Mission Trip 2012 Blogs 1 and 2

Mission Trip 2012 Blog 2

The easiest to arrange this blog is by dates. To keep each blog brief I will only hit the highlights.

Saturday, March 3

• I went with Edwin Juah, my brother-in-law, to see Alice Dennis and Delicia Brown, my sisters-in-law. I found that Harriet's mom, Mary Brown, lives in another part of town, in her own house. Alice nearly jumped off her seat when I gave her the laptop that Harriet sent her as a surprise gift to help Alice with her computer education.

Sunday, March 4

• Worship at Church For All was feverish with Liberian praise and worship, which is dressed in dances and served with drum beats. We did a brief FlipVideo recording of an excerpt of the worship service. The CFA family here were so joyful about our interest in them. The church currently meets for Bible study and worship in a school. As some of you may recall, the Liberian government demolished the CFA building on the basis of eminent domain.

• With Joshua 14:6-14 as the sermon text, I preached the message “Give Me This Mountain”, taken from the words of 85-year-old Caleb. The message was received with much enthusiasm and seriousness, with at least ten persons responding to the altar call to take on their “mountains”. Pastor Isaac asked me to lead the Communion Service, after which I was led to the room of Children's Worship. I noticed just how many children there were, nearly as many as the adults in church; that tells us that CFA Liberia has a great future.
• After lunch with Pastor Isaac Dayugar and his wife Frances, my cousin Martee Willie came, and we went to see Patience (niece) and Wallah (nephew), children of Judy Munneh, my only sister. Their living condition is so deplorable; I was shocked and overwhelmed to weeping out loud once Patience took us into their room, with a thin foam mattress on the floor. Patience informed me that Judy was in Harbel, about 45 minutes of driving away from Monrovia. Patience's dream is to become a nurse, and Wallah wants to attend IT (computer) school, but poverty has a choke hold on them; they do not have the money to pursue the training that would led them to employment or entrepreneurship, thus pointing the way out of poverty. I prayed with them, pleading with the Lord to make a way somehow.

Monday, March 5

• Brother-in-law Edwin Juah came with a taxi to pick me to visit my mother-in-law, Mary Brown, whose main concern is to see her daughter (Harriet) in Liberia soon. I informed her that Harriet wants to visit Liberia in 2014 to see her homeland and family from whom she has been away for nearly 22 years. Alice had already given Ma Mary the items that Harriet sent for her.
• I met with the CFA Planning Team that is responsible for the details of our mission in Liberia. Their proposed budget tops $6,000, and I really don't know where they will get the money, but they appear to believe it will all work out somehow. Upon prayerful reflection I suggested changes in the plan: move the venue of the revival services from outside, and have them in Heritage International, the same church building where we will conduct the Salt Covenant Conference and the dental clinic. During our meeting with Pastor Williams of Heritage International, we agreed it would be more conducive to make 7 PM to 9 PM the time of the revival services. Pastor Williams informed me that he's not charging CFA for any of the meetings; we can decide what we want to give to cover the cost Heritage will incur for hosting the meetings.
• Also, to free up some day time for our mission team from the USA, we moved the events in Buchanan to the afternoon hours: On March 20-22, Salt Covenant Conference starts around 4 PM, with the dental clinic and revival services to follow. The day times that we free up will allow us time to look into the business aspects of our mission, while in Buchanan.
• I asked the driver to take me to the campus of the Baptist Seminary. There I spoke with Rev. Toby Gbeh, husband of Ester Gbeh (Harriet's aunt), who helped deliver Daneto (our first child) in 1993 in Ghana, West Africa. With Rev. Gbeh's assistance we secured the Lecture Hall of the Baptist Seminary at no rental fee, except for money to fuel the electric generator for the Business Forum, set for 6 PM to 8 PM on Monday, March 19. Rev. Arnold Hill, President of the seminary expressed strong interest in meeting our team once they arrive; he said the seminary is seeking partners to open a clinic for the community.
• During the March 19 Business Forum, the two businessmen on our mission team (Jason Toler and Kevin Young) will connect with some of the leaders and members of the Liberian business community. We want the American and Liberian business people to explore ideas and possibilities for doing business in Liberia, as a key way to alleviate poverty, one of the goals of Mission Liberia. Rev. Gbeh connected me with D. Maxwell Kemayah, President, Liberia Business Association (LIBA). Mr. Kemayah wants to meet with me at his office on Friday, March 9; this looks like a key contact for the development aspect of Mission Liberia.

