Here we are at the end of the day again and I can say, today felt very busy. Not that we did do much, but we were going all the time.

The day started off quite restful with a time to sit outside and study while Jenny had a chance to sleep in. We had breakfast together and sat outside as we watched the Liberian morning unfold. It was cooler in the morning, meaning it only felt like 80 degrees out. To sit and watch a different culture as they go about their day is very enjoyable to me. Our plan was to wait for Abraham, our driver, to arrive and take us to get more data on our phones as now we understand what we want.

Abraham arrived and we realized that Mother Wintee needed a ride to Women of Purpose work training so the car was packed up and we headed out. Going to get the data for our phones was easy and we finished and came outside to the car. Three people from Emmanuel’s community were there and we had more riders. We left, went to buy diesel at the first station, but no fuel. We took a bypass around Red Light and came to another gas station. Yes, they had diesel so we filled up. Fuel lines seem to have lightened up which is good. We left there, arrived at the Women of Purpose school building, which is a school building for another church a ways away from Emmanuel’s community. We dropped the ladies and all their supplies off and headed back. Jenny and I wanted to give a gift to all the people at Emmanuel’s home so we decided to take them to Red Light and let them buy some clothes for church or whatever they needed. Here is the group that left after we ate a hasty lunch.

The only one who didn’t go along was Cyrus, at the far right, as he volunteered to stay home and watch over the house. When we got home later Cyrus went by motorbike to Red Light to get what he needed.

Red Light…what a place. People all over and like a Walmart or Menards back home…they have everything if you know where to look.

We spent time walking around, found out they have a second story and all kinds of options of where to shop. Being that Jenny and I stand out we were always a target of the sales people. One even offered to have Jenny to sit down and they would bring whatever she wanted to their store. Very accommodating. Inside, on the second floor, Jenny was starting to feel a little weak. Since she hadn’t eaten a lot lately and with the heat we decided to head outside. We found all the people we took shopping and rather wait for them to find something to buy we gave each of them some money and let them buy the things they needed. Great plan since Jenny, Abraham and I just headed back to where the car was parked. We found a little shop with an awning and chairs underneath. We confirmed we could just sit and rest so Jenny sat in a chair while she sent Abraham to find a ‘cold’ drink. That is the biggest thing Jenny misses. We’ve bought a couple before this, but when we say cold, they are usually slightly cooler than lukewarm. Abraham came back and had what was the coldest Pepsi I think I’ve seen. Probably because of the heat I can say that. Jenny took a big drink and felt much better. I had a drink too and wow, that was good. It didn’t last long, but it did the job. The girls eventually finished and arrived back at the car, but not the boys. What to do? I know, we will leave them there. They know how to get back. The youngest was 14 and the oldest around 17. This is their culture and sure enough about an hour after we got home the boys showed up with their goods. They weren’t bothered in the least that we left. I finished up my morning sermon, got most of the evening one all laid out and then we took some time to call some family and touch base.

A short while later I was just walking around the front of the house and I hear ‘Dad Robin’ so I looked and it was a couple boys that wanted to take me somewhere. I followed and before long we had 6 of us guys walking up the ‘dusty’ road. I was informed we were going to see someone about a guitar. We arrived, the lady at the house said she knew Matthias, (Emmanuel’s son) so yes he could take the guitar. We invited her to the revival services starting tomorrow and we invited others as we headed back. On our way back Jenny and Elizabeth met us since Jenny didn’t know where I was heading she and Elizabeth headed out to find us.

We all walked back together singing some songs and getting quite the looks. Oh, and Jenny officially heard (or understood) a little boy yell out ‘white man’ today. She said that was the first one she heard. Not the first for sure. The kids love to yell that out, have us wave at them and then they smile really big. We do scare some of the really young kids.

Anyway, we got back and were reminded of the marriage counseling for the night. Two couples showed up, but no Wintee, no Emmanuel. Did I mention that Emmanuel went to Nimba (6+ hour drive) on Friday to return tonight as we got to bed. He’s a busy guy. Wintee did make it home and our counseling session would begin just after 8:00. Only 2 hours later than planned. The popular saying here is, ‘This too is Liberia’. It was a good time again , but Jenny and I were tired out from a busy day. We ate some supper, took our showers and got to bed. It is just after 11:00 as I type this out. Another busy day tomorrow and I forgot, we have word from Mike that he’s on his way. We’ll see him soon, tomorrow evening around 10:00 here. We can’t wait.

