|
This morning I woke to a
steady downpour of rain that lasted about 6 hours without stopping. I sat on the 2nd story porch
and enjoyed the cool breeze while I read about World Hope’s MicroFinance effort in Liberia called L.E.A.P. It has survived war and many other
challenges but it continues to help the very lowest economic strata that
simply will not obtain business capital any other way. The loans vary from $50 - $200, require
repayment plus interest and have a 98% currency rate (better than most
American banks). It’s worth a look
just to see what’s possible when God’s people put their heads and hearts
into solving the problem of joblessness and poverty. Not a handout but a hand up.
I’ve made contact with, Michael
Ossege, the head of L.E.A.P., and hope to meet
with him tomorrow and secure his participation in the conference. Pray that this will occur.
I had asked our board of
directors to begin praying for an opportunity that God brought about to
have an audience with the Vice President of the Republic of Liberia. Mr. Debey Sayndee (pronounced Debbie
Sandy) is a professor at the University
of Liberia and also a
pastor. He is our first
Business/Governmental Committee member and, having a relationship with the
Vice President, obtained permission for the meeting. Respecting his time we presented the key
parts of the STS and Crown stories to him promoting the benefit of a
government filled with people living lives in concert with God’s financial
principals and carrying that integrity into their jobs in government
service. Mr. Boakai
listened patiently and then spent several minutes talking about the need
for such training among the pastors, business and governmental leaders in Liberia. Not only was he supportive but he agreed
to promote the conference within the government, attend the opening event
and designate a member of his staff to serve on the committee. Thank you for your prayers in regard to
this matter.
Debey also mentioned that he
had discussed the Crown Event with the University of Liberia’s vice
president and he has agreed to serve on the Business/Governmental
Committee. I didn’t have time to get
this name from Debey but will do so at my earliest opportunity.
There’s more I need to add
here but it’s 6pm, Shadrach and crew haven’t had
lunch and I don’t have another $45 for Chinese.
Oh, one more thing. Coming back I saw the first functioning
traffic light since I’ve been traveling here. The drivers seemed to be ignoring it
completely.
We stopped off at an internet café
so that I could get the info out about the visit with the Vice President
and ended up spending over an hour.
I wanted to email the full resolution photos to the board but,
somehow, forgot how much time a 3mb attachment would take. That was close to 30 minutes of the
visit.
On the way back we stopped by
the medical clinic to get Jeremiah another injection (Malaria?) but they
wouldn’t give it to him since he hadn’t eaten first (my fault). So it’s back to the house for something
to eat and then back to the clinic I think.
Before we could get back on the dirt road that would take us to the
highway a taxi car came down and fell into one of the small elephant sized
holes in the road (it’s now dark).
That blocks the only passable part of the roadway so we are
stuck. Elijah, the driver, thinks he
knows a back way (I thought we were on the back way) and off we go. It’s a series of paths through the back
yards of people and trails that a duck would have had trouble
swimming. But we made it. Gertrude had food ready when we returned
so I’ve eaten a little and am preparing for bed.
I updated some stuff from
yesterday so you may want to go back and read the log from the 15th
again.
|