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Okay, we’ll pick up
from breakfast. Fred and Cathy
came in and woke Gayla and me from a perfectly
good sleep so we could eat what they thought was lunch. It turned out to be breakfast with
oatmeal, fried bread and hot tea.
Although the hot tea is the only thing we really are supposed to
eat of the 3, we are determined not to be ungrateful (and we’re hungry as
well).
After breakfast we
sit around and talk some and I work on trip journals plus pictures. You’ll notice that I’ve stopped putting
descriptions under the pictures and that there are a lot of pictures,
many of which are similar. Please
don’t tell Gayla that I’m not being selective like she told me to
be. (I’m the boss of my family as
long as she doesn’t find out.)
It seemed only a
couple of hours (because it was) that lunch was served. We were much kinder and did not wake
Fred and Cathy from their nap.
Lunch was more fried bread, macaroni shells with tuna and
cucumbers. Although they are not
my favorite, I ate a couple of helpings of cucumbers along with my shells
and tuna just because we haven’t had much in the way of vegetables this
trip. I think it has to do with
the time of the year and most crops not being in season.
Since I have now
gotten internet access (somewhere in the 20kps speed range) I will take a
little time and update you on a few quotes, etc. from the past few days.
“They left their fine homes to come to our bushes.” The pastor of the new church plant that
Shadrach has started. He and his
two elders walked 12 hours to attend the three days of meetings.
“We need job training for our graduating students. Can you help us start a technical
school? As you return home, please
do not forget us.” Chairman of
the local advisory board to the school.
In pointing out that
the current church, school and medical buildings are made of better
materials than before, school principal E. Harrington Wessah,
Sr. said, “What we have now is not
what we want. But it is better
than what we had.”
“Sunday we will have the 1st high school graduation
ever in this district.”
Shadrach K. Saywon, founder of the Willie N. Wylie Memorial
Baptist Children’s Village.
“Please open your homes to the students that come from Greenville
to go to school here. This can be
your contribution to the school.”
Principal Wessah as he addressed the
parents and community leaders who attended the graduation.
After being asked by
one of the Karmo Town leaders for a Bible, Carl
Hadley said, “We will send everyone
in this church a Bible.” We
are obligated.
The afternoon has
been spent relaxing, napping and getting back into the swing of the
Norman compound. There’s a danger
in staying with the Normans and thinking you’ve been to Liberia. That would be somewhat untrue. Christine offers a respite from the
full Liberia experience yet within the country of Liberia. Perhaps it’s like being in Chinatown in
New York or Little Havana in Miami.
The culture is there but it has been Americanized quite a
bit. Even at the Children’s
Village we were still isolated somewhat from the full extent of Liberian
culture, though less so than at Christine’s. When we go into town tomorrow another
piece of Liberian culture will be added to our experience (especially for
Cathy who has never been into Monrovia proper). The missionaries who come here to stay
for long periods probably come as close to understanding the true
Liberian culture as any non-Liberian.
I have tremendous admiration for those in the past and present who
are willing to lose their own cultural identities for the chance to bring
other human beings into relationship with Christ. Peter Taylor Forsyth put it well when
he said,
"There is nothing finer nor more
pathetic to me than the way in which missionaries unlearn the love of the
old home, die to their native land, and wed their hearts to the people
they have served and won; so that they cannot rest in England, but must
return to lay their bones where they spent their hearts for Christ. How
vulgar the common patriotisms seem beside this inverted homesickness,
this passion of a kingdom which has no frontiers and no favored race, the
passion of a homeless Christ!”
There is a danger in
doing “mission work” like we are doing here, especially among those in
extreme poverty. That danger is to
believe that you are primarily here to help them. I can tell you from personal experience
that thinking in this way will lead you to frustration and irritation
with the very people you believe you are here to help. The reason for this is that you cannot
possibly, regardless of your financial means, meet even the needs of the
people that you will meet in one day.
So why come here to Liberia?
It’s more along the line of what Oswald Chambers said, “If we are devoted to the cause of
humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often
meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our
motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our
fellow men.” Having a
relationship with God such that you hear Him whisper “Liberia” in your
heart day after day, that’s what will allow you to continue even when the
seemingly hopelessness overwhelms you. Know that you are only tasked with
obeying Him releases you from so much of the anguish over the destitution
of people you have come to love.
As previous days’
journals communicated, the Liberian kitchen is one of my favorite
places. It’s a true community as
many people are typically involved in the cooking process. You can clean house alone, tend to the
shrubs alone, do your work alone but it seems to be impossible to cook
alone. So there’s always
interaction going on in the kitchen.
We have an old southern joke that we tell to make fun of
ourselves. “Our bathroom caught on
fire and burned last night. Thank
goodness it wasn’t connected to the house.” Liberian kitchens (due to the lack of
reliable electricity, the heat, tradition, pick one) is typically an open
shelter on the outside. Most
cooking is done with wood and charcoal.
The preparation of food (not much cooking involves processed foods
at this point) is messy and takes time.
So fairly early in the morning the women begin to assemble in the
kitchen to prepare the day’s meals.
It’s not unusual for both breakfast and lunch (we call it dinner
in the deep south) to be underway at the same time. At the Norman’s this kitchen is
shielded from the guests as it’s on the far, back corner of their personal
residence under the carport. But
Cathy, Fred and Gayla all get a chance to visit a little in the kitchen
while the cooking is going on.
I’ll try to take some pictures and describe the elements of
equipment to you later today or maybe tomorrow.
Dinner/Supper is
grilled chicken, Liberian rice (it has a red color and is the unprocessed
rice grown locally here in Liberia) and cooked cabbage (placed on the
rice). Lynn has gotten a couple of
things for Carl and Duane. Carl
has mentioned wanting a hot dog for a few days now so she bought a pack
of hot dogs and sour kraut for him.
Duane has been feeling bad for the past several days and has spent
most of the trip in bed (when not in a bouncing truck). So she got him some soup. The food, as always, is very good and
mealtime is a fellowship time, especially when Laurence is home to join
us.
Pretty quickly after
dinner we begin making preparation for bed. Even though we’ve rested a lot today
it’s still not enough to overcome a full night of travel on the roads
from Karmo Town. The weather is cool and sleep should be
pleasant. Good night.
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