Day 19
Each day brings so many memories and things to share and I only seem to cover a few of them. Today will be no different. We started the day with farina (cream of wheat) for breakfast. This along with a muffin and coffee was a good start to our day. Our plans were to head to the beach at ELWA (missionary compound) where we could swim privately. Renee, Leo, Emmanuel, Wintee, Meko, Princess and I headed out to the beach just after 10:00 AM. We arrived as the heat of the day was starting to set in, so it was a great time to begin swimming. Little did we know that our 4 friends that accompanied us had never really ‘swam’ in the ocean. What a good time it was helping them to get used to the water and the mild waves that caused a little bit of apprehension.
As we left the beach I went ahead to get the car. We left it at the guesthouse we stayed the first time we came to Liberia. Those who traveled may remember this house.
We left the beach well exercised and well burned. Renee and I got the worst of it. We feel it tonight, but we’ve been sunburned worse before. We hope it cools down by tomorrow.
We came home to cabbage soup over rice. It was good after our beach excursion.
Shortly after lunch I took a cool shower to settle the burn and then we were off to Red Light to shop for tomorrow. We plan to have a family party tomorrow afternoon with Titus and his family invited. Mother Wintee had her list so I headed out with her, Philip, Meko, Princess and Elizabeth. This trip to Red Light was to shop for food, so it was different than when Leo and I went there to buy fabric. Here are a few pictures.
The last thing we wanted to do was to pick up a mattress for Princess. She has been sleeping on a little pad on the concrete floor, so we headed there. Of course Red Light has this too. After we purchased the mattress Philip went to secure a delivery to Emmanuel’s home. I came outside and what do I see. I told the shop owner this is crazy and he simply laughed at me. This too is Liberia.
Of course when I returned I found Leo out watering the plants. They will miss him when he leaves.
Now, Leo and I are eating a little something before bed and Renee already went to sleep. The beach does tire you out. We look forward to the party tomorrow afternoon.
Day 18
We are winding down in our trip with less responsibilities and more time to simply build our friendships. This is a good time in our trip. Today was a good day to enjoy all the people that have made our stay enjoyable.
We are really enjoying our morning breakfast with each other. We have time to reflect on the past day and look forward to what is happening today. Today is also a holiday here in Liberia. It is Armed Forces Day, honoring all who served and sacrificed in the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL). Schools are closed and the markets are closed somewhat. A reminder that everyone here sells something, and that continues regardless of holidays.
After visiting over breakfast and taking our time getting going, Leo and I went for a walk while Renee decided to go through everything in her suitcase and to plan for packing to leave on Saturday. I’ll do this Saturday afternoon 🤓.
While on our walk we ran into a gentleman busy working. What we saw him doing affected me on my first trip here as Leo understood once he saw this himself. When you think your life is difficult, or your job is too hard, look at this picture.
We were humbled by his work ethic as he continued to smash rocks after we left. This will stay in our minds long after we leave.
We walked for awhile further, saw the end of a local football (soccer) game that ended in a 2-2 draw and walked back to Emmanuel’s home. By now the heat of the day was upon us. That didn’t mean nothing would be done. The questions were being asked, when would Leo make the blondie that Emmanuel spoke so highly about. It was decided that after a lunch of palm butter with chicken, kissmeat (spiny snails) and fried beef skin, that Leo would show how this was made. By the way, I couldn’t talk Leo or Renee into trying the kissmeat. I tried one, just to say I did. Renee gave some of the beef skin a try.
After lunch Leo planned to begin the blondie, with Philip, Meko and Princess watching to see how this was made. They were interested in what he was doing in the hopes that some day they could make it themselves. I’ll include the following pictures to tell the story of Leo’s work.
I almost forgot, I was asked to fill in and lead the Wednesday Bible study this afternoon. Luckily I could use my sermon at Pastor Titus’s church as talking points tonight. Since it was a holiday there were only 7 of us at the service.
Tomorrow is beach day. We invited Philip, Meko and Princess along. They have been so graciously serving us during our stay we want them to come along as we enjoy the cool water. By the way, none of them can swim so they won’t be going in too deep. Emmanuel won’t be going in at all. He says he doesn’t like the water. We’ll be sure to get some pictures of our trek. We may shop for our Friday party that I’ll tell you more about in the future.
