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This morning I slept until
nearly 7am. The combination of
cooler temperatures and delayed travel fatigue helped me sleep relatively
well. There are 3 dogs here and they
seemed to get riled up a few times during the night which woke me up. My girls keep asking for a dog (both will
be away at college this semester) but I really like our cats. I can’t remember being awakened by cats
barking during the night.
Gertrude fixed a breakfast of
scrambled eggs and bread this morning.
That’s right up my alley. The
only thing missing was several slices of very greasy bacon on it smothered
in melted cheese to make the perfect meal.
Bacon and cheese are prohibitively expensive here for people living
on the amount of funds that Shadrach and Gertrude receive. They live out of the monies earned by the
cold water business and what is sent over for the Children’s Home from the U.S.
supporters. So it’s pretty much rice
and cassava every day (2x each day).
Shadrach and I spent some
time talking about the incorporation of STS in Liberia, getting the container
through customs duty free (no guarantee) and the Sinoe
store purchases.
A Liberian Ministries made
the donation to allow a store to be started in Karmo’s
Town. We are going to town in a few
minutes to buy everything. After all
the purchases have been made we will create a spreadsheet showing each
item, quantity, wholesale cost and the retail price that he will charge in
the village. One of the items we
discussed was the cost to get these items to the village (fuel) and how
that impacts the profit. Most of the
items don’t weigh that much so adding it to the rice and other supplies
will not overload the truck. Due to
weight considerations Shadrach does not take paying riders on the trip to Sinoe. But
coming back the truck is empty and he can take up to 8 people who each pay
$1,250 LD each for the trip. This
covers the round trip gas cost. So
every way possible is being used to help the ministry pay it’s own way.
We went to Redlight (the town nearby where the store items were
purchased) and went through the list of materials with the store
owner. Since the presence of a
“white man” (that’s what all the kids along the street yell when we drive
by…”hey white man”) tends to drive up the price of things I was left
outside to look around at other stores.
While milling around two men came up to me (we were in the middle of
at least a thousand “shoppers”) and said they wanted to talk to me. It’s very common here for visitors to be
approached about every 30 seconds (okay, so I’m exaggerating) by someone
wanting financial help for any number of reasons. So I told them that I was busy and didn’t
have time to talk (I’m not sure how you can be busy while milling around
but it was just an excuse). I walked
on. In a couple of minutes they were
standing by me again. I thought, boy are these guys persistent. One then said he wanted to talk with me
and didn’t appreciate me walking off.
Then he pulled out a Department of Immigration card (laminated with
his picture on it) and asked me why I was here. Half of Liberia has a laminated
government ID card of some kind so I still wasn’t worried. But I did talk to them for a moment and
they asked me a few questions that felt like they were leading up to asking
for funds (Shadrach came out and rescued me and asked them why they weren’t
looking for Arabs instead of bothering missionaries from America). The guys said that missionaries are doing
God’s work and wished me well. This
is a pretty silly story to tell but it made me realize something about
myself. I was dismissing people
immediately upon thinking that they were after money. It’s not that I could give something
financially to each person that asked (it happens frequently when in
public). And it’s not that I feel
the necessity. It’s just that it was
so easy to dismiss them without any consideration. If I don’t even make eye contact (a big
no-no with panhandlers) then how could I know if God had sent them? I really don’t know the complete answer
to this dilemma. The whole time you
are in a car creeping along the highway or outside your car in public,
people are trying to sell you water, Chiclets (I love them), bread,
peanuts, cooked meat, uncooked fish and a host of non-edible things. Most people just ignore them but I try to
say “no thank you”. While the
financial result is the same perhaps the spiritual result is different. Maybe.
While in Redlight
we got a call from Daniel Kolubah saying that the attorney could meet with
me at noon. So we had to rush away
to make the meeting. We met with
James Pierre of Pierre, Tweh &
Associates. He does work for the
Baptist seminary and his was one of three names that they had
supplied. We talked about the
process and time for incorporation (1 week) and the cost $1,000 – $2,000
without the duty free certification.
I knew immediately that this was out of my budget. Not to make you think that it’s unlike
where we paid a total approaching $2,000 for incorporation and 501c3
filings without ever using an attorney.
But I had a figure more like $500 in my mind (based on a year old
conversation with an attorney in Monrovia
by email). So I continued to learn
from Mr. Pierre for a few more minutes (he was very straight forward and
gave good info without making promises he couldn’t keep). After about 5-10 minutes of his time we
were done and I asked if I could pay him for his time. He refused.
Ben Amos, the broker from
last night’s visit that works in the finance ministry, called Shadrach and
said the he could do the incorporation and duty free filing (no guarantees
on passage) for $175 plus the $350 fee the Finance Ministry charges. He too felt that the incorporation could
be done in one week but thought the duty free filing would take
substantially longer. He’s supposed
to come back over and we will start the process with him perhaps tomorrow.
Just before we meet with
Counselor Pierre in downtown Monrovia,
Pastor Richard Wesley of the Greater Love Bible Baptist Church called
Shadrach’s phone and wanted to meet us.
So when we finished Shadrach called him and he took a taxi to meet
us downtown (he does not have a car).
He gets very good reviews from Pastor Rob Patterson, FBC-Galt, CA,
and, based upon my short time with him, I would add my admiration to Rob’s
as well. Pastor Wesley was well spoken, his church, medical clinic and home were all
well cared for and appealing to those who might attend. He’s having a 3 day leadership training
conference starting next week using a pastor from the Delta Valley
Association (Rob Patterson’s area).
I hope to attend at least one day.
By the way, we dropped Pastor
Wesley by his home and the government built the first power generating
plant immediately next to his home.
He should receive electricity next week I think. You’ll all be glad of your electric rates
when you hear what his will be…43 cents per kilowatt! Still cheaper than a generator however as
you’re producing full power on a generator regardless of what you’re
using. The electricity will only be
on from 6-11 in the morning and for 6-11 at night. Still, it’s progress.
After spending time with
Pastor Wesley we went back to Redlight to
actually purchase the Sinoe store items. It took 2 hours to buy and load
everything. Shadrach estimates that
the Sinoe store will make $200 of profit per
month. If that holds true then the
full $1,700 investment will be repaid in 9 months. I’d say that’s a great return on the
financial investment and know that it will provide the 1,000% (100 fold)
return that scripture promises in heavenly returns.
We’ve just arrive back home
and I am still trying to get this onto the website (I’m emailing it to
several people and asking them to pass it along as a temporary
solution). Keep looking for it.
Jeremiah and I are going back
to the internet café to try again and, after that, the spreadsheet showing
what I mentioned above.
There is a picture on the
main trip page that I wanted to talk about.
It’s the one with the 3 small children purchasing water from our
cold water store. If you notice, the
oldest child is not over 10 years of age.
They are not trailing along with their mother, they are buying water
to go sell. All day today I started
noticing the extremely young age of the children out working at selling
water, gum, boiled eggs (pronounced “bo-eds” by
the street vendors) and other items.
They work up and down an extremely busy highway and in a crowded
area with over 1,000 people. And
they do it alone. I doubt anyone
reading this would allow this although some of the older folks might
remember a childhood when they worked in the fields at these ages. These people need help. While we were parked at the store today
two separate men came up, saw the Children’s Village sticker on the side
and asked if we could take their children.
There’s much to be done here and a place for every ministry of
integrity and every U.S.
person who would like to help.
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