Tuesday, March 6

• With Elder Martin Curlon as driver, we (Pastor Isaac, Pastor Dean, and I) went to see the home of Mike Baba, a Special Security Service guy who is assigned to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Mr. Baba assures me that security will be provided for our team during our stay in Liberia. Based on Mr. Baba's access to the chief executive, I have asked him about the possibility of our team meeting with the Liberian president; he indicated that is quite possible, if we have the required IDs. Mr. Baba is married to my cousin Rebecca. The Babas are offering their residence as accommodation for some of our mission team members, if we need it.
• Next, we then headed on to ELWA, the Christian radio campus, which hosts the guesthouse that we paid $500 on as advance payment. Nenneh, the lady in charge, told us that they have two rooms that can accommodate five of our people. That will leave two persons still needing a room or two, and to solve that problem we headed over to the Carver Mission campus, where Mr. Jarbah promised to check his schedule of guests and inform us later; as of this blog we have not heard from him.

Next week, my host, Rev. Luther Tarpeh, has promised to have me on his nation-wide radio show to promote the Mission Liberia events in Monrovia and Buchanan. Please pray for impact.

Also, continue to pray for the rest of the team to safely arrive on Wednesday, March 14, and for all of us to remain healthy, strong, focused and united throughout the mission here. Success on this trip will mean sowing seeds and establishing relationships that will develop and yield lasting fruit. Instead of doing things for Liberians, we prefer to collaborate with Liberians in preaching the balanced Gospel and lifting many out of poverty primarily by helping to develop resources local to Liberia. ~ End Blog 2 ~

Mission Trip 2012 Blog 1

WE are going on the international mission field. Leaving Owensboro at 1 PM, accompanied by Ray Blair (driver), his nephew Chad, and my wife, Miss Harriet, we arrived at Nashville International Airport around 3:30 PM. At the Delta Airlines desk, the representative requested my passport with visa and ticket, then weighed my two pieces of luggage, the scale showing exactly 51 pounds per bag. Harriet beamed with a big smile. We giggled and nearly leaped for joy at the precision, thanks to Harriet who put the finesse on my packing ritual. (Delta had warned me on the phone that extra luggage would cost $200 apiece! Ouch...not my money!!)

Next it was time to go through airport security, which involved taking off our shoes, belts, wallets, all pocket contents – thanks to the late Osama bin Laden! How that one terrorist totally changed travel from and to America!! I hate to admit that bin Laden succeeded to that extent.

We began boarding the plane at 4:15 PM Central Time, and the flight from Nashville started with takeoff at 4:45 PM. We arrived in Atlanta at 7:10 PM Eastern Time, about 55 minutes in the air.

Longest leg of the flight was the marathon from Atlanta to Accra, Ghana. Boarded the massive Air Bus 333, about 200 seats, at 9:10 PM Eastern, took off at 9: 45 PM, with flight time estimated to be 9 hours 55 minutes. After reading portions of When Helping Hurts, watching three movies, and eating two meals in the air, we finally came off the cloud and touched down at 12:35 PM GMT, which is the local time zone in Ghana, and in the rest of West Africa. That came to 9 hours and 45 minutes of flying.

Passengers destined for Ghana got off the plane. We who were going to Liberia remained on board. Ghanaian security personnel entered to inspect luggage, making sure that every carry-on luggage was matched with an on-board traveler. Then additional Liberia-bound passengers joined us. After the 2-hour wait in Ghana, we took off at 2:35 PM for the last leg of the trip, which lasted for 1 hour 40 minutes. We landed on Liberian soil at 4:15 PM, in Harbel, home of the Firestone Rubber Plantation. Though the airplane announcer kept calling the location of the Roberts International Airport “Monrovia”, we had to drive another 45 minutes before arriving in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia.

Good for me, my host, Pastor Luther Tarpeh, along with my boyhood friend, Robert Saydee, were on hand to receive me at the airport. Brother Isaac Dayugar, pastor of Church For All, Liberia, was also on hand with his entourage. Since 1989, this was the first time my friend and I had met on Liberian soil, so you can imagine the conversations about the savory memories of the past.

Shortly after arriving at Brother Luther's home and exchanging greetings with his wife, Christina, their three children, and other members of the household, I held a brief meeting with Brother Isaac about meeting on Monday. Before knowing it, dinner time had arrived, after which we (Saydee, Luther and I) went for a quiet time on the Atlantic Ocean beach at Kendeja, the resort built by America's multimillionaire Robert Johnson, the founder of BET (Black Entertainment Television). By the way, it was Robert Johnson who lobbied Delta Airlines to make direct flights from America to Liberia.

Believe it or not, by the time we decided it was bedtime, our watches showed it was pushing 2 AM, closing Day One of Church For All's first trip on the international mission field.

PS: I found that Liberia now uses 220 volts on things electrical, but a modern laptop needs no special adapter to step the voltage down to 110V, because such a laptop automatically adjusts the voltage to the appropriate range between 100V and 240V. ~ End of Blog 1 ~