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Hi Precious Karen (and everybody
else!)-Guess who this is? Yes, I am back!!! (David writing)
I do not know if I can say
the best has been saved for last, but if not the best awfully close. Today was the day we were hosted by an
incredible ministry to the orphaned children of Liberia, God’s Kids,
represented this day by John and Jackson two of God’s Kids leaders, and
after a day with them we all understand that they are indeed-true servant
leaders! God’s Kids heart is to give orphans hope and the four orphanages
(all with homes with schools) we visited sure confirmed that hope is being
given to these children.
It is impossible to distill
the day. The roads getting to them were as difficult as I have been
“privileged” to ride on in Liberia….bumped to exhaustion to almost say
stop, no more, turn around and then there they appear-the children! Oh my.
The words from the song ‘the joy of the Lord is my (their!)
strength’ is what again comes to mind as I write this. The love of Jesus and care we saw of
those He is using to serve these boys and girl in the dorms, classroom, at
play and schools of “The Children’s Rescue Center”, “Monrovia Training
Center Orphanage”, “Anna Enoch Orphanage” and “Christian Orphan &
Agriculture Program” was so evident-Wow!
STS this day, because of the
generosity of a capital investment by a US church from the Atlanta area,
were exploring how their gift of multiple, powerful diesel generators could
be leveraged to perhaps all 4 orphanages (plus at least one more) to
provide needs to the children like electricity, pumping of water to
irrigate crops, vocational/business training in engines/electricity, a
business (cold water, perhaps) to pay for the diesel fuel-much potential to
serve these orphanages in partnership with ministries like God’s Kids in
not only helping them day to day but prepare and train them in skills that
will help them after graduation. The
way some of the orphanages are already doing business with the “excess”
crops and animals they raise seemed to have them ready to take the next
business step. I am sure you have
seen this through the pictures on the trip journals. Stay tuned, 2008 will be a focal year for
this initiative!
One special blessing, at one
orphanage we ran into 2 US missionary teachers and when they found out that
we were STS, it occurred to them that a car that had been given to them
just might be on the latest STS container shipped from the US. Indeed,
their car was on the container-and it was in the port in Monrovia right now
and they would have the car hopefully by this Saturday!!!! TY LORD, those who provided the SUV and
Chuck who handled the shipping.
Gotta
run---oh, I almost came home with another son. His name is Maurice. Perhaps
next trip, Karen J.
Love you all and see some of you real soon!!!
From Beccy:
Today was truly an eye opening
experience for me. Gayla and I had
the privilege to ride with the two gentlemen from God’s Kids
International. As we visited four
different orphanages I think one of the things that touched me the most was
although there was unbelievable need there was a joy and hope in the
kids. Even though they shared beds,
had the clothes on their backs, not much food and really only a couple of
toys if that, they knew that they were loved. Each orphanage had their own strengths; I
was completely in awe of their ability to raise food. Jackson is in charge of teaching
agriculture to the caretakers and the children, to our standards their methods
are somewhat primitive but they were producing vegetation and two of the
farms were raising pigs. You could
see the pride that was taking place in their lives as they worked
diligently to provide for their families. (The other orphans) The needs are so great, yet they are
learning and seeking to survive and to grow. It is so key
that they learn a trade so that they will be able to take care of
themselves as they grow into adulthood. I was so touched at the last home when
the children began to sing and dance and even sign “back yard Bible songs”. I experienced a new kind of worship, as I
watched God’s precious children. My prayer is that these and hundreds more
that we did not see would be able to know the saving love of Jesus and to
practically be able to grow into healthy adults.
From
Rodney:
As we got started this
morning I already knew it was going to be a great day because I had a very
similar day with the God’s Kids folks in February when they were kind enough
to invite me over with them. The
director of God’s Kids in Liberia is John Kpaewoan
(the “K” is silent). Beccy
pronounced is correctly after hearing it once. It took John 3 days to teach me the
proper pronunciation the last time I was here. Also guiding us was Jackson (I’d spell
his last name for you but I’ve forgotten how and don’t want to start up
Outlook to get the info from my contact information… okay, so I’m lazy). Jackson runs a farm and orphanage 3.5
hours drive outside of Monrovia.
Depending on the road conditions that could be 100 miles or just
10).