As I finish (10:15 PM), there is a house yard a couple of houses down having some type of church healing service. They keep it going pretty long. This is the third night. I pray not too many people don’t attend because they aren’t following the Bible with any of their activities. It is Liberian style to play music very loud and talk close to the mic, making everything sound muffled. They do that well though. Music stopped after I finished writing the above paragraph. Looks like sleep will be easier.
Day 17
Another day is done here in Liberia. It was less hot today, but humidity always is high. As I think about our time here, I think about how back home we live with the cold and don’t think about it so much because we know it is there day by day. Much like our experience, everyone here knows it is hot and humid each day and they simply accept it. For us, not used to this weather, it takes its toll and wears us down faster. That is why it was nice to have a little break in the heat.
Our plans for the day began with breakfast and talk of our upcoming kaekae ride. This was planned for 10:00 AM and just after 9:00 we saw a kaekae waiting already. We all got cleaned up and headed across the road before 10:00. We weren’t sure what to expect for cost, but like everything else in Liberia this led to disagreement and loud discussion that, once it gets going, I can only understand a portion of the conversation. Mother Wintee led the initial discussion where each driver wanted $40 to carry us to the Exclusive Super Store, Walmart style. It is about 4-5 miles away. This price was not acceptable to Mother, and she let them know. She offered them $20 each and they weren’t happy with her. It seemed like a sticking point was that they came early and because of this they were missing their whole day of driving. I listened for a bit and then I started to argue with them telling them we asked you for 10:00, if you come early, that is on you. I’m sure they wondered about this big white man arguing with them. I knew we were being taken advantage of, but I offered $25 each and I held my hand out to shake. Liberians respect their handshake very much. They both shook my hand and we boarded for our trip. Incidentally, I was speaking to Emmanuel’s brother, Reuben about this later and he said they were probably celebrating all day over that one. We did have a good safe ride and we even bought them an ice cream at the store as a treat. Here are a few pictures from our ride.
Once at the store we were able to find everything we needed for the blondie. Leo will make this tomorrow with Philip. That will be fun for Philip, and Leo.
We made it back in one piece and Renee even said she had fun on the ride. We paid the drivers and that trip was completed.
Leo still had the 4:00 PM meeting with the guys across the road. We ate our lunch, okra soup over rice and fresh pineapple. That was from Renee’s purchase yesterday. It was so good, like candy. we were fine in enough time to relax for an hour or so before the meeting that we didn’t know what to expect.
Just before 4:00, we headed across the road and there were chairs being brought over and surprisingly there were many people coming to sit and listen. The moderator started by welcoming all and then Leo began sharing the Gospel and his thoughts about what he believes. The idea of the day was to have a few comments and then questions so a discussion would flow. It was very interesting. We had one gentleman that considered going to a mosque, but he knew the Bible well enough that he couldn’t get himself to go. We encouraged him to just Emmanuel’s church. Emmanuel came over about halfway through and aided in the discussion. Liberians love to have deep discussions and this one was so interesting to see the interest in our thoughts on the Bible and why we think the Bible is the true way. This invite came because Leo took the time to get to know some of them and anytime they’d see Leo eating on the porch or walking by, you’d hear them call out to him. His used Leo’s friendly manner to lead to a deep discussion on the Bible with the clear testimony of salvation proclaimed. After we finished, thru said they hope to continue these discussions in the future and that anytime we are around they hope we will join them. They want to have a safe place to play checkers, discuss politics and religion and hopefully learn things. They want to keep out all drinking and anything that will detract from clear headed discussion. Emmanuel presented Bibles to them with some muffins and water yo share. They were all invited to join LCMI church with the promise that Emmanuel would pursue further interactions with the group. Here’s a few pictures of the meeting.
After the meeting I watched the girls (formerly from the orphanage) working on a rug with the loom built by Leo.
The girls were working all afternoon on this. They got quite far. Another WOP idea for them to make things using scraps, that they can sell. Earlier, while they worked I put on a couple shows on my iPad for the kids to watch. Madagascar and The Lion King. they loved watching these movies.
Leo had Aloysius stop by do they both went to work watering the gardens.
Now, it is after 10:00 PM and time for some sleep. It was a good day.
Day 16
As I start to write this post I am sitting in an Internet cafe run by a lady named Korpo Woiwor. She is a friend of Emmanuel’s and he trusts her to fill out paperwork for him. It is almost 9:00 PM local time. Korpo was working on his papers when LEC went out. I stood out on the 2nd floor balcony and watched as the city kept going. The stoplights quit, but they don’t always mean much in Liberia anyway. At least not around the busy intersections (junctions, as they call them). Just before LEC went out I took a short video. I watched as lights came back on as businesses started generators to get their lights working. Across the road on a big screen in a bar/restaurant of sorts, I noticed a soccer game being broadcast. This is all off generator at this point. Either that or they had to switch to solar if they have this with the batteries charged.
