrary to what God set up in His word. We had a great conversation that followed and she understands why we stated that and she does pray that God raises up leaders among the men. I mention this discussion only to say that theological discussions just organically pop up every time I’m over here and this is great to sharpen your beliefs.
In the afternoon Emmanuel took me out to add more data to my phone (gigabytes seem to be smaller over here…maybe it’s all my FaceTime talk with the family). We also went to ‘The Exclusive’, a local grocery store that those who came from 2014 and after can remember as the little Walmart of Liberia. You can get most things from home, from Snickers bars (which I picked up for Emmanuel) to Jiffy peanut butter, to Honey Nut Cheerios. We came, not for what I wanted or needed, but so I could purchase some things so I’m not just a freeloader while I’m here. I can say I’ve never felt hungry here and I do recognize that they treat me so well and I probably eat more often than is their normal meal times so I want to show my appreciation in whatever way I can.
On our way back from the store I wanted to pick up some rice and oil for Abraham and Favor and to see how Favor was feeling. I can report that Favor is improving and your prayers are appreciated. We had a good visit with them before we returned home for a late supper.
Oh yeah, on our way home two things I wanted to write down. First, I called my mother in Texas and had a really good talk with her. Again technology is great. She asked a lot about my trip and I really enjoyed speaking with her. She spoke to Emmanuel also and let him know she prays for him and Wintee. I know that is appreciated. The second thing is the completion of our shopping. We decided we needed some bread. What should we do, stop at another store? No, not in Liberia. The store comes to you with people selling everything in the high traffic areas where things slow down somewhat due to traffic volume. I saw Valentine’s Day balloons, car chargers, steering wheel covers, tissues, gum, water (not a comprehensive list) and of course bread for sale. Emmanuel simply opened the window and yelled out to ask if it is fresh or not. After assurances that it indeed was fresh bread we bought two packages with the car rolling along in traffic and the salesperson keeping up with the moving car. They truly are talented and quick to make that sale and do it safely. I was reassured of the freshness when I felt the package and it was soft and I could smell that fresh baked smell. Of course what sealed it was the packaging.
Overall this was another enjoyable and relaxing day. I look forward to visiting Titus and Mercy tomorrow where I’m told we will swallow GB together. I can’t wait. Many pictures to follow of Titus and family.
Armed Forces Day
Today the country of Liberia celebrated their Armed Forces Day. What that meant around the house was no school for the children and for LCMI particularly it also meant a couple of soccer matches between the old and new students. For the boys the new students made a good showing, but lost 2-1. I didn’t hear what the score of the girls match was. It was rather funny to see all the guys finish and change and give their uniforms to the girls so they could play. The kids had a great time with a meal that followed.
My morning started out a little quieter until I went to sit outside. I had a great time playing with many of the young kids from the community. Remember Marvelous from Sunday? Well, he was back and I still don’t know his mom. So were Praise and Praises along with Asher and Grace.
I even met a young boy who had the superhero bases covered. From Batman pants to his ninja turtle shirt he was ready for anything. He even had the captain America vibe going with his slippers. He was a little shy at first, but he warmed up fast.
I always enjoy the opportunity to play with little kids. There are plenty to go around. I even got to hold a young one named Success. When they say his name it sounds like they are saying ‘sauces’. His mom just carried him over by me and said, ‘here you go Sauces, sit with Dad Robin’. I sure didn’t mind and neither did Sauces.
I even had time to sit with the ladies and children as they were plucking the palava leaves to make the palava soup for rice. This was truly a group effort to pluck so many leaves for the soup today.
An interesting thing happened to me that began when I was still home. I wanted to get a bunch of T-shirts to wear in Liberia so I went to Walmart, picked out the cheapest ones and bought a bunch of different colors. Well, this actually started on Sunday when I dressed for church. I wanted to have a T-shirt for under my black dress shirt so I grabbed one of my new ones. I held it up and much to my horror I had grabbed a long sleeve black one. My dress shirt was long sleeved so I figured I’d just wear it. Well, it was very hot. I thought at the time I’d just cut the sleeves off, but I forgot until I went to put another T-shirt on. You guessed it. 4 of my new shirts had long sleeves. I tried to wear one today with the sleeves pulled up, but I was not going to handle it. I was speaking to Elizabeth Mulbah, I’ve known her since 2016, and she actually came over to do my laundry. I know what your thinking, how can I make someone do my laundry like that. Well, I ‘hired’ Elizabeth to do my laundry and she graciously accepted, agreeing to come over today. It is a BIG deal to have your laundry done as seen in the pictures.