One thing my father has never
like is the advertisements on television that use African orphans to “guilt”
you into sending money. I know that
at least a few of the organizations that do this have great integrity and
score very high on the lists of responsible charities. But a lot of them do not. This is especially prevalent on “Christian
television”. To me it’s like the
pastors that preach only about you being a horrible sinner bound for
hell. It seems like they aren’t
interested in the Good News portion of scripture. I’m here to tell you that there is much
good news in the Liberian orphanage situation. Progress is being made through Christian
organizations throughout the country like God’s Kids, Orphan Relief,
Christian Aid, Mercy Ships and others.
But there’s much to do and many more to help. More good news is that it’s possible to
solve this problem in bite sized pieces, ever moving forward. So our message to you is that the crisis
of orphaned children, even though far from over, is being worked at by many
and you can play an important part through seeking out these great
organizations and supporting them.
That’s the STS model, find those who are doing a good job and then
find a way to help them.
There were two primary
purposes for the visits today.
First, to expose Beccy, Gayla and David to the children of Liberia
so that they could see the hope, love and opportunity that they represent. Second was to examine 4 of the 5
orphanages that God’s Kids had recommended to receive the water cooled,
diesel generators that 12 Stone Church (www.12stone.org)
has funded. Let me lay a little groundwork so that you can understand the
project plan.
I’ve been part of a Children’s
Village in Sinoe County, Liberia for a few years
now. During that time they have
always with been without a generator, fixing a generator or about to
experience a breakdown. Most of the
generators on the market are not built to run for lengthy periods of time. Water cooled, diesel units are the best
but most of them are really designed as standby units so the 4 – 6 hours
per day that power is needed can be hard on even a fairly well made
unit. Most orphanages and schools
have very limited funds so they are not starting out with a good unit to
begin with. Mostly they are air
cooled units (not too good in a country like Liberia) and they are of small
power output with high rpm values.
All of these things work together to ensure constant
breakdowns. These small generators
are really made to use occasionally on the farm or construction site. The positive part of these units are that
they use small amounts of fuel (fuel is really a bigger cost than the generator). As a way to try to help the Children’s
Village a few years back I began to study what type of generators were
available. You can find a lot of
units of high kilowatt production for relatively low prices on the used
market but they use larger amounts of fuel and produce many times the
output that an orphanage would use.
A while back I came across a used generator unit that used a Detroit
2-71 engine and a very heavy duty generator head of both 12.5kw and 20kw
output. The units were built for the
railroad and were made for refrigerated railcars. They were made to be started and to run
pretty much continually as the trains moved around the United States. The radiators were overbuilt as was the
entire structure. We bought one
about 2 years ago and shipped it over to Shadrach to use in the cold water
business. He was very impressed with
it and it has run flawlessly during that time. They run it about 12 hours per day.
So STS purchased a truckload
of them (20 units) and the goal is to start a generator business in the
Monrovia area. 12 Stone Church, who
has a heart for Kingdom work in Liberia, came along side of us and provided
funding for 5 units to be given to orphanages in the country. So the cost of the units has been
paid. STS did all the purchase work
and is shipping them into Liberia.
God’s Kids has identified the recipient orphanages and has also
committed to providing the wiring needed to implement the units for the
recipients. That might seem like the
project is done but the fact is, without a plan to acquire fuel the
orphanages will use the generators very little (these units burn more fuel
than the little ones they have been using).
A couple of ideas are, if other houses or businesses are close
enough, to sell the excess power.
Only one of the orphanages that we visited has this as a viable
option. Another, more viable option,
is to provide them with a chest type freezer to make cold water or
ice. There are likely additional, profit making options as well that simply need to be
explored.
Just a quick note on each of
the orphanages that we visited today (see David’s note above for the
names). Each (except perhaps one) had
a school on the property which is fairly common in the better managed
institutions. The first had a large
farming operation underway. Although
I’m not that great at estimating land, I’d say that they had as much as 3
acres under production not counting the cassava areas. The land was well prepared in accordance
with the training that Jackson is giving them. They had a large variety including
cassava, peppers, lettuce, cabbage, okra, cucumbers, watermelons and some
other vegetables. A quick THANK YOU
to Tom Robershaw of California. He
sent several boxes of vegetable seeds over on an earlier container and we
used John and Jackson to determine who received them. The watermelons were in full production
and should provide at least 200 melons for sale. At $1.50 each this means that a portion
of Tom’s gift will prove out God’s promise to multiply our efforts. Jackson has asked us to see if we can get
large quantities of seeds like you might buy from a farm cooperative
perhaps. They save seed to use for
the next planting so we will need to make sure that the varieties we select
are not the type of hybrids that will not reproduce from their own
seeds. A word about how good the
plants all look in the attached photographs. The water well is 2 – 300 yards away and down hill. They
draw water from the well, fill containers and then carry it up the hill to
water the plants. And they do it
twice per day. Power and a pump
would make that portion of the work easier (not the primary requirement)
but would also likely allow them to expand the size of the acreage farmed
as well.
