Today was a day that I had absolutely nothing planned. I woke up and went and sat outside to read for awhile. Emmanuel had some errands to run so he planned on leaving for some time. I had rice and sardines for breakfast and decided I’d contact my daughter Jessica. Since she is ahead of me on time that is the only family I could talk to. She was grading papers, but had time to talk with me. I took a walk around the community showing Jessica some of the sights. It was nice to connect with her again.

After that I started feeling antsy so I again walked around the community. I heard someone call out ‘Dad Robin’ and I looked around to see a young boy motioning me over. I really find it nice that the community knows me and feels welcome to talk to me. Anyway I headed over to see what the boy wanted and I saw a lady close by. She walked up and said ‘Hi Dad, do you remember me, I’m Patience’. I did not recognize her when I walked up, but a closer look told me who she was. This was one of the girls that had helped at Emmanuel’s home 2 years ago. She proceeded to tell me that she now had a child and things are difficult. That can be an understatement when you look around. I asked about her child and she grabs my hand and says ‘Come’. She led me to her 2 room home, the front room being around 4’x 8’. This was more of the entry. The back room was larger and I’d guess around the 8’ wide and about that deep. She had a roommate also and her young child, GeorgeLynn. My heart went out to her, but she didn’t complain or ask for anything. I think she sincerely enjoyed seeing me and talking. She asked about the others that came to Liberia last time and I was able to show her pictures of Erik, Amanda and Maddox. She was happy for them.

Here is Patience and her child.

After that I came back and was able to talk to Heather who had recently woke up with the girls and asked if I could talk. Another walk around the neighborhood because if I sit down the kids will all hover around to see someone in America on FaceTime.

After that I helped Christie (Emmanuel’s niece) do some grades for LCMI school where she is helping out.

Emmanuel came home and we went out to visit a local Pastor, but he wasn’t in so I got to look at their construction site. I was impressed, but OSHA wouldn’t approve if they were here.

Emmanuel was funny because the building is 5 stories high and he doesn’t like heights.

The foreman was more than happy to show me around.

Me and the foreman on top of the building. Emmanuel didn’t want to get too close to the edge.

Now I am sitting on a 2nd floor balcony with traffic noises all around and darkness setting in while Emmanuel is in an Internet Cafe. We will head home, eat supper and possibly watch the move we haven’t had time to see yet.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Yekepa. Pray for safety as we travel. I feel great and I thank all for their prayers.

I left off with the van ride to the beach. Well, we made it safely after stopping twice to have the engine looked at because it wasn’t running good. During those two times I had to get out since the engine was under my seat. While standing on the road I got a good look at the tires…..not much to look at really. Just steel belts coming through and me wondering if the rocks sticking out of the dirt on the ‘bumpy’ roads would mercilessly get rid of the rest of the tire. Well, regardless of the condition of the van we made it to our destination. I counted heads after we arrived and I came up with 40 this time. I didn’t see anyone arriving by any other vehicles so I guess I have to amend my number. To be fair there were two children around 2 so they didn’t take up too much room.

We had our messages from Rufus Sebo and myself and both prompted some good discussion. Afterwards we ate the meal that was started the night before and prepared earlier in the day. They made sure everyone had plenty to eat. Then there was some game time and finally swimming for the youth group. I offered to be the official bag watcher as there was quite a pile of bags and things from so many people.

We left shortly before 6:00. Emmanuel did make it later so he lessened the burden on the van by cramming 12 or 13 in his minivan. On the way home we stopped by to visit his sister, Hannah, who has a girl she cares for that has typhoid. Her name is Jemimah, but they call her Gramma. We prayed for her there and visited a little. Once we got home I wanted to take a quick shower. You get sandy and sticky feeling when you go to the beach…especially when you share your ride with so many people.

I think tomorrow is the first day I don’t have any responsibilities on MY list. Emmanuel may have another list that I haven’t seen yet.

We plan to head to Yekepa on Wednesday and I believe it will be Emmanuel, Wintee, Titus and myself. That may change, but that’s the plan. I can’t wait to see all the children at the Betty Jonah orphanage when I get there. Our plan is to stay until Sunday after the service at Redeemer Baptist Church. We want to leave then and head to Saclapea, a town about an hour from Ghanta I’m told. We will be able to visit Angie, a girl that used to live with Emmanuel and Wintee. It will be great to see her again. We can also visit where they have the newest Women of Purpose classes being held. They have 90 ladies signed up to take the classes. What a great ministry to teach these ladies means of supporting themselves if need be.

