First Few Days

Sorry for the long delay in our update! We have hardly had internet since we left the country… or time to write for that matter! But here’s a run-down of the past few days – minus yesterday, so I’ll post about yesterday and today’s tonight! It’s long, but I just can’t help be so excited about all that the Lord has done already!

Considering we had a 13-hour layover in London, the three of us decided to leave the airport and go on a mini excursion around the city! We took the subway to Piccadilly Circus and from there walked to the a national museum, Big Ben, the London Eye, the parliament building, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and St. James Park! I’ve never been to London, so it was great get out and see what I’ve only seen in movies!

We had another red eye from London to Monrovia, Liberia, so by the time we arrived in Africa it was already 6am. The moment I stepped off the plane I was hit with a big wiff of “Africa” and immediately my heart started racing. It all started to feel a little more real. We were picked up from the airport by Emmanuel Jonah, the son of the Anthony and Betty Jonah who run the Betty Jonah Orphanage in Yekepa, who then took us to his home church in Monrovia. I don’t know about anyone else, but there is something about worshipping our Lord in another culture that really makes you step back and remember how awesome God is. These people worship Him with so much passion and love, literally begging Him to send us His Spirit, desperate for His power to rescue them. I couldn’t help but be inspired by their contagious hunger for our Lord. We spent the rest of the day with Emmanuel and his family and also attended a graduation for the elementary students at the school he runs. Any kind of educational graduation is such a big accomplishment here in Africa that basically the whole town came to support the kids! It really made me step back and realize how much I take my education for granted.

We stayed at the ABCU’s guesthouse in Monrovia for the night, but so were Scott and Kevin, two men who were working on a project for Vision Trust in Liberia. Scott was kind enough to “show us the ropes” down here in Africa. After we made it through his very helpful list of do’s and don’ts, he asked us to share a little about why we were here. He finished our talk with his own testimony (which was incredible) and words of encouragement for us. It’s amazing to me because I know he didn’t realize how the Holy Spirit was using Him in that moment. It was a very strong reminder to me of how we must take advantage of every opportunity we have to serve, encourage, and build into the lives of others. This man was put in our path for literally 1 hour, and I am still being encouraged by the words he spoke to us. This man could have easily minded his own business and ignored the three young kids who sharing a house with him (which we weren’t even supposed to be sharing in the first place!), but he chose to take time for us, and I will continually be encouraged for that.

The next day (Monday) was spent gathering supplies to take up to Yekepa with us. Monrovia, the largest and most developed city in Liberia, is an 8 hour drive from Yekepa, so we had to get enough supplies for the 5 weeks we would be spending there. We had the evening and night to spend with Emmanuel and his family, who was kind enough to open his home to us.

We woke up early the next morning (5am) for our long and bumpy drive to Yekepa! One of my favorite parts of this whole trip was when we stopped for a bathroom break and I shared some gum (called “cheek-lays” here) with a little girl standing by herself on the side of the road. I should have known that when I gave gum to the only child I saw that somehow 15 others would hear about it and come running! It continues to amaze me how something so simple and small can make a kid’s day.

Monday was also the day I have been looking forward to for literally a year – when I was finally reunited with the kids at the orphanage! I practically broke my leg falling out of the car out of excitement. The first thing we did, or course, was sing, “Ayo-Ayo” (for those of you who don’t know, that was the song that the Lord used last year to connect me with the kids. Little did I know that now all the children at the school and orphanage have nick-named me “Ayo-Ayo” and have called me that for the past year! My spirit (along with my smile) was bursting as I greeted all the kids who I have thought about and prayed for every day for the past year. My heart felt at home as children ran and hugged me.

Sadly, we didn’t stay at BJO (Betty Jonah Orphanage) very long since we had a long day with not much sleep, so we made our way a few miles down the road to ABCU to get settled on the campus we would be staying at. Our house has 3 bedrooms (appropriately), but the funny thing is 2 of the rooms have two twin size beds and the 3^rd room has a king-size bed with it’s own bathroom… Can anyone guess which room I ended up with!? J I swear, it’s because it means I get my own bathroom, but I’m definitely not complaining about this very large bed I get to sleep in! After getting settled, we met Dr. Amos (the campus president) and his wife and he had many encouraging words to say to us. We discussed a lot about the history of Liberia, especially with this recent civil war they had. Apparently, Yekepa used to be the wealthiest place in all of Liberia! It even had a golf course and a swimming pool! But when the war broke out, everything was destroyed. The only thing that once remained (before the community began to rebuild) was the run-down building foundations that had been destroyed during combat. What was ironic to me what that not only did Amos talk of the building debrief that remained as a reminder of the pain and suffering the people went through, but also all the debrief left in many people’s hearts. Many many people here still remember the war. It is fresh in their minds, yet no one discusses the pain they are dealing with. That is why, according to Amos and Emmanuel, it is so encouraging when people come from oversees in the name of Christ to visit them. It serves as a reminder that God has not forgotten them (a theme we took to the orphanage last year, not knowing that was a concept the people here struggle with… God is so incredible). The rest of the evening was spent checking my room how spiders and other creepy, crawly bugs… thanks for humoring me Shane J

Tuesday morning, we headed to the school/orphanage first thing (the children in the community come join the orphans at the orphanage for school). The three of us toured the BJO so that Tim and Shane could get a better idea of what projects they want to focus on during their stay here. Towards the end of our trip, it was made very clear what they will spend almost all of their time and the money we brought with us on.