As I write this I am sitting down (finally) after our kid’s program. Tonight, because we wanted to give out popcorn and treats for the kids, we had only myself and Winston to deal with the kids. Jenny, Herrietta and Wintee were doing the packaging of the popcorn and other treats. We had a good lesson time about David and we’ve been teaching the kids the song, ‘Only a Boy Named David’, which they learned pretty good. It was only planned for an hour of time, but with the packaging running longer Winston and I had to make things run longer also. Winston was a great help as between the two of us it was almost impossible to keep everyone quiet at the same time. Did I mention that we had over 150 children this time. At the end we had them go single file out the door to get their bag of popcorn and then some koolaid to drink. It was all done very orderly….nope, that is what we hoped for, but it was chaos. I love the kids as so many just would come up and hold your hand or just stand by you, but get between them and their treat and things were different.

We did have a good time and we taught them all about David and Goliath tonight. They know the story, but they don’t mind the rerun as told by the big white man. I’m always amazed at how well versed the children are in the Bible over here. We’re happy that God is using the local teachers so well to teach the children.

Our day started out good with Jenny feeling better and eating breakfast. It is good to have her back up. We finished eating, sat outside for a little while and then when Abraham came by with the car we piled in to go see Deacon Delt Cooper’s widow, Becky, and her family. Here’s a picture on our way over and you can’t really see Esther sitting in the way back of the car.

We had 2 more on our way home. It wasn’t bad as they were 2 of Becky’s children to come to kid’s club.

It was a sweet time at Becky’s home. We went over there because it is her wedding anniversary today. Being Valentine’s Day and her anniversary it was a big reminder of Delt’s passing. We had a sort of service at her house with praying, singing, a time of sharing and of course followed by food. We had GB, which is a traditional dish from Nimba County. It was very good. And, Jenny and I even had a cold Coca-Cola. You can’t know how nice it is to have that unless you’ve been in the heat without it for quite awhile. Here is a picture of Becky on the right with Mother Wintee alongside.

I was just informed that we have prayer meeting tonight so I’ll finish later.

Prayer meeting just ended and it is about an hour later. The generator was just started as we wait for the lights. There they are.

I was able to pray for many back home as we had prayer time for many different subjects. It was good to remember many of the requests from Discipleship Hour as well as the local ones here. Their prayer time is when a subject is introduced and everyone prays at the same time and then it ends with another subject brought up. I love the cultural differences in how they have the prayer time.

Tomorrow I’ll need to go out early, get more data for the phone and then spend most of the day finishing up Sunday’s sermons. I’m looking forward to Sunday. We may go out a little in the community inviting people to come. Emmanuel mentioned another marriage counseling too so I better be diligent in my time to finish everything.

Happy trails to Mike as he leaves tomorrow. We pray that we see you here safely Sunday night. I won’t be able to meet you at the airport since I’ll be preaching as the flight comes in.

At the start of today we expected to have Mike on his way to Liberia with the plan to pick him up at the airport tomorrow evening. Well, God had a different plan as Mike’s first flight was canceled creating a delay in his trip to leave on Saturday. He will arrive Sunday evening now. We do look forward to seeing him and everyone here is excited to meet him.

The day here was restful, especially for Jenny as she is recovering from her stomach issue. As the day wore on she was feeling better and better to where she was ready to eat some toast and fresh cucumbers. This was the first solid food she ate all day so we were happy to see that. Looks like she’s on her way to a full recovery.

As for me it was a study day for speaking on Sunday. I got a big part of my sermon finished for Sunday morning and I’ll still have to finish it up and complete Sunday nights as well. It’s a good thing to work on when it’s so hot outside that you want to stay out of the sun.

The only activity that Jenny and I did today was to join a premarital counseling session with a group of couples that Emmanuel is doing counseling for. Emmanuel figured we have been married for 36 years so we should have some advice. We ended up having a great time and the couples asked really good questions. Some of their questions were more culturally related so we deferred to Emmanuel and Wintee who chaired the meeting. Here is a picture of the group with us. If you count you’ll not see even numbers and that’s because the lady on the right had her fiancée missing because of work.