Well, Korpo had to wait for fuel to arrive for her generator putting her back to work. This doesn’t phase Liberians, as this is an almost daily occurrence. She is finishing up some documents for Emmanuel, an updated visa application for Emmanuel and Wintee, so if they can work things out they will again travel to America. He just wants it available in case the opportunity arises. The new visas are for 3 years, which make things so much easier if you can get one.
Our day began with a cooler feel to the day and the humidity seemed down just a bit. We had spaghetti and hotdogs with some scrambled eggs placed on top. It was pretty good.
After breakfast Leo and I decided to go for a walk and we went quite a ways. We took many pictures along the way. Occasionally people will get angry and say we should pay for the pictures. We explain they are for our personal use and we are not influencers trying to make money off these images. Most are okay with us then.
When we were leaving on our walk a group of men Leo got to know called him over. They wanted to invite him (and now I’m included) to a discussion about Christ tomorrow at 4:00 PM. We aren’t sure what that will be like since they don’t attend Emmanuel’s church, even though they sell across the road from it. It will be interesting. We accepted and we asked them to plan a couple of kaekaes for us to ride tomorrow. We told them to have them arrive by 10:00 AM. We’ll see how these plans work out. The kaekae is a 3 wheeled (small wheels) motorized vehicle used as a taxi. Renee didn’t want to ride in one, but Mother Wintee said she’d go with Renee so they, along with Leo and me will go for a ride tomorrow. We want to go to their Walmart type store called the Exclusive. We want to find ingredients for a blond brownie that Applebees used to serve with a maple glaze over the top. Emmanuel loved it in the states and Leo has Patty’s recipe so he is going to give it a shot with the coal oven tomorrow. I’ll have a report on how this turns out.
When we got back from our walk Emmanuel wanted to check his new car out for a problem, and there was some shopping needed for Wintee and Meko. Anytime you go to ‘town’ it is interesting. Emmanuel left early on a motorbike taxi and Philip drove me, Renee, Wintee and Meko, first of all to find Emmanuel and then on to the stores. Meko planned to buy a ‘DK bag‘ (colloqua for a bundle of used clothing from another country that they buy, breakdown and sell in pieces). They are a good size and they sell for $100-$200 US dollars. They have three grades of quality that determines the price. Meko bought a bundle of women’s underwear that she will breakdown and sell. I was at the house when she opened the bundle. That’s a lot of underwear! She said they sell for $100-200 LD (Liberian dollar currently exchanging at 182/1 US dollar).
Well, we got the car checked (looks like it will be fine), the DK bags (Wintee bought one of men’s white shirts) and Renee bought some pineapple and limes from a street vendor and we headed back. They too have rush hour traffic and things move slowly. We got home about 5:00 PM and had our kidney beans soup over rice with fresh pineapple and some lime squeezed in the water. Leo did a lot of reading while we were gone.
After eating and waiting for the sun to cool down, Leo headed out to water his gardens while Renee and I watched the bake of underwear get opened. They just started to dig into the pile when Emmanuel said he wanted me to go with him to the Internet cafe. We arrived here before 7:00 and now it is after 9:30 as I wait for them to finish.
I’ll add pictures another time as the cell network isn’t so good here. I’ll try to post this update as written. Thanks for following.
Day 15
Today is our third Sunday in Liberia. We are all so blessed to be able to be here and visiting with our friends. The morning started like most days with breakfast, oatmeal today, and coffee. Because we were visiting another one of CBC’s missionaries, Pastor Titus Namen, we were going to travel to the church. The church is about a 30 minute drive from Emmanuel’s home. Titus Pastor’s the United Liberian Inland Church in the Sinkor community. He’s been at this church since October of 2024. This congregation is new to all of us from CBC. It was good to meet the people from this church. Here are a few pictures of our visit to their church as well as a short video of the choir. Reminded me of the movie ’Sister Act’.
After the service we headed outside and Renee said she was a little tired, so we made plans to drop her off at Emmanuel’s home so she could rest and Leo and I would got to Titus and Mercy’s for lunch. We were able to get a picture before we headed out.
We got back to Emmanuel’s, Renee went to lie down and I changed into shorts and flip flops. We then headed to Titus’s home. Leo and I enjoyed a lunch with them and we got a few pictures from around their home.