On the BJO campus, there is a church called Redeemer Baptist Church. This church is helped run by Pa Anthony Jonah (Betty Jonah’s husband) and has been in the community for many years – even long before the war. The church has had some renovations, but one thing that has not been fixed in a while is the roof – made completely out of asbestos. For those of you who don’t know, like I didn’t, this is an extremely toxic metal that causes many health problems and is illegal in the U.S. Not only is the roof leaking with people meeting there on a regular basis (and have been for more than 40 years), but many of the children meet in this building for Sunday school, choir practice, and many other school functions. There is even a smaller “kitchen” next to it where women are cooking food for the school children to eat for lunch. The second Tim and Shane heard what this roof was made of, we decided that this need was urgent and the boys chose to undertake the task replacing the church’s roof, the school kitchen, and the roof of another small room behind the church – all made of asbestos.

Now, I am so thankful to have two strong men with me who recognized the seriousness of this situation and who are able to do something like fix this roof, but this is one of those moments where all the glory goes to God, for quite a few reasons:

1.     He orchestrated this “team” of three perfectly. Between Tim’s frugality (which allowed us keep track of money have enough to fund this project) and roofing/construction experience, and Shane’s good-humored nature, his willingness to literally “do whatever,” and (quite honestly) the buffer between me and Tim, I can’t really even imagine what other skills we could need between the three of us. I was originally going to do this whole trip by myself, and while I know the Lord would have provided for me everything I needed, I think part of Him doing that was through giving me Tim and Shane. Honestly, if it was up to me and my original plans/desires, neither of them would have been with me here in Africa!

2.     He provided financially for this trip very specifically. When I first started fundraising for this trip, I was overwhelmed by the amount of money we needed to raise. I was sure that God was going to pull one of those things you always here about where people go to bed with not enough money and wake up with just enough money at the exact perfect time. Honestly, I was kind of  excited for Him providing that way so that I would have a super-cool God story to tell! But that wasn’t the way He worked… at all. Tim and I raised more money than we had originally asked for (the amount we were trying to raise covered our plane tickets and food/housing/some transportation)… the bare minimum. It wouldn’t include visas, shots, or any kind of supplies we would need to work while here in Yekepa. Now, I wasn’t sure what God was doing when He kept providing for our trip, above what we had asked for. I wasn’t sure what God was doing when He had people continually pay for supplies/donations we were taking when we had money to purchase them ourselves. I wasn’t sure what God was doing when He had the airlines wave our baggage fee when we had enough cash on hand to pay for it. I REALLY wasn’t sure what He was doing when He started having random people come up to Tim and I telling us “the Spirit told us you needed this money for your trip” when we clearly already had more than enough. But, I was reminded that God doesn’t do things without a purpose and if His Spirit was working in such ways then there was a reason this money was being given. I knew we wouldn’t really understand until the time was right, but I didn’t ever imagine it would be like this. This project will be costly, but it is a HUGE need, and the ONLY way we were going to have money for this was if the Lord had provided it through donations (Tim and I would never have brought this much cash otherwise).  So – If you’re reading this and you donated to my trip financially, whether that be by buying a $2 bracelet from me, donating $25, or giving much more, from an even deeper part of my heart that I thanked you with before – THANK YOU. I’m so moved by the way He is using people from all over who don’t even realize the massive impact they are having on not only a church, but a whole community here in Liberia. I don’t think you’ll ever know the difference you are making, but I pray you all receive a little extra blessing in your lifetime for allowing God to use you in all of this… (on a side note, just to increase glory to God in this situation, all this came in the midst of some serious spiritual warfare regarding finances!).

3.     He hears our prayers. After we told Emmanuel (who was giving us the tour and is tied closely with His parents orphanage and Redeemer Baptist Church), we would help with the churches roof, jaws were dropped, words were lost, tears fell, songs of praise and thankfulness were sang, a people danced. This need has been at the top of the churches prayer list for months as they have been begging God to send the means to fix their roof. In the words of Emmanuel, “God was preparing this way for you [me, Tim, and Shane] before we were even aware of what we would be doing here... you didn’t know why you came here, but He did.” We didn’t know we would be doing anything other than a few small upkeep projects the orphanage needed, but God had something bigger in mind. When I, along with many of you, prayed for the Lord to prepare opportunities to be used, I had no idea He meant something like this. I am in awe. I am humbled. I am speechless. And I am beyond blessed.

Now, all this to say, it won’t be smooth sailing from here on out. There are still many things that need to get worked out and I’m sure the enemy will make is as annoying, discouraging, and as difficult as possible for us. To be frank, we are scared out of our minds we won’t have time to finish. There are 3 of us (well, only 2 who would actually be of use in this situation!) to complete this roof in 4 weeks (the remaining time once all the supplies arrive. There will be a few Africans to help the boys, but like Emmanuel noted, “usually teams come in numbers of 20’s or 30’s to do this kind of project, but you come with 3” (again, 2 if we’re being realistic). Yet, multiple different people have already encouraged and affirmed us that since God has His hand on this and is clearly blessing this, the project will get finished. I’m reminded of the verses in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 that says, “He uses the foolish things of this world to lead the strong.” [again] because His power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9) I know that if we can just stay faithful to keep our hearts, actions, and intentions pure that He will bless us!

So again, thank you for your support and prayers. They mean the world to me as well as the people in the community. You should see the way people’s faces light up when they learn that they have many brothers and sisters in Christ praying for them all the way from the U.S.

^“ Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him.”