We laughed a lot with them. The couple on the far left is Abraham (our driver) and Favor and they will be married on February 29th. I think I mentioned that in an earlier post. The others from left to right are Samuel & Princess, Naomi & Roland and then Comfort. They will be coming back on Saturday night for the next installment of counseling. You never know what you get involved in when you are over here.

Tomorrow is the last day of our kid’s club. I hope Jenny is feeling up to teaching, but I’ll be around to help as needed. We plan on having a treat for the kids of popcorn, suckers and balloons. We were telling Emmanuel about water balloons, but I don’t think we’ll attempt that.

Mike, we’ll continue to pray for your trip and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Today was the day for us to actually have a time to wake up so I set the alarm for 7:00 a.m. not that I really needed it since Jenny and I slept very lightly. The power goes off around 5:00 in the morning so after that time without the fan it is a little harder to go back to sleep with it hot. I know most back home are suffering through the snow and possibly below zero tonight so I won’t say that we have sunshine and 90’s during the day with upper 70’s at night. We can go without the fan for a little while I guess.

Anyway, we got up to have some oatmeal and scrambled eggs, but Jenny wasn’t feeling too well. She ate a little bit, but that didn’t last too long. She decided to stay home and rest with her stomach acting up. I finally convinced her to take the Zpak later on in the day so she started that. I’m making sure she drinks plenty of water too. At least I’m trying to. Pray along with us that she feels better tomorrow.

Emmanuel, Wintee and I left to go to the consulate and arrived to find out that they really don’t want to see people in person. If I were an American in trouble I’m guessing I would be seen, but as it was we were directed to the website to fill out any visa request online. I was just hoping they could help us to know what we could do to help Wintee with the application and to assure them her stay would only be a visit as a tourist and not someone who would overstay their visa. We’ll do what we can with the online application.

We left there to head to the waterfront market. It was similar to red light. We were able to pick up some things at a sundry shop, then to a market of a man from Lebanon and then over to an Asian family who sold decorations as Wintee is in the middle of wedding planning for some couples. It was very interesting to see the different cultures in the market. Wintee knew where she wanted to go to get what she needed. I would equate it to us knowing which aisle to look in at Walmart to find the things we need, only it’s mostly outside.

We left there with a few other stops along the way. One of those stops was at a Christian bookstore that sold the hardcover Bible for $5.00 each. We thank CBC for supporting this as we purchased 50 Bibles for Mike’s men’s class.

We stopped to pick up some rice and other groceries at different ‘aisles’ as well. All in all we had a full car on our way home and we would have had a hard time fitting Jenny in with a small barrel, 50 Bibles, various bowls and measuring cups (for Women of Purpose) along with the other odds and ends that we picked up.

We got home shortly after noon and I checked in on Jenny. I was happy she could rest even without the fan on. She had a little rice and of course more water and her pills at that time. I got her to eat a banana later on.

Today was a preparation day for other ministries as Women of Purpose, Mike’s men’s seminar and even the kids club we had later on needed supplies.

Since Jenny wasn’t up for it I had to plan to teach the kids. I had time as I had a couple of hours to study before the class began at 4:00 p.m. We qhad a good time with the kids as we had fewer, probably just around 100 today. Great helpers were there again with Herrietta, Winston, Albert and Emmanuel. I just love being with the kids.

Directly after our kid’s club time we had Wednesday evening Bible study. Emmanuel led this and it was on forgiveness and acknowledging our sins as well as confession. He did a great job stirring our thoughts.

After this was time to rest at home until it gets dark around 7:00 p.m. It was nice to sit around and rest a little. After eating a light snack I started showing pictures on my phone to people. We ended up going through over 1000 or more photos. I realize I have many of our grandchildren as well as past trips to Liberia and Thailand. Maybe it’s time to archive my pictures.

Now it’s time for hopefully a restful night. I’ll leave you with one picture I captured of the meal prep for tomorrow’s meal. Princess and Meko we’re preparing things. I believe we’ll have cassava soup with this.

It should be a great meal again.

