Dear All,
I really appreciated your emails!! They were so encouraging!! It was also very fun to read what is happening back at home. :) I love each and every one of you. I am so thankful for each of you, my dear family and friends!!!! Actually, I view each of you close enough to be my family. So, thank you!!
Now, that the sickness and culture shock is over with at least for the moment, I feel like God is wanting this letter to glorify Himself!!!!
I need and want to tell you all that God is doing here in this country of Liberia. (His country of Liberia.) It is just like we have heard many times before we arrived. The stories are the same. Things that are happening are only a work of the Lord. I will tell you some of them.
There is a man. His name is Augustin. He was a soldier, a general during the war. He is really looked up to. His wife had a dream that he went from the dark side to the light side. So, she asked him about it. 2 weeks later, he was at a bar and a man who had recently given his life to Jesus through our ministry was there handing out tracks.
The man told Augustin that if he went to visit WordSower that they would help him to be free. So he came. He really felt that it was to fulfill his wife's dream. He came drunk and his first words were, "I heard that this was a place that I could find freedom." Don got to tell him about Jesus. He accepted Jesus, gave his life to Him and was baptized. The key verse for him was John 10:10, " the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that they might have life and life to the full." He decided to stay in Zwedru to be trained so that he can go back to tell his hometown about Jesus also. He had planned to stay here for a month. He went with Don to the jail to give testimony to what the Lord has done in his life and the people did not even see the "white" man, they only saw Augustin. That shows you how popular he is and how powerful his testimony is.
I have heard that you can do a google search on him. His general name is Red Scorpion. (If you do a google search on him and find out anything, let me know, please.) :) It is June 21st now and we just finished talking with Augustin. He shared his testimony with Don and I. The Lord has completely changed his life! He is not the same man, praise Jesus! God is using him and he knows many will come to know Him because God will use him. He felt like he should go to his home town, so he did and just came back. He said that the people, his neighbors and friends were so excited to hear about God that they gave him $ so that he could get back to Zwedru. They also said to use the $ to learn more about God and come back to teach them all about it. They all called him, "man of God" and not his army name. He told us that he is so happy. Also, he and (his wife) are going to get married July 27th. He said, we have been together for 10 yrs but we want to make things right and be married. God is sooo awesome!!
People are always meeting with Don because they have questions. We are learning that even our field leaders need more training. When Jehovah Witnesses and 7th Day Adventist's sit down to discuss "thier"
scriptures with them, they do not even realize that it is a lie. They tell Don what someone said and ask him to clarify and explain from the Bible so they they can also understand. Don is always careful to explain to them that the watch towers for example are perfect toilet paper, but they are always confused with the comment. LOL! But, the need for truth is very important. So, I am thankful the Lord is starting to show me some reasons why we are here and why the need for truth is very much needed. God needs us here to share the truth with those who really do not know otherwise. They want to know but just do not know. God is using Don in this area, especially. He is so good at that kind of thing. Right now, I feel like my ministry is the same. My children and my husband. I am also teaching Larpoo, my neighbor who lives on the base with us, how to read with God's help.
It fasincates me. The Liberians do not even know the sound of the
letters. In the schools, they teach sight words only literally. Don
said that he saw some of the government curriculum. He said that you have 2 words like nat and hat. They have them like this: nat hat
They say, see they do not say the same thing. One says "nat", the other says "hat". That is how they learn to read. (I cannot even begin to imagine.) The Liberian's pronounce some of their letters differently than us, so Don wonders if that is why they teach how to read that way. I have heard many Liberian's read, even teachers at the schools. Each word in a sentence is read by only one word at a time, literally. Like let's look at the sentence: I love my Jesus and I am so thankful for Him. I would read that sentence all in 1 breath kind of thing. They would read it like this: I-------------(break)
love---------------(break) my--------------------(break) Jesus-------------, well you get the point. I have never seen or heard anything like it.
Honestly. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not trying to talk bad about them, just trying to let you understand. Don was privileged to be able to talk with the education dept of our county. They gave permission to use Tracey Tutor in different schools that need an English program, which is very exciting. But, they also told Don that in our county, Grand Gedah County, that there is an 80% illiteracy rate. I told Don, you have that plus think about how much they are not comprehending when they read at the rate they do. Interesting. Something else to pray for.
It is not uncommon to have a person we do not know walk onto the property and say before any other words are uttered, "I want to be born again." Recently a man named Du came by. His friend recently had told him about Jesus. He wanted to know more. He accepted Jesus and was baptized. He wanted to know how to share about Jesus with his friends. So, Don showed him how. DU gave the gospel message to Christian for practice. Christian said, "I did not understand a word." (Because the Liberian English is slightly different. Enough different, that I am still struggling...) He went out that night and his uncle accepted the Lord. 2 days later, Du and his uncle came by.
His uncle told Don, first words, "I want to be trained in the truth of the gospel so that I can train others."
