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Today’s the day of the
Business and Governmental Leaders’ conference. Since the setup had been tested yesterday
and we had much less material to take, we were able to sleep in until
6:30am and plan to leave at 7:15am. Our friends at the Salvation Army picked
us up. The Land Cruiser that they
arrived in was configured with two front seats and the balance had two
bench seats running down each side of the cabin. We put the boxes of materials on the roof
rack (I’ll come back to this later) and put Gayla in the front with the
driver while the other 6 of us got into the back bench seats. I’ve seen 14 Liberians in this same
space. You should have seen Gayla’s face when she realized the vehicle was air
conditioned. She immediately
volunteered to be the driver’s assistant for the day. Dave mentioned that, although there were
some doctrinal differences, that both Army and
Baptists were going to be in heaven and that he felt Gayla may switch
denominations. We were at the church
by 8:00am, unloaded the materials and went inside.
I said I’d come back to the
boxes on the Land Cruiser roof rack. Since we’ve arrived Dave has been doing
things like carrying my computer bag, getting me stuff, etc. As they would say in the Promise Keepers’
world he’s trying to “out serve” me.
Well, I’m not having that hanging over my head so I’ve started doing
things for Dave in return. It was
just an amateur sport until Matt arrived and then he became the independent
score keeper. I was a little ahead
of Dave until last night but then he carried my tripod, computer case and
video case into the house last night and Matt said he was ahead by 3.5
points. So this morning I carried
all the boxes of materials stored in the kitchen out to the sidewalk so
they could be loaded on the jeep. Matt
saw this and awarded me 5 points which should have put me ahead of Dave by
1.5. But Dave said it was done just
for show and that I shouldn’t get credit for that so I’m not sure where I
stand now. I’ll keep you updated on
the competition.
You might remember that we
had originally targeted to have 1,000 pastors and 500 business and
governmental leaders in the two conferences. As it turns out we had about 400 pastors
yesterday. The room was full from an
American point of view but less than half full from a Liberian standpoint. This morning the participants are very
slow in arriving. There are perhaps
15 people here at the 8:30am starting time. By 9:20am (the actual start of the
teaching time) there’re only about 30. We are committed to train whoever comes
but the pastor doing the introductions is stuck in traffic so we really don’t
start until almost 10:00am. As I
just counted, there are about 110 people in attendance. So the pastors’ conference reached 40% of
our goal and the business conference reached about 20%. I need you to understand that we are
excited about every one that is here. We will review our process from the first
thought that we had through the debriefing process to see where we could
have be better stewards of this effort but key people within Liberia are
learning the principles that God has for managing their finances. An especially bright light from yesterday
is that of the 400 pastor’s in attendance, 209 stayed for an additional
session where they agreed to train other pastors in these financial
principles. According to the statistics
I’ve heard from Crown the average is 15% - 20%. This group represented over 50% of those
pastors in attendance.
So Jan starts out the session
laying the groundwork for the day of teaching. He brought the group along and very
quickly began to dispel the myth of owning a business. God owns everything,
we are just the managers (stewards).
Today’s group is very different in temperament than the pastors. The pastors were verbally engaged and
frequently gave vocal agreement or surprise. They would also break out in applause at
certain times. The business people
are much more reserved but they are just as much engaged. You can see them as they work through some
of the radical concepts that are being brought from God’s word.
We started late and Jan’s
introduction takes a pretty good while. He starts to turn the session over to
Andre but the Committee has arranged a mid-morning snack of small tuna
salad sandwiches and juice. So they
are dismissed for 20 minutes to partake of the food. They are faithful to return in the 20
minute time limit.
Andre takes the next two
sessions and drills down into the specifics of how to “do” business
according to God’s principles. He spends a lot of time on getting/staying
out of debt, not cosigning loans, including your spouse in your business
decisions, being in business with nonbelievers and a number of other basic
issues. It could get pretty dry but
Andre does a good job of integrating some humorous stories that punctuate
the truth that he is teaching at the time.
Lunch comes at 1:30pm
(planned this way) and everyone is dismissed downstairs for rice and a stew
made of meat, kidney beans and other things. We eat ours in Dr. Reeves
office and it is very good. I think
that Daddy would like it as it’s spicy. Jan and Andre are sitting in the air
conditioned office and they look absolutely exhausted. People who don’t make lengthy
presentations to groups really don’t understand the high level of stress
involved as you work hard to read and simultaneously adapt your
presentation to the audience based upon their comprehension. Add that to the lasting effects of traveling
for over 31 hours on a difficult airline (Bellview
doesn’t have a very good reputation for service or safety). Jan doesn’t eat and I can understand that
feeling. Andre eats but is still
fairly tired looking. 2:25pm comes
and it’s time to start the final session.