As I mentioned yesterday, our plan today was to go to the American Embassy in Monrovia and investigate how we can improve Wintee’s chances of visiting the US. We headed out late morning after a light breakfast of oatmeal and fried plantains with a cup of coffee. All of us headed out, Emmanuel & Wintee and me & Jenny. We had an interesting ride as we drove along. We noticed a police presence and we were wondering if some of the gas lines were getting unruly. A short time later we were waved over to the side of the road with all the other traffic on the road. We then saw a police motorcycle leading the way with lights flashing followed by multiple cars with lights and some SUV’s, presumably carrying the Liberian President, George Whea. We assumed there was some celebration he attended for Armed Force’s Day and he was headed back home. I was going to take a picture of the motorcade, but Emmanuel felt it was better to not draw attention from anyone so I didn’t take any pictures. It was rather interesting though.

We continued on our way, fascinated at the gas lines at every gas station that still has gas available. People are lined up more than 1/4 mile with cars, motorcycles or standing in line with as little as gallon size jugs. Later in the day as we stopped for diesel, one of the gas stations was out of gas and diesel, but the next station had diesel and no gasoline. We are not sure what will happen, but it is affecting all the people of Liberia. We were told that a government official was at the gas station telling them that their next gas shipment would be at the end of the month. I’m not sure how news like that will go over. Perhaps they’ll find a way to improve their delivery schedule.

When we got to the American Embassy we did find that they were closed in observance of the Liberian holiday. We thought that might be, but we went to check anyway. As we left the Embassy Emmanuel thought it would be good to take a tour of Monrovia, something I hadn’t done before. We passed a building that their Declaration of Independence was signed. It reminded Jenny and I of our trip to Philadelphia. A couple places were closed, but this one building was opened I guess to the public as there were some students taking a tour. Emmanuel went out to see if it was open to the public and of course Emmanuel knew the person giving the tour. They let us in and we were able to tour almost alone. The building is their inauguration hall where the President is normally inaugurated. The current president was inaugurated at the soccer stadium as he was a popular professional football (soccer) player. They have pictures of all the past presidents and their years of service. We saw the chairs where the President and First Lady sit during the inauguration. You can’t just walk by when you have chairs there to sit in.

We even got to stand on stage.

I thoroughly enjoyed this stop.

We continued with a tour, first looking at the past presidential cars up on blocks. We were informed that we couldn’t take pictures of the 3 cars that were on display. We aren’t sure why. You can see the cars in the background of this statue that still has bullet holes in it from the civil war.

Admit it, you zoomed in on the cars. They are all Mercedes Benz. The one you can’t see as it is in the middle, is an SUV type Mercedes Benz that we were allowed to open up and look around. There is a single seat in the back almost like a throne. It was pretty impressive in a couple ways. One, the fact that the Liberian President, Charles Taylor, who is in prison in the UK for war crimes actually rode around in it and two, they are leaving it outside to rust and ‘spoil’ as the curator type person stated.

After looking through the cars we headed into a museum which only cost $5 per person. That wasn’t too bad. I love to learn history of Liberia and there are so many things to look at from past to present. I really enjoyed learning more about the country of Liberia.

We finished at the museum and headed back towards home. Emmanuel decided to treat Jenny and me to lunch at a very nice restaurant located in a hotel. We had a great time visiting and laughing at many things. We feel so at home with them that it’s just like they are part of the family and we’re part of theirs.

After lunch we headed home with a short stop to visit Wintee’s sister, Anti. We only stopped for a few minutes, but Wintee told us that she had to live there for the first month after she had her broken leg because it was closer to the hospital for checkups and the roads were so bad in the rainy season that she couldn’t be bounced around that much. As we were leaving, Emmanuel driving and me in front on the passenger side with Jenny already sitting in the back and Wintee was working at getting into the car as it is difficult with one crutch and her leg that doesn’t work real well yet. Well, as she is starting to get in, Emmanuel decided it’s time to back up. He puts the car in gear and of course there were 3 people informing him to wait as he realized Wintee wasn’t in yet. He apologized to Wintee as I teased him. A short while later Wintee starts laughing in the backseat as she remembers another time of Emmanuel’s forgetfulness. She told us that one time she was going to get in the car and was going to ride in the backseat, but the car took off without her. What made it funny was that Emmanuel didn’t know that Wintee wasn’t in the car. He swears he heard the back door close so he drove away. He realized it after driving a ways and he turned his head to find nobody in the car with him. We all laughed at that memory.