Back to my T-shirt story…I asked Elizabeth if she’d be willing to cut my shirt sleeves off of the 4 shirts, but everyone just said take them to the tailor. Well, back home I wouldn’t even know where to go, except to ask Kevin’s, Sherry if she would fix them. Anyway, Elizabeth said she would go to the market and get the shirts fixed for me. This I had to see so Elizabeth and I headed off to the nearby market. We walked through the neighborhood and arrived to find a lady named ‘Shilas’ (my best understanding of her name).
Well, Shilas was more than willing to help and Elizabeth negotiated the cost. It came down to $200 for all 4 shirts. Oh, I didn’t mention that is LD (Liberian dollars). The exchange rate is around $170 LD to $1 US. It cost $1.18 US. I did pay her more than the negotiated, but after all I even got matching thread to my 4 different colors. It only took about 30 minutes and we were on our way back home.
When we arrived back to Emmanuel’s I found Abraham and Favor Youndo, our dear friends we met last year, were there and Favor was not feeling well at all. I offered to take her to a clinic tomorrow so she could get checked out. It was all set and we made plans for the morning, except Favor was in quite a bit of pain. She started to cry a little and both me and Emmanuel realized it should be tonight and not wait til morning. Abraham drove with me in the front seat and Favor sitting quietly in the backseat. Being a holiday I wasn’t sure where we were going and after trying a couple of clinics we ended up at Benson Hospital.
Favor was checked over and they determined she has an ulcer. This seems common over here. We picked up her meds and headed back to drop her off at her house to get some rest.
After the hospital visit I came home, ate some supper and then on to my blog. It’s almost 11:00 as I finish. At least the generator is on, even if LEC isn’t, so I’ll have a fan to keep me cooler. I hope everyone back home appreciates the cold. 🤪
Stayed home today.
I’m falling into a routine while being here. I find myself sleeping a little more, which is nice, and feeling quite rested during the day. Today was one of those routine days, waking up, showering, eating breakfast, which was homemade pancakes, and then watching all that happens around Emmanuel’s home while I read and studied outside. It was a very relaxing day.
The afternoon was nice having a chance to visit with Heather and the girls as well as Jenny. I’ll be contacting the rest of the family in days ahead. I found some lizards to show the grandkids so I’ll be sure and show the others when we talk.
One thing I don’t think I’ll ever get over is the kids interest in someone different. While studying today a group of students from a nearby school came to the water pump to get a drink. As they goofed around they kept watching me, waiting for me to say something or react in some way. So, I started talking with them and within a few minutes I had 10 or so children crowded around me looking at pictures on my phone of snow back home, deer and grandkids. They wanted to see whatever pictures I had to share. As they broke up the group started the normal pushing and laughing that kids will do. It was nice to have that break from reading.
In the evening I knew I would be leading the Bible study so I finished up my studying and then headed over to church. A couple of girls, twins, arrived a little early so I took their picture along with Meko’s son, Asher. The twins names from back to front are Praise and Praises. They use many celebratory names like Marvelous who I wrote about before.
After church, at 7:30 or so it was dark and I thought we would walk back across to Emmanuel’s home, eat something and relax before bed. I was informed, however, that a local pastor’s mother-in-law was in a local hospital called ‘Kingdom Care’. I didn’t catch her name, but she has diabetes, hypertension and some other thing that caused her to almost die, but she is improving I was told. This in itself was not a surprise. I’m used to visiting and praying with people who I don’t know and they don’t know me. What made this almost funny was we finally found this hospital using Liberian (old fashioned) GPS by asking people passing which dusty road we needed to travel to find the hospital. As we arrived and Emmanuel parked the car we got out, put our masks on and the lights all go out. Liberia Electric Company again failed to remain on. We weren’t deterred as we used our phone lights, went upstairs and sat and visited and prayed for this lady. We left the room and as we got back to our car the power came back on. We drove home only to find that LEC once again was off at Emmanuel’s home. With the noise of the generator in the background I write this with the boys watching a soccer match on the tv, unfazed by the initial lack of power and the switch to the generator. This too is Liberia. I’m coming to understand it myself. I’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Two days rolled into one post
It is Tuesday afternoon and I now have reliable cell coverage which allows me to post regularly. It took two days to accomplish, but a lot goes on behind the scenes. Yesterday afternoon Emmanuel took me out to convert some donated phones to the local cell service SIM cards. That in itself was interesting. We went to Red Light to the ‘Orange’ store which is Liberia’s Cellcom. We didn’t even go inside the building, but Emmanuel found someone he trusted outside the building. Samuel then joined us in our car and Emmanuel drove to a quieter spot in the parking lot of a gas station. Samuel began to do everything he needed to decide the phones and install the Cellcom SIM cards in each phone. After a little negotiation we settled on $65 to unlock all 5 phones so now I have phones that can be gifts for others with the first going to Emmanuel. I have the international plan on my phone that works great in certain areas, but I found out that Emmanuel’s home is not one of those areas.
