Today, after getting up for 5:30 devotions again, this time speaking from my mother’s favorite Psalms 121, later on I visited all of the classes at the Randall Godfrey School. I greeted them all and Emmanuel even had us sing ‘I’ll Fly Away’ to some of the classes. Emmanuel, Titus and I visited all of the classes there.

Now I am sitting at a local high school, Unification Town High School, waiting for an inauguration of high school officers to begin. This is a big deal over here with well over 100 people attending. I am here because Pastor Moses from the orphanage is the invited guest speaker for the program. Of course a visitor like me sits at the front table because after all I am visiting the guest speaker. 😀

While here I met a young lady who reminds me of Jessica. Her name is Natalie and she is from New Orleans, LA. She is with the Peace Corp and she is a teacher at this school. This school is where Julie and Comfort from the orphanage attend high school. Natalie and I sat together at the front table. Natalie sat next to the principal of the school (makes sense as she at least teaches there)

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Right away I noticed the resemblance of personality to my daughter Jessica. In fact when I told her about Jessica’s latest adventure in teaching in Thailand she immediately was interested. Brandon and Jessica, if you read this you may hear from Natalie about wanting to teach in your school. She has another year after this school year in Liberia, but she is planning on looking into Thailand as her next place to teach. She now teaches math and science at Unification Town. You never can tell who you meet and where you meet them. I invited her to Redeemer Baptist Church on Sunday. She said she may come. I hope so.

The program was originally scheduled to start at 10 and run till noon. It finally got underway around 11:15 or so. Emmanuel, Pastor Moses and I left (from the front table) sometime around 12:45. The program didn’t show any signs of finishing. Natalie also slipped out to head to Ganta for a workshop after we left. Having us leave didn’t deter anyone. We went back to the orphanage, had lunch and waited till after 2:00 to go back and pick up some of the kids who were still there. Yep, after 2:00, there was still someone speaking. I’m grateful that we left earlier.

In the afternoon I rested some, read some and talked with some of the kids. Now we are driving in Yekepa and dropped off an ABC student at the college and we are going to pick up Julie who went back to the school for kickball with a visiting school. It just turned dark here. We will most likely go back, eat and visit until bedtime.

Tomorrow I will have my chance to visit with Pastor Moses. I look forward to seeing where his beliefs are, how he can help in the spiritual care of clinic patients and learning more about his life. He gave a great speech on leadership at the graduation. Even though it is a public high school God can be the focus of a speaker’s message.

On Sunday I’ve told you I will be speaking at Redeemer Baptist, but I don’t know if I’ve mentioned I will also be speaking at New Yekepa Baptist Church where Bobbi gave her testimony 2 years ago. She had an interpreter, Mother Betty, who translated her testimony to Gio (a tribal language). I believe I will also have an interpreter so I will need to work on a message (shorter) that I can share with them. What an opportunity to share the Gospel with other tribes and tongues. Pray that I have a message relevant to their culture but faithful to the Gospel.

Pictures first if they will upload. Story later.

Julie Cooper.

Mother Betty Women of Purpose training with the girls at BJO. The cookies smell so good.

Outside oven.

Today, being the first day at the orphanage has been very enjoyable. From devotions in the morning which started at 5:30 a.m. I did wake up at 4:30 and hit the snooze a couple of times (seems like home). I finally got up before 5:00 with no activity anywhere. I went outside to sit under the beautiful flowering tree in front of the orphanage. I used my phone as a light and walked outside. It was actually cool feeling, not to be confused with cold, but it was very comfortable with shorts and T-shirt on. The Liberians tell me it is cold. Anyway, since it was quiet and dark yet I read my Bible for a few chapters and prayed. I wasn’t sure of the pattern of the morning so I waited to see. Mamma Betty got up and I could see her flashlight as she headed outside. She then proceeded to hit the metal pole as the children’s alarm clock. Slowly the camp awoke and headed into the sitting room in Mamma Betty’s quarters. Emmanuel and Wintee had one room and I had another in this building. Titus slept in the boys dorm.

We all gathered and began the morning devotions at 5:30 with singing and testimony time. After this was over I was ‘reintroduced’ to the children and I shared a devotion from Hebrews 4:14-16. After the devotional time was over the day began for the children and I thought, well it’s not light out yet, I think I’ll go lay back down. I did for another hour and a half. That felt good.

At 7:30 when I got up I went back outside and visited a little until breakfast was ready. We had spaghetti for breakfast with bread and tea (ovaltine). Afterwards I got my good camera to take some pictures of people and updates around the compound. Mamma Betty wanted to show me the guest house under construction on the backside of their property. It is a duplex with 2 bedrooms in each side. She said they are having it built for guests (like CBC) when they come to visit. Such a pretty backdrop with the mountain behind. I hope to stay in there with others someday.