Talk again tomorrow.

Here we go at 10:45

34 people in total in the van.

Final preparations are being made to leave for the beach. Here Naomi and Sylvia are making mayonnaise sandwiches for the outing. You can see many in the background waiting on our transportation.

Emmanuel and Wintee have to go somewhere else today. The two speakers today are Rufus in the morning and I will speak this afternoon.

Because not many Liberians can swim one of the rules will be no going swimming. They are instructed to only wade in the shallows. I hope to share some pictures from our trip.

Another Sunday in Liberia, almost 8:00 pm as I type this, and I am still about one hour from home. Emmanuel is driving home from a wedding in Kakata that Wintee and two other ladies from the church decorated. I just assumed that we were picking them up and going back home. Oh, how I should learn to expect differently in Liberia. When Emmanuel and I showed up the wedding reception was in full swing. Here I am, an American wedding crasher. Emmanuel and I joined the reception (outside) just sitting to wait for the ladies work to be done. As we sat there waiting Emmanuel and I got a good laugh as well. One of the wedding presents was a live goat. A man comes to the place where the gifts and decorations were in front of the wedding table. One of the decorations was a basket with palm nuts and plantains set at each end of an archway. Anyway, the man who was giving the goat seemed to have a lot to say to people around him so he wasn’t paying attention to the goat. Well this goat may have known he didn’t have too long to live so he just decided he would eat what he could. Yes, he started to eat the plantains out of the basket. There were children around trying to tell him, but he was busy talking and not listening. I hear laughing as Emmanuel is watching this happen. We both broke out in laughter as this goat was intent on eating and the man was intent on talking. They finally did pull the goat away from the decorations, but we really enjoyed that.

I jumped ahead on my day so I’ll go back to the beginning. I woke up with….wait, I need to start this when I went to bed last night. I fell asleep around 10:00 pm or so and I woke up at 11:30 for some reason. I checked my phone since I left Titus a message and I wanted to se if he responded. Well, he did and he informed me he was still planning on me speaking at his church. Pastor Dave had also sent me a message so I informed him that I now had two churches to speak at (this was at 11:30 pm, but it is Liberia so things can change fast). I just told him things would work out one way or another. In the morning we did speak with Titus and he assured me I was to speak at his church and Emmanuel informed the other church that I would not be going there. Titus informed me that he told me he was going to Nimba, but I will blame it on the accent. I can’t say I didn’t listen closely.

Anyway, I got to Titus’s church and had a great day of worship. It was great to reconnect with them. We left around 1:00 to head back to a pickup point where Emmanuel would pick me up. Titus and I took a taxi and I was lucky to get the front seat as at one point Titus was in the back with 4 other people. I made it back to Emmanuel’s to have lunch and then we left for Kakata to pick Wintee and her friends up.

After waiting at the wedding for awhile Emmanuel decided to show me the LCMI church in Kakata rather than wait and watch the goat. We saw the church, and a school that they started to build on faith. The state run school is far from the church and it is difficult for the kids to walk that far so they are starting a school right next to the church. The church started in 2014 +\- . It’s amazing to see the need and how God meets the needs through faithful service. Pray for them as they move forward with this extension of LCMI.

After leaving there we picked up the ladies and now we are almost back to the house. I will really enjoy resting tonight.

Tomorrow will be at ELWA beach for a youth outing where I will be speaking. Pray for God to use my lesson to reach the young people that come.

No pictures tonight since the upload is going slow.

Good night all.

I am loading the pictures this morning. Things upload with less cell use.

Today marks 1 week of being here. In many ways it seems like much longer, but not in the sense of any struggle and in other ways it’s hard to believe it’s been a week already. The people here have been so welcoming that I feel as if I belong. I am either referred to as Dr. Robin or Dad Robin. Either one is endearing and appreciated.

Today I was afraid I would oversleep to not leave myself with enough time to get ready to get to the church before the youth program started. I had a little confusion when they told me yesterday at the conclusion of the program it would start at 9:00 a.m. and then at prayer service they announced that it was to begin at 8:00. I asked about that later and they told me 8:30 is the time to arrive and all would begin at 9:00. Well I woke up in plenty of time as the power shuts off at 6:00 a.m. so that means I lose my fan at that time. You can definitely feel the difference when the fan isn’t moving the air. It is easy to be awake after 6. I got up, got ready and headed over by 8:30 or so. Emmanuel came to get me at church to come back and eat breakfast of boiled plantains and fish for a topping. It wasn’t too bad. I’m not a fish eater, but when you are hungry it’s amazing how good things taste. Needless to say I, myself, was late. After eating and taking my tea with me I was 5 minutes late and their were only 3 of us there by then so we started anyway. Before long people came in with a couple more books being handed out as we headed into the study of the New Testament. It was great to see the interest and the good questions that came up. I really enjoyed sharing how the Bible, even though it was written over thousands of years, is so reliably accurate and supports itself from one book to another. There is no doubt that God protected His Word for humanity to learn about His plan for redemption.

