Weekly Missions Update 10-32-17

New Staff Members Needed:

His Safe Haven strives for excellence in special needs orphan care.  As our ministry grows, the need for adding additional staff members also grows.  Let me introduce you to the staff we want to hire. 

Last week, we hired Susan.  Susan graduated from the Baptist Missionary Physician Assistants School and has worked in medical clinics for years.  Her job is to medically treat all our sponsored children, to administer daily medicines, to oversee daily therapy, to make sure our foster parents practice good hygiene, and to conduct mobile health clinics in bush communities where health care does not exist.  These mobile clinics will work in conjunction with our Remote Bible Institutes to spread the gospel in towns and villages where the Gospel is unknown.
Salary: $375 a month

Like Susan, Elizabeth graduated from the Baptist Missionary Physician Assistant School.   Elizabeth will work under Susan to fulfill the job description I just described.
Salary: $375 a month 

Dennis has a culinary degree and was trained by an Italian chef.  Dennis' cooking is among the best in Liberia.  His job will be to prepare nutritional meals, specialized for each of our special needs children.
Salary: $225 a month
 

Opah is a dear friend of our family's.  When we first moved to Gbarnga, Opah sacrificially helped our family as we acclimated.  Her job will be to help Dennis in the kitchen, wash dishes, mop floors, and do other jobs around the compound.
Salary: $100

We need your help.  Each of these staff positions are unfunded.  We were able to hire Susan temporarily from funds already in our account but her longterm salary is not raised.  If you are willing to make a one time gift or contribute monthly toward this need, please send me an email letting me know your intent.  My email address is don@hopeforhome.org.

Liberty Elementary School:

We know the success of our school rests on the shoulders of well trained teachers.  Last week, we held 5 days of teacher's training.

We also did placement tests on all 122 of our students.  This is a picture of Ophelia taking her placement test.

Our school starts November 6.

His Safe Haven:

Susan quickly got to work treating our sick children.  

When asked if she would be willing to lead a daily Bible Study with our house moms, Susan said, "Of course!  I am a Missionary Physician Assistant.  Being a missionary comes first."  We praise God for adding Susan to our team.  

Elizabeth volunteers at His Safe Haven while she awaits employment.

Prince is sketching a mural on our therapy room's wall.  Each of our special needs children will have their picture painted with Jesus on the wall.  The mural will say, "Jesus loves me."

Last week, we purchased new mattresses for all our children. 

Here is a picture of several of our children in the therapy / play room. 

Friday, We took our foster moms on a field trip.
 

We visited Gary's house where they learned about farming God's way, fish farming, raising rabbits, and much more.  

After visiting Gary, the ladies walked our new land.  Later this year, we plan to build a special need's village on this land.  This village will have a training center, therapy room, and a medical clinic for our children.  Each foster family will have their own house.    

Update on Titi and her Baby:

Titi named her baby after my missionary friend who is starting a church in her home town.  The baby's name is "Dr. Steve."

After being released from the hospital, Titi spent two days with us and then was flown back to her home in the bush. 

Random Pictures from Last Week:

Christian is holding our new pup.

In March, Stevie and Carissa will be joining our team in Liberia.  This pup is for them when they arrive.

 

Our new pups used the toilet on the front porch.  This was Don's solution for not wanting to smell the mess while he cleaned.

"Look, I found a leaf as big as my arm!"

Johnny is one of our employees.  He hauls water for the base and maintains the property.  Last week, Johnny bought his first motorbike.

Thank you for medically treating this baby.

Thank you for paying for Garmen's medical bills and for feeding her this month.

Thank you for paying for Nowa's surgery.  She had a large growth in her stomach that was removed.  She has been released from the hospital and is now recovering at home.  Thank you!

Remote Bible Training Centers:

Preparations are being made to reopen the Remote Bible Training Centers, in January, when the director for His Safe Haven returns and my time is freed up.  In the meantime, we continue to paint pictures and write new lessons.  We are in the process of making final edits to our Romans study so we can print a 2nd edition.  To pass the Romans class, our students must be able to look at these pictures and retell the book of Romans by memory.  When our students continuously stumble over a picture's meaning, we know we need to make edits.  Let me give you three examples of edits we made to the Romans study.  

Here is the original picture for Romans 1:23-25. The message of this picture is "they were given to impurity."  The reason we replaced this picture is because there was nothing in the picture that clearly communicated the meaning of impurity.     

Here is the picture we just created for the same passage of Scripture.  Matthew 23:27 helps us understand the meaning of the word impurity.  It says,  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all impurity.”  The person who has been given to impurity is like a whitewashed tomb.  They often look good on the outside but inside they are full of sins that make them unclean before God.

Here is the original picture for Romans 1:26-27. The message for this picture is "they were given to shameful passions."  We replaced this picture because there was nothing in it that clearly communicated the meaning of shameful passions.  

Here is our new picture.  The example Romans 1:26-27 gave for shameful passions was homosexuality.  We added two women in our new picture to represent this second sin.  A person has been given to shameful passions when their sin moves from the private arena of their lives to the public.  When a person becomes known by their sin or is labeled by their sin, they have been given to shameful passions.  We added people pointing their fingers to this picture because the sins of shameful passions bring shame to a person. 

Here is the last edit we made to the Romans Study.  We used this picture to teach Romans 1:28-32.  The message of this picture is "they were given to a debased mind."  The key words in this passage are the words "full" and "filled."  A debased mind is a mind that is full of sin.  We replaced this picture because there was nothing in the picture that communicated the meaning of a debased mind. 

Here is our new picture.  As you can see, the last sin is holding a cup that is full and overflowing. 
Now that we have made these edits, the second edition of the Romans booklet is almost ready to go to the print shop.  Thank you for your giving that makes this project possible.  These pictures have proven themselves to be very fruitful in Liberia.  

Prayer Requests:
1.  Please continue to pray that Liberia's runoff presidential election will be peaceful.  Runoff elections will be held November 7th.
2.  Please pray for Liberty Elementary School as it prepares to open November 6th.
3.  Please pray for God's provisions for the staff members we hope to hire.  
4.  Please keep Kokoyah Road in your prayers.  Please pray that healthy churches would be started.