Before we evaluated ourselves on Friday, March 23, I heard days ago that one of the missionaries at ELWA was very impressed with our mission team: how unified the team is, how team members do not complain about conditions and workers at the guesthouse, how handy and helpful our Liberian hosts have been in keeping team members' company and taking them places. The ELWA people are used to seeing in-fighting among short-term missionaries, hearing team members grouch about the guesthouse, seeing their Liberian hosts dumb the missionaries at the guesthouse and abandon them. My response to such raving praise from an outsider was, “Thank God we forgot to read the template!”
Pastor Isaac Dayugar took Brother G to the home of CFA Assistant Pastor Moses Kollie, who showed us 2.5 lots (more than half an acre) of land for sale. Brother G videotaped the land, then instructed Brother Kollie to negotiate a price with the seller without mentioning CFA's American connection; that's to prevent the seller from raising the price.
Brother Kollie later reported that the seller asked for $3,500, but he negotiated her down to $2,800. That is a steal for land that close to the major township of Barnersville. The land is big enough to host not only a church building, but a guesthouse too, if we decide to build one there. Besides the great price, the land is located in a growing community (Old Town, Barnersville) that has no churches in sight. That means room to grow and impact the large number of families in Old Town, especially if CFA were to open a school, using the church building (to be constructed). Pray for the Lord to provide for us to acquire this land as the site for our headquarters church in Liberia.
On Sunday morning, March 25, Brother G was the guest preacher at Pentecostal Holiness Church, one of 42 churches that rent classrooms at Tubman High School on 12th Street, Monrovia. Visiting the church with me were Pastor Isaac Dayugar, Edison Garsuah (my younger brother), Salome Garswa Karnley (my niece, the singer), and Terry Saydee (the young businessman and nephew of my friend Robert Saydee). The Pastor of this church, Brother Moses Dean, served as team leader for the Planning Team that organized our meetings in Liberia. Pastor Dean and the Pentecostal Holiness Church have decided to become a Church For All congregation. It seems the Lord has moved CFA's work in Liberia in the fast lane!
Sunday evening, March 25, we conducted the memorial service for my mother, Martha Nyonochen Garswa, at the First Evangelical Free Church, near Zone 3 Police Station in Congo Town. Our host was Pastor James McCarthy.
As some of you may know, Brother G's mother fell mentally ill, then suddenly disappeared in 2006. His trip to Liberia in 2007 was to search for Mother, but after 10 days of stay, the search yielded no result. Before returning to the US in 2007, Brother G instructed Judy and Edison to continue looking and listening for signs of where Mom might be. If Mother had not been located by the time of his next trip to Liberia, the family would have a memorial service to celebrate Mom's substantive life.
The March 25th memorial service brought together children, grandchildren, and other relatives, as well as fellow pastors who are friends of Brother G's. The celebration featured praise music, primarily led by Patience Wallah (Judy's daughter), and later by Salome (our late brother Abraham's daughter). Family members paid verbal tributes to Mom, repeatedly emphasizing her devotion to personal holiness, her work ethic, business acumen, wisdom, generosity, hospitality, and passion for education, though she herself never attended school. It was Mom who made the decision for me to be educated, like my other three siblings who attended school before me.
Brother G eulogized his mom, using Proverbs 31:10-31, as his text, stating Mom was truly one of the few women on earth who can realistically be called “the virtuous wife”. Just about every detail of that passage, describing the ideal woman, could be seen in the life of Mother Martha, once she was converted from a life of worldliness to the righteousness of Christ . Wrapping up his message, Brother G asked family and relatives present to stand and commit to having an annual family reunion, beginning 2013, to honor the memory of our mother, who served as the glue for the extended family that spans Grand Bassa and Montserrado Counties. May Mother find eternal rest in the presence of Jesus Christ for whom she labored so well and so long, while suffering so much. ~End Blog 15~
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