We came home afterwards with plans to head back to the Embassy for 8:30 as the guard suggested coming at that time tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.

Here’s one more picture of our time at the museum.

Well today was a good day. We were able to take our time in the morning getting ready and then having breakfast. We wanted to head out to the cell company to get our cards for the phones, but our first stop for the day was walking down to see the school and the stage of their church building project. It was so good to see the administrator, Winston Monmia, all grown up. Our first visit here I remember Winston trying to drive a car when nobody was around and backing it into a muddy lawn and getting stuck and getting in trouble from Emmanuel. Winston was staying with them at the time. Each time I’ve seen growth in him and now I call him the ‘boss-man’ of the LCMI school. Here is a picture of him from our tour. Others who came will remember him.

It was so good to visit all the classes at LCMI school.

Right next door is their church building project. The first time we came there were some foundation walls and grass was overgrown all around. Now you can see they are making progress, even if it is ‘small small’.

They would like us to pray for their progress as they move towards a roof on the building.

After walking back to the house Jenny met Herrietta, the lady that would be helping with the kids, and they went over the lesson plan and the schedule.

Then it was time to head out to get our cell card for more data on our phones. It turns out it isn’t unlimited, but 2 GB which to them is a lot. Our driver was Abraham again. He took us to a Lonestar store located in red light. It was a small glimpse of red light as we didn’t go all the way through. It is just as busy as I remembered and we were just on the edge of the busy part.

The second picture shows the steel plates over the entrance drain or the lack of plates over this ditch that is probably a foot deep at least. As the car front tires fall into the bent plate it makes for a precarious revving of the engine to push through. The car in front of us had to try a few times to back up and go to a better location with less bend in the steel. Everyone takes it in stride. We made it in, got our cell coverage, and left without incident.

The title of this days blog needs some explanation. Jenny had said to Emmanuel that she would teach Bible to what she thought was the class at the school. Emmanuel thought, since she wanted to teach kids, let’s bring in kids. He scheduled Jenny’s class from 4:00-5:00. At least he only scheduled an hour. Anyway, the candy Jenny planned for would not be enough for the new plan of 100 kids. At least that is what Emmanuel was planning. We decided to stop at a store to pick up some suckers and candy for the other two days, Wednesday and Friday. We’ll see if we have enough now. We picked up the candy, more water, something to pick up each time we go out, and we bought a cold drink for us and Abraham.

We got back to Emmanuel’s house and had our lunch, palava sauce over rice. It was very good along with fresh cucumbers. After lunch Jenny wanted to make sure everything was ready so I left for a walk around the community. The trails I was taking were not roads, but more wandering trails, like cattle trails. I thought if I got lost most people know Emmanuel so someone would help me. I would get calls as I was walking of ‘Dad Robin’ which warmed my heart. I love that I’m recognized in the community. I eventually found a road of sorts and I was pretty sure where I was. I kept walking and of course scaring the youngest children outside since they don’t see a white man very often. It is so cute how they’ll stare and want to watch, but if you move closer to talk with them they’ll run to their mom for safety. The mom’s will just laugh at how their little ones react. Not all the little ones react that way. Most Liberian children want to be near you. For example, I came home from my walk and Jenny had little helpers to get ready for her class.

I think Jenny was enjoying the help. I jumped ahead a little bit since I forgot to tell that in my walk I had a man call out ‘Dad Robin’ and I waved. A minute or two later this same man kept repeating louder as he called to me ‘Dad Robin’. He was motioning behind him and I turned to see a lady trying to get my attention because she wanted to talk to me. Turns out I wasn’t the only fair skinned person out on that road. This lady is from the UK and she operates a school not too far from Emmanuel’s home. They are just completing another building so they can house 500 students. We talked for 20-30 minutes and I invited her to stop by Emmanuel’s tomorrow. Hopefully she’ll stop by. She says she’s a Christian, but she is not operating a Christian based school. She does not live here, but it sounds like she visits often. She has a principal and CEO to run the school. She now lives in London and is originally from Scotland. She is a very interesting lady. I’m hoping Jenny can meet her tomorrow also.

