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Day’s Journal
Since the Ford truck is still
not up and running, I rented a car and driver from a ministry that reaches
out to the Muslim Liberians with the message of Christ. Peter, our regular driver, did the
driving for this car as well since the ministry driver could not be gone
all day.
I left Christine’s around
8:30am without breakfast (she had it but I was in a hurry to go). We drove into Sinkor
and picked up Robert and headed into Monrovia. Our first task was to pick up the cash
that Chuck had wired to us. Chuck, I
can testify that it’s actually easier to send the cash then to pick it
up. Fortunately Robert has developed
a friendship with one of the ladies who works in
that part of the bank and she speeds things along for us (only 30 minutes
or so).
An inconvenience has
developed in the land purchased from Mrs. Cato. Apparently one of her relatives, without
Mrs. Cato’s knowledge or permission, leased the front house to a man who
has some workers living in it. When
they were notified of the sale they got somewhat belligerent. After we went by the other day and looked
at the property they must have decided it was for real. So they have started putting up a stick
fence. We have a lawyer and a judge
on our board in Liberia so we went by to see Judge Jones to find out the
best course of action. The law is
fully on our side but he suggested to have the other
lawyer on our board draft a letter and send to the employer of these
men to formerly notify him that the lease is not valid and that he must
move his men. He also suggested that
we have a sign painted indentifying STS as the land owner and giving
contact information. So Robert
started both of those tasks today.
After meeting with Judge
Jones we took Robert back to Sinkor so he could
work on some tasks. I went back into
town and met with Dr. Sam Reeves our board chairman. We’re trying to set up a meeting of the
full board by this weekend. Sam is
doing well, the church he pastors had 50
professions of faith last Sunday!
His family is good and he’s making a difference in Liberia. It’s a blessing to have his leadership
abilities on the STS board.
We had made contact with
David and Judy Humphries of Water of Life Ministries and I stopped by to
see them. They were formally called
Living Water – Carolina but, because there was already a ministry called
Living Water in Liberia, they changed their name. They work to recondition and bring back
wells around the country. They, like
many others that I’ve met during this trip, had great things to say about
the shipping serve we provide. While
we were there they found out about the new land we purchased as I was
asking them what they recommended as far as putting a well down since the
land is heavy volcanic rock. They
looked at each other and Judy got up and sent an email asking if their U.S.
organization might provide a drilled well for us. We’ll see if this becomes a reality but
it was so very nice just to have them make the effort. We’re both just part of ministries that
want to help other ministries. As I
was explaining the 4 parts of our work, Judy was quick to say that they
could really used a trained accountant. It’s very hard to find anyone here with
good bookkeeping skills. Robert’s
wife, Emma, is an accountant and has a good position at her firm. We’ve thought about using her to head up
the accounting/financial integrity portion of our ministry. The timing hasn’t been right yet but Judy’s
comments reminded me that it’s a needed service.
Next I went out to call on
the young friend of a friend, Ashley Stohl. She’s from a church just south of Atlanta
and is serving with Orphan Relief and Rescue for a while. This organization assists the
non-certified orphanages in Liberia, the ones with the worst conditions and
needs. They go in initially with
emergency aid (medical services primarily).
Then they move into feeding programs. They work with the orphanage
administrators during this time to determine if they have the ability and
are willing to make the changes necessary to improve the conditions of the
children. If they are, they begin
building programs to help bring the facilities up to a reasonable
standard. If the administrator
are not willing to do what it takes to improve the conditions there,
then they recommend to the government that the orphanages be shut down and
the children placed elsewhere. They
have 2 follow-up programs that they hope to do in the future. The first is to get an agricultural
program started at each orphanage. I
am giving them contact information with the God’s Kids ministry because
they do an excellent job at this.
The second thing they want to add is a way to help the orphanage
become self-sufficient “if that is even possible”. This is an area where STS may be able to
help. We don’t typically work in the
micro-enterprise area but, given that ORR is working with 20 orphanages
now, we might be able to put together a business that could be run to benefit
all of the orphanages. So we’ll
pursue that more with them.
Since we were already near
the ELWA compound I stopped to see the newly painted truck. It looked good but there was a little
splatter of black on the front right fender and it’s supposed to be cleaned
up promptly.
After leaving there and going
back to Sinkor, we had a visit with Dr. John
McFadden. He’s a medical doctor that
does some well drilling and other things in Liberia. He’s there full time now. He found out I was coming and wanted to
visit about some ministry opportunities he knew of. He was especially interested in the
trucks and thought that a new, large farming operation he knew about might
need to rent them. We chose to meet
John at the Royal Hotel restaurant on John’s suggestion and because I had
never been there. We very seldom go
to a restaurant while in Liberia because it’s, relatively speaking, too
expensive. At home we don’t think
much about spending $10 per person to eat out but in Liberia it somehow
seems wrong. Anyway, the 4 of us had
1 large pizza (New Yorker special) which cost $16 USD. Add a couple of liter bottles of water
and a tip and you’re at $25 before you know it. We could have bought 6 gallons of gas for
that amount. The pizza was good, the
room was nice and cool plus they had wireless internet. So John and I sat there for 2 hours while
Robert and Peter went to run errands.
At 6pm we went to the Equip –
Liberia offices in Sinkor and met with Dave and
Audry Waines who run the ministry.
They do a great job and make a real difference in the areas that
they work. Dave had just returned
from Greenville in Sinoe County and I asked him
what the progress was there. He was
saying that the annual death rate had declined by drastically since 2005
when they first went in to do research.
They are really good at tracking information and being able to put
the numbers to their results. Not
many organizations can do so well.
So we signed a 1 year lease with them for a walled lot that they own
on Airport Road. We have already had
people working in it to clean it and prepare for a well. This is our first test of the ice making
business for STS. Pray for the many
aspects of this because it is to be the funding mechanism. Pray first that we can get all of our
equipment in place. It’s no small
task to move large objects (like a 40’ container, heavy generators, etc.)
from one place to another. It’s
expensive, slow and irritating (other than that it’s a piece of cake). We need the unit to actually freeze 2,500
blocks of ice every 24 hours, for the generators to produce the electricity
and meet fuel burn specs and for the demand to allow us to sell everything
produced, every day.
Finally I’m dropped off at
around 8:30pm and there’s a great dinner waiting. We have rice (go figure), chicken, mango
salad and some fruit relishes that we eat much like a very rich
pudding. Our conversation, as
always, is interesting and contains a lot of politics tonight. Apparently an assistant minister of one
of the departments has resigned without informing the president (who
appointed her). Anyway, this trip
has been my most educational as far as the innerworkings
of the Liberian government is concerned.
Well, I’m tired and it’s
10:30pm here. More tomorrow.
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