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This morning we struggled out
of bed at 5:30am (that’s 11:30pm central time) and got ready for today’s
Pastors’ Conference. Even though
this is the event that we’ve been planning for, praying for, and giving
for, it’s a struggle to get going.
The previous week’s efforts have us worn down. Now the initial bright side, we have
running water to take a shower with and Major Gaymo from the Salvation Army
is sending a car for us at 6:15am.
The car arrives and we load
the 4 “Crown guys” in and send them off.
Dave, Gayla and I will ride in a little later through the assistance
of Dr. Brownell as we have several hundred pounds of additional books that
would not fit in the Land Cruiser.
Because we were leaving before the Compound staff arrived Lincoln offered to
bring our breakfast to the conference.
So off we go to town and it’s the calmest ride I’ve ever had in Liberia. We even stopped to let small children and
the elderly cross in front of us J.
The conference is to start at
8:30am but it’s obvious that our attendees are running on African
time. People begin to trickle in and
it gets fuller as time goes by.
Christian music is playing while we’re waiting and the registration
people outside are busy signing people up.
Everything is running smoothly, an additional testimony to the
committee’s devotion, and people continue to arrive. We had planned for 1,000 pastors and it
looks like we will reach 400- 500 today instead. We only received 422 Pastor Resource Kits
so I’m interested to see what God has planned. The Crown team is teaching about God’s
ownership and His control. So I
likely am receiving a lesson in God’s will versus my own. We are so grateful for every pastor who
attends and know that Liberia
can be changed by the teaching and equipping they are to receive.
The danger we face is letting
the purpose of this event become overwhelmed by the work of the event. We believe that God’s purpose for this
event is to change the face of Christianity in Liberia by freeing His people
from debt and bad financial situations so that they can be free to serve
Him. We are providing a way for
Liberian pastors to hear the Godly teaching that Liberia is in desperate need
of. Most of these people have almost
nothing material but it is even more important that they know God’s
principals for finances. God rewards
obedience in the small things with greater treasures since He knows that
you will be faithful. If we have
faithfully obeyed God in providing this training and if we continue in our
faithfulness by developing a Crown team within Liberia
that will continue the training of pastors, business leaders and those in
the government then we can trust God to use these efforts to accomplish His
purpose in Liberia.
Providence
Baptist Church
has electricity and reservoir water (both rarities in Liberia)
which allows them to have a good sound system. We’re using wireless mics, video
projectors, computers and DVD players in the conference. That would be difficult in most churches
in Liberia. So even the people sitting at the back of
the church were able to hear the speakers clearly.
One thing I forgot to tell
you about at the opening. Jan
promised everyone that attended would receive a Pastor’s Resource manual
and also that he would send a DVD of the presentation to everyone that was
here. The group erupted to into
applause. This is a people who are
starved for good, Christian resources.
I believe we will have many more opportunities to help acquire great
materials.
The people have been very
attentive and it has been interesting to see where they became actively
involved in the sessions. One of the
big areas was when the trainer talked about God’s requirement for
work. The people here are willing to
work hard and they want the opportunity.
I keep coming back to the very young children who are out selling
products along the major roads. They
exhibit tremendous capabilities to sell, make change, find their way, keep
from getting run over, etc. I really
am amazed. I wouldn’t want my kids
to have endured what these children endure but I also know that I didn’t
put as much emphasis on work and responsibility as I could have. Fortunately Gayla compensated for it and
our children are hard workers. Now
how did I get off on that?
We take the first break at
11:20am and almost no one has gotten up even to go to the bathroom. The level of attention has been
intense. These pastors desperately
want to help their congregations out of the poor economic conditions in
which they exist. They are excited
to hear about the principals that God has placed in His word concerning
finances. They are excited that
there is hope for them to understand that God owns it all and that being
good stewards brings them into line with God’s plan. By the way, the Baptist Compound had
brought our breakfast food to us and had it placed in the pastor’s office
(which is air conditioned by the way).
It’s a bread that looks like cornbread but has a mild, just barely
sweet type of taste that is very good.
They also have bananas and hot tea/coffee for us to drink. It’s just the “pick-me-up” that is needed
to get through to lunch.
The meeting resumed and Andre
took over the teaching from Jan. He
talked about the specifics of work and budgeting and the other areas of
financial responsibility. He was
very well received by the pastors and did a great job of distilling the
concepts that Jan presented down to the “doing” level. Andre finished about 1:40pm and we broke
for lunch.
The entire process of feeding
these 400-500 pastors was smooth (as I’ve come to expect for anything this
committee does). God blessed us with
these men and, although I tell them frequently, I’m not convinced that I’ve
really expressed my appreciation adequately. The meal was rice, cassava greens and an
abundance of meat (not the everyday occurrence for many of these
pastors). We ate again in Dr. Reeves’
office and enjoyed the air conditioning until Dave made me get up and go serve
him in the picture taking ministry.
He wanted to get his picture taken with all the Salvation Army
pastors. Apparently they didn’t want
to have their picture taken with him because they were scattered between
the upstairs sanctuary and the lunch area downstairs. So I continue to sacrifice for Dave with
little to show other than lack of a cool sitting place. He carried my computer bag back out to
the sanctuary thinking that would balance out our serving contest but it
doesn’t even come close. He’s still
down at least 20%.