You never know what to expect. Each day is different. People come by at all hours of the day. Some are wanting to know the TRUTH, others are wanting to be trained. Others are field leaders picking up material and going out to share Christ with others; either by foot or by motorbike. There is a constant flow of people. People start arriving before I even awake in the morning or stay until just before dark. (Some days are busier than others, but people are coming.) The only word that I can use is "the fields are ready for the harvest."
Another man came back from afar, and said that the pastor is begging to be trained. He teaches the same message every Sunday. (John 3:16) That is all he knows. The people are beginning to get bored and are leaving.
A man who lives on the base named Bodio is trying to get to River Gee county. He really has a heart for these people. Unlike Grand Gedah county, there are churches in many of the towns and villages.
However, if you walk into one of these churches and you ask them who Jesus is, they have no idea. They have never heard of Him. Let's say, you ask them how to be saved, they have no idea what salvation is. They have never heard of that either. They are living by the Old Testament Law and the prosperity gospel. You know, give $ and you will be healed or give $ and God will return it back to you plus more.
Who will tell them? Bodio and 2 other field leaders are ready to go.
They only need an estimated $1,500 a month. Then they will go. As for now, they go on 2 wk trips to teach them each month. The fields are ripe for a harvest.
Something else is happening. Word is getting out, that we also want to teach literacy. Don and a group of people meet once a week to discuss how we are going to get literacy in each church that has been started. The idea is to start adult literacy programs that would go on during the evenings after the people are finished working in their fields, etc. These meetings are serious. Don said, "It is wonderful.
Normally, in the states, we just discuss. But here, the people actually go and do." Each meeting, people have gone out and visited different schools, etc.
God is working! I hear about other countries that are so closed to the gospel, that is not Liberia. Not all people know and believe the truth, but I believe if they were just told, the fields are ripe for the harvest. Many towns are still in bondage to leaders that are called the devil and the devil's disciples. (I hear stories often - almost everyday.) But, I really think all they need is someone to tell them. Someone to tell them the truth of the gospel and that will change. Please pray for Liberia. Please pray for more workers for the harvest. Because the fields are ripe and are completely ready for the harvest. Please also pray for the literacy. That God will use that in the ways that He desires so that people can read the Bible, God's Holy Word for themselves.
I love you all!! Thank you for your prayers!!!!!
Love, Mel :)
P.S. I need to tell you 2 funny things. The first is we are constantly having a chicken with 9 little baby chicks walking through my house. They love to walk in through my back door and walk through my house and out my front door. It rarely happens the way they would like because someone usually gets there in time to scare them back out my house. But very funny. Oh, Don just said that there was a chicken standing on my kitchen counter outside and crowed at him when he walked out. :) The 2nd funny thing is yesterday Don, Christian, Grace, and Don went to church. They said that there was a lady in front of them literally
2 ft in front of them or closer and she sat in the row in front of them. She turned her body around to face them so that her back was towards the preacher and just sat and starred at them while smiling during the entire service with her head propped up on her hand. How awkward and funny!!!!!! (It was probablyLarpoo joked that after the service, people might have asked her if the service was good and she would have responded yes, there was a white man and his family there.
That would be all that she knew..... LOL!!!!
Lana, we are still praying for Mona. It is good to hear an update regarding him. Unfortunately, you are right. I understand with delays... But honestly, Little Don is home and I do not ever think about those delays except when I am reminded and have to think back to
those...... :) Please tell Collista that we are praying for them as
well.
Kellie, thank you for all the prayers!! I thank God everyday for you and your watch, I think Don feels the same. We would be completely lost without having the time. (Our phones are not always charged and ready to go, so it is nice to be able to see the time always.) We have it hanging on our mosquito net. I was afraid that I would leave it in the shower stall sometime so we found a permanent spot for it.
Yes, I pray for you also. How are things going for you? I wonder often how I can pray more specifically for you.
Mary, I cannot believe it. I had totally forgotten that you had told me that your prayer for me was that God would speak to me in a way that only I can understand. I totally agree He did that for me in the song that He gave me during the night. He has been continuing to answer that prayer... For some reason, I had really struggled with being here. Please do not misunderstand me. I have been thankful that God called us here but had really struggled with the thought of being here for soo long. Well, the kid's memory verse was Matt 6:19 last week. Then this week, it was Matt 6:20 - 21. It was like a light bulb went off in my head while I was talking to the kid's about what the verse meant. I have been content and fine with being here ever since. It says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
So, thank you, Mary. Keep up the praying. :) I think normally that verse would not really mean anything, but God used it in a big way!
Stephanie, all the kid's but Christian are asleep right now. I read your email to him and he felt really encouraged and loved. Thank you so much for all your love and encouragement. I have been praying specefically for you just about everyday. Oh, I was so hoping that you were going to tell me, the intermediate was finished. I will continue to be praying for you in regards to that and everything else that is going on in your life. But, I want to encourage you that you will get it done in the Lord's timing whether we like it that way or not. :) There is a reason for the delay, the computer break down. I don't have any idea but I know the Lord will move you on in His timing. It is a journey. Following Him is a journey. Just take 1 day at a time. (Don has been telling me that, since the first day we arrived here. I am thankful that I now understand that and am doing
that.) :)
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