We finished around noon and I walked across the yard back to Emmanuel’s home and of course the girls had lunch ready for me to eat. It was fried rice with some vegetables cooked with pieces of chicken and fish. It wasn’t a normal ‘soup’ as they call it, but it was more American in that it was separated somewhat. I chose chicken this time. I had the fish for breakfast.

The afternoon was relaxing for me. I was appreciative of this. I visited with 2 leaders of the church for an hour or more and then spoke to a couple of people on the phone.

Tomorrow is still up in the air. Pastor Titus had to go to Nimba, so I am waiting to see if I will still be speaking at his church. In the event that I’m not able to speak at Titus’s church, Emmanuel already has a substitute church for me to speak at. If I do go there I will be speaking in front of a crowd of people where I’ve not met anyone before. For Jenny and Bobbi’s benefit the church is located near where we took the youth to play soccer and kickball with other churches in 2014. It’s not the same church, but near there. I did ask God to use me in whatever way he sees fit. I’ll update you on that tomorrow.

I also was able to avoid the fire ants for quite awhile. I react strongly to them so I try to watch where I’m walking and to keep my feet moving. I did fine until yesterday when the Americans visited. When I greeted them (in my flip flops) of course I stood on a hill of them. They sting pretty bad and then I react. I’m just amazed that it is over 24 hours and my foot is swelling. You’ll have to excuse the dirt. I don’t have much choice when I go around in my flip flops. Not sure if I am retaining water in my ankles or I am reacting to the ants. I’ve just taken Benadryl so hopefully it will go away now. I’ll keep an eye on it.

All in all the week has been an enjoyable week of serving and being served. Tomorrow night we plan on watching the movie, Facing Darkness, at Emmanuel’s home. I’m interested to see how they react to a movie about Ebola in their country obviously written from the American’s point of view. For anyone who hasn’t seen this back home it is available on Netflix now. I highly recommend it.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Quick update.

A picture of my supper tonight. I was served Fufu. I couldn’t eat the crayfish, not with the eye looking at me. I saved that for Blessing. You pour the broth from the soup over the Fufu and there is pepper and mustard to mix with the broth. You then use a spoon (GB you use your fingers to dip in the soup) and swallow your supper, without chewing of course. My stomach feels very full right now.

Walking around after supper I noticed the addition to the LCMI Church is about done. There was nothing there when I got here. Things can move fast. It is a counting room for their offerings and some storage. Makes me think of CBC’s desire to add on. I don’t think it will go that fast.

Today was a long day. I woke up this morning thinking that the only thing on my schedule was to teach the teens at 2:00 p.m. +\-. That was indeed on my schedule, but I wasn’t aware that Emmanuel had 5 other people on a mission trip from Alaska and New Mexico stopping by. Some were old friends of Emmanuel, Dave and Trudy Peterson, who have been here many times including living up in Yekepa where Dave helped to rebuild ABC University after the war and Trudy was one of Emmanuel’s professors while he attended ABC. They came back from having already been to Yekepa to have a service at the LCMI school here in Monrovia. They were also here at the dedication ceremony for the school a year ago. Some were first timers to Liberia, but they had experience in Kenya or other countries prior to coming here.

It was great to meet Dave & Trudy, Kemp & Amy and Brian who was here for the first time.

Their meet went till noon with a meal that followed of potato greens. It was nice to visit with other Americans over a lunch while sitting in Liberia. We may never meet in the states, but God saw fit for us to meet here.

By the time they left there was only a little time to get ready for the youth meeting at 2:00. When we started we only had 3 young people, but we started on time. Within 20-30 minutes we had around 20 youth. (I never did count). This class was in the heat of the day. We met in the church which does not have cross breezes going through. After the 2 hours with the intro and following through the Old Testament we were done and I have to say I was done. I was soaking wet from sweat and I had to go change right away just to feel better. I will shower tonight and that may help me sleep.