We start back at about 2:40pm
and Fanie takes over. He’s been sick
with a cold/flu type illness and we had prayed for him earlier that his
voice would hold up. So he had been
pretty reserved for the past day and a half and I was thinking that he
would be a little dry in his presentation (he’s a former college professor
that quick to preach the gospel a few years back). From the moment he spoke the first word
until he finished he had them laughing, clapping and praising God. What a time he had with these pastors as
he overcame the “after lunch” sluggishness that typically sets in. Fanie spent much of his time talking
about the reasons we follow God’s plan for our finances and especially about
the motivation of love for God and for others. I think the pastors experienced every
emotion possible during the hour and a half that he spoke. We’re on a 15 minute break now.
We are back and people are in
their seats and ready to go. Fanie
has definitely been a hit and everyone is ready to hear him again. At the beginning of each session a DVD is
played that has several short segments by different presenters who
introduce the areas that the session will involve. I’m not sure how these are
perceived. I see their purpose and
think it’s a good way to accomplish the purpose but, since it’s not
interactive, it is hard to know how the people are comprehending. I’m in the balcony now watching the
pastors as one of these DVD’s is playing.
Most seem to be engaged but some are looking at their syllabus. Maybe they are multi-tasking?
This session is about
integrity. The DVD speakers have
already hit very strongly on bribes.
I’m interested to see where they go with this. It’s a battle I’ve lost with Shadrach so
far on the container issue. I’m
trusting that both Shadrach and I can take a stand together against this
bribery problem that we have here.
That means that we have to be willing to let a container sit in the
port for months rather than pay a bribe.
I’m thinking about a way to work through the entire process myself
to get an understanding of the underlying problems and, if necessary,
expose each attempt to extract a bribe publicly. I know that the government of Liberia
is losing out on millions due to the bribes extracted by its employees. I am sure that the workers at the port
could be paid 3x as much and, without bribing, still make money for the
government. Perhaps someone reading
this will do some research on ways that this problem has been overcome in
other bribe infested countries and can share it with us. I didn’t do very well with this at the
DHL office when the Crown materials were delivered Wednesday. The desire to get those materials out in
time for the conference was huge.
How easy to say that it wasn’t for me but for God that those
materials needed to come out. But
died I miss the opportunity to distinguish the true Christ from the
“Christ-of-compromise” that many of the airport and DHL personnel see?
Fanie is solemn for this
presentation. He’s very serious and
intense about integrity. The people
are hanging on his words as he leads them through a number of areas at
least some of which, as mentioned earlier, infect the church here. His stories of instances and people of
integrity is reaching through to these pastors.
I’m standing in the balcony
where I can see Fanie as he speaks and someone comes up to me. It turns out to be one of the 4 reporters
that are sitting in the balcony as well.
He asks about getting a copy of the conference notes. He says, “this is really good.” I have to agree, “this is good.” I ask him to write the name, cell number
and email address of each of the reporters and we will get them a DVD of a
session from Jan.
At the end of the final
session Jan came back for some final issues (completing the pledge to train
100 others, picking up the Pastor Resource Kit, etc.) and he asked the
Pastors that would like to actually become part of the Liberian training
group (going out and training other pastors that could not come) to come
down front. As it turned out over
50% of the pastors (a total of 209) stayed and wanted to work doing one day
training sessions across Liberia
to the others who were not able to attend. The Crown – Africa
team was blown away by this response. Pray that Jan, Andre and Fanie will have
great success as they remain behind an extra 3 days to get a Crown –
Liberia team set up in conjunction with the Pastor’s Committee.
It has been quite hot and the
trainers have given much (including buckets of sweat) to the effort today. We finally leave a little after 6:00pm and
head home. The team is worn out
physically and spent emotionally from today’s effort. The Seminary has provided us
transportation back to the Compound and we return to find the power out. There are generator problems and it would
be great if someone could assist them with a replacement generator. The extra one that we sent over for
Shadrach is committed to sale because the money from it is necessary to get
the ice business going. Otherwise I
would recommend that we give it to the Seminary. Call/email me if you have an interest and
I’ll give you what information I have. The SIM folks have another container going
over soon and we will have another one in the next few months as we need to
get a truck over.
The generator is fixed and we’re
eating with the group from Virginia
again tonight. The meal is macaroni salad,
traditional salad, baked chicken, bread and pie for dessert. It was good, as usual, and the company was
even better. Mayor Saytumah joined
us part of the way through the meal and we had some conversation with her
at the end of the meal. Pray for the
political leaders of Liberia
that they will trust in God to guide them in the very difficult decisions
that they have to make. There are
many times more pressing needs than they have finances to provide. Pray also that financial and personal
integrity would be modeled by them and that it would serve as a good
example to others working in the government.
I’m here a little after
10:00pm updating the website (thanks to a very reliable and very fast [for Liberia]
internet connection provided by Dr. Brownell. By the time you read this we will be half
way through the Business and Governmental conference. Pray that God’s favor will be on it just
as it was on the Pastors’ conference today.
I’ll put more pictures on tomorrow night.
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