We then decided to stop and visit a friend we’ve known for 10 years. Elizabeth Mulbah has a home close to Titus and Mercy. She is trying to make things work, but life is pretty hard sometimes. She would like to build a home someday. She said for $8000 she could build. We pray along with her for something to work out someday. Elizabeth is a mom of 8 (2 daughters live with her and one granddaughter) and a grandmother of 4.
After a short visit with Elizabeth we headed back to Emmanuel’s. Titus and Mercy followed because they wanted to see Renee. It was sweet of Mercy and Yeitoyee to stay with her awhile. It was also nice to see two of our missionaries together, visiting and catching up with each other’s life.
Day 14
We awoke this morning after a much needed rest. Renee, Leo and I woke up at the guesthouse early and went to the dining area as workers came in for the day. They serve breakfast with each room, so we were the first to be served scrambled eggs, bread and pineapple. This along with a couple cups of coffee made for a great start to our day. The rooms were reasonably priced at $60/ room, except Leo and I, who shared a room, ours was $70. I forgot to take a picture, but our room had a loft with 2 twin mattresses on the floor of the loft. The stairs were a little shaky and wouldn’t pass code as they are narrow and the risers may not all match. The half wall railing in the loft was made from 2×2 size and was a little wobbly. I didn’t push on it to avoid the problem of explaining the broken wall. Overall, we all enjoyed the rooms. There was air conditioning that kept the temperature down to manageable. We also had a shower with hot water.
We sat and talked for awhile at breakfast and then Emmanuel & Wintee joined us and had their breakfast. After breakfast, Emmanuel had a young man wash the dust of the roads from the past few days off the car. Once this was done we packed up the car and headed back towards Monrovia. We had only one stop, in Kakata, where one of the ladies from the WOP chapter met us at a gas station to drop off some butter cookies, peanut cookies and banana muffins. I can say that all were good.
What did happen for me was that I received a message from Pastor Titus as the car was being washed. I didn’t check until we hit the road from Ganta. Once in the car, I noticed the message on my phone that said, ‘We need your text and title for your message tomorrow so that we place them in the bulletin’. I showed Leo and Renee the message and asked the question of them…’Did you hear Titus ask me to preach on Sunday?’ After they confirmed I did not miss this in the conversation, I chalked it up to ‘This too is Liberia’. I now had the ride to pick out a passage and a sermon title. I don’t mind. Pastor Mike reminds the Elders of the Christian maxim, ‘to be ready to preach, pray or die, within 5 minutes’. This gets lived out in Liberia often. I didn’t even mention anything of the surprise to Titus. I’m sure his assumption was matched by his assurance that he informed me. I’ll tease him after the service tomorrow. May God be glorified in my humble, rushed attempt to ‘preach, pray or die’.
On our ride home, after coming up with a passage, Job 42: 1-6 and a title, ‘God is God, We Are Not’, I sent the information to Titus and prayed over what God would lead me to say. Job’s confession tells us that he understood the sermon title in his life.
Leo and I enjoyed pointing out oddities along the road that we could catch pictures of. Leo got more than I did. I’ll share some of his and Renee’s pictures another time. I did get a couple, not so odd, but interesting to me.
I didn’t get many pictures as this was our return trip and we’d passed by this way before.
We arrived back at Emmanuel’s, greeted by so many as the long missing members of the family. It was good to get ‘home’. We had a good meal of cabbage type soup and chicken over rice. It was very good.
After the meal, I headed to my room to work on my sermon, Renee went to work on creating a rug with the homemade loom Leo built for her and Leo waited a bit for it to cool down so he could water the plants. After a few hours I felt I would be ready to ‘preach and pray’, but I’ll wait on the die thing till God arranges that for me.
We got back together on the porch for some supper and afterwards Leo headed to bed, Renee went to work on her loom and I went downstairs to visit people we hadn’t seen for a few days.
I did want to reach back into past pictures to share and add stories not related to today, but interesting nonetheless.
Tomorrow we head out for Titus’s church with Sunday School starting at 9:30. We are going to have Philip guide us there. It’s hard to tell how long it will take so I asked Philip his thoughts on when to leave. He first said, maybe 7:30, then 8:00 and finally no later than 8:30. I asked if we leave when we say, will the time estimate change? He says, ‘Oh, yea, we can leave at 9:00 AM’. I told him we will plan for 8:45. That gives us 15 minutes of Liberian time to float.
