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Day’s Journal
This morning I needed to get
started pretty early so I had Peter came over to pick me up at 6:30am. We went out to a piece of property that
Lincoln Brownell is clearing for a farm.
It’s quite a ways out toward the airport along the Sapo River. For
Dave, Beccy and Gayla (who went last November) it is on the same road as
the Mennonite building was on, just at the very end of that same road.
On the drive out I had a
great experience. Since it was
Saturday, and early in the morning, a lot of people who live along the Airport
Road were just getting started. Most
of the “getting ready” stuff that we all do inside each morning is done
outside by most Liberians. Most do
not have indoor plumbing of any kind, draw their
water from a well, etc. So for 15
minutes this morning I drove along watching people come out to brush their
teeth, relax for a minute, eat a bit of breakfast, etc. For some strange reason is was
unbelievably touching. I felt so
very comfortable and “at home”. I
believe strongly that God wants me to serve these people and that he is
bringing me more in tune with them one every visit. Probably this doesn’t come across as well
as I’d like but perhaps just a small amount of the awesomeness that I felt
will be communicated.
About 6 of the 15 acre farm has been cleared and planting of cassava has begun. They
have plans for corn and other crops too.
Lincoln was saying that the villagers are surprised to see he and others out there working all day as they didn’t
know “city people” could work in the fields. They hire the villagers to help with the
clearing but the men really don’t want to do the work. So the women jump in and work in order to
make the money. Lincoln says that
they are by far the hardest workers.
(Funny, it’s just the opposite back home.) We only stayed about 30 minutes (trying
to avoid having to work, I guess) but it was good to have a time of prayer
together. It reminds me of a quote by
missions mobilize, Fredrick Franson:
"If you are sick, fast
and pray; if the language is hard to learn, fast and pray; if the people
will not hear you, fast and pray, if you have nothing to eat, fast and
pray."
So no matter what the
circumstances, praying is always the right thing to do.
Peter and I drove back into
town but needed to stop at the Seminary to pick up some stuff that Calandra
wanted brought back (Dave, don’t let me forget to leave these items with
you). It is some artwork that a
seminary student from last semester painted. I think it’s going back to Jessy and Calandra’s U.S. church.
After that we headed for Monrovia and we were looking good to make
the 9am SN Brussels appointment to drop off my luggage. The lady at SN Brussels that confirmed my
flight yesterday said they opened at 9am, the notice about dropping you
baggage off there on Saturday said they opened at 9am. The sign on the door said they opened at
10am. They opened at 10am. We waited around a little just to make
sure but then an employee showed up and said 10am was right. I had an appointment at 10am so I lugged
my single, but heavy, bag back down to the truck and we left to meet Diana
E. Davies at the Royal Stationary Store on Broad Street. It’s been owned by some Lebanese businessmen
for about 40 years. They stayed
through the war years even though the store was broken into and looted at
least 3 times during that period.
Mrs. Davies said that the owners were consistent supporters of her
schools and orphanage because “they love children”. Good enough. I expected a 30 minute or so meeting with
Mrs. Davies. Just one of those here’s
what I do, tell me what you do, let’s see if we can help each other type of
meetings. I started getting the idea
that it was going to be more involved when she said, “let me show you all
of our places”. So I explained that
I had to go back by SN Brussels to drop off my luggage first and that we
would meet her there. There was a
long line outside the SN Brussels office and I, inwardly, groaned thinking
that I was now at the end. But one
of the guys saw me with the bag and took me right in and processed me. So now I’m luggage and ticketed and don’t
have to be at the airport 3 hours early.
Off we go for Duala. The first one was the Diana E. Davies
Elementary and High School in Duala.
That’s north of Monrovia about 10 – 15 miles but, on Saturday when
the road is at a complete crawl due to all the traffic and roadside
shoppers, it takes a long time. They
are waiting on the side of the road and, how they found us in that melee I
don’t know, flagged us down and took us through the alleyway to the
school. School was out except for
the senior class who is preparing for graduation. No one in America would be satisfied with
the condition of the school but they were very proud of it. One of the things that is
important is that they have a room, no matter how small, for each function. So there’s a board room, registration
office, computer lab, home economics department, science lab, teacher’s
lounge and classes for each grade, etc.
I was shown each one. Then we
left to go down to the 2nd school at Braville. It’s a K – 9th grade school
and there is also an orphanage connected which has 36 children at this
time. After touring around with the
God’s Kids folks to visit several orphanages I kind of know the main things
that make a good orphanage. Security
is one, rooms that are clean and orderly with good bedding is another,
separate bathrooms, showers, etc. for the boys and girls, descent cooking
facilities, etc. This place was in
good shape. Once again I met every
person there. Each of the children
had to come out and stand together so that I could meet each one. They were well kept, clean and polite…
and they were beautiful. Not being a
real “child lover” I really don’t know why the Liberian children capture my
heart so strongly (maybe it’s because I know I’m getting on an airplane and
flying away after a couple of weeks?).
