So here I am updating my Liberia blog with my trip with Jenny and Kevin & Sherry to visit Jessica and Brandon at Thoo Mwee Khee school. We are so blest to be able to visit, not only 2 missionaries from our church, CBC of Wallace, but our children that God called to serve in Thailand.

Our travels have been uneventful so far as we sit in our vehicle with Brandon driving the 8 hours back to Phop Phra where we will be staying. We are enjoying the early morning and the sights on our drive.

We are looking forward to what experiences God has for us in Thailand.

I will share more as our time moves on. Please follow along.

Almost home.

As I sit in Chicago waiting for my last flight to leave in less than an hour I reflect on how much I enjoyed my trip to Liberia. Yes, there are always times when you travel that things don’t go exactly ‘right’, at least how we want things to go. One of those things happened as I arrived in Chicago. While in Brussels I swapped out the SIM card in my phone from the Liberian carrier to my original SIM card. At least I thought it was my original card. Upon arriving in Chicago I could not get cell coverage and after investigating I found out that the SIM card I have is from someone with a Colorado phone number. Apparently when having my card swapped while in Liberia they gave me the wrong card back. I’ll have to straighten this out next week and get a replacement card. You never can tell when something will come up.

I sincerely miss all of the friends that I have in Liberia and I look forward to seeing how God is able to use the teaching and the resources I was able to leave for them.

Right now I am looking forward to seeing Jenny and falling asleep in my own bed.

I am reminded of what Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz said, ‘There’s no place like home’.

Thanks to all for your prayers and please continue to pray for Liberia Pastor’s Emmanuel, Titus and Moses as they live out the Gospel on the ground there in the beautiful country of Liberia.

Travel time.

Well the last day arrived. Looking back, it’s been a long time, but it feels as if I just arrived. Much like any time away.

Today the only thing on my agenda was to speak at the inauguration of officers at Cyrus’s high school. Of course I just learned about this yesterday so in the morning I needed to prepare for what I would say. I did this and Daniel and I headed out to the Maggie Lamkins Institute. We walked to the junction to get a motorbike taxi. It cost $40 LD to ride us the 1-2 miles to the school. That is around 31 cents USD for both of us. I was told I should be there by 11:00 because the posted time was 10:00 so Cyrus already accounted for ‘Liberia time’. We really didn’t want to be late so we arrived around 10:15. After standing around for 45 minutes or so they told us to head over to the church next door where the service would be held. We did this and we were seated in an area that appeared to be for the choir at the church. It was there the real waiting began. I have learned to be flexible in Liberia, but today I found myself complaining and I really shouldn’t have. The program finally started around 12:45 or so. Their speakers weren’t working so it was rather amusing the switching out of speakers and around 5-8 Liberians working on the sound board. I laugh cause I know from experience when technology doesn’t work it is rather frustrating.

Once it did start between the muffled sounds of a bad sound system, the Liberian accent and my hearing being bad it was an effort in futility to understand anything. Luckily Daniel was there to tell me when I would speak and what was going on. Due to the long delay I already decided to cut my sermon/speech short. I have to say this was the least connected to an audience that I felt in my whole time here. I pray that I encouraged the new officers to lead well.

I thought we would leave after I spoke, but I found out I was to swear the officers in. I was frantically searching the Internet for ‘oath of office’ which I found with the USA presidential oath. A few change of words and I was all set. After I administered the oath Daniel and I left. It was well after 2:00 p.m. at this time. The only reason I cared was that on my last day I selfishly wanted to spend the time with people I knew and not with a crowd that I hadn’t met before and couldn’t understand what was going on. Daniel had to head somewhere else so I got a motorbike taxi back to Emmanuel’s. I had planned on heading to Red Light in the early afternoon, but I wouldn’t have time to do that anymore. That is ok as I know that it’s a crazy marketplace and I’ve seen it before.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon visiting with so many friends and after packing, showering and eating I was ready to head out to the airport. We left around 5:40 and arrived just before 7:00 p.m. Check in went smooth and I am waiting now for my flight to leave in 1-1/2 hours from now at 9:30 local time or 3:30 back home. I am scheduled to arrive in Brussels at 5:05 a.m. local or 10:00 p.m. Friday back home. I leave from there at 11:05 local and 4:05 a.m. back home with arrival in Chicago scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and finally to arrive in Green Bay at 6:23 p.m. that is if all connections and times are met.

Thanks for your prayers as I travel.

