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Day’s Journal
There’s one thing to remember
as you read these daily notes and that is that I will allow my emotions to
show along with, hopefully, my humor.
The purpose that God has for this trip is real and important. God is working in Liberia and He wants us to join
Him in that work. I understand that
there will be ups and downs. If we
remain faithful to the call God has given us, then only obedience to Him
will be used to determine the ultimate success of this trip. So keep in mind that I’m sharing my daily
life, thoughts and emotions with you and they are not filtered to fit into
the “politically correct” church talk that many times says everything is
perfect when it’s not. Also I,
Rodney, will be writing much of what you see here but I will do my best to
entice the others on the trip to contribute as well.
The primary focus of this
trip is for Service To Service to set up the organizational infrastructure
through finalizing our Liberian board of directors, working closely with
Robert Cuppah (our COO in Liberia) and preparing for the initial operations
of several business startups. In
addition, we will spend multiple days working with the Crown Africa team to
expand the capabilities of Crown to reach Liberia through better trained
and prepared personnel. Finally we
will work to move the REAP property transfer forward and to determine the
opportunities for service that we can provide.
Here’s who will be going and
a little about their background:
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Beccy Lanier
This will be Beccy’s first trip to Liberia
although she spends much of her prayer time serving the people of this
country.
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David Bearchell
This is David’s second trip to Liberia as he was
part of the Crown Financial Ministries’ conference that was held last
November.
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Matt Elsberry
Matt returns for his second time to Liberia as he
serves both as a STS director and Leadership Development person for Crown
Financial Ministries.
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Gayla Edwards
Gayla is looking forward to her second trip to
Liberia. She participated in last
year’s Pastors’ and the Business by the Book conferences last November.
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Rodney Edwards
Rodney is anxious to spend time with the new
Liberia STS board members and especially to work closely with COO Robert
Cuppah in planning for the coming year’s activities.
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Also expected to join the
team for this trip are:
Jan Strydom – Leader of Crown
– Africa based out of South Africa
Mario Denton – Leadership
expert from South Africa
In some ways this is the most
unprepared for a trip to Liberia that I’ve every been. I think this will make the 6th
trip over for me. Spiritually there
is a lack of focus all the time knowing that focus will be one of the primary
tools used to accomplish this mission.
Physically we’ve been running ourselves ragged trying to get things
into shape (work, church & STS) so that we can be gone 2 weeks without
everything falling apart. At work I’m
in the middle of a very time critical project. Bernie and Dave are keeping things under
control while I’m gone but I feel guilty dumping so much on them. Our church, Cross Point (www.crosspointcares.org) has
acquired its first land and building and much is underway to get ready to
move in on January 1st.
Gayla is heading up the design team that will recommend the interior
and exterior changes necessary to be ready to reach that community. “Her friend Melissa” is taking over a
number of critical tasks during Gayla’s absence such as getting quotes from
various subcontracts. Service To
Servants has a large number of projects underway and they all seem to be
coming to fruition during this trip.
So Chuck is tasked with multiple projects including taking delivery
of at least 9 (maybe 15) military 2.5 ton trucks that we have won at
auction. We’ve been waiting over 6
weeks for some of these to be released but you have to be approved by the
Department of Defense first and they were either backed up or had a hard
time trying to decide if we were terrorists or not. I listed the officers (Chuck Clark, David
Bearchell and myself) on the application.
I think it must have been Chuck’s name that fouled things up. He had a acetylene welding tank slip
through in a load of scrap that came in a few weeks ago. When it went through the shear it
released the gas which was ignited by a spark and exploded. The downtown fire department didn’t have
to be called. When their building
shook from the explosion they ran outside, saw the billowing smoke and
drove over to help put the fire out.
So it’s my supposition that word got out that he was exploding bombs
and the DoD decided that it might not be wise to release army trucks to
him. Of course that’s just my
opinion. To give credit where it’s
due, David DeLozier is actually coordinating the pickup of the military
trucks. He attends Cross Point and
worked on these type truck for the National Guard for about 30 years.
David Bearchell asked me for
what he calls my “primary asks of God” for this trip. He also wanted the priority goals for the
trip. So here’s what I gave
him. If you are willing to pray for
us on a daily basis then I would say these would be the things to pray
about.
“Asks of God”:
1. Understanding God’s
“updated” Mission for STS (expand? Contract? Freeze?)
2. “Cement” into
place the STS-Liberia Board of Directors
3. Expand and steward
the relationships with Liberian churches, businesses and governmental
leaders
4. Secure property
for business use and for an office/housing
5. Guide the startup
of our businesses – ice, generator, trucking & material sales
6. Wisdom for
opportunity/responsibility of STS in becoming more involved with certain
children’s ministries that we already work with.
Primary Trip Goals:
1. Complete the
establishment of the STS-Liberia Board of Directors
2. Establish, in a
clear and concise manner, the 2008 ministry goals with Robert Cuppah,
STS-Liberia Chief Operating Officer and with the new STS-Liberia Board of
Directors
3. Assist with the
Crown Financial Ministries training programs that will occur during our
visit.
4. Visit available
properties to serve as the STS business and training locations and the
specific location for a permanent STs headquarters in Monrovia.
5. Plan and begin the
operation of 4 new business initiatives in Liberia
6. Meet with many
church, business and governmental leaders to develop and steward new and existing
relationships
As
I write this we are flying along somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean having
left Atlanta about 3 hours ago. The
flight is supposed to take 8 hours so we’ve still got a way to go. Traditionally this has been the hardest
leg of the entire journey (that doesn’t count the truck ride out to Sinoe
County). Something about flying all
night just makes it seem especially tiring.
I’m not sure what the airlines due with the money they save from the
Boeing 767 comfort fund but it must be a lot because these are among the
most uncomfortable planes I fly on (cattle car comes to mind).
If
I thought she wouldn’t wake up I’d take a picture of Gayla right now. Delta gives you a little travel kit on
this flight that has ear plugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, plus an eye
cover deal that has elastic bands to hold it over your eyes. It’s bright red in color. But somehow I think a picture like that
would come back to haunt me.
I’ll
sign off for now and try to get some sleep.
If I have time, I will update you when we arrive in Brussels. The internet fee there is very steep but
I want to keep this section as up to date as possible.
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