The good thing was a message from Bobbi Buckley that came through while I was teaching. I was able to be encouraged that she and many others are praying as we go through whatever study or meeting we have going on.

I was also able to speak to Heather and Jenny today. What a treat that was.

When I was finished teaching I thought I had finished for the day, but I should know better. Emmanuel was asked to speak to a young man struggling with drugs over here. He brought him inside and asked me to counsel him however I could. I thought of Mike McMahon and all the experience he has with this. I just prayed with him and tried to encourage him to seek God. I don’t know if he’s a Christian or not. His name is Bill and I ask you to pray that he’ll work at trying to be clean and that God will reach him in his need. He is 17 years old. I gave him one of the Bible Overview booklets and told him to join us tomorrow morning when we go into the New Testament or to stop back by and see me. We had a good visit as he is a very engaging teen. His family has been trying to encourage him and looked to Pastor Jonah to help in any way.

After Bill left I thought I could relax. I sat outside listening to the choir practice next door. Shortly after they finished I was told there was a prayer meeting starting in the church. Over here in Liberia it is come as you are so I headed over in my shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops. The cultural differences in prayer meetings are definite, but I enjoyed be a participant and not the leader.

Tomorrow we start at 9:00 a.m. with the youth and it goes to noon. I have to say that the interaction between the youth and the teaching is so encouraging. Please pray that God is again glorified through the lesson and with the youth.

My plans are still to speak at Pastor Titus’s church on Sunday morning. I am still not sure of the rest of next week. I’m sure it will work out just fine.

Again thanks to all who read and pray. I’ll write again tomorrow.

The remainder of the day seemed to have little to write about but yet I feel as if I have been talking all day. I spent a great deal of time discussing my work with Shadrach and Winston. They wanted the know about my life and who is my family and what my work is like. I actually was missing people at work as I talked about how things are done in the states at a truss plant. Of course, because of lack of jobs in Liberia, they wished they would be able to work at the truss plant. We had a great time comparing stories between our two countries.

Emmanuel and Wintee did not return until around 4:00 p.m. so I prepared for my lesson in the next chapters of our book while they were gone also.

Tomorrow we will have the youth program and go through The Bible Overview and continue this on Saturday morning.

The study time went well tonight lasting about 1-1/2 hours and making it through only one chapter. We ended by everyone sharing what they learned and how what they learned could be applied to their life today.

After church it is nice to sit in the cooler evening to visit (my weather app says it dropped to 81 degrees now at 9:11 p.m.).

I had the opportunity to speak to a lady tonight who had no hope in life. It was a difficult talk. Her name is Yassar and she is struggling in so many ways. Her family, (parents, siblings and her husband) were killed during the war and she has had health problems that have prevented her from selling things (the typical way Liberian people support themselves) for a few years. I’m not sure about her children. There are no economic safety nets in Liberia. It is good that she was at our study on God’s sovereignty over people so I ask that you all pray for her as her future is grim, but we serve a great God. I pray that God sustains her while giving her clear direction for the future. She tells me she will see me tomorrow. May the encouragement I could share and the small amount of help (according to James chapter 4) help her to see God at work.

I now sit inside Emmanuel’s house with the children watching a story on the television. We are able to have electricity from the hours of 7:00 p.m. through around 5-6:00 a.m. and the kids take advantage of an opportunity to see a show once in awhile. It is nice to have a fan on during the night too with the power on overnight.

I’m having problems with pictures being uploaded, especially at night here. I’ll try to upload more during the day. It takes about 5 minutes per picture to upload.

Mornings in Liberia

I have the privilege of waking up each morning to the bustle of the morning chores. In addition to sweeping the dirt to remove the previous days garbage from the compound (it does give it a fresh look), you will see children carrying water buckets on their heads to gather the household water

and some do the laundry early to avoid the heat of the day. Here is a picture of Christie doing her laundry.

I saw a gentleman walking around selling brooms specifically made to sweep the dirt. Not really a rake, but sturdier than a regular broom. If there’s a market for something there will be a product for sale. I guess you’d say this is Liberian capitalism. I won’t get into politics, but it is interesting how that concept works in Liberia. They definitely model themselves after the USA.