Here are some of the friends I said goodbye to.

Cyrus MatthiasWinston Christie, Chris and Maria

Blessing

Goat

Last full day.

Today I felt the reality of the end of my trip. It seemed like all my discussions ended up going to ‘What time do you leave, Dad Robin?’. As much as people told me they will miss me I feel it will be me missing them. After all, they only have me to miss and I have so many more of them to miss.

Emmanuel and Wintee left to see some people and run some errands. I was left at their home alone, well not alone. People were coming and going all day greeting me and even coming to help in small ways that mean a lot to me. Elizabeth and Korto did my laundry, the old fashioned way on a wash board and wringing them out by hand and then hanging to dry. That is the type of service all of the people have given me.

When I first arrived I offered Emmanuel some money to help with food and he responded with ‘you took care of me on my visit, let us take care of you on your visit’. For those that have been here, you know what that means. For those that haven’t been here, consider a teacher’s pay for example being $100.00…..a month, and the people of Liberia want to bless me. I say this to not make much of Emmanuel’s declining money for my food, but to say as a result I’ve been able to bless so many more of the people connected to LCMI ministries through gifts to other Pastors and various needs that came up during my stay.

I hope that can put into perspective how appreciative the Liberian people are of our prayers and support and how much the support practically means to the ministry of the Gospel. As Pastor Titus told me, ‘It’s difficult to think beyond the day when your stomach is empty’. That is what the ministry here faces in many ways. Poverty is the norm and trying to share the Gospel seems humanly impossible under these conditions, but God continues to use many churches here in ways we as Americans would be surprised. People love the Lord, praise the Lord and live for the Lord. In many ways I’ve been convicted of my dependence on my job, my finances or my savings when God can take these away at any time. If that were to happen, would my faith be as strong as what I observe over here in the churches? I ask myself that and I can honestly say that it would be a struggle to ‘Trust God, Even When Life Hurts’, (the book I shared with the leadership here). I pray I would, but not having to face it I especially pray for the faith to trust like that.

As I continued to greet people on and off throughout the day I was fed a good meal of GB by Princess for lunch. After lunch I decided to take a walk around the community. I walked quite a ways through some new areas with calls of ‘white man’ and the wave that followed. I even got scolded by an older lady (probably younger than me, but older in wisdom than me) saying ‘you need to cover your head in the sun’. I promised her I was heading home to stay in the shade. I did come back to Emmanuel’s and sat in the shade.

The afternoon wore on and I awaited the older kids to get home.

I forgot to mention that in the morning there was one more episode with the goat. The kids had taken the goat out of the building and tied it outside by the kitchen. This goat had proven it’s desire to avoid the inevitable and it once again acted on this desire. Emmanuel walked over by the kitchen (their kitchens are primarily an outside porch since they cook with charcoal or wood) and when he got to where the goat was tied I could hear in his voice that something was wrong. He started calling some of the kids not in school to come over because the goat had again escaped. Emmanuel told me this had happened one other time and they never found the goat. Luckily this time, even though he escaped, he stopped in the lush grass and other food behind the house not too far away. Clarence caught him and this time he spent his remaining hours in the building.

Well, the kids came home from school and they all knew their jobs so the boys set out to do theirs. Blessing, Emmanuel’s daughter, came running up to me and said ‘Dad Robin, come on and take pictures of the goat’. I wasn’t sure I wanted to, but I went to the back of the home and let’s just say the normalcy of the scene to them was quite interesting. It made me think of how my parents may have been used to living while they were young and that using your livestock as your food and taking care of things yourself were just part of it. I will spare you the details, but suffice it to say we did indeed have some fresh goat later on.

Before we had our supper we had many LCMI members stopping by and I soon found out they were coming to wish me a send off with gifts for me and Jenny and some from Women of Purpose for Jenny, Bobbi and Renee. The thoughtfulness and prayers they offered were another way they cared for me. They had some popcorn and a drink for all. That would have been the night, but with Emmanuel you can never know what other plans he may have. Immediately following the members thanking and praying for me Emmanuel informed me we were going to a revival service. This was just before 8:00 p.m. I was in my shorts, but I was wearing the new shirt they had given me so Emmanuel said to just put on some slacks and let’s go. I changed and we headed out. We arrived to a typical Liberian church with music coming through the doors and dancing as we walked in. They seated us towards the front and I soon found out Emmanuel was the guest speaker and they were continuing the singing until he arrived. They introduced him then and he gave a great message on the great commission from Matthew 28.

