Sundays are always busy when you’re on a mission trip. You have the privilege of experiencing how other cultures worship. Today, I was privileged to speak in LCMI church again and we also had our other missionary, Pastor Titus Namen and Mother Mercy come to the service as well.

Since I was speaking I got up a little bit early to finalize my sermon and make sure I prayed over the content as you never want to misrepresent God’s word when you speak. Jenny and I got ready, had some delicious scrambled eggs and fried plantains with onions. We then went down for Sunday School which starts at 9:30. We made it just in time at 9:28 or so. We walked in and there was one other person there waiting, Pastor Emmanuel’s brother Reuben. Other people started coming in and we began around 9:45. It was a great discussion on the vines and the branches from John 15.

Church began right after Sunday School and I again sat up front while Jenny sat by Reuben. The music was a good mixture of old hymns, the African choruses they so often sing as well as choir specials that are truly African excitement, if I may say. We had a good service, my message was well received and God was glorified. The service concluded with communion. This is my first time experiencing communion in Liberia, I believe. It was so neat to share with this Liberian church the same way we do at Country Bible Church.

Immediately following the service we walked over to what is now known as the ‘Fred Haberland Training Shop’. This is connected to Emmanuel’s property and faces the road for selling to the public. This will be a training center for Women of Purpose, skills training. Many women have been helped to learn a trade to help take care of the family along with Godly teaching as overlaid in all their training. It was an emotional tribute that was shared where Jenny and I both shed tears as we remembered Fred’s love for the people of Liberia and we remember our love for Fred. We recorded the dedication for Renee so she can see the legacy of Fred passed on to Liberia.

After the dedication we headed inside to eat where we met another lady from Minnesota visiting Liberia for a ministry called Palm Branches. We had a good visit with Cheryl and we wish her well in her time here.

Tomorrow morning we are headed to Gbarnga sometime to spend a couple of nights on our way to the Betty Jonah Orphanage in Yekepa. Travel days are fun, but they can be interesting since you never know what will happen. We will be staying at a hotel in Gbarnga for two nights. We requested a ‘fan room’ over an air conditioned room. Partly for the $50 cheaper and partly because the chances of regular power and the air conditioning working aren’t worth the risk of the extra money. We’ll see how that works out.

Today Jenny and I had a very easy day. In fact we didn’t leave our upstair’s room area until the afternoon. After breakfast of farina (cream of wheat) and muffins we visited for a little while and then we decided to work some. I needed to prepare more for my sermon and Jenny wanted to review her lesson for the children some more. We both sat in the conference room and went to work. We were frequently distracted by the children coming up to see if Mother Jenny would give them a piece of candy or a balloon. When they either had what they asked for or realized they wouldn’t get another we told them to leave us be as we had some things to do. That kept them out for a little time, but they inevitably came back. I blame Jenny for such a soft heart for the kids. Of course neither of us were too bothered. They are a joy to have around. There is one girl, Destin, and one boy, Thaddeus, that always seem to be in the lead for these things. They also fight like brother and sister and truth be told, I don’t know who the parents are, but Mother Wintee makes sure they are cared for as her own.

Back to work now. Jenny and I were able to put together some good work time and get to the point we could take a break when our daughter, Jessica called from Thailand. We had a good visit with her as we had our pumpkin soup over rice for lunch. It is more like cooked and spiced squash and is very good.

After lunch Jenny had time for a short nap while I continued to work. We had a short walk later on while we showed our son Jonathan around the area on FaceTime. We hope to catch the other kids another time.

After our walk Jenny had a meeting to go over the upcoming kid’s club she has planned for next Saturday. Jenny, Herrietta and Winston are planning the time as well as a meal of beans and rice for all.