Well, back to our day. I came back, helped Jenny get the coloring book pages separated and we were ready for her class. It started out slow with 20-30 kids, but by the time Jenny’s story was over and it was time to color I counted 113 kids. More showed up and we were too busy to count again anyway. We are so thankful for all the help we had, including Emmanuel. He was a big help. We’ll see how the numbers change as we go through the week. Here is a short video of the kids with their papers finished afterwards. You can see Jenny in the back. She really enjoyed it, but is glad for a day break between.

Tomorrow we are going to try to go to the US embassy to work on Wintee getting a visa. We have no idea if we can help her get a visa, but we’ll go ask questions. Pray for this as we try. It is Armed forces day tomorrow which is a holiday for Liberia, but it may not affect the US embassy. We’ll see tomorrow.

Thanks for following along.

Today was our first opportunity to be with the full congregation at LCMI. Our day started out with a light breakfast of bread and hotdogs with coffee and ‘tea’.

We then headed over to the church for Sunday School where Solomon Browne was teaching. It was good to be there for his lesson. This started at 10:00 a.m. and was followed right after by the morning worship service. It is always interesting to worship in Liberia. Through the songs and offering that is always an experience to a special ‘rally’ which was a way to collect money for the building project. The Women of Purpose baked a few cakes that they were selling to raise money. It was led by Becky, the lady who lost her husband in December. She did a hood job during this. Jenny and I don’t have the accent down yet so we were both a little lost on what they were saying. Overall the congregation enjoyed the rally and at the end of the service much cake was shared.

I was blessed to speak today. What a privilege to offer the message to another culture in another country. The service ended shortly after 1:00 p.m.

It was quite hot just after, but we greeted many old friends and met some new ones. After a time Jenny and I headed home to have our lunch. Wintee had a meeting right after and Emmanuel left just before I preached as he was meeting up with a Pastor, Bask Johnson, who was visiting a few local places and Emmanuel planned to take him around.

After lunch Jenny and I decided to sit outside (in the shade) for a little while and we were surprised when Pastor Titus Namen, one of CBC’s missionaries, drove up on his motorcycle. It was so good to see him again. We were able to sit and visit for over an hour together. Emmanuel came back and he wasn’t kidding when he said we’d be busy today. We needed to go to visit some of the small group studies called cell groups that the church has going on for Sunday. We said our goodbyes to Titus with a promise to get together again soon with he and Mercy, his wife, as well as their children. We haven’t worked out the details, but we will.

Anyway, we got in the car with Emmanuel and Pastor Johnson and headed out. After quite a few ‘dusty roads’ we showed up at a nice home with an anniversary party underway. This couple normally has the cell group at their home, but they wanted to have a party with their friends for their anniversary. We arrived and they brought out a plate of food for each of us. It was good food and there were a bunch of kids around. I had a lot of fun playing with them. We left there to go to a wedding planning meeting with our driver from the day before, Abraham. For those that were here before, Abraham’s best man is Shaddrach. It was good to see him. We stayed for only a few minutes and we hit the road again. I was dropped off at a cell group of young men. It was good to study with them for awhile. When we were finished I realized that we were close to home so we just walked home. The boys decided to play UNO so I joined in. Jenny came back as we were playing. We must have played over 10 games and I didn’t win even one. I don’t think I like that game. It was a lot of fun.

Now we are sitting here, generator on, with fans blowing on us and Jenny preparing her lesson for the children tomorrow afternoon. Pray that she feels confident as she leads. She has a great helper, Herietta, planning to help her. It should be a good day.

Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get our infinity card and we can send pictures. Until then, goodbye.

It is now at the end of our first full day here in Monrovia at Emmanuel and Wintee’s house. After waking up refreshed, somewhat, we got up to a good breakfast and a little time spent with our hosts. I treasure these times in the busyness of a day. After sitting for awhile Wintee and Jenny headed over to the church for an usher’s meeting. The women assume the role of the ushers in their church they went over all of the duties and responsibilities they expect and they encourage them and ask that they remember to pray for the congregation as they serve. One thing Jenny told me the ushers reviewed that I found interesting is that they watch for anyone sleeping and they want to gently and respectfully wake them up. Hmm, I wonder if we should mention this back home. Just knowing this would help keep people alert.