Anyway, this took quite a long time as we sat in the car waiting. We eventually went back to Emmanuel’s home to eat while Samuel kept working on it. After eating we drove back, paid him and left for home again. What I didn’t get was a data card that would allow me to hotspot one of the new Liberian phones to my personal phone. I did walk to get a scratch card when we got back home. Unfortunately the scratch card wasn’t for data and for local calls only. I’m learning more each time I visit.
In the evening we celebrated Cyrus’s birthday. He is one of Emmanuel’s sons. He is now 24 years old and enrolled at Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary majoring in education. He is also teaching at LCMI on his off days from his school. I’ve seen him grow into a very nice man from a young teen.
Today we made plans to go and pick up a ‘data pack’ for my phone…after. After a good night’s sleep I had a great breakfast with the notice that we were waiting for a phone call to go to LCMI school to visit. We got the call and walked down to the school. Yesterday there was word that came down from the ministry of education that all persons at schools including the students need to wear a mask so we complied. If the school doesn’t comply they can be shut down if the ministry chooses. In spite of the masks I had a great time. The kids were so great and they asked me many questions. One question I heard a lot, from those that met Jenny last year, was ‘how’s Mother Jenny?’. I guess I should expect that as Jenny connected well with all the kids. Here are a few pictures from our visit.
There are around 200 students at LCMI school. I am so thankful to be able to visit them. Papa Mike was able to donate 2 computers for a computer lab planned soon. They are already adding in to the school to make room for the lab.
The students go through 9th grade now with plans to expand to 12th grade. They recently hired a principal for LCMI to ease some of the work on Emmanuel. His name is Jonathan Dennis and Emmanuel is happy with how things are working out for them. Here is ‘Assistant Chairman Dennis outside the school.
After the school visit we headed out with Mother Wintee, Princess, Meko, Emmanuel and the myself. The ladies had plans to go shopping in the market downtown and I was surprised to have Emmanuel take me out for a nice lunch.
After eating we waited for the ladies to call and say they were ready to go. That’s my idea of shopping.
Once we picked them up in a VERY BUSY marketplace we headed back and finally stopped by an ‘Orange’ store and I purchased the data pack I wanted. As I type Emmanuel is driving us back to his home. All in all it was a good day. Tomorrow I would lol be leading the Bible study at the evening service. Our plans are still to visit Titus and Mercy on Saturday. Our tentative plans are to go to Yekepa, the orphanage and clinic next week.
Busy day but very fulfilling.
As I’ve said before being with Emmanuel is sometimes very tiring and today was no exception. I say tired, and I mean that literally. I had a great day, but with all that we did I am ready for bed and it is only 8:00 pm. I’m sure I’m still adjusting to the time change, but Emmanuel does keep a full schedule.
The day started with a quick breakfast followed by the walk across the front yard to Sunday School. Pastor Dennis, a worker in the LCMI school spoke an Abram’s call and God’s promises in Genesis 12. We had a good discussion on the text. The main worship service followed with singing and praise that Liberian’s are great at. I was then privileged to speak from Daniel 1, followed by communion for my first time in Liberia. That was rather special.
Did I mention that Emmanuel had told me about the recent start of Liberia Electric Company with direct wiring to the home and the church with a meter of sorts. He said occasionally there is a problem where the current goes off, but like everything here in Liberia, people take it in stride. Well, my first night here I enjoyed the blowing of the fan in my room…until around 5:30 a.m. or so. The fan went off Saturday morning, just a few hours after we went to bed. A storm came through that night and we can only guess that was the reason that LEC power was out. It is now Sunday night and no idea if the power company will restore the power. I am grateful that Emmanuel has a generator. This too is Liberia!
Back to Sunday.
After a good lunch I was able to visit with many of the people still hanging around after church. It was great connecting again.
Becky Cooper
Blessing and Grace Jonah
Meko Wonbenyakeh
After eating and visiting it was time to head out to visit members of LCMI that were sick or hurting. We walked all around the community catching up with and praying for many.