Farnie
has the first session after lunch and seems up to the task of keeping the
business people involved in the teaching. The primary focus of the session is
personal and financial integrity. There
are many businesses in need of this teaching in the U.S. (and
Crown has been doing this for years). The difference in Liberia is
it has become the rule and is expected that people will be dishonest in
business. If the Christians in the U.S. and in Liberia will exhibit the power
of God through personal integrity they can have a
tremendous impact on the spiritually unresolved that operate in the
marketplace.
Something weird is happening
right now. A guy that I thought was
a reporter has been walking around taking pictures. It turns out he’s selling them to people
during the conference. Gayla is
upstairs in the balcony with me and she’s giving me a running commentary on
the guy and telling me he shouldn’t be doing that during the conference. Dave has just figured out what he’s doing
as well and is glaring at him (Dave’s downstairs but we can see him from
where we are).
Speaking of the balcony. James, the property manager for Providence, has taken good
care of me by bringing my own fan. Wow! I finally break down and invited Gayla up
after lunch. Then she said that we
should invite Carol Chambers up
because she’s suffering from the heat. So now it’s the three of us up here. I’m thinking of selling tickets.
I’ll pass along one of Fanie’s stories meant to indicate the tragedy of church
members who are not totally surrendered to Jesus Christ:
A man was going to a masquerade
party and was dressed up like the devil, complete with pitchfork and tail. As he was walking along the sidewalk to
the party a sudden rainstorm came up and, looking for a quick place of shelter,
jumped into the door of a small church unaware that the pastor was meeting
with 5 older women of the church. About
the time they looked up to see the “devil” come through the door a sharp
clap of thunder shook the place. The
pastor and 4 of the women bolted out the back door but the fifth woman was
stuck in her chair. The masquerading
“devil” continued down the isle toward the lady to explain his presence and
as he got closer and closer she finally yelled out, “Mr. Devil, Mr. Devil. I’ve been a member of this church for
over 30 years but I’ve always been on your side.”
Pastor Wesley, chairman of
the finance subcommittee, just came up to give me a preliminary report on
the conference. We provided $3,863
of money to the committee a couple of months ago. They have completed all the work,
including two days of meals, with $250US remaining. The total budget we gave them initially
was over $9,000US and they have, once again, proven to be a committee of good
stewards in accomplishing all that was asked for less than half of that
amount. Here’s a quick recap:
Funds provided by Service To Servants $3,863.00
Income
from the conference:
Pastors (394 @ $1.50US) $ 591.00
Business/Governmental
(91 @ $5.00US) $ 455.00 $1,046.00
Total receipts by the committee $4,909.00
Total expenses by the committee $4,659.001
Remaining funds $ 250.002
(1)
I reviewed each receipt making up these numbers and
noted that both the sub-committee’s chairman and Dr. Reeves had approved
each one.
(2)
I left this amount in the care of Pastor Richard
Wesley to start the local Crown – Liberia organization. The current Pastor’s Committee will make
the final decision on how it is used.
Gayla and Carol are getting
sleepy so they go outside to get some air. While they’re out there they get in the
middle of a very fancy wedding and Gayla takes a bunch of pictures. (I asked her if she offered to sell them
to the people in the wedding.) I’ve
stopped being surprised by what Gayla finds interesting. I may have to separate her and Carol as
they seem to be getting into things when together.
Well, Andre has finished and
Jan is working through the final actions that allow us to know the contact
info for the people who attended. He
also promotes a Crown office that will be opened here.
So what’s the final word on
the two conferences? Are they
failures because 1,000 pastors and 500 business/governmental leaders didn’t
attend (only 1/3 of that number actually attended)? We are responsible to work out the plan
that God gives us in times like this. I already know that there are areas where
I should have performed better. But I
do know this, God asked us to make this teaching from His word available in
Liberia
and we, through the help of many people, were obedient. He has also promised that His word would
not return to Him void of its intended purpose. So we are giving God glory for what had
been accomplished here knowing that He is just beginning the work.
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