Rest day

What do you do after traveling all day the previous day?

I figured I would have a good night’s sleep and wake up ready to go, ready to begin meeting people. I underestimated my ability to recover as I would in my younger years. I woke up, checked the clock and it was 7:45. Time to get up. I didn’t mention yet that something happened that never before happened in my stays at Emmanuel’s home. I woke up cold! The Liberian Electric Company (LEC) kept current to the house all night and our air conditioner had me cold this morning.

I tried to get up without waking Jenny, but she was also ready to get up. It would be a great start to the day.

I took a shower, and for those who remember the past showers at Emmanuel’s home with a barrel of water and a dipper to pour over your head, this was a nice shower that I can compare to the showers we took in Thailand. Picture the sink sprayer with a long hose and you get the picture. I finished and we headed outside our room to see what was happening.

A breakfast was left for us under a towel. There were freshly baked muffins and coffee to start our day. We went out on the 2nd floor porch and had our muffins as we greeted people who saw us come outside.

After finishing breakfast we headed downstairs to see what was happening and decide what we would do. We spoke with Mother Wintee, Emmanuel’s wife, and found out she was the baker of the muffins and she was taking some more out of the pans to put for sale in their Women of Purpose storefront just outside their building. Wintee then began to decorate a cake for a graduation party later in the day, for a lady in the church who has a child graduating.

Leaving Wintee to her work we decided to walk down to see the new church building under construction. It is only 1/8 of a mile away so we walked down and all the way Jenny would find another person to speak to. We got to the church building and a bunch of kids wanted to see who we were and another round of ‘What’s your name?’ began. Jenny believes she will remember all of the names tomorrow. Truthfully, we both forgot most of them by the time we walked back. One girl, Favor, was the leader and introduced everyone to us. She is 11 years old and very well spoken.

When we got back to the house I was feeling a little queasy and I mentioned I might want to lie down. Wintee told us that Emmanuel said, ‘Tell them to only worry about rest today.’ We took his advice and laid down again. I slept another 3 hours and it was then I felt more normal.

I got up and worked on my sermon for the next day. I had studied enough, but I’m a rambling talker if I don’t write things down in an orderly fashion. When I completed this and Jenny was awake again we ate and went out for another walk. As we walked past one house having a party of sorts, some ladies came running out to the road to greet us. It was ladies from the church and the house was hosting the graduation party mentioned earlier. They knew both Jenny and I from previous visits so we talked a little and left them to return to the party. We came back and visited to late in the evening. It was a great day to rest and relax. Tomorrow is church and I am privileged to deliver the sermon to the LCMI church in Monrovia.