As we were walking back to pass by the house and go on to another visit we noticed a motorbike in front of Emmanuel’s home. We had to stop and visit.
Yes it was Titus and Mercy stopping in for a visit. We had a great time catching up and we made tentative plans to meet again later in the week. Titus is in school so his only day off is Saturday. We plan to swallow GB together then. By the way, do you notice the little boy? I made a friend of this little guy. He followed me around everywhere and would sit in my lap if I ever sat down. If I went to my room he would walk in and surprise me at how quiet he was. I started asking what his name was and nobody could tell me. So, after this picture I asked Mother Wintee who he was and she didn’t know. As Wintee asked loudly of the kids running around one little girl told us his name is Marvelous. What a great name. I’ll see if he’s around tomorrow. I’m not sure who his parents are, but that’s normal around Emmanuel’s home as kids are always hanging around and parents know they are safe there.
After Titus left we went out to visit a few more houses. I found it very sweet to walk around the community and hear children call out ‘Hi, Dad Robin’. Even Emmanuel commented about the kids recognizing me. But, truth be told they don’t have too many old white men walking around their community. At one house a little girl ran up and gave me a hug followed by her sister. I feel honored to be recognized by them.
Now we are sitting in their living room after a meal of fried egg sandwiches with jelly on them. I am really enjoying the fresh pineapple. It is so juicy and good.
Tomorrow I will get a local SIM card so I won’t have to jump on Emmanuel’s hotspot to send my updates.
Thanks for all the prayers and I’ll keep posting updates.
Rest day
My ‘international’ phone plan is not working so good so I’ll be getting a Liberian SIM card on Monday. This too is Liberia.
Today I was told needed to be a rest day and I definitely needed it. After all the travel and getting to Emmanuel’s house after 1:00 in the morning I already felt bad for everyone who had to stay up in order to pick me up so late at the airport that I thought the least I could go was go to bed right away to allow everyone else to rest. Of course it didn’t happen exactly like that. When we arrived at the house Princess Kau had potato greens and GB waiting for me. We ate a good meal and didn’t get to bed until around 2:00 or later.
When we did go to bed I wasn’t sure how long I would sleep since my clock was off with all the odd hours.
10:00 a.m. that’s how long I would sleep. It felt good so I got up to find more food waiting for breakfast. We even had some ‘blonde brownie’ that Patty made for Emmanuel. It was enjoyed by all.
I did lay back down just after noon since jet lag was definitely hitting me. I slept another hour. I’m still dragging a little at 9:15 pm, but I’m guessing tomorrow will be better.
It was great catching up with people today. We just stayed around the house and I got a tour of the guest house to see the progress. Redemption Hill church in Iron Mt. supplied some funds for the water tower project that has begun here. The frame was set in concrete today with plans to set the 1000 gallon tank next week.
Since I am so tired I’ll be heading to bed and hopefully fill in more details tomorrow.
God bless,
Travel time is almost done.
It seems like a lot longer than the 29 hours since I boarded the plane in Green Bay, but it also hasn’t been too bad. I was able to get ahead of the snow in Green Bay and we took off from Chicago with snow coming down at a good pace. It was then on to Dulles in Washington DC where I met a couple nice gentlemen, Jim Black and John Ames, who work for Converge churches and they are headed to Liberia as well. We struck up a conversation and from DC on to Brussels we were able to visit quite a bit. We even had breakfast together at Brussels. With the 7 hour layover it was a nice break.
The next flight stopped at Freetown, Sierra Leone to drop people off and we are sitting at this airport waiting to takeoff for the last 45 minute flight to Monrovia. I’m looking forward to seeing Emmanuel at the airport and getting a good night’s sleep. I’ll write more tomorrow.
Travel time is almost done.
It seems like a lot longer than the 29 hours since I boarded the plane in Green Bay, but it also hasn’t been too bad. I was able to get ahead of the snow in Green Bay and we took off from Chicago with snow coming down at a good pace. It was then on to Dulles in Washington DC where I met a couple nice gentlemen, Jim Black and John Ames, who work for Converge churches and they are headed to Liberia as well. We struck up a conversation and from DC on to Brussels we were able to visit quite a bit. We even had breakfast together at Brussels. With the 7 hour layover it was a nice break.
The next flight stopped at Freetown, Sierra Leone to drop people off and we are sitting at this airport waiting to takeoff for the last 45 minute flight to Monrovia. I’m looking forward to seeing Emmanuel at the airport and getting a good night’s sleep. I’ll write more tomorrow.
Liberia Mission Trip 