The last stop is a visit to Mrs. Davies’ office where she explains
that times are more difficult with fuel and food prices rising. The orphanage takes 1 bag of rice every 3
days which has been costing $27 but is now approaching $35. I know that what she says is true and
that the need for help is legitimate.
She has about 2 acres of farm land at the orphanage and also has 28
acres about 20 minutes away that used to provide a lot of food for the kids
plus money for other things. All the
structures there were destroyed during the war years and they’ve never
gotten it going again. So as we talk
I tell her what STS does and make 2 promised. First, that I’ll make contact with
Jackson of God’s Kids and ask if he could take a look at their farm land
and make suggestions. Second, that
if we find a business opportunity that could help them that we will
consider them as one of the beneficiaries.
The great desire is to go back home and just ask everyone you see
for funding so you can send it over.
That’s not what I’ve been called to do (and it’s a very short term
solution with much more need than there are people willing to give). So I finally extract myself explaining
that I have to get to the next meeting.
As we drive out the gate they have all the children there smiling
and waving. She’s pretty good at
this. And there’s something in my
heart that melts at the site of these children.
Okay, the snarl of traffic and
smell of exhaust fumes brings me back to reality (or were those kids really
reality?) and we’re off to do two things: 1) pick up some business
documents from Pete Norman and 2) meet up with Roland Martin of Kingdom
Leaders International. We had met
about a month ago in the Atlanta area through a mutual friend, Jim
Moye. We moved some funds over for
them and, after getting the system down, worked it out okay. Roland had remained in the States until
about 3 days ago. So we had a little
overlap and wanted to spend some time together. Roland has a heart for young people and
for mentoring them into mature believers.
He is also a successful IT and computer communications professional. He recently did a satellite dish
installation for the UN and several others.
We parked in front of
Providence Baptist on the Ashmun Street side and
waited for Pete Norman to have someone deliver some construction and
equipment reports to us. He wanted
to know what color our car was so that the delivery person could find
me. I said that ”both
the car and the guy standing beside it are white.” The guy found us without any
difficulty. Roland also found us
there and agreed to spend the afternoon with me. I had not had breakfast or lunch so we
stopped at the Plaza Café and had a sandwich (I think Peter was glad that I
didn’t order hummus again). Then we
were off to find the Humphries so that they could look a the new property
site for a potential well and at the Equip lot well to see what we needed
to do from there. I had left their
card at home and did not have their number in my cell phone so we drove on
down to where they were living. They
were gone but the guard gave us their cell numbers and we called. It turns out that they had done the same
thing and left my number at home too.
So we were together finally as we agreed to meet at the Congo Town
property. They have 2 friends from
the U.S. (South Caroline) that are here looking to see if their church should
work with a tribal group in the outlying areas. I’ve certainly encouraged them to spend
the time it takes to fall in love with the Liberian people. I know they will.
We walked the property and
the only drawback (I thought it was a plus) is the closeness to the
ocean. Living Waters has had one
instance where salt water intrusion into a drilled well. So the thought was to put it at the very
back of the property. The main
problem with that is the large shelf of rock that starts about ¾ of the way
back. The large, heavy drill rig
might make it up there but it’s real iffy.
Now that the Humphries have looked at the property, I’m leaving it
in their capable hands in connection with Robert.
We then moved on to the Equip
lot. They have 11 of the 12 culverts
in and there is 6 feet of water in the bottom. Dave said this was good. I didn’t know it at the time but they
have hit a rock on one side underneath the bottom culvert and haven’t been
able to go any deeper. We should be
okay but it would really be nice to solve that problem and get the final
culvert in place. We will be using a
lot of water every day (nearly 1,400 gallons). We want to draw it straight out of the
well, rather than store it, to keep the temperature of the water as low as
possible.
Roland and I are visiting
throughout this time and we decide to continue this at the Norman
compound. So we spend some time
talking about the work that KLI is doing and also about a trip he is
planning to Sinoe to see Shadrach Saywon. He wants to spend 5 days out there and
see if there’s a way that he can help Shadrach with training. Jim Moye has had Chuck move some money
over so that Roland can rent a 4 wheel drive truck for the trip. It’s the start of the rainy season so you
have to be careful traveling into the bush on some of these roads. I’ve given Roland Shadrach’s satellite
phone # and Carl Hadley is calling Shadrach as well to give him Roland’s
number. Since Roland wants to leave
on Tuesday, there’s a lot to be done.
After we visit for a little long we decide that Peter should take
Roland on to Robert’s to collect the money.
Robert has not been feeling well today so he’s stayed pretty close
to home.
Christine has some friends
coming over and we’re having hamburgers.
That sounds good to me but I’m not starving due to the late
lunch. It’s a family with a Canadian
born wife, Liberian born husband and several good looking kids. They have a ministry her of training
pastors.
I eat my hamburger, beg their
pardon and rush over to type up this journal entry. After that it’s bedtime.
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