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Daily
Snapshots of Liberia
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Promoting Clark Iron & Metal on
3 continents (am I loyal or what)
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(L to R) Christine, Katie, Ken,
Esther, Ridge, Dion, Laurence & Alvina
(Gayla, fresh fruit every meal)
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Visiting to Port of Monrovia
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One of the orphaned girls we visited
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Soon almost everything is routine.
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Over 60 pastors at the Crown
Conference
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Ken with a new friend
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Robert Cuppah starts the 2nd
day’s session
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Width of column is 2.5”
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Service To Servants
Post Office Box
771
Murfreesboro, TN 37133
615.202.3517
info@servicetoservants.com
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For, brethren, ye have been called unto
liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Galatians 5:13
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Last updated
2/27 @ 7:30am central
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Dates
in BLUE with an underline are linked to a full journal.
Contact
Information:
In Liberia-
Rodney
Edwards, Service To Servants
011 231 6 652 187
John
Kpewoan, God’s Kids – Liberia 011 231 6 557 691
In the U.S.-
Buffy
Bowman, God’s Kids – U.S.
(951) 681-0025
Remember when
calling Liberia
that you will be charged for the call but the call recipient will
not. The safest way to call is
with a phone card from Wal-Mart.
If you use your personal phone please call and find out the
rate. Normally you will pay 35 –
50 cents per minute.
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Prior
to departure:
Pray for today- Although Gayla would have you
pray for our safety, I would ask that you pray that we would fulfill
the tasks that God has called us to accomplish.
Planned- Arrive home from New Orleans, do some last minute
packing. Spend the evening with
my lovely wife. Relax.
Actual- Really did work out about that way. Since my flight doesn’t leave until
1:25pm tomorrow it reduces the normal stress of getting going so early
in the morning.
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Saturday, February
17th (click for full journal and photos):
Pray for today- That all the participants would
make their flights and that nothing would prohibit us from arriving
into Monrovia
tomorrow night.
Planned- Have breakfast with Gayla before she
leaves for Life Group leadership training at our church (www.CrossPointCares.org) Leave for the airport around 10:30am and
meet up with the others in Washington DC for the flight to Brussels.
Actual- Made it to the airport, checked in. Flight delayed, moved to American,
made it to DC and on to Brussels. Will meet up with the others their
tomorrow morning.
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Sunday, February 18th
(click for full journal and photos):
Pray for today- Pray for energy during the long
trip and for our health so that we are able to complete the work God
sent us to do. Pray for our
wisdom as well to see how God is best honored in this work.
Planned- Fly all day, arrive in Monrovia in the evening and enjoy a
night’s rest. (see the
detailed schedule here)
Actual- We flew all day, arrived about 8pm, were
promptly picked up by Ridge and John and fed a wonderful meal when we
arrived at Christine Tolbert Norman’s home.
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Monday, February 19
(click for full journal and photos):
Pray for today- Pray that we will gain sufficient
knowledge of the port operations to make decisions on shipping along
the Liberian coast and trucking of containers from the port. Also that we will understand how best
to serve these orphaned children.
Planned- Tour the Port of Monrovia,
meet with its director & tour 2 area orphanages. (see the detailed schedule here)
Actual- Had a wonderful visit with the director
of the Port
of Monrovia and
received a warm welcome to provide barge transportation. We also visited three orphanages and
say so many precious children.
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Tuesday, February
20th (click for full journal and photos):
Pray for today- Pray that God will open doors for
orphanages to start businesses to help support themselves. Also pray for the hearts of the
governmental leaders that we will meet with tonight.
Planned- Orphanage tour and evening meeting with
governmental & orphanage leaders together with the God’s Kids
board. (see the detailed
schedule here)
Actual- We worked together on potential business
efforts that could benefit the orphanages, actually visited 7
orphanages and attended a dinner with government officials and other
dignitaries to discuss the ways in which orphanages can create
self-sufficiency. A full and
complete day in my book.
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Wednesday, February
21st (click for full journal and photos):
Pray for today- Ask God to open our eyes to the
business opportunities that are available to fund God’s work in Liberia. Also, pray with us for a man of
integrity to represent STS in Liberia and about some
potential property that would give us a permanent presence there. (see the detailed schedule here)
Planned- Business development tour, visit
potential STS property in Bensonville, May’s Farm, Hebron orphanage’s water program and
a printing company. Also, Rhoda
is to begin training with God’s Kids.