Once the meeting was concluded we headed over to Princess Monmia’s home where she has a weekly Bible class for her neighborhood children. She calls her class, ‘The Chosen Generation’. She’s been doing this for almost three years now with a couple young people who noticed her doing this that also volunteered to help. Now they have a regular group of kids growing up knowing their Bible and learning in their own community. They had 42+\- students attending today. I was able to share a little with them and had them recite John 3:16 with me. They all knew it in the version I memorized as a kid…the King James Version. It was good to say it with them and encourage them too. They were very attentive.

Jenny then got up to speak and she did a shortened version of the wordless book to explain the necklaces that the kids at Mom’s group back home made. She shared and then we handed out the necklaces to all the kids. We even ran short for what Jenny took along, so we’ll send 7 necklaces back for Princess Monmia to hand out.

Herrietta, Jenny’s good friend from LCMI church came along as did Mother Wintee and they participated also. The kids presented us with some fans to help us in the heat. They are so thoughtful.

We handed out the necklaces and a piece of gum and finished the service with prayer. Here are a couple of pictures.

When we returned to Emmanuel’s we had a type of a chicken pot pie turnover. It was very good. We spent some time visiting and then headed to bed.

Today Jenny and I were privileged to visit the Friday chapel service at LCMI school. It is just a short walk from Emmanuel’s home to the school and Jonathan Denis, the principal, asked us to arrive at 10:00 a.m. When we walked down we could see the children lining the entrance as they sang a welcome song to us when we walked in. They then went to their seats for the chapel to begin.

LCMI is a K-9 school with hopes of expanding through 12th grade in the future. After everyone was quiet one of the older students led the service, introducing each group of students for their presentation. We heard singing and Bible verses quoted from memory from many classes. One of the teachers then presented the challenge from the parable of the 99 sheep and the one that was lost. They then had me speak about Mother Jenny and I on why we travel to Liberia and about our family as well as how Country Bible Church continues to pray for them as teachers and students. The students then asked us questions about America and our lives there as well as what we like the most about Liberia. That one was easy. We love the people the most.

After I spoke a few people gave thanks to Country Bible Church for their support from the Christmas offerings and they asked us to join them in praying for ongoing support of the teachers. There are 15 staff that care for around 92 students. This amount fluctuates as we found out later in the day. One of the students, Blessing Warlo, is in 9th grade and will move on after this year. He seems to be one of the smartest children in his grade, but he has trouble paying much tuition. They try to enforce tuitions, but many parents struggle to feed their families, let alone paying for a Christian school. There are public schools, but many can’t afford transportation costs for the children so they look to local small schools to help or they want the Christian education offered. Many parents pay what they can.

Back to Blessing Warlo, the 9th grade boy. His parents live in the interior as subsistence living. Blessing skipped September and October so he could work with his parents and earn some money for school and living expenses. As I said he’s very smart, even representing the school for scholastic honors. He came in November and will still be graduating from 9th grade with his class. He lives with a friend in a room and I’m not even sure how they provide for themselves. That’s tough for an adult, but to do this as a ninth grader, around 14 or so makes it even more difficult. He seems as if he has a dedication to succeed. I pray he will find a means to complete his high school in the following years. He is just one of the successes of LCMI school. It was so good to see them in action.

If anyone is interested in helping to support the teachers, please reach out to me. I can let you know ways to help. Helping a teacher or a student direct it to the same goals.

Here are a couple of pictures of us with the students and staff.

Today we were able to visit a place both Jenny and I stayed on previous visits. This is a guest house in Eternal Love Winning Africa (ELWA). It is a missionary complex of sorts. Samaritan’s Purse and SIM mission board are located there.

It also has the hospital that was built to battle the Ebola epidemic back in 2014. If anyone is interested in a documentary on the Ebola crisis, I highly recommend watching this movie. It is put out by Samaritan’s Purse. Here’s the trailer.

Upon arriving at the guest house we were able to visit with Becky, the wife of the couple that oversee the African Bible College located inland in Liberia. They have other universities in other parts of Africa as well. She allowed us to use one of the rooms to change so we could go swimming. For those of you from Country Bible Church who traveled to Liberia in 2012 you will recognize the building as well as the beaches around. It was special to return there where memories of my first visit to Liberia came flooding back.