Good day for now…
Day 13
It is 7:00 PM and we are riding in the car headed to Ganta…back to Ganta. Our day began in the bucolic setting in Yekepa, right across from the chapel I told you we were at just the night before listening to the choir practice.
We woke up this morning to a quick breakfast of coffee, bread and bananas. It was enough to hold us over for the beginning of our day. After breakfast we walked to chapel, listened to the choir’s ‘actual’ performance, and enjoyed a short challenge from:
2 Corinthians 5:20 ESV
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
This gave a mindset of sharing the gospel in all we do, and there was a lot to do.
We visited a short time after chapel and said our goodbyes as we headed out to Ganta. Of course this meant stops along the way. We stopped In Sannequellie to visit a small WOP chapter. We prayed with them and they shared a good fried dessert that we ate on our way.
Next stop was Ganta, where Mother Wintee got out of the car at a corner to walk to meet the waiting women at the Ganta chapter. The rest of us headed over to our guesthouse to drop off our bags and get back to the WOP waiting. It was decided first we would get some lunch at the guesthouse where we were assured it would be 15-20 minutes for our food. After 30+ minutes Emmanuel said Wintee was waiting for Renee, so we headed out without our munch, telling the staff we’d be back to get it.
We got Renee over to begin a day’s training and there were over 30 women and not enough material for the project planned. Emmanuel, Leo, Dennis (Emmanuel’s uncle who showed up in Ganta) and myself headed out to buy another 5 yards of black material for the backing of the project. We found some at the market and Emmanuel figured we should go and pick up the food we ordered. The only thing was they intended to serve it on their good plates. So, we sat down to eat with Dennis accepting just a coke. They forgot to prepare one of the meals, so we clarified what we needed packed up for takeout while we ate what they served. It was good food with leftovers for Dennis, but we were feeling we should get back to Renee with the fabric. We arrived just in time as she had need of it. She didn’t have time to eat what we carried, but kept on teaching the ladies. Leo helped Renee by holding the flashlight and answering what questions he could answer. I found a group of kids and had a good question and answer session with them about America. After another 1-1/2 hours we were informed the ladies at this WOP had some lunch ready for us. By now Renee was quite hungry so she took a break and all of had more to eat. I told Renee our next stop was to take a trip to Saclapea to meet another WOP chapter. We were to leave at 4:00 PM to drive the hour there to greet this chapter. Since she was already at a stopping point, she said she’d wrap it up in Ganta and we got on the road by 3:30. After the visit in Saclapea, they also served us some food…and NOW we are on the road back to Ganta. I’m not sure I’ll have coverage to upload photos, but I’ll try a few. If not, this will be the update.
We will head back to Monrovia tomorrow morning. It sounds like we may make a stop or two on the way back. That is yet to be determined.
As I end, we’ve arrived at our guesthouse. Time for a needed rest.
Day 12
Being in Yekepa is like being in Stephenson compared to Milwaukee when thinking about Monrovia. The weather up here around the mountains is also at least 10 degrees cooler. It is so pleasant in the morning and even later on, although it’s like a hot summer day back home, it’s not so unbearable like it can feel in Monrovia.
This morning I woke up early with a headache, but I didn’t come out of my room until just after 7. I think it was 7:06. Leo was up in the living room along with Emmanuel. I came out in my shorts and T-shirt and Emmanuel says, ‘Are you going to chapel?’ I started to say he didn’t tell us for sure if we were and I just asked what time. He says 7:00 o’clock. Leo and I looked at each other and I went to the bedroom to put on pants and a collared shirt with shoes (I am normally in flip flops). We walk outside and wonder where Emmanuel went. We are right across from the chapel, but I don’t hear anything. It is around 7:20 and then we see Kenneth Williams, an American teacher on campus, walking towards chapel. We walked down by him and I asked if he was speaking today. He said he was and I asked when chapel started. I thought the college would be more time controlled. He said 7:30, so we were good. I wasn’t sure if Emmanuel didn’t know, or he gave an earlier time in case we acted Liberian. Either way, we made it to chapel on time and we really enjoyed this 30 minute service.
After the service we got introduced or reintroduced to so many people. They are all so friendly. I have a picture for the first team members that traveled to Liberia on 2012. Look at the picture for recognition before reading the name below.