Of course he had to have me come up after he finished so I could share a few words. For any of you who ever thought of coming to Liberia, don’t let that worry you. It took me coming 4 times for Emmanuel to feel comfortable with putting me on the spot. He won’t do that to you if you want to come. I promise!

Afterwards we greeted many people with one member of that church saying ‘If that man can travel from the states to Liberia to share the Gospel I want to be willing to go where God can use me’. He is interested in doing a church plant near the Guinea border up in a village near Yekepa. Emmanuel shared about the church in New Yekepa so he wants more info to follow up on as he and his wife are willing to go.

We are now about to go to bed. This will be my last night in Liberia. I leave tomorrow evening at 9:30 p.m. which is 3:30 back home.

I don’t have the day off tomorrow though, I am a stand in speaker at Cyrus’s (Emmanuel’s son) school for their inauguration of officers. Cyrus is the new secretary so this is my last time to publicly share the Gospel in Liberia (this time). There have been so many more opportunities than I could ever plan.

I will let you all know how things went tomorrow night when I wait to board the plane.

Travel day.

After going to bed late with the plan to leave early this morning I woke up around 6:30 for family devotions with Pastor Dennis and family. Afterwards I waited for the rest to get up. When I went to bed I heard them still going over the Women of Purpose information. I have no idea when they finished.

We finally said our goodbyes and hit the road around 10:00 a.m. Beside the goat in the back of the van we had 2 other people that wanted a ride so Emmanuel agreed to this. One man, Peter, was traveling back to school in Kakata and the other, Pastor Joe, the soap maker, traveled all the way back to Emmanuel’s house. With a couple of stops along the way and with each bad bump in the road causing the goat to scream out we actually made good time. I was reminded of the screaming goat videos on YouTube every time the goat reminded me he was in the back. I was happy it wasn’t a pig as they would smell much worse. This goat didn’t even make the van stink.

We came home, had a quick meal and headed over to prayer meeting at church. At the end of the service I was able to sing ‘I’ll Fly Away’ with the Jonah family. We sang that song in 2012 as we welcomed the rest of the CBC team to Monrovia. It was fun to sing this again with them.

Now it is dark and even though all we did was travel I am quite tired.

As for the goat, tomorrow will be a celebration meal with fresh meat on the table. I guess I’ll be trying a new meat since I’ve never eaten goat before.

Today, for an unplanned day, was busy. I woke up in the morning to have devotions with Pastor Dennis and family. After this we had pancakes for breakfast with tea to drink. (Real tea this time).

We then headed over to the women’s center for the impromptu meeting called out on the radio the night before. We arrived for our 9:00 a.m. meeting with the leaders of Women of Purpose, Saclepea branch. This meeting went from a devotional time to business of how to conduct their training for each division. One of the teachers, Pastor Joe, is the only male teacher in this branch and he teaches soap making so the women can make their own soap to sell in the market. He knows how to make all different kinds of soap. I thought that was interesting in itself and that a man thinks enough of this program to dedicate time to teaching. Then of course the other women teachers are so involved and hearing from many of the ladies later on are also patient and great teachers.

One thing that struck me early was a lady named Patricia who is a student, but was there for our devotion time. Emmanuel had everyone in our circle say something they are thankful for and some way Women of Purpose helps them. Patricia, during her time to speak, said she was afraid to come for fear because of her lack of education. She cannot read or write (she is probably 30-40 years old) and as she told us that Women of Purpose told her that didn’t matter. They encouraged her to join and assure her they could teach her skills that wouldn’t need reading and writing ability. She said she never had the chance to learn anything before. I could see a woman who felt she had no worth now feeling like she could learn something that would help her and her family. That is the reason Wintee started this originally because she witnessed that same attitude in many women.

After the leader’s meeting we had only to wait 30 minutes for the student meeting that started at 1:30 p.m. promptly. I was able to lead these ladies in a Bible study before they got to their business. After I finished the devotional there were probably 30 women there. As is typical in Liberia people kept coming until there were over 60-70 women present. The radio interview definitely reached who they wanted to reach. It was fun to see all the ladies there from young 20’s to over 50 all wanting to learn some skills. This meeting went till after 3:00. It turned into a long day.

(I feel like this is ‘Where’s Waldo’)

As I type at 8:30 at night Wintee and Estella (financial lady) are going through all the paperwork as once Wintee leaves they are on their own again. The whole purpose is to empower communities to undertake this with guidance from Wintee, but not where she needs to be present.