Actual- We went first to Bensonville to look at
the property that Christine has identified, then we went to May’s
Farm. May is an incredible
business woman and we learned a lot from her. Shirley, the proprietor at Hebron had a nice
cold water business going and the Lebanese printer was scared we were
going to compete with him and painted as dim a picture as possible.
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Thursday, February 22nd
(click for full journal and photos):
Pray for today- Pray that agriculture can be used
to teach skills to the orphans and to provide for their wellbeing. Continue to pray for the
governmental leaders of Liberia. Islam would love to have this country.
Planned- Jackson’s
farm tour & additional meetings with governmental leaders. (see the detailed schedule here)
Actual- I broke away for the first time and spent
the day with Robert Cuppah visiting various ministries and also
governmental leaders. Although
this trip was not about our Children’s Village, we did stop by and see
Jeremiah at the cold water and ice business. The God’s Kids folks reported that
they had a tremendous day and all were pumped up by Jackson’s splendid job in getting
agriculture established at several orphanages.
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Friday, February 23rd
(click for full journal and photos):
Pray for today- Pray for the stamina and
receptivity of the pastors of the Firestone area. They will work all day and then come
to the Crown teaching sessions into the night.
Planned- Meet with Deputy Minister for Social
Welfare, meet with the president of the Liberian Orphanage Association,
and hold first evening of Crown Financial Ministries’ Pastors’
conference at Firestone. (see
the detailed schedule here)
Actual- Again, I am separate from the God’s Kids
crowd today. I had a great
meeting with the Minister of Transportation, picked up three other
pastors for the Crown conference and went to Harbel, Firestone for an
excellent first two sessions taught by Richard Cuppah and Pastor
Reeves.
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Saturday, February
24th (click for full journal and photos):
Pray for today- Pray for Robert Cuppah, myself
and the others who will lead the Crown sessions. Pray that it will be all about the
truth of God’s word and nothing about personal prestige or ego.
Planned- Visit with the orphans, take Christine,
John and the GK board to dinner and hold the final evening of Crown
Financial Ministries’ Pastors’ conference at Firestone. (see the detailed schedule here)
Actual- Christine and Dion visited 2 orphanages
and took Shadrach’s boys and Abigail to the ELWA beach. Ken taught a leadership course at a
local church, Katie and Ridge visited Hebron Orphanage again and Robert
& I taught the 3rd and 4th sessions of the
Crown Pastors’ conference. The
rest of the gang went out to eat tonight but I didn’t get back in time
to go. But Esther made sure I
had a warm dinner to eat. She’s
great. I have to say, this was a
great day for me.
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Sunday, February 25th
(click for full journal and photos):
Pray for today- Pray that, in Liberia just as in America, people will hear
the gospel preached, will believe it and will start a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ.
Planned- Attend services at Providence Baptist
Church and leave
for home late in the evening.
Actual- We went to John’s church, The Lord’s
Prayer, instead of Providence.
It would have been fun to attend
Providence
as this was their 187th anniversary. John did a great job preaching. We returned to Christine’s for lunch,
I worked on the wireless connection for a little while, rested some and
then we left for the airport. The
flight out was good.
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Monday, February 26th
(click for full journal and photos):
Pray for today- Pray for the endurance of the California team
members as they have a very long day of flying.
Planned- Fly until our eyeballs pop out, and then
fly some more. Arrive back in Nashville at
5:35pm. The rest of the team has
to go all the way to California
(4-5 more hours).
Actual- The flight into Brussels was direct and good. We got 2 day rooms at the Sheraton – Brussels Airport and took showers, rested
and ate breakfast. Our flight to
Washington DC left on time, we made it through
customs and onto our flights home from DC. I am glad to see Gayla.
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Aftershock:
Pray for today- Pray that we will not be willing
to go back to our “normal” lives but will act upon every opportunity
that God has shown to us.
This trip has been excellent. Being able to spend time with the God’s
Kids group helped me to understand the importance of doing things with
excellence. They were all so
kind. Establishing a
relationship with Laurence and Christine Norman was super and I know
that this new relationship will yield fruit for the future. Robert Cuppah, Dr. Reeves and I had a
great time bringing Crown – Liberia’s first conference
to Harbel, Firestone. Meetings
with governmental officials should allow us to better serve God in Liberia. I believe we will find an STS –
Liberia director, property and other important needs because of this
trip.
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“Surrendered
to serving those on the mission field”
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