After church we had a good breakfast with fresh rolls, pineapple, papaya and cucumbers left from supper last night. They were even good for breakfast. Emmanuel, Wintee and Renee headed over to WOP training again while Leo and I visited with Britta and Milton. Milton was formerly from the orphanage as well and he pastors a church nearby. It was called New Yekepa Baptist Church. I believe they’ve changed the name, but I don’t remember what it is. I’ve had the privilege of visiting his church before and speaking while Mama Betty (Emmanuel’s mom) served as a translator to speak my sermon in Mano language. Bobbi Buckley also shared her testimony another time at this church with Mama Betty translating for her as well. We had a great visit. Before we were ready to leave, another man, Nathaniel, stopped by because Britta had arranged for us to carry a computer along from the states for a student here. Nathaniel was that student and Britta presented it to him while he thanked all.
After this Leo and I started our walk to WOP. It was a beautiful day to be walking and at 10:00 AM it still wasn’t too hot.
We arrived to check on Renee, as we met Emmanuel and Wintee as they drove back to the guesthouse. Renee had everything under control. Leo and I decided to walk to a local store and while Leo bought a cold drink for both me and Renee, I purchased some suckers to hand out at WOP. Both were a hit. Leo and I got a chance to sit and talk while checking in on Renee every now and then.
Leo and I could tell Renee had things under control, so we decided to walk back to the ABC university. We walked around the grounds and I explained what I could remember about the campus to Leo. We were really impressed with the pigs and how large and how many there were. I can remember when they just had a few pigs and they were very skinny. Here’s a few pictures of the different pigs that were there.
After the farm walk we stopped in our guesthouse and got some water and headed back to the WOP. Renee was still guiding her flock. Lunch was ready so we all took time to eat.
The afternoon consisted of going to WOP, dropping off Renee and Wintee and we headed to the market to again buy more lapas for materials. Renee kept running through it because the ladies all enjoyed the project.
When we arrived at the market, Moses, our past nurse for the CBC Clinic, drove up on his motorbike with his son, Caleb Robin Saah. I am privileged to have a namesake in Liberia. He stayed with us quite a while and would hold our hands, but he was a little shy to speak.
We headed back to the WOP building and Renee was just finishing up. We saw and bought some finished products. The ladies were so happy to do this project with Renee.
Afterwards we headed back to our guesthouse and relaxed for the night. We thought we were done, but we had a knock on the door from Sharon, Emmanuel and Wintee’s niece. She asked if we wanted to ‘witness their choir practice’. Renee was busy cutting more cloth for class in Ganta tomorrow, so just Leo and I went over. They will be singing in chapel tomorrow morning. They are so good to hear. We came back and told Emmanuel we weren’t leaving until AFTER chapel. He laughed and agreed.
It’s almost 11:00 and everyone else is asleep. I need to get up for chapel tomorrow to hear the choir again.
Day 11
New location tonight. We are now in Yekepa, near the Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) borders. We are staying in a guest house on the ABC University campus. The day began early as we wanted to get in the road around 6:30 as the trip takes 6+ hours, depending on your stops. Leo, Renee and I all got up and we were all packed…silly us, this is Liberia. Really, Emmanuel overslept a little bit. We did get on the road around 8:00 AM. Not too bad, really. Here we are in the back seats, while Emmanuel and Wintee sat in the front seats.
We enjoyed watching all the growth in Liberia as we travelled along the road towards Yekepa. Our plans were to meet a couple of WOP chapters along the way. First stop was Kakata, about an hour from Monrovia. There is an LCMI Church and a WOP chapter located there as well as a school connected, called Mother P. Jonah School. We stopped to greet the kids at the school, took a few pictures, and had the WOP ladies that could make it say hello and we took a few more pictures.
We left there and headed to the next chapter in Gbarnga, about 1-1/2 hours further along our way. When we arrived there the women were so happy to see Renee, as cat least one had attended the class in Monrovia the week before. Thus LCMI church and chapter is one of the poorest ones. Here’s there church. Jenny and I were able to visit them 2 years ago as well and I remembered some people.
Renee was able to speak to the ladies after they sang some songs, and Leo prayed for their church. Emmanuel mentioned, as he introduced everyone, that it looked like they needed more chairs, as they had a couple of benches and broken school desks as their pews along with the traditional plastic chairs seen in most churches, and everywhere. While walking out, Renee said they really do need chairs. As we were outside taking pictures, I went back in and counted that they could use at least 16 more. We were able to give them a gift and they purchased 20 chairs later in the day. They were very happy.