Tomorrow is our travel day with me and the goat in the backseat. It should be an interesting ride. I just found out Pastor Joe will be traveling along with us. That will be good to get to know him better.

What a day today turned out to be. There are more things that I’d like to write about than I have time to write.

First, it was a difficult day because it started with devotions with the children of the orphanage somewhere around 6:00 a.m. I spoke on Psalms 136…God’s love endures forever. I wanted to encourage the children that whatever they face, God is faithful and so is His love.

This was followed by a time of testimony and thanks from Mother Betty, Pastor Moses and Josephine (an 11th grader at the orphanage). When Josephine read the letter for me as the representative of the children I could feel that uncomfortable tightening in my chest about leaving these kids (again) with hopes to return some day. After devotions most of the children wanted to avoid me because they didn’t want to say goodbye. Julie told me last night that she wanted me to leave before she got back from school so she wouldn’t have to see me again. There is a special place in my heart for all of the Liberian children that I’ve been blessed to know.

We left Yekepa around noon to head to Saclepea, about 1-1/2 hours from Ganta. Just before going into Ganta we stopped at the Ganta hospital just at the edge of town. Wintee wanted to visit a young mother who had just delivered a baby on Friday by Caesarean section. We went inside and the first thing I noticed is that the hospital lacked the sterile feeling of hospitals in the states. We made our way to the OB ward and when we arrived there was a bunch of beds with mosquito netting above each bed and at the back of the room was a screen door to let breeze in I guess. I watched as nurses helped mothers with their babies, worked with the babies and cared for Mother Gelleh, the Pastor’s wife who had the c-section. As we stood there the power went off and the thing that surprised me is that I was the only one who was surprised. The nurses kept on working in the dim light from the screen door and the screened windows. Emmanuel mentioned that this can happen frequently and affect things like people on oxygen or worse yet, happen during a surgery. After about 10 minutes the power came on and the only acknowledgment of this happening was one nurse who kind of grunted up at the fans as if to say, ‘It’s about time, stay on this time!’ After the hospital visit We refueled and begin the new road (to me) to Saclepea. It is a rough ‘dusty’ road all the way.

We arrived here around 5:30 p.m. or so. It was so nice to see Angie again. She is a young girl who used to live with Emmanuel, but due to a poor choice she now has a child that she is caring for. She was living in a village, but now is staying with Emmanuel’s Uncle Dennis, Mother Betty’s younger brother. He is a Pastor of a Refuge Baptist Church in Saclepea. They are so gracious to allow us to stay.

Once we arrived of course we needed to eat. We had some chicken soup with rice and a banana for desert. They are giving me the main bedroom. I don’t feel like I should have this, but they enjoy serving me in this way. We have power tonight so I can charge my phone and have a fan running. In Yekepa I didn’t need a fan because it cooled down to a very comfortable temperature at night, but it would get in the 90’s during the day. Here I can tell it’s still really hot at night so the fan will be welcomed however long it stays on.

After we ate we traveled a short distance to the local women’s center constructed by Pastor and his wife. This was the perfect location for a new chapter of Women of Purpose, Saclepea branch. This is the branch they had 90 sign up and had to turn others away. I was informed that similar training for women in baking, tailoring, hair care and other things can cost up to $400 US dollars. This makes it impossible for many ladies to attend and learn. Women of Purpose wants this to be a ministry rather than a business venture so they only charge $4,000 Liberian dollars which equals just over $30 US. They do need to pay for themselves, but the amount just covers the supplies for the class. The purpose is to train skills and teach from the Bible. As they learn to bake one of the things they have to do to support the school is to sell their goods for the school. This also helps them with the business aspect of this skill, teaching them how to keep track of their money so when they are on their own they can replenish their supplies and keep things going. The class here in Saclepea is on Friday and Saturday for 5 months. Many ladies from surrounding villages travel for the training via motorbike. Pastor Dennis says that Saturday especially the area around the building is packed with ladies and motorbikes. What a scene that must be. Unfortunately I won’t be here over a weekend to witness this.

I was just informed that there is warm water for me to take my shower so I’ll finish up later.