Here are a few of the pictures from today.

When we returned we found out that LEC was back online. You don’t take the power for granted when you can’t rely on it. It was good to have a meal of cooked okra soup over rice with mango and watermelon for desert. After the meal Jenny and I stayed in our room for a while enjoying the air conditioning. Now, as I type this, I am listening to the choir practice across the yard. Such a peaceful sound.

But first…There is so much to say about each day that just scratches the surface of our experiences. One thing I didn’t mention in last night’s post was about the power. I guess a transformer was damaged nearby and the Liberian Electric Company (LEC) isn’t reliable on repair work. In fact, LEC only comes on towards evening…on some days. Our first night here LEC was on all night and each day it has gotten a little less. Last night was completely without LEC. Fortunately Emmanuel has solar power, but even the stored power will not last through a night, especially since we ran the tv and had everyone inside to watch the shows mentioned in last night’s post. After the solar runs out then they have a gas generator they fire up. This is what was used last night so we could at least have a fan blowing on us through the night.

On top of that, the cell network was very slow last night preventing me from uploading my post until this morning. I’m typing this portion just before 6:00 pm here to get a start on it. We have church about to begin where I’ll share the work of Country Bible Church with their congregation. I’ll finish up later on our shopping day.

…Shopping day

I was awake early enough to watch Philip make pancakes for us. He is learning the culinary field and is anxious to fix things that we like. I shared with him how my dad’s Swedish pancake recipe is what I cook at home and it is similar to his with a couple special ingredients that I shared. He will try that another time.

Our plan for the day was to head out to purchase a TV for the orphanage. They don’t have any way to watch anything except for the few people who may have a computer. We know this isn’t a necessity, but it will be nice for them to enjoy a show once in a while. Our travel took us to downtown Monrovia. The traffic was crazy as Emmanuel pushed the car into and through all the tight areas. We arrived to the street where electronics are sold and there was no open parking, but, if you appear you are there to buy they will move barricades and allow you a spot to park. We got the attention of the store owners and they opened up for us to park. Once we got inside everyone was trying to point out everything until they sort out the talk and direct all the attention towards the item you’re interested in. Mother Wintee took the lead on the TV and countered with $30 less than the asking price. After a few rounds of that’s too low, they agreed to her request, seeming to know there were other sales coming. They would be right. Because of the generous gifts from people at Country Bible Church these purchases were made. A TV, a sewing machine (for Women of Purpose), a printer for Emmanuel’s office, an electric teapot water heater, a DVD player, HDMI cable, an inverter to allow clean power to the TV and a few other small things to go along with these items. Here’s a picture of Jenny waiting for everything to be packed up after the dickering was finished.

We came home after a stop at another supermarket (Liberian Walmart). Today was really hot and this was Emmanuel’s way of allowing us to cool down in a store with air conditioning. His car doesn’t have air conditioning. He purchased an ice cream bar for us. Ice cream twice is quite a treat. We ate this while we walked around. As we were looking at some spices, the power went out throughout the store. All we could do was laugh. The power returned in 30-60 seconds, but I was thinking about all the refrigerated items and how fast they could spoil. It was a good stop to cool down before we headed home.

Once arriving back home we enjoyed a meal of cassava soup and chicken over rice and some fresh mangoes.

Both Jenny and I were able to rest a short bit after eating and visiting with a family member and friend that we know from past visits. Her name is Princess. There are a lot of women that have this name. Here’s a picture of her we took later in the evening.

After our short rest we planned to go to church at 6:00 pm. About 10 minutes before it was to start Emmanuel asked if I could share about the ministries at Country Bible Church. I was able to share an historical timeline of our church to the current ministries that are part of our church. It was an enjoyable evening where LCMI church prayed for our church. Makes the world feel much smaller.

