Hope for Home, Liberia: April 2018

THE BIBLE INSTITUTES IS OPENING:

Picture: Gbenequella Bible Institute.

Since returning to Liberia last September, I felt led to focus my time on developing and growing our new elementary school, child sponsorship program, group homes for special needs orphans, mobile medical clinics, and land for the construction of His Safe Haven’s village for special needs orphans. I also felt the Lord leading me to develop a team of godly Liberian leaders to help oversee these ministries. With God’s help, this team has been formed and my time has been freed up to reopen our two Bible Institutes. We will begin training pastors again, May 15th!

Picture: Folobli Bible Institute.

From these Institutes we have been able to train pastors from 26 towns and villages up and down Kokoyah Road.

Please join me in praying for the Bible Institutes.

Here is what I’m praying for:

1. I am praying for wisdom as we make final preparations.

2. I am praying for true repentance in the hearts of the pastors. I am sure each pastor understands the Gospel because we tested them. Unfortunately, not every pastor is showing signs of repentance.

3. I am praying for Cyrus and David. These two men are being groomed to take over the Bible Institutes on Kokoyah Road. My goal is to train pastors of pastors.

4. I am praying that two additional Bible Institutes will be opened in a different region of Liberia.

SUSAN AND ELIZABETH’S GRADUATION AND LICENSING:

Though Susan and Elizabeth’s classes ended months ago, they officially graduated from the Baptist Missionary Physician Assistant School, last month.

April 9th, they passed their boards and were licensed as Physicians Assistants.

This license enables them to practice medicine just like doctors do in the States.

Susan and Elizabeth work fulltime for our ministry. They are responsible for keeping all 168 of our sponsored children healthy and for leading mobile medical clinics in remote towns and villages that have little access to medical care. Every month, God uses them to treat hundreds of people while strengthening the local churches we work with. Through their ministry, many have come to Christ.

CHURCH PLANTING:

You know you are working in a remote area when there are no maps that tell you how to get to the next town. Many times, the most reliable maps we use are the ones we create. While working in one bush town, it is not uncommon to fumble across a bush path that leads to two or three more villages deeper in the bush. Many of these villages are not accessible by car nor motorbike. A backpack and a few hours of hiking is what it takes to reach these villages with the Gospel.

Video: Road to Galakai. If you are having trouble viewing the video, click