While Jenny was over at the usher’s meeting I sat with a couple of gentlemen, Pastor Paye and Solomon Brown. Pastor Paye is starting a church nearby and he is encouraged by visiting with Pastor Emmanuel. Solomon is a member of LCMI and he definitely knows his Bible. I enjoyed speaking with both of them as the morning wore on. Emmanuel, being his normal busy self, excused himself and went somewhere with the car. As the two men left and Jenny was still in her 3 hour plus meeting, I also had an opportunity to visit with some of the young people around the house. Matthias, one of Emmanuel’s children, was there as well as a young man, Abraham, 23 years old who will be getting married on February 29th. We had a great discussion about Liberia and America and some of the differences in our countries.

When the usher’s meeting ended, Jenny and I then presented many of the things we brought over for Emmanuel and Wintee…seeds and Ovaltine from Mike and Brenda Gustafson, to eyeglasses from Jeremy and Faith to sewing supplies from Bobbijo. It is so nice that many people back home have a part in this visit. We were also able to bring ‘Women of Purpose’ certificates and embossing seals for presentation to WOP graduates. It is a joy to be part of these ministries in a small way.

After a lunch (that I skipped due to a queasy stomach from taking my malaria med too long after breakfast-lesson learned again) we headed out to try and get SIM cards for our phones. The main office for Lonestar, one of their cell companies, was closed for a Saturday so we stopped to have some young men who sell their service on a street office. Basically a table with an umbrella and a bunch of guys carrying wads of Liberian cash. The exchange rate from US $ to Liberian $ has changed from 85 LD to 1 USD in 2012 on my first visit to now the exchange rate being 197 LD to 1 USD. In other words the wads of cash ranging from $5 to $100 don’t amount to a large value. Anyway, this group of young men guessing their age from 20-30 ran alongside our car as they saw us pull up. They then argued on who was there first. After this was established they began the process of popping out our existing SIM cards and getting the new ones registered and installed. This was rather interesting as they had a lot of paperwork required and I had to have my picture taken for each card before they could activate. This took about one hour to process the two phones. Then came the bill…they wanted to charge $15, but our guide, Abraham, said this was too much and he said this was worth $10 plus we’ll buy the scratch cards for minutes on the phone. I was more than willing to accept their first cost, but I initially deferred to Abraham’s judgement. He paid them $10 plus bought 5 one dollar scratch cards. We installed the minutes on the two phones and while we were doing this the group of young men came over to request a couple more dollars for their work. I handed them three more dollars and they proceeded to barter further as they said they have 5 of them so how about $2 more. I thoroughly enjoyed these guys as they did a good job and I wanted to recognize this on my payment. I decided to have a little fun with them like Monty Hall on ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ (for you young people look that up on YouTube). I asked the lead guy if he was willing to trade what he had in his hand for what I had in my front pocket. He was hesitant at first but the others were more than willing to chance it. He held $13 in his hand and I pulled out a $20 bill. They were pleased with their negotiations. In the end I gave him $20 with thanks since they did a good job. The only thing I didn’t realize is that $1 scratch cards do not give you much data. When turning on my data I received a couple of pictures from Jono and Hanna in our group family text. These pictures used up one of the dollars’ data right away. I enquired of Abraham on whether there are other options for data with this carrier. He said at the main office they have an infinity card which offers unlimited data and calling for one month for $27 or somewhere around that cost. We plan on going to the main office on Monday to do this. So, long story longer, we have ‘limited’ data hopefully enough to post this blog. We should be back online full time on Monday. It is surprising how much we rely on data for contact with others.

When we got home from our phone experience Jenny went to rest as we are still feeling the effects of the lack of sleep on the trip over. She ended up staying in bed and we are currently settling in for the night. I, meanwhile, sat with Emmanuel and a few other men in the church for a coffee meeting. They try to meet once a week, review some Scripture, discuss and then have coffee and a time to visit. Reminded me of our Discipleship Hour at CBC. Anyway we had some great discussions and I am getting to know more of the men in the church.