After church we set up and watched a couple more episodes of The Chosen. Overall it was an enjoyable day. I believe tomorrow we will visit the school, but things can change quickly.

As we head to bed we have a fan on with the gas generator running outside. They tell us that they will switch over to solar around midnight and maybe we can turn the A/C on. it is now just after 11:00 as I finish today’s blog. We’ll see how the night goes. It was the hottest day so far. Jenny checked her weather app and it said the temp was 85, but feels like 105. I agree.

We are really settling in to Liberian life. We got up this morning to a breakfast of oatmeal and bread with peanut butter. And of course our Nestles coffee mix.

I should say, we are in the 2nd floor of Emmanuel’s guest house and we eat on the upper porch for each meal. As we were finishing up breakfast I noticed a lady walking towards Emmanuel’s home. That’s never surprising since people come and go all day. This woman came right to the house and was ushered upstairs to greet us. I did not recognize her, but she remembered me. She reminded me that during my last visit I stopped in to see her along with Emmanuel. She told us that when we visited she was not feeling well at all and she was grateful for the visit. We prayed with her and Emmanuel followed up and she now attends regularly. Now, in May, she will be recognized as the ‘Mother of the Year’ for their church. Her name is Saturday.

After she left we met with Emmanuel to go over a schedule of sorts. We plan on remaining in Monrovia until next Monday when we’ll travel to Yekepa. That can change, but that’s the plan for now. When we finished up the schedule we asked Mother Wintee to join us where we shared gifts from the congregation and planned to hand out some of the letters (to Emmanuel’s crew). They are very appreciative of the gifts they received. We decided that tonight we would hand out their families’ letters and then watch a couple episodes of The Chosen with them.

The rest of the morning into afternoon was very quiet with the children gone to school. Incidentally, we plan to visit LCMI school tomorrow. Since it was quiet I decided to go for a walk in the community. As I walked I drew attention, but most people nearby to Emmanuel know he has white visitors from the states, so most gave me a wave or the head nod as I walked along the street. About halfway around the block I noticed one of the young men from Emmanuel’s home, Philip, sitting outside a shop. I called out to him and walked over. He was going to get a haircut from the ‘best barber in the world’ as Philip described him. I decided I needed to stay and watch. I have the before and after pictures below. During the haircut I filled in the time with local kids (whose parents can’t afford to send them to school) showing them pictures of snow, my family and finally elephants we saw in Thailand last year. They watched movies of the elephants and next thing I knew the haircut was over and Philip was ready to go. The barber did a great job.

Another satisfied customer.

Philip and I headed back as I got a text from Emmanuel saying lunch was ready. We came home and I met back up with Jenny where we ate beans and rice and fresh pineapple.

Jenny and I both rested a little in the afternoon until we decided to go for a walk. Walks can take you places you don’t plan for and they can get delayed easily. Most Liberian people are very friendly so the walk turns into a visit whenever we stop to say hello to anyone. Today was no different. We stopped many times to share names and shake hands or to meet more of the family. I have to say when the littlest kids see us sometimes they’re afraid of us. Most of the little kids never get to see a white man or woman up close.

Here are a few pictures of some of the families we met.

We even got to hold some babies and you can see by the one Jenny is holding she isn’t sure about it.

We continued our walk and met one more family. The guy didn’t want us to leave without a picture. He called all the kids over to be in a picture.

We ended the evening, handing out letters with instructions to write return letters. We got pictures of the ones writing the return letter to those that wrote. We hope to gather all before we leave. After this we watched the first two episodes of season one of ‘The Chisen’ and had snacks to hand out. Everyone had a lot of fun. We will try more episodes in the evenings as time permits. Here’s a picture of the crew as we finished for the night.

When you think of Liberian food, the first thought is not of ice cream. Well, today proved that idea wrong.

