Dear Ones Far, Farther and Farthest!
Welcome to my world - my Liberian world! It is late in the evening of Wednesday, May 20, 2009. I am relaxing under the mosquito net canopy suspended over my comfortable double bed in a small bedroom in a simple but very hospitable village home in Zwedru, Liberia (200 miles southeast of the capital of Monrovia, near the Ivory Coast border).
Just four years ago this home did not exist and the whole area was a ghost town. War had ravaged the entire province of Grand Gedeh and all the inhabitants had fled across the border into the Ivory Coast in 1990. They happened to belong to the Kahn tribe whose leader Samuel Doe, from this province, had taken over the country by force ten years earlier. In retaliation to his unpopular reign of power, rebels assassinated him that year and went on a rampage to kill every member of his Kahn tribe. Every able-bodied person fled on the three-day trek through the jungles into Ivory Coast taking only what they could carry with them. Later many also took refuge in Ghana and other countries. It was seven years before the first ones dared venture back and not until the war finally ended only four years ago have most of them been repatriated - with some still living abroad. Everybody has a heart-wrenching story!
But the war seems far away from my secluded little canopied reality this evening. After a hot sticky day I have just returned from my little "bathhouse" at the end of a garden path lined with large-leafed banana plants. That cozy little structure consists of a circular arrangement of poles draped with a light plastic tarp, around a small concrete pad. At the opening is a little candle, in the middle is a bucket of water with a scoop, and above it is open to the whole star-studded sky. A rather enchanting time of refreshment!
Today was the last day of five days of seminars and services for pastors and church workers from the Grand Gedeh province. What a blessed time we had together. These days were organized by Pastor Othello Tyne and Pastor Dickson Dueh, President and Vice President respectively of the Apostolic Lutheran Church of Liberia. These seminars are a follow-up of the valuable visit and seminars held here just one year ago by Andy Kandoll and Dan Karnes from America. This effort also represents the long term vision of Andy's father Gus Kandoll, who was a dear friend of mine, and who visited here twice in the early seventies. One of the best things about our time here in Liberia has been the openness, warmth and straightforwardness of all the people involved. Where there were stresses and strains they didn't try to hide them but brought them into open dialogue. This helped me greatly when I gathered all of the local leaders together this evening for some fatherly advice and counsel as our week together was summarized with a view to the future. My theme was 1 John 1:7.
Now if you are wondering about the patter of small feet that you hear, don't be concerned. It's just that a very prolific mouse family who lives under the packing boxes in the far corner of the room and who apparently have a little runway on the headboard of my bed just above my pillow - outside of the net, of course. I just wonder when they sleep ´cause they scamper about during the day, too. Earlier this evening a bat was trying to unnerve me a bit by fluttering around in the candlelight of my room, but I summoned reinforcements and he apparently got to feeling unwelcome and dashed out of the open space between the wall and roof. He could have used the one small window since it is a rather paneless experience like all Liberian village windows but I guess the open rafters were easier. In the daytime mother hens and their chicks frequently wander in and peck innocently among my things. My only other "guest" is a rather impressive 2½ inch spider who for the first few days pretty much minded his business on the far wall and then yesterday when I was reaching for the open case I carry my Bible and notes in, as I was leaving for the seminar, I suddenly realized he was disappearing into it. To my chagrin he promptly made himself so scarce that I could not find him at all. I just hope he was transformed by the Word into something less innocuous.
As I sit here in the peace of my enchanted little softly netted enclosure it does seem like a world for itself. But I also remember the world I was in just a few days ago on the trip here from the capital city of Monrovia. More than twelve hours of awful roads - first old broken up pavement and then endless miles of rutted, pot-holed gravel, sand and just plain dirt roads. Bump, bang, dodge, swerve and then all over again in the hot sun and dust.. The infrastructure in Liberia simply doesn't really exist yet - destroyed by 15 years of war. For instance electricity is non-existent anywhere in the country, except in the capital. In most rural towns gas is sold in one gallon glass jars. And now I can "look forward" to that return road to Monrovia that is still ahead of us tomorrow. Let us pray for dry conditions. In the rainy season only big four wheel drive vehicles even attempt it. Do you understand the isolation of these people?