As I said the day has already been full of experiences and what just happened again is an example of Liberia. Or better yet, it’s an example of God’s amazing plan. After I finished my shower I came out to sit down and get ready for bed. A discussion was underway with a change in our plans. The Women of Purpose training needs more attention so we are staying another day here in Saclepea with plans to go back to Monrovia on Wednesday now (no problem, what’s next). As the talk continued there was a discussion of the possibility of going on the radio to contact the many ladies of Women of Purpose. It makes sense because so many people listen to the local radio station. This station is about 5 minutes away from Pastor Dennis’s home. The decision was made that we would head over there…..8:45 at night, pay an advertising fee (for lack of a better way to describe it here) in the amount of 300 LD or $2.31 US and go get interviewed by the radio station. We did just that. I am in my shorts, t-shirt and flip flops, I was ready for bed, and next thing I realize I am sitting in a chair next to Wintee and Theresa (Pastor Dennis’s wife) promoting Women of Purpose and letting the radio audience know about a meeting tomorrow. Isn’t that truly amazing. These women are very passionate about this ministry.

Now to back up a little. After supper, when we went to the Women’s center in town we left the ladies and Emmanuel wanted to go check on something. Pastor Dennis, Emmanuel and I headed out to go check this ‘thing’ out. Well, another example of Liberia….I will be sharing my ride home with a goat 🐐, yes this animal. Emmanuel wanted to buy this for a celebratory dinner and when I asked how the goat is getting home Emmanuel just tells me ‘in the back of my van!’ as if I asked a silly question. We walked for quite awhile through a community, found the man with the goat, made the deal and a young man was tasked with leading the goat back to Emmanuel’s van. Shortly after the young man started to lead the fighting goat, however, the rope (or vine that was used as a rope) broke and off runs the goat scurrying between buildings. I believe he knows his fate. A short chase ensues and the goat is caught. He is letting everyone know he’s not happy. The boy then takes the goat by the front and back legs and throws the goat across his shoulders to carry it the rest of the way to the van. At the van they truss the goat up with the vine and lay the goat in the back. He is now resting comfortably in some room waiting for us to leave. That could be an interesting ride.

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'll update more tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Today, being a Sunday, it was a day I was able to serve 2 different churches. In the morning I traveled with Emmanuel, Titus and Mother Betty to the New Yekepa Church. This is into the hills just past Yekepa itself. It is in a beautiful setting and many of the congregants do not speak English, at least the American English that I would be speaking. To remedy this I Mother Betty translated into Mano, the tribal language from the area. I thought it was to be in Gio, another tribal language, but I was wrong. Either way it was a language I did not know and most likely is a language I’ll never know. Bobbi was able to share her testimony last time we were here with the same circumstances. I only had one sermon worked on so I shared the notes I took on a previous Pastor Buckley sermon from last year. Another great reason to take notes. Along with this I shared my testimony as well. They are very gracious people there and I could tell many of the congregants can speak English now, but there are some of the older ones who still talk in the tribal tongue.

A few of them traveled back to Redeemer Baptist to hear me again, this time with me speaking English. I cannot even tell you the surreal feeling of standing in a building in the middle of the foothills of Liberia speaking to this congregation through the use of an interpreter. God is amazing in the opportunities he places in our lives.

We finished with enough time to travel back the 20-30 minutes drive to Redeemer in order to make it for their 11:00 a.m. worship service. I really enjoy the people that I’ve come to know over the years at this church. They are so welcoming and genuinely happy to see me return. One sad note was one of the Elders, Ezekiel Kopea lost his wife Esther this past October. Jenny really hit it off with her when she visited, so much that Jenny wrote her a letter of greeting that I carried over in 2016. It broke my heart when Ezekiel brought the letter in today to show me that he still keeps it. We never know what an act of kindness or caring for someone means to others. Thank you Jenny for writing that letter 2 years ago. It meant a lot to both Ezekiel and Esther and it still brings Ezekiel pleasure to know that a woman from the states cared enough to write a note to his wife.

After church we came back to Mother Betty’s Home where we had both GB and squash soup for our rice as a meal with fresh pineapple for desert. The other day I purchased 3 good size pineapples for less than $1. They are in season now and I enjoy every time they cut one or 2 up for our meal. I forgot to mention yesterday the nurse, Caroline, heard that I eat GB and FUFU. She wanted to give me a gift so she brought enough FUFU for Emmanuel, Titus and myself to swallow a great breakfast this morning. You’ll have to look that up on YouTube to see how the Liberians eat this. It really is good.