One thing I forgot to mention is a prayer request for Becky Cooper. She is the widow of Delt Cooper who passed away in December. She shared some of the struggles of being alone. She has four children, ages 19, 17, 11 and 6 years old. She has one more year of schooling in nursing to graduate. She would have completed already, but she took the past year off to care for Delt during his illness. Now it is more difficult to attend nursing school due to finances. Please pray for her as she deals with the loss of her husband as well as her plans for future care of her family. We were able to pray with her as she and Jenny shared tears together. I’m so thankful for my caring wife in cases like this. I do want to encourage Jeriann back home who is dealing with a similar loss. Becky was encouraged by her story and her understanding that God is good, all the time.

I don’t mean to bounce around with details from our day, but there is so much new information that it’s easy to overlook a discussion or experience. With that I want to share the struggles that Liberian’s are facing above the normal ones. Gasoline is normally between $4-$5 a gallon. For some reason the gas prices rose to currently $6.35 / gallon with the fear that gas supplies are low. There was one time recently that all the stations ran out of gasoline. While driving to get our phone cards we witnessed lines of cars at all gas stations. Jenny made the comment about them running out of gas while waiting in line. Just after she said this we witnessed this as one car had people pushing the car as the line inched forward. We noticed another man carrying a plate of food he got from someone and he was walking to get back in his car to wait in line. That’s how slow some of the lines are moving. Emmanuel’s cars are diesel which is more expensive at $7.35 / gallon, but more available without the lines. The discussions we have inevitably touch on this new problem they face as a country.

Overall it was a good day and we look forward to worshiping at LCMI tomorrow. Hopefully we can begin to share more pictures after we upgrade our cell service. Good night to all. We hope you enjoy our account of the experiences we have in beautiful Liberia.

Anytime you travel, especially abroad, the travel days merge into a confusion of time.

Jenny and I left Chicago on time yesterday evening with an uneventful flight to Brussels, Belgium where we arrived at 9:00 a.m. or so. Wait, was it 9:00 or was it 2:00 a.m. (central time)? After waiting a few hours in Brussels we boarded our plane for Monrovia via Freetown, Sierra Leone. As I type in this portion of our experience we are sitting on the tarmac in Freetown waiting for clearance to takeoff. The next flight is about one hour and then through Liberian customs and then meet Emmanuel for the ride back to his home, about an hour from the airport. We land at around 8:10 p.m. Monrovia time or 2:10 p.m. central. Again, it takes a couple of looks at the world clock on my phone to keep up with the current time zone we are in.

Airborne now on our way. It’s been a great travel day, but we are looking forward to some sleep, even at the early time back home.

We thank God for His watching over us and for the safe travel and interesting people we’ve already met.

Here now with Emmanuel.

It is very humbling to realize we are such a small part of God’s big world. Today marks a special day for Jenny and me as we begin a journey back to Liberia, West Africa. We feel very blessed to be able to travel back to a country that is very dear to us. The people of Liberia, especially the friends we’ve made over our past visits, are a huge part of our lives.

We appreciate Pastor Emmanuel and his wife, Mother Wintee, as they open their home for our visit.

Jenny and I leave in four hours +/- as we travel through Belgium on our way to Monrovia, Liberia. Upon our scheduled arrival tomorrow evening at 8:10 p.m. local time we begin the three weeks with our friends that we pray God will use us for His glory.

Emmanuel has informed me that on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. we will be welcomed officially by LCMI church with a brief welcome service. He also informed me today that he has four young couples that he wants me to aid in pre-marital counseling. He figures that as Jenny and I have so many years together we must have some wisdom to offer. My advice, recognize your own failings and not your spouses. We’ll see how that goes. Emmanuel has a way of hitting the ground running if you’re willing to serve. We appreciate his love for service as well.

We don’t know what adventures we will face, nor what hardships may come, but we leave all in the hands of God who created us to serve Him. We hope to share our experience on this blog. We ask that you pray for us and Mike McMahon, who will be joining us one week after we get started. I look forward to sharing these experiences with Mike. He is a great friend and we thank Kim, his wife, for sharing him in service to the Liberian people.

We already had a good start to today with a visit with our dear daughter, Sarah. We had a good breakfast before she dropped us off at the airport.

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God bless and bring on Liberia.