You know when you hold seminars you always wonder if people are getting the point and praying that it will make a difference in their lives after we have come all the way around the world and endured all of those awful roads. Well last night one young man named Uriah really made my day. I was sitting outside of this house enjoying a respite from the oppressive heat of the day - it pushes 100 F. or above every day - and here he came around the corner and sat down beside me. I could just barely detect a big smile on the handsome face of this youth leader in the faint light. "I got it! Pastor Dennis, I really got it!" he emoted. "I finally understand the whole point of the seminar thus far! You have been trying to teach us that it is the salvation of souls that is most important, through the Gospel of Christ Jesus to penitent sinners in the name and blood of Jesus! Well, just you wait! You are going to see results from that teaching here in Zwedru - by God's great grace!!" Of course the seminars emphasize a much greater scope of things, but in a religious climate where every imaginable and unimaginable doctrine is afoot and signs and wonders are in great demand these words of Uriah's have profound significance and echo deep into the heart of my calling and ministry.
(Accra, Ghana - Sunday, May 24, 2009) Safely back here in Ghana, which feels like the center of civilization, again. We made that 12 hour road trek from Zwedru to Monrovia without incident - except for being completely covered in sweat and red dust. My first real shower in nine days did feel good, but I would make that trek again any time (except for rainy season) since a big chunk of my heart got left out there in Liberia. I just pray that I can go back again!!! On Tuesday I head north again - through London and Denmark - arriving in Finland on June 1, God willing!
Much love and prayers in God's peace from this side of Africa!
Dennis
Please see all the pictures from Liberia, Ghana, and Togo by clicking here!
http://imageevent.com/aalchurch/picturesfromtheforeingmissiontrips/guatemalapictures
Welcome to my world - my Liberian world! It is late in the evening of Wednesday, May 20, 2009. I am relaxing under the mosquito net canopy suspended over my comfortable double bed in a small bedroom in a simple but very hospitable village home in Zwedru, Liberia (200 miles southeast of the capital of Monrovia, near the Ivory Coast border).
Just four years ago this home did not exist and the whole area was a ghost town. War had ravaged the entire province of Grand Gedeh and all the inhabitants had fled across the border into the Ivory Coast in 1990. They happened to belong to the Kahn tribe whose leader Samuel Doe, from this province, had taken over the country by force ten years earlier. In retaliation to his unpopular reign of power, rebels assassinated him that year and went on a rampage to kill every member of his Kahn tribe. Every able-bodied person fled on the three-day trek through the jungles into Ivory Coast taking only what they could carry with them. Later many also took refuge in Ghana and other countries. It was seven years before the first ones dared venture back and not until the war finally ended only four years ago have most of them been repatriated - with some still living abroad. Everybody has a heart-wrenching story!
But the war seems far away from my secluded little canopied reality this evening. After a hot sticky day I have just returned from my little "bathhouse" at the end of a garden path lined with large-leafed banana plants. That cozy little structure consists of a circular arrangement of poles draped with a light plastic tarp, around a small concrete pad. At the opening is a little candle, in the middle is a bucket of water with a scoop, and above it is open to the whole star-studded sky. A rather enchanting time of refreshment!
Today was the last day of five days of seminars and services for pastors and church workers from the Grand Gedeh province. What a blessed time we had together. These days were organized by Pastor Othello Tyne and Pastor Dickson Dueh, President and Vice President respectively of the Apostolic Lutheran Church of Liberia. These seminars are a follow-up of the valuable visit and seminars held here just one year ago by Andy Kandoll and Dan Karnes from America. This effort also represents the long term vision of Andy's father Gus Kandoll, who was a dear friend of mine, and who visited here twice in the early seventies. One of the best things about our time here in Liberia has been the openness, warmth and straightforwardness of all the people involved. Where there were stresses and strains they didn't try to hide them but brought them into open dialogue. This helped me greatly when I gathered all of the local leaders together this evening for some fatherly advice and counsel as our week together was summarized with a view to the future. My theme was 1 John 1:7.
