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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Today was a much needed day of rest. We all took things pretty easy today. So easy, in fact, that I don’t have any big news to share. I did sit down inside the gate to Emmanuel’s home and the children took this as a sign to come by us as well. Leo was at the well, pumping water and I sat with the children. This isn’t much, but it was a lot when you think we were given this little time to rest and enjoy these children.

I do want to share how Leo and I were able to witness conflict resolution in a church done in a very good manner that was very God honoring.

Leo and I were all set up go for a walk after a late breakfast when Emmanuel came up to us to request our presence at a meeting with a local Pastor and the board of deacons. Of course we said we’d ride along. As Emmanuel drove to their church, he filled us in on there issues causing conflict. The details are unimportant to the results. As we rode I looked up verses to help with conflict resolution, not knowing if I would be asked to take part. I was all set with Ephesians 4, Romans 12:18, Matthew 5 & 18, having them bookmarked in my digital Bible if necessary.

When we arrived they welcomed us as if we belonged and we were all given an ‘order of service’. As the young meeting leaders laid out the ground rules for the meeting I could tell they were well thought out. In fact, all the Scripture references I hastily looked up were mentioned in the meeting guidelines. The issues were read out loud with both ‘sides’ able to make statements regarding the issues. I still wasn’t sure if this would turn out well or not. They went down their agenda, allowing only acceptable attitudes and tone of speech, or the meeting would be suspended. They came to a break where people got up and walked around and talked a bit. After 5-10 minutes, the next step was suggestions for resolution, which would be followed by each side either agreeing or disagreeing. There were 3-4 more items on their agenda when one deacon got up and went to the disagreeing person and (I couldn’t understand all the words) basically said that they loved this person and hoped these steps would lead to full restoration. The other person begin to quietly drop their head and then the sobs of understanding and relief were evident. This brought all the board together, crying and hugging. What Leo and I witnessed was Biblical conflict resolution at its finest. I didn’t need my words or verses, we just marveled at how God showed us how this was done.

The meeting concluded right then with prayers of praise and a restored leadership. May God continue to use this church to reach their community for Christ.

We returned after the church meeting…I did receive a text from Renee on where Leo and I were. She was in her room when we left and as she was out and about, going through supplies for WOP, she realized we weren’t around. Once she found out we were with Emmanuel, she didn’t worry, knowing we’d be done when he was done.

The late afternoon turned into a time of rest and I laid down and slept a little, but with no power on (typically off during the day) it was very hot. I got about an hour of rest when I woke up and realized LEC was back on, so I turned the air conditioning on and stayed in the room a bit more to cool off. I had a little upset stomach so I skipped eating anything for supper. Leo and Renee are doing well, although Renee realized today that after her intense week of training she was exhausted today. It was a good day.

I look forward to church services again tomorrow. I am privileged to preach again and I hope to feel refreshed and ready tomorrow. We will see what tomorrow brings us.

As I write this, it is after 3:30 AM. Yesterday (Friday) was such a busy day that I even forgot to post about things when I went to bed, only to I remember in the middle of the night, so here goes in a shorter, somewhat groggy review of a great day.

Friday morning seemed to start things a little later as Leo and I had time to head out in the community for a long walk. We simply kept taking different roads (trails in some cases) until we realized we should head back since Leo was doing the devotional for WOP and we didn’t want him to be late. It was after 8:00 AM when we turned around, remembering most turns and we made it back. Here’s a few pictures of things we saw.

When we got back breakfast was ready and Renee was up and ready. We ate and Leo waited for his turn to share the devotional.

Leo finished, I took a baby from one of the ladies to help her and we headed down to Leo’s care of the garden. Here are a few pictures of this and the baby ‘Emmanuel’ as we helped out.

Our afternoon seemed to go slow and relaxed as I read through my notes for the final class on Biblical Counseling. Emmanuel had mentioned that he wanted to visit a lady from church whose foot was hurt and made it difficult to walk. So, around 2:00 PM he says let’s go. He says it is nearby when I mentioned we start the class in 2 hours. It turns out it wasn’t so close, but it was great to go. Leo and Daniel (one of the school teachers and ‘son’ of Emmanuel & Wintee) came along as well. I didn’t get a picture of the lady, Deborah, but I did get a picture of where we stopped and walked the rest of the way.

We visited with Deborah for awhile and prayed with her and headed back, making it in enough time for me to shower before the class.

The last class went well and we were all informed we were to be part of the WOP celebration following the class. The ladies, who were from chapters of WOP all over Liberia, were all getting together to celebrate their accomplishments that Renee had taught them.