After lunch I had a great time sitting with the children of the orphanage and talking. I know the others that have been here can vividly remember times like that. The kids just enjoy hanging out. Later in the afternoon I took a walk around Camp Four with Mother Wintee, Kathryn (Moses’s wife) and a few of the girls from the orphanage. Wintee and Kathryn wanted to invite many of the local women to the Women of Purpose classes that will be starting in early March. I was an expected eye catcher as I could hear the children in the community yelling ‘white man’ as they came up to shake my hand or wave at me. A couple of the children hid behind others because I looked ‘different’. This made the girls of the orphanage laugh. We had a great time.

We decided to wait to leave her e until tomorrow. We will be meeting someone tomorrow before heading out to Saclapea. We plan on spending the night there visiting Angie and her family. We will travel back to Monrovia on Tuesday sometime. I don’t know if I’ll have any cell coverage so I may not be able to update my blog until Tuesday night. I’ll have to wait and see.

Although my official duties of speaking and teaching are over I look forward to any other relationship building that occurs in this next week in Liberia.

I have a trip to Red Light planned yet. This will be on motorbike taxis. I had to have Jenny send Emmanuel a permission slip telling him Jenny allows me to travel by motorbike. Emmanuel said he promised Jenny he’d take care of me and that the motorbikes aren’t as safe as he wants. Of course I see grade school children and even infants riding these motorbikes so I’ve been giving Emmanuel a hard time over these ‘rules’. We’ve had fun joking about many things.

I may add pictures to this post if I find the cell coverage better sometime. It is 7:30 p.m. now and it is always slow now.

Looking at the hills around the orphanage draws my gaze upward reminding me of these verses.

Psalm 121:1-2ESV

[1] I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?

[2] My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

My prayer this morning is for the Liberian people to see God, the Creator and Helper and all His glory.

Amen

Today, being a Saturday, and thankfully because Emmanuel, Titus and I stayed up talking until past 1:00 a.m. our morning devotions were delayed until 6:30 a.m. I did wake up earlier, but nobody was moving in the house so I stayed in bed until the djembe (drum) started signifying they would begin soon.

Speaking of nobody moving in the house I have to tell you about my upstairs neighbors last night. We went to bed late, as I said, and when I laid down I heard someone moving around and I didn’t pay much attention to it until I was trying to sleep. It was at that time the neighbors got real loud. So loud I thought they’d come through the floor above and land on my bed. They seemed to be having a dance or party of some sort. There was one particularly heavy walker that thought it wasn’t rude to stamp on the run across the floor. Only the building is one story and what is above me is just a thin 1/8” pressboard like ceiling tile. The rude neighbor was actually a lizard that had to be alligator size at least in attitude. As I lay there wondering what I would do if he indeed fell through as he was making a particularly fast run across the tiles I finally decided it had to be a track and field event and he was getting a run for the long jump. He ran, jumped and I heard him land on a lower outside roof and I could hear him run away off the metal roof to torment another neighbor for the night. I can only hope that tonight he decides not to visit.

After devotions this morning it was general clean up day for the kids. They did a great job doing the best they could to make a dusty environment seem a little less dusty. While they were cleaning I had the opportunity and privilege to interview Pastor Moses, who is now the Pastor of Redeemer Baptist Church and teaches Bible at the school for grades 4-9. We really enjoyed getting to know each other and I look forward to sharing his story when I return.

Last night at a children’s meeting to go over some orphanage business Emmanuel decided that after the clean up time I would have time for a short presentation of The Bible Overview program. So from 11:00-12:30 I gave a condensed version and we had a great time of study. The remainder of the day was contacting some of my family including talking on Facebook video messenger with my parents in Texas. What a joy it was to see my father greeting Mother Betty here in Liberia and Mother Betty thanking him for my visit. No they couldn’t hear each other real well, but imagine when they were each born to think about speaking to someone via video chat from another continent. I know they were both impressed with the improbability of that in their lives. Later on I took a ride with Mother Betty and Emmanuel to visit Pa Anthony’s grave. It is along the road just past a checkpoint on our way into Yekepa.

When we returned and we were all sitting around I asked Emmanuel and Titus if they wanted to watch the movie ‘Facing Darkness’. Since they hadn’t seen it yet I played it on my phone. It was a small screen, but we all sat on the front porch at the orphanage and watched this film about the Ebola crisis that they both lived through. It was very moving to see how they both were affected by the memories the movie stirred up for them.

Tomorrow we leave for New Yekepa Baptist Church at 8:30ish so I’m going to sleep now. I think I just heard the upstairs neighbor come home. Time to sleep before they start their party or dancing.

Till tomorrow…..