Now if you are wondering about the patter of small feet that you hear, don't be concerned. It's just that a very prolific mouse family who lives under the packing boxes in the far corner of the room and who apparently have a little runway on the headboard of my bed just above my pillow - outside of the net, of course. I just wonder when they sleep ´cause they scamper about during the day, too. Earlier this evening a bat was trying to unnerve me a bit by fluttering around in the candlelight of my room, but I summoned reinforcements and he apparently got to feeling unwelcome and dashed out of the open space between the wall and roof. He could have used the one small window since it is a rather paneless experience like all Liberian village windows but I guess the open rafters were easier. In the daytime mother hens and their chicks frequently wander in and peck innocently among my things. My only other "guest" is a rather impressive 2½ inch spider who for the first few days pretty much minded his business on the far wall and then yesterday when I was reaching for the open case I carry my Bible and notes in, as I was leaving for the seminar, I suddenly realized he was disappearing into it. To my chagrin he promptly made himself so scarce that I could not find him at all. I just hope he was transformed by the Word into something less innocuous.
As I sit here in the peace of my enchanted little softly netted enclosure it does seem like a world for itself. But I also remember the world I was in just a few days ago on the trip here from the capital city of Monrovia. More than twelve hours of awful roads - first old broken up pavement and then endless miles of rutted, pot-holed gravel, sand and just plain dirt roads. Bump, bang, dodge, swerve and then all over again in the hot sun and dust.. The infrastructure in Liberia simply doesn't really exist yet - destroyed by 15 years of war. For instance electricity is non-existent anywhere in the country, except in the capital. In most rural towns gas is sold in one gallon glass jars. And now I can "look forward" to that return road to Monrovia that is still ahead of us tomorrow. Let us pray for dry conditions. In the rainy season only big four wheel drive vehicles even attempt it. Do you understand the isolation of these people?
You know when you hold seminars you always wonder if people are getting the point and praying that it will make a difference in their lives after we have come all the way around the world and endured all of those awful roads. Well last night one young man named Uriah really made my day. I was sitting outside of this house enjoying a respite from the oppressive heat of the day - it pushes 100 F. or above every day - and here he came around the corner and sat down beside me. I could just barely detect a big smile on the handsome face of this youth leader in the faint light. "I got it! Pastor Dennis, I really got it!" he emoted. "I finally understand the whole point of the seminar thus far! You have been trying to teach us that it is the salvation of souls that is most important, through the Gospel of Christ Jesus to penitent sinners in the name and blood of Jesus! Well, just you wait! You are going to see results from that teaching here in Zwedru - by God's great grace!!" Of course the seminars emphasize a much greater scope of things, but in a religious climate where every imaginable and unimaginable doctrine is afoot and signs and wonders are in great demand these words of Uriah's have profound significance and echo deep into the heart of my calling and ministry.
(Accra, Ghana - Sunday, May 24, 2009) Safely back here in Ghana, which feels like the center of civilization, again. We made that 12 hour road trek from Zwedru to Monrovia without incident - except for being completely covered in sweat and red dust. My first real shower in nine days did feel good, but I would make that trek again any time (except for rainy season) since a big chunk of my heart got left out there in Liberia. I just pray that I can go back again!!! On Tuesday I head north again - through London and Denmark - arriving in Finland on June 1, God willing!
Much love and prayers in God's peace from this side of Africa!
Dennis
Please see all the pictures from Liberia, Ghana, and Togo by clicking here!
http://imageevent.com/aalchurch/picturesfromtheforeingmissiontrips/guatemalapictures
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