Earlier I decided to take a walk by myself with my camera. I don’t have access to the SD card with my phone so I cannot share those photos here. Anyway, I walked east of Emmanuel’s home this morning by myself. For Jenny’s benefit this was the direction that Jenny, Tessa and I walked in 2014 past a large church when it started to rain. Emmanuel and Wintee had left early in the morning to go somewhere and it was a nice morning to go for a walk. I was greeted by many as I walked. Some curious as to what this obvious foreigner is doing walking around their community and others greeting me as if I was one of their neighbors. The children liked to get my attention and would like to shake my hand. The handshake is a big thing in Liberian culture so the kids wanted to be able to shake with the white man. I know I am a novelty now and the longer I am around I truly will be just one of the community. I walked a long ways and was getting hot as even in the morning it is around 80 degrees. I came to a turn in the road and I stopped at a roadside market or center where an older man was sitting under the awning of the porch. He had an extra chair there and he invited me to sit and talk with him. Although most Liberians speak English it is mixed with their colloqua that make communication difficult sometimes (most times). Even though the base language is the same the differences are still great. Last night I was told that one way to say you are hungry is that ‘my teeth are sharp’, but I’ll try to represent this phonetically, they say ‘ma tee ar shop’ but you almost don’t hear the ‘p’ sound. I know that’s not easy to hear through writing, but I want to give you a sense of the difficulty in understanding especially when I don’t know the colloquial sayings.

Now back to this older man, Anthony Eke, we talked for a few minutes as I rested and many children came around to either argue with him or stare at me. After 10 minutes or so I left to head back to Emmanuel’s house. About halfway back I met 3 children from around Emmanuel’s house. Princess was worried so she sent the kids to look for me. I do appreciate the care. I teased her about worrying when I returned. I think because Emmanuel and Wintee were gone she felt responsible as she is the main person to keep the home.

When I got back Princess had ‘tea’ and breakfast ready for me. The tea is Ovaltine with powdered milk and sugar. My breakfast consisted of spaghetti with some bread.

After breakfast as I sat down to type this some

members of the church came over to wash all of the sanctuary chairs for church. They keep them stored and locked away to prevent theft. In the dust the chairs get dirty over time. Such a great way of serving that others may not recognize. All churches have faithful people serving behind the scenes and it is good to be reminded that all service to the King is needed.

I just wanted to give a little more cultural update this morning.

I had to go back and add the pictures that didn’t upload. The upload speed here must have prevented them from uploading completely. Take a look back for the ones that were missing.

Today was a day that I was able to spend with Daniel.

He is a young man that has been a friend since the very first team sent by CBC came in 2012. We visited the school he was teaching in today. He no longer teaches since he is attending University to be a lab technician. He is currently a sophomore there. We have a great relationship and I’m glad to be a friend of his. I gave him my camera to walk around and take some pictures today. I’ll ask him again perhaps if the pictures he took are something I find interesting. He did get a close up of a chicken if that’s any idea of his photography skills. I just read that line to him so I have his permission to share.

Emmanuel and Wintee left this morning and came back around 4:00 p.m. He had invited me to come along and he said I could wait around for them to finish their scheduled meeting. I chose to stay back and I think that was the correct choice. Emmanuel has a habit of being so busy that schedules get changed frequently. It was good for them to have some time not worrying about me.

The ladies in his home fed me and cared for me by doing my laundry today. They are extremely hard workers. Emmanuel in turn helps them as well in any way he can with food or other needs. The cultural differences between the USA and Liberia are many. The care for those who need help is done in a different way than the government helping out. This is not available in Liberia so you see many families helping extended families and friends in exchange for helping around the home.

An update on Blessing is that she is doing great. Thanks for praying. I didn’t know what to expect from typhoid, but the injections she is getting twice a day have been helping greatly.

Tonight we continued our study through Jerry Bridge’s book, ‘Trusting God’. We had a good time of discussion and we will continue this tomorrow night. We made it through chapter 3 tonight. We will attempt to do 4 & 5 tomorrow night.

I will be planning The Bible Overview class with the teens on Friday and Saturday. Sunday I will be at Titus’s church with next week up in the air. I will be meeting with Titus to finalize any other plans for next week. I’ve been invited to speak at two other venues, but at this time I am committed to Titus and his church.

I look forward to seeing the children at Betty Jonah Orphanage soon. I also hope to encourage Mother Betty as she still struggles with the passing of her husband, Father Anthony this past year.

I plan on meeting with Pastor Moses, not to be confused with nurse Moses, to get a better understanding of the spiritual oversight of the CBC Clinic.

I’ll try to get more pictures for you tomorrow. The one below is from yesterday. This is Naomi Johnson. She is one of the trainers for Women of Purpose.