After this I spent the next few hours speaking with Nurse Moses and Caroline. While I was visiting two children were taken in. The first was a young girl recovering from measles. There has been an outbreak around Camp Four community, but praise God none of the orphanage children have had any issues with this. From what I understand most if not all have had the vaccination for them. The girl who has them is around 2-3 years old. Moses says she is doing much better today. Today was the 2nd day of antibiotics injection for treatment. So sad to see, but I’m grateful for the clinic’s ability to treat them. Moses is a very smart nurse. The lady had tried treatment at another clinic, but she wasn’t improving. I don’t know if the other clinic diagnosed measles or not. The lady came from Yekepa to see Moses since she heard he was good. I prayed with the mother and thanked her for coming. The second patient of the day was a young boy named Michelle. They suspected he has malaria so they did a test and it was positive for it. They gave him an injection to help and meds to take home. The meds were around $5:00 US and she paid for them. After praying for her son I reimbursed her the costs so she wouldn’t have that amount out of her budget. Such a small token, but I know it was appreciated. She is 17 years old with 2 children. Moses was pretty good at telling her she needs to be in church and I found out later that he was telling her that her boyfriend should be there. I guess she comes every week, but her boyfriend never comes. She said he won’t and Moses said to keep trying and pray for him to come as well. She is unable to read and her options are almost nothing in life. Her name is Mercy. Pray for her also.

This afternoon, after meeting with the teachers of Randall Godfrey school a short time and eating some rice and beans with papaya and pineapple I am now sitting here smelling the fresh baked cookies from Women of Purpose. Wintee wants to start a branch up here so she is teaching Amelia how to train others and all of the orphan girls are helping with baking the cookies.

You can see by the oven the sign on the orphanage that tells of the meal sponsorship for the kids. This is a huge praise as the local business, the mine, told Emmanuel they have been watching the work the orphanage does for the children and they wanted to get involved by offering a daily meal project. As Emmanuel told me, ‘They are not Christians, but God is using them to bless the orphanage.’

I look forward to spending more time with the children.

I may write more later.

Today is travel day. As I type we are in Ganta where we filled the gas tank and I had a cold orange Fanta. Hard to believe that could be so refreshing, but it’s always relative to your situation and believe me the heat and dust from the road made this drink all the better.

The road to Ganta was great with smooth blacktop the whole way. We stopped a couple of places along the way with one being in Gbarnga where I met the Pastor of an LCMI church branch church. Emmanuel and Wintee dropped off a large bag of rice and some other things. He has been Pastor for 8 years. Titus also knows him as they were in Seminary together back in 2005 or so.

Wintee also met a lady in Ganta to give her some supplies. Sharing things like that is a great way to live out Christian love.

Now we are on the road from Ganta-Yekepa. These are the types of roads that most past travelers would remember and prefer to forget. Even typing in the back seat is difficult as the bumps bounce my fingers around so if you notice words out of place you’ll why know.

I’ll write more later once we arrive at the orphanage.

We arrived safely at the orphanage after a stop in Sanniquellie to see Wintee’s mother and drop off a few more things for her. The first person I saw was Joanna from the orphanage. I know that won’t mean much unless you were there previously, but she is a Jonah and stays in Sanniquellie now and helps at their store. She was the oldest child at the orphanage when we went in 2012. She still looks great. I’m not sure about posting pictures while I’m up here, but rest assured I will take many.

When we arrived at the orphanage it was dark and greetings were difficult since I only had one lightbulb on the outside of the main building to see the children. There was one girl who was no doubt someone I knew well. Julie came up and gave me a big hug as she welcomed Dad Robin. I saw quite a few, but I look forward to seeing all of them tomorrow. Speaking of that, I think I mentioned I will be doing morning devotions for them and I was told they all start to wake up and get going at 4:30 a.m. so everything can be completed and they can head to school. Some attend the high school and it is a 3 mike walk in the morning. I guess it’s time to set an alarm again.

I met Pastor Moses and his wife Kathryn. They seem really nice and I look forward to getting to know Pastor Moses better so I can update CBC on his work with the clinic patients. I will also visit nurse Moses and Caroline tomorrow. It could be a busy day so at 9:00 pm I am turning in.

Pray for Mother Betty. She is quite sad with Pa Anthony passing last September. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to lose your spouse. I got to talk to her a little bit. She made sure we were fed and then headed to a revival service at another church in the area. She herself is being recognized for all the work she’s done through the years. This recognition will be on Friday at a church about an hour away.

Saying goodnight from Yekepa, Liberia. All is well here. I am hoping for upload speed that can handle pictures. Well first off I’m just hoping to post the letter.

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.