We continued on our trip with a stop in Ganta for gas (It is $3.83 a gallon). We also stopped and booked 3 rooms for our trip back which will be a full day stop in Ganta for Renee to work with the WOP chapter there.
We arrived in Yekepa just after 2:00 PM. We went to ABC University and dropped our things off, only to find out we had a meal ready for us (one waiting at the Yekepa WOP chapter as well). We hadn’t eaten all day and it was a great meal at ABC. We then went to the local chapter building and Renee got to work. They understood we already ate, so we saved it for later on. It was good then too. It was a long day and I’m going to end with a few more pictures.
Day 10
It is hard to believe how fast the time is going. Today we all thought it may be a day to prepare for travel. We will leave for Yekepa early tomorrow morning. Of course we’ll have one or two stops along the way, but the plans are to be in Yekepa in the afternoon so Renee can meet with WOP and start some sewing training. This will continue through Thursday and we will stay for two nights at ABC University.
As I said, I thought we’d prepare for the trip, Renee working on a quilt, Leo making a couple of loom frames and I would have the opportunity to visit with some others here that I haven’t had time to just sit down and talk. Well, Emmanuel…seems like the plans always change with this start to a sentence. Well, Emmanuel teaches at Liberia Baptist Bible Seminary on Tuesdays. He asked this morning if we’d come to the school for their chapel service after he teaches his class. Chapel begins at 11:00 AM, and of course we are honored to go there. I’ve had the privilege of preaching at the chapel service in the past and I really do enjoy visiting the campus. So we enjoyed our breakfast of pancakes and enjoyed visiting with each other until it was time for us to leave. We needed to leave shortly after 10:00 to be there on time.
I forgot to mention that we had rain during the night. It rained really hard, and if you remembered, we didn’t have AC or fans. The night was a little muggy in our rooms, but it was nice to hear the rain. The rain actually was on and off during the day. Leo got the day off from watering the garden.
We all enjoyed seeing the Seminary. We arrived in time to visit a few people and then head to chapel.
On our way back to Emmanuel’s home we needed a few things so we stopped at the market. Renee had plans, so her and Philip headed out to get the things she needed. Leo wanted a couple of shirts and possibly some shorts for going to ELWA next week where we can go swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. Leo and I wandered around the busy market and after a while, Leo found what he wanted. I didn’t take pictures at the market because it was so busy.
We headed home to palm butter soup over rice. We ate our fill and then some GB was brought up. Leo and I had this. I’ll fill you in more another day. We didn’t eat until around 2:00 PM. At our late lunch it started raining real hard again. Not to regular at this time of year.
After lunch is when Leo and Renee got busy with their projects. I took care of a few things that I needed to do and then Leo and I headed down to hand out some candy treats. Leo had licorice and I had tootsie pops. Of course we had everyone come around us as they realized we were handing out candy.
A little later Emmanuel returned from preparing to leave in the morning with a couple going through premarital counseling. Well, Emmanuel said I and Herrietta Bestman, a lady from church and the preschool teacher, should help out with this counseling. We went into the conference room and began. As we were going through this Mother Wintee came in to say there was an emergency with a woman with high blood pressure and Renee, Emmanuel and Wintee left to take her to the hospital. Leo may have gone along, I’m not sure. Herrietta and I were left to finish the counseling session. There were 2-3 sections left and of course one of them was titled bedroom / sex management. So, sometimes being a Pastor gets you prepared to handle whatever comes up. The couple was really sweet and it was good time of training.
We do pray for the lady with the medical emergency and I’ll update you tomorrow. We leave early in the morning. Pray for our trip and this lady.
Day 9
Today was an interesting and educational day. It started off with a breakfast of oatmeal and muffins along with a steady stomach. That is a great combination. Our planned 1st stop for the day was LCMi school. We walked down from Emmanuel’s house to the school, a short 200-300 yards. As we entered the school yard we were greeted with all the children lined up in formation by class with the teachers along the side.
All of the teachers introduced themselves and each of us greeted the students. Leo went first and he said a sweet prayer for them. Here is that prayer.
After all the greetings, the kids returned to the classrooms and we went to visit the preschool class. This is taught by Herrietta Bestman, a sweet lady from the LCMI church.
Here are a few quick pictures I took of the classrooms as we passed by.
They do not have full financial support to pay the teachers a salary regularly. The budget (after expected student contributions) is around $1,400 / month for 10 months of the year. If anyone is interested in helping out, please let me know and we can work out the details.
For all back at CBC, the teachers all expressed gratitude for the Christmas gift we sent them. Many thanks were given for this timely gift.