The second orphanage that we
went to was in the swamp area of Monrovia and the effort to get to it was
incredible. For a location inside
the city, it was a close to the roads to Sinoe as
I’ve found. This orphanage was the
only one that didn’t have its own school.
The children that they could afford to send to school went to local
schools. The facilities were well
kept but we noticed, just as with the first location, that even during the
day the insides of the buildings were dark.
The children’s smiles, however, were shining brightly. There was some farming going on here but
not nearly so much as with the first place due to a lack of room. They were in the process of constructing
a medical clinic building. I am not
sure if that is the best use of funds (can it make them money through
providing service to those in the community around them?) or if it’s just
something that everyone wants for some reason. The need for health care is great but a
separate building does not make a good clinic. It takes trained people, medicines and
supplies.
The third orphanage was about
½ mile from the highway and the road, while not so bumpy and rough, was very
wet and muddy. John was driving a 4
wheel drive Nissan pickup but we were in a minivan type of car. James, our driver, was not sure we would
make it but we did. This orphanage
had a decent sized school facility and also a good amount of farming
underway. In each place we handed
out a single piece of candy to each child (and adult) and that is always
appreciated. It seems like nothing
to us but it somehow translates into an act of love with the children. They had a kitchen preparation building
down at in the dormitory area and some girls were preparing a small pancake
looking thing by rolling out the corn meal with a bottle (as the rolling
pin) while using a plastic cup to cut out the individual pieces. They would then fry it in a pan over the
fire. I missed Dave for a moment and
then found him inside the cook building rolling out the dough and cutting
the pieces out with the cup. The
girls seemed tolerant of the intrusion but weren’t too impressed with the
quality of Dave’s work.
The final orphanage that we
visited was one that I had been too back in February. But it looked different for some
reason. As it turned out, several of
the volunteers from Mercy Ships had made the renovation of this facility a
project and it looked great. The
dorms were painted bright colors, there was new flooring and, most
impressively to me, they had done something incredibly effective but yet
low cost and simple. They had taken
translucent roofing panels and put a “skylight” in the roof over each
room. They would then open the
ceiling up with maybe a 3x3 foot area and put screen and mosquito netting
over the hole. The openings in the
ceilings were finished out properly so everything looked professional. BUT NOW THERE WAS LIGHT INSIDE. How simple, yet how effective. This is an idea that needs to be transferred
back to the other orphanages that we visited plus all around Liberia. It doesn’t solve the problem of no light
at night but it certainly helps during the day time. Matt Elsberry is always talking about the
innovations that make it possible to provide goods to the very poor at
affordable prices and this falls into that mindset with me. This orphanage had a good amount of
farming going on (all three of the last places we visited together would
not come close to the first orphanage in farm size). They were also making blocks for the construction
of a new dormitory building. People
without a lot of funds have to build as they receive funds. So you will often see a single block
mold, a small pile of sand and a couple of sacks of cement somewhere. They will make blocks until the supplies
are gone and then they will wait until more funds can be set aside. I watched them mixing the cement and sand
together with only the smallest amount of water and then shovel the very
dry mixture into the block mold.
They don’t use any aggregate that I can see and it’s likely because
they cannot afford it. It looked to
me like the mixture of cement to sand was about 1:5. Again, they stretch everything as far as
possible. As we were preparing to
leave, John received a cell phone call and walked away so that he could
hear. The older girls began singing
songs, some were praise songs and some were the kind you would sing with
children in Sunday school or Bible school.
They sang the “Father Abraham” song and did all the body motions
with it. I looked around and Beccy
was right in there with them with “left hand, right hand, left foot, right
foot…” The kids loved it.
Finally it was time to go
back to the compound for the evening.
John and Jackson joined us for dinner and we had a good time winding
down from the day’s events.
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