Meet some of our special Children!
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| Berry |
This week, I had the privilege of serving these beautiful children and their foster parents. Our ministry is partnered with a ministry named His Safe Haven to raise special needs orphans and to serve families with special needs children. The children in these pictures have been placed with foster parents in our group homes. A good friend of mine named Stevie has been faithfully serving these children and has returned to the States for a few months of furlough. While she is away, we will be assuming some of her responsibilities. I have quickly learned Stevie's shoes are not easy to fill!
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| Gorma and Eric |
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| Lucy and Diamond |
Liberia's special needs children desperately need the church's intervention. Many Liberians call special needs children, demons or devils. They believe these children have interacted with the dark demonic world and have received upon themselves the due penalty of their own wickedness, their disability. Many of these children die from neglect or are killed by their parents. From my perspective, special needs children are the most destitute people in Liberia, and perhaps in the world. Thank you for partnering with us in sharing God's love with these children and in helping educate Liberian communities about their needs.
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| This is the closest I got to entering the bank |
What take minutes to accomplish in the States, often takes hours or days to accomplish in Liberia. I spent two full days of my life, last week, trying to receive a money gram to buy supplies for our special needs group homes. Banking in Liberia is one of the most frustrating things I have ever done in my life. On Tuesday, I stood in line outside our bank for hours while the rain beat me. By the end of the day, it became evident that I was not going to make it inside. The woman standing next to me told me that she spent 3 days trying to enter the bank without success.
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| Have you ever seen this much money piled on your bank's counter? |
Friday, I drove 45 minutes to a neighboring town, and visited three banks before successfully receiving money. Frustrating!
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| By the end of the week, we were able to deliver supplies and pay our foster moms salaries. Thank you for loving on these beautiful children. With God's help, later this year, we will build homes for each foster parent. |
People you helped this week:
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| Thank you for medically treating Manue's special needs child and for feeding Manue's family. |
Look at this precious baby girl. Her mother died while giving birth and her father abandoned her. The mother's friend is caring for the baby. This friend came to me and asked me to take the child and raise her myself. "I cannot afford to feed the baby," she told me. During the previous four days, the baby was fed nothing but water to pacify her hunger. Thank you for saving this child's life! For the next six months, you will be buying formula and feeding this baby. Thank you!
Thank you for medically treating this child. Though you cannot see it from this picture, the baby's body is covered with little sores.
Thank you for buying supplies for Jestina's small cooking business. By buying these supplies you are feeding Jestina, her brother Jerry, and her baby. Thank you!
There are many others you helped this week but I failed to take photos. Sorry!
Prayer Requests:
1. Please pray for Liberia's elections. This Tuesday, Liberians will go to the polls and elect a new president as well as many other public officials. PLEASE PRAY FOR PEACE! All the missionaries I know have stocked up on food and supplies, praying for peace while preparing for the worst. We too have stored up at least two months worth of supplies in case things turn violent. In addition to this, now is the time where ritualistic killings increase as Senators and elected officials offer human sacrifices in desperate hopes of obtaining power. Please pray the Lord puts the right people into office and things will remain peaceful!
2. Please pray for Melanie as she home schools our children. Homeschooling on the mission field has its unique challenges.
3. Please keep Liberty Elementary school in your prayers. Pray that we have a strong start to the school year.
4. Please pray for His Safe Haven's children. Pray for wisdom as we lead this ministry while Stevie is away. Please pray God refreshes Stevie while she is in the States.
5. Please pray for me. Last week, I became increasingly annoyed by the frequent interruptions to my life by people asking for assistance at my gate. Please pray that God removes from me the heart of a king and places in me a servants heart. I want to be a slave of the Gospel and a servant of the least of these.
6. Please pray for Kokoyah Road. Though I have not been able to be on the road since I returned, my heart aches for the pastors. Please pray we will see healthy churches started.
Thank you for laboring with us in prayer!
Random pictures from last week:
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| This is Abraham and little Don. A special lady in the States is sponsoring their mother's small shoe business. Last week, Garmen traveled to Monrovia and bought new shoes to sell. Thank you for loving on Garmen and her children! |
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| This is a picture of my gate last Thursday. There are two families of special needs infants who need formula, one mother asking for school fee assistance, and hungry children standing there. Our gate was less busy this week. |
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| Tommy asked me if I could help him remove a tooth. With one big push the tooth popped out and went straight down his throat. Needless to say, Dad had to pay twice as much for this tooth. |
Rebecca's parents and many of her family members died during Liberia's ebola crisis. She is one of our oldest sponsored children. A dear family in the States is making Rebecca's dreams come true. Rebecca is now in her second year of nursing school. Thank you so very much for loving on Rebecca!
Prince is hard at work doing some edits to our Romans study.
Christian, Tommy and Don are playing football with some of our neighbors kids.
Thoughts from my devotions this week:
Take a look at these pictures we created for training pastors. What did we do wrong?
Our artist, Prince, and I often study the Bible together. While studying, we learn the main point of each verse, make rough sketches and then Prince paints what we learned. I enjoy watching Prince paint. It is fascinating to see the Bible through African eyes. The most striking thing to me about Prince's paintings is the color he paints Jesus. Did you notice Jesus is black in Prince's paintings? Prince drew a Jesus who looks African. What do you think about this? Is it ok to draw a black Jesus? I have been proud and very excited about these paintings until recently.
After having dinner with one of my dear missionary friends, I showed him some of Prince's work. He loved most of the paintings, even wanted to use some of them in his own ministry, but when he saw Jesus, he challenged me. He said, "The tendency of mankind is to make Jesus like themselves rather than to accept Jesus for who He truly is." These words rocked my world! "Jesus was not white, He was not black, He was not hispanic. Jesus was Jewish. God made promises throughout the Old Testament that Abraham's decedents would bless the world. We cannot teach a Jesus who is African, we must teach Jesus for who He truly is." he added.
Friends, I have given my whole life to the service of my wonderful Savior. My heart was crushed as I realized my error. I desperately want to help people come to know and fall in love with Jesus. In no way do I want to be guilty of making Jesus someone other than who He is. Next week, Prince and I will begin the long process of repainting the life of Jesus. The Jesus we paint will look Jewish.
How about you? In what ways have you made Jesus to be someone other than who He truly is? Perhaps your Jesus is too loving or too harsh. Perhaps, like me, you have been guilty of believing Jesus is more like yourself and have not accepted Him for who He truly is. I challenge you to read the Gospels again with fresh eyes. As you read, rediscover Jesus for who He truly is. If you had to paint Jesus, what would He look like? If you had to paint each story of Jesus' life, how would you depict the expressions on Jesus' face? Soon, I will share some of our new paintings with you.
God's Word is Rich! Love it! Read it! Live it!
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