It was hard to leave as we want to know so much more of how the school can work. They have over two hundred students enrolled. For the younger grades, they charge $3,000 LD (Liberian dollars / semester. At the current exchange rate of 184 LD to $1 US dollar, this is $16.30 / semester for the young ones and $6,000 LD, or $32.60 US / semester. Even at that rate the parents can’t pay and the school does all they can to allow the child to stay in school. They want to see the parents trying to provide some for the good Christian education. We also heard about their need for a school printer / copier that can handle the paper printing they need. They currently have a 4 year old personal printer that cannot keep up with the need.
From the school visit we headed to downtown Monrovia to visit the equivalent of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. They have a meeting place that is currently used for special meetings, funerals and some holiday services. This was to be our day at school. It was very enjoyable to get more history of Liberia. Here’s a quick link to give you some information on their history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia
Here are a few pictures from our visit.
After going through their Independence Hall, we went through an attached museum. This cost $5 per person and they did not allow photography. We did get some pictures of past President’s cars.
Charles Taylor was later convicted of war crimes and is serving a 50 year prison sentence in a Sierra Leone prison. You can read more here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taylor_(Liberian_politician)
Also outside was a statue that signifies each Liberian helping each other.
We got back to the house between 2:00 & 3:00 PM and had a late lunch. we kept ourselves busy, Renee with more prep work for WOP visits coming up, Leo with his watering and I had fun playing with the kids.
As I write this it is 11:40 PM. The power went off and they are running the generator for lights. No Air or water for the night. This too is Liberia!
Day 8
Sunday’s are always good days, especially when you can attend a Liberian church service. You will no doubt clap, sway or dance a little bit. Even the most conservative Baptist will admit to tapping their leg during the music. Today was no difference for us.
My day started with less sleep due to an upset stomach that started the day before. I recognize my frailty during this and for today, since I was to preach, I prayed that I would feel well enough to be at church. When morning came I was able to eat some breakfast and it tasted good. Renee convinced me to start my Z-Pak course of antibiotics to aid in recovering. After eating I took both my malaria meds and the first dose of the Z-Pak.
After this, we all headed to church for Sunday School. They have 3 classes for the adults broken down by your birth month. Renee and I were in the same one and Leo being on his own with another leader. We all study the same text and today’s was John 15 talking about Christ being the true vine. We had some good discussions during our class.
After Sunday School, we start the morning worship. Today was also Communion Sunday. I’m not sure I’ve been here for that before. It was good to be included with this. To make all the conservative church goers feel better about being so active in a Liberian church, I recorded one verse of a song I’m sure most are familiar with that might lead you to consider visiting Liberia since there wasn’t much dancing for this one. It was great to hear the singing of our Liberian brothers and sisters in Christ. We don’t need to be from the same country to worship the same God.
Although my stomach wasn’t feeling great, I was able to preach without any discomfort. I’m very grateful for that. As I preached from Colossians 3:12-17, I enjoyed unpacking the text to present to the church. As I said it is so good to be from different countries, but believing in the same God.
Following the preaching we moved on to Communion where I had the opportunity to serve. What a great experience to ‘Do this in remembrance of Me’ here in Liberia.
After the service ended (sometime after 1:15 or so), there was much greeting and laughter as pictures were taken by many. Sometimes you didn’t even know who you were getting pictures of, but that didn’t matter. We all wanted to be in them.
We came home (across the road) and I changed to get shorts and T-shirt on. Just as we sat down our other missionary, Pastor Titus Namen and his family came up the stairs to visit. We had a short visit with them before we ate our lunch. They came after their church services to see us and we made plans for next week to go to their church and spend some time with them.
After saying our goodbyes to Titus and family we went upstairs to eat. I ate a little bit and it seemed to be okay for my stomach. Since my night was not so restful I decided to lay down for awhile and after a couple of hours I felt better. When I woke up, Leo was done watering the gardens and Renee had left to go to a concert for Christ Life, a group run by the young people (Philip, the young man who helps with the cooking as well as Blessing, Emmanuel and Wintee’s daughter). Renee came back later and said it was good. Loud, like you’d expect from young people, but God honoring and enjoyable.
While Renee was gone, Leo and I went for a walk. There is beauty in everything if you look for it. Here’s a few pictures I took on our walk today.
Tomorrow we have plans to visit the school and then go into Monrovia to visit their historical museum. I can’t wait.
Liberia Mission Trip 