West African Trilogy - Liberia

As I mentioned at the Ghana part of this trilogy, our mission roots go back a long way in Liberia, but for 17 long years in the 90's and 2000's this country was a disaster of bloody civil war. In one refugee camp in Ghana alone at one time there were over 4 million Liberian refugees. Now they have returned or are returning but Liberia is not an easy country to get on your feet in. It's infrastructure is still badly in disarray. Roads are often only potholes - even formerly paved ones - and electrical networks are pretty much non-existent.

We were supposed to travel about 12 hours, for instance, from the capital city of Monrovia to Zwedru, the county seat of Grand Gedeh County. Our first car broke down after only two hours of bone-jarring holes. Here we sat under this mango tree in a small village beside the road for a total of six hours hoping for a way to go on. Finally another car came from Monrovia to take us farther. That one lasted about half of the journey - almost until the midway town of Ganta until one of the tire rims split in two and we limped into town on motorbikes at 1:00 a.m. in the morning and found a temporary place to sleep. Early the next morning we were up, hoping for our car to be fixed. It didn't get fixed so we hired a third car and made it all the way in "only" 34 hours!!

Under the mango tree Leona did not sit. She soon went out to a little thatched roof shade across the road and in no time a whole flock of children had gathered around her and her paper craft attractions.

Many hours she spent with that happy group as I bided my time under the mango tree. She also taught them many Bible stories using her paper crafts. I am sure that God allowed our "little stopover" so that these children could be reached with the love of Christ.

Maybe the most interesting angle to this story is that just behind where Leona was teaching was a rather new Muslim mosque, in the shadow of which she taught about Jesus.

The seminars were delayed for one day. They were opened in the Zwedru ALC church one morning by a blind man, Brother Jackson. Here he is speaking and reading his text in Braille from the book of Matthew - from the only part of the Bible that he owns, chapters 16-28. Otherwise the Braille Bible is so voluminous and he has never been able to get more of it. But Jackson's words clearly indicated that he had no problem with his spiritual sight. He, in fact, has just opened a Christian school for the blind in Zwedru under the most meager conditions. It is located in an old county seat building from the 60´s that was completely gutted by the war. No windows, no inside doors, no toilets or kitchen. Students and teachers sleep on sparse mats on the floors of the bare concrete rooms. During storms rain pours through the big gaps in the metal roof. But Jackson and his friends are determined since this would be the only blind school in Liberia outside Monrovia!
 

Teaching at the seminar in the Zwedru church. This is the old thatched roof/mud wall building that is soon to be replaced. It serves as the home church of the ALCL.

Again we closed the seminar with "Lasting Change". Here in small groups some men are listening to the confession of a brother and some women are involved in prayer with the absolution and forgiveness of sins.

The pastors and church leaders seminar in Liberia is over once again.These people represent eight different churches in four counties. The president of the ALCL Pastor Othello Tyne is the short man to my immediate right and the general secretary D. Christan Bowah is to my left. After this the people prepared for a big revival meeting at the church that evening involving many more of the local congregation members.
 

On Sunday morning was a very special service in which I spoke on the theme, "We are more than conquerers!" This particularly in light of the painful breakaway of the church's lead pastor in Zwedru less than six months ago which threatened to decimate the church. But God has provided strength and hope and all of the other ALC churches in Liberia rallied round and the church was saved.

Above the children's choir is being led by young Shadrack (in red) having charge of that part of the musical worship. Shadrack is a terrifically talented young 13-year-old with only one eye who decided to attend almost every seminar session and take careful notes. Talk about hope for the future.

As a part of that Sunday service Evangelist D. Christian Bowah was ordained and installed as lead pastor of the Zwedru Church. Ever since I first arrived in Zwedru four years ago Christian has proved himself to be a faithful and tireless servant of the living God. It was he who was one of the key leaders of the church through the turbulent and painful departure of the other pastor, travelling uncounted miles over formidable roads alone on his motorbike to visit the other congregations and keep the Apostolic Lutheran Church here together, with God's help.

On that well-worn bike Leona and I travelled to and from the church and into town every day.

One of the most hopeful and jubiulant parts of the morning came after the service when we all went outside for the official groung-breaking ceremony for a new church just next door.

To break the ground I was given somthing like a cross between a spear and a spade. It worked. "Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it", I proclaimed as I jammed the spade into the hard ground repeatedly. And I prayed God's blessing on the new physical church and the spiritual church of living stones which is even more crucial.

The very next day the congregation went to work - literally - and started raising the scaffolding upon which to put a roof to cover the new church area.

It looked meager at first but I have always learned not to doubt African resolve and experience in getting something like this done.

Look what happened by Day Two. Even the trusses are in place!

Days Three and Four - the roof goes on.

The new church building is being built right beside the old one.  The contrast is very great!  When the roof is in place the congregation will begin a mammoth project to produce over 4000 hand made sun dried bricks to get the walls into place.
　
***And one picture you will just have to imagine - Our jubllant reception by about 40 prisoners in the yard of the National Palace of Corrections on Monday. We were not allowed to take our cameras in there, or to use the meeting room which was being refurbished, but the joy and hunger for the Word of God demonstrated by those men standing out there in the hot sun is now a picture in my heart that I will not be able to forget. Most of them remembered me from earlier visits but they cried out with earnest pleas that they would not be forgotten again in the interim since the pastor who deserted our church also deserted them last fall. I spoke on "whosoever will save his life will lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."
 

Can't send this out without my favorite picture. "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings," said Jesus. I have always been enamored of mother hens and little chicks. Thanks to Leona,to whom I want to give credit for all of the pictures in this trilogy, I got my favorite picture!! Leona is a great photographer as is witnessed by all of the pictures I am sending out from West Africa!

And please allow me to add this precious one. Can a mother hen love?

A night view from the hospitable abode of Christian, his wife Patience and children Ezekial, Blessing and Christina Joy. He has done it all himself with his own hands - a small comfortable three room mud-plastered structure where we stayed while in Zwedru. Using a generator we could make use of both the computer and our welcome fans and it even has a separate little room here in the house for bucket bathing. And how many stars was that hotel? Wow! Just wish you could have been there to look up at night. There were jillions of them!

And one more evening scene from the Atlantic Ocean beach in Monrovia, Liberia.  "Over and over, like a mighty sea, comes the love of Jesus rolling over me!"

Now Leona and I are on our way to the Philippines.  We had to take different flights but hope to meet up in a couple days.  I am writing these last remarks from the airport in Hong Kong.  I reached here through Adis Ababa and Bangkok.  And so the saga continues.  It is so nice to have all of you along in thought and prayer.  We will be in the Philippines for the month of May, God willing.

In God's love and peace!!

Dennis