These ladies were a happy bunch as speeches of appreciation were given. There were gifts given out to all of us during this celebration time, followed by music and dancing.

We’ll have to share some of the videos of the speeches and dancing later as uploading videos here takes longer.

We followed this up with a meal on the porch of American type pizza and fritters with hot pepper sauce on the side. (This may explain my waking up in the middle of the night.)

The music and celebrating continued in the yard as everyone ate and danced around, enjoying the completion of a long, intensive week of training.

The celebration for us three Americans was the ability to go to bed to get needed sleep.

Now as I finish this ‘later’ update, I look forward to a relaxing day without any classes or responsibilities…yet.

Every day before it begins, we wonder if it’s gonna be busy or not. We should know not to expect a light day. Renee planned on getting up early to cut out the patterns for WOP She woke up early but wasn’t able to get into cutting the patterns because LEC (Liberia electric company) was off and the solar had run out and they did not start the generator up right away in the morning. All three of us woke up early and Philip came into my room to flip a switch to allow the generator to run so we could have current as they call it here once Philip came in to flip the switch. I decided I might as well get up and I came into the sitting room and Leo and Renee had the same idea. It was before seven and it starts getting light around seven. The power went out around 3:30 in the morning. Since it was beginning to get light, Renee started cutting on the patterns for the work with WOP. We noticed that each day gets a little bit later for everyone to get going as the week progresses.

While Renee was cutting I read through a devotional with both of them and just as I was finishing up there was singing taking place downstairs. There is something special about hearing a group of Liberians singing. The upstairs echoed with ‘Great things He has done, greater things he will do…’ we listened as they sang and prayed. After that they brought up our breakfast and Emmanuel came up and told us, ‘Guess what, it’s my anniversary, and I was just reminded!’ He shared that he and Wintee are celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary. Turns out the singing was for their anniversary. We were very happy for them and this led to other things happening during the day.

Once breakfast arrived, we took our pictures and had our fill.

After breakfast it started to get busy quickly, although a little later than the days before. Leo headed to the garden to dig holes. I watched as he used the tools he was given. We do have a new hammer, but he wanted to use what Aloysius (garden guy) gave him.

I got sidetracked after talking to Leo and waiting to give the devotional to WOP. This is what sidetracked me.

As I waited I went in to the lower level of the Fred Haberland Training Center to see what they were selling today. Fresh muffins and fish meat pies. Although they look and smell good, I’m not sure I would try them (not being a fish eater).

There was also another WOP table out with soaps they had made and they were packaging them for sale.

I also promised a picture of how women use the Lapa to carry their children. It didn’t take long to have a lady stop by with a child in tow.

I went upstairs and gave the morning devotional on Psalm 127:1-2. Afterwards we took a couple pictures and left Renee with her class.

I went downstairs and let Leo know, after letting Renee know (while they worked), that I was going out with Emmanuel and Wintee for their anniversary dinner. I told them I would go along if I could drive, like a chauffeur. Emmanuel agreed, and we headed out. If I thought they would understand the context, I would have said this is like the movie, ‘Driving Miss Daisy’, only it would be ‘Driving Mother Wintee & Emmanuel’. Doesn’t have the same ring to it. I was seriously honored to be part of their anniversary. We went to a beautiful restaurant located on the 5th floor of a hotel (I believe). I wasn’t prepared to go to a nice restaurant in my shorts and T-shirt, but at least I had shoes and not flip flops. I was told to change them before I left because a man, Peter Kanway, told me I’d get arrested if I drove with ‘slippers’. He rode with us part way to head to Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary. Nobody took a look at my feet, but I did hear Emmanuel in the backseat telling me to slow down. He ended up driving home himself. Maybe that is why.

After a good meal, we headed downtown to pick up a few things. I had my instructions from Leo-a belt, and from Renee-a pair of scissors. While Emmanuel and Wintee were in a shop I walked to a couple other shops and found both the items. Emmanuel told me I paid too much (of course). I told him that I don’t care if I was overcharged a bit, and he just laughed at me. Emmanuel won’t let people take advantage of you if you’re a visitor and he can help it.

We got back at 3:40 PM or so with my class starting at 4:00. I was able to shower and get in the conference room by 4:00, but just barely.

After the two hour class I had another meeting with Emmanuel, and when we finished I set out to look for Leo and Renee. I found Leo carrying water buckets and Renee was still in her WOP training.

Leo and I waited for Renee to complete her day to have our supper. She had a long, but enjoyable day. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.