Jenny and I got up to a good breakfast of egg, pepper and onion omelet on bread with peanut butter as well for the bread. After eating we had a good visit with Emmanuel as he decided to take us out to the store because Jenny wanted to pick up some treats for the kids. We left the house and we faced the busyness of the roads as we traveled to ‘The Exclusive Superstore’. This is their equivalent to our Walmart.

After the visit to the Liberian Walmart, we stopped in for a visit to Mother Wintee’s sister, Anti. She’s been struggling with a foot and leg problem for 6 months. The doctors think it was something from some insect that may have stung her. It caused her leg to swell up and it made it very difficult to walk. She still has trouble putting weight on that foot, but it’s a little better.

Next door there was some furniture being built so I decided to walk over and see the crew. They used all hand tools and many hands to help. I told them about my work back in the states, that we work with wood also and they were happy to let me get a picture with them.

After our furniture visit we headed out in the heat of the day and the busiest roads (at least it seemed the busiest time).

We ended up at the ‘Nice Cream’ shop for a special treat from Emmanuel.

I had mango and Oreo, while Jenny got strawberry and chocolate. Emmanuel picked some up for Mother Wintee. Smart man.

We stopped again for some rice and headed home. Groceries were unloaded and we ate some palm butter over rice.

My afternoon ended up being on the phone for over 2 hours with Verizon getting my international plan straightened out. It’s working good now so I’m happy.

Tonight we may start to watch an episode of ‘The Chosen’ that we downloaded on Jenny’s phone and we can stream to their TV. That would require another long story to explain.

Jenny and Mother Wintee just finished mixing koolaid for them to sell tomorrow. They are now doing dishes from the fresh muffins that were baked to sell.

The little girl, Destin, couldn’t sit still for the picture as she was busy playing around. Couldn’t be because of the bubblegum sucker Jenny gave her.

We are at the end of a long and enjoyable day. The day begins much like any Sunday with waking up and getting ready to attend church. We came out to some coffee and plantains fried with onions for a light breakfast. We then headed over to Sunday school. Seeing that I would be speaking today I was wearing a suit coat and tie. That can prove to be very warm in this climate. After sitting through teaching by Deacon Johnson I was asked to move to the front to sit as the guest speaker. It is humbling to think Liberians would care to hear me speak, but truth be told they want to hear the Bible preached and I just happened to be the conduit today. The service begins with an old hymn, ‘Send the Light’, and there are many church announcements and such during this time. The highlight to me is seeing the Liberian people get excited and dance to the praise and worship team with electric piano, drums and gourd shakers. The intensity of the singing and worship is different from our home church, but I am aware it is a cultural difference as this is how all the churches worship. Just before I was to preach the choir sang a song. I love to hear the Liberian young adults as they sing so well and powerful. They sang a song called ‘Grateful’ that I’ve not heard before, but it highlighted their voices as they sang it out. It was so good to hear them.

Just before I was going to get up to preach, Jenny caught my attention and mouthed the words to take off my suit jacket. She informed me I was very red in the face and she thought I may pass out. So, when I stood up to speak I told the congregation it is about to get serious and I need to remove my jacket. Of course they laughed and it was cooler. By the time I finished I was drenched in sweat. It rolled down my face into my eyes and I was dabbing it off with my shirt. A lady usher noticed it so she turned a fan directly on me to who I mouthed the words ‘thank you’ to her as that helped immensely.

After church was a time of reconnecting with many friends and meeting new ones. By the time we got back to our room to change I was soaked in sweat. It felt real good to get a fresh shirt on and shorts. Lunch was ready and we served up some potato greens over rice. Just as I was going to sit down, in walk Pastor Titus and Mother Mercy, missionaries that Country Bible Church support. We invited them to eat with us and we sat and ate and visited for the next couple hours. What a great visit it was. Emmanuel Jonah joined us for the visit. I am always pleased when Titus and Emmanuel connect. With both of them being missionaries, I am encouraged with their common goal of preaching the Gospel.

The later afternoon brought about more visiting as well as Jenny having a meeting with a few people from LCMI church to plan an upcoming ’Kid’s Club’. That will be coming up in the next week or so. Jenny plans on teaching from the wordless book and they decided to feed the kids that come with rice and beans. We look forward to this and we love the cooperation with the other LCMI members who simply want to share the Bible with the kids in the community.

We had one visitor, Anastasia Paye, who had requested a stethoscope that was graciously donated by Renee Haberland.

Later on in the evening, as Jenny was in her meeting, I left with Emmanuel and Wintee to visit a lady in a clinic that has health struggles. She attends an LCMI church and Emmanuel wanted us to stop in and encourage her and pray with her.

We arrived back home to have a snack of fried plantains and popcorn. I do love popcorn, so it was a great snack.

It has been a tiring day, but very enjoyable.

What do you do after traveling all day the previous day?

I figured I would have a good night’s sleep and wake up ready to go, ready to begin meeting people. I underestimated my ability to recover as I would in my younger years. I woke up, checked the clock and it was 7:45. Time to get up. I didn’t mention yet that something happened that never before happened in my stays at Emmanuel’s home. I woke up cold! The Liberian Electric Company (LEC) kept current to the house all night and our air conditioner had me cold this morning.

I tried to get up without waking Jenny, but she was also ready to get up. It would be a great start to the day.

I took a shower, and for those who remember the past showers at Emmanuel’s home with a barrel of water and a dipper to pour over your head, this was a nice shower that I can compare to the showers we took in Thailand. Picture the sink sprayer with a long hose and you get the picture. I finished and we headed outside our room to see what was happening.

A breakfast was left for us under a towel. There were freshly baked muffins and coffee to start our day. We went out on the 2nd floor porch and had our muffins as we greeted people who saw us come outside.

After finishing breakfast we headed downstairs to see what was happening and decide what we would do. We spoke with Mother Wintee, Emmanuel’s wife, and found out she was the baker of the muffins and she was taking some more out of the pans to put for sale in their Women of Purpose storefront just outside their building. Wintee then began to decorate a cake for a graduation party later in the day, for a lady in the church who has a child graduating.

Leaving Wintee to her work we decided to walk down to see the new church building under construction. It is only 1/8 of a mile away so we walked down and all the way Jenny would find another person to speak to. We got to the church building and a bunch of kids wanted to see who we were and another round of ‘What’s your name?’ began. Jenny believes she will remember all of the names tomorrow. Truthfully, we both forgot most of them by the time we walked back. One girl, Favor, was the leader and introduced everyone to us. She is 11 years old and very well spoken.

When we got back to the house I was feeling a little queasy and I mentioned I might want to lie down. Wintee told us that Emmanuel said, ‘Tell them to only worry about rest today.’ We took his advice and laid down again. I slept another 3 hours and it was then I felt more normal.

I got up and worked on my sermon for the next day. I had studied enough, but I’m a rambling talker if I don’t write things down in an orderly fashion. When I completed this and Jenny was awake again we ate and went out for another walk. As we walked past one house having a party of sorts, some ladies came running out to the road to greet us. It was ladies from the church and the house was hosting the graduation party mentioned earlier. They knew both Jenny and I from previous visits so we talked a little and left them to return to the party. We came back and visited to late in the evening. It was a great day to rest and relax. Tomorrow is church and I am privileged to deliver the sermon to the LCMI church in Monrovia.

Our travel day went well as we arrived at Emmanuel Jonah’s home at quarter after 10 pm local Liberia time. We were greeted with a chorus of cheers with some of their children banging pot lids with spoons. They have welcome signs posted to me and Jenny and I’m sure we’ll see more people tomorrow morning.

We had a great meal and the best gift we could receive after a 31 hour, door to door trip…a bed with air conditioning in the room. Emmanuel and Wintee’s guest house has come a ways since our first trip, but this too is still Liberia. We will see exactly what that may mean during the next few weeks.

Cell service in their home is not as reliable so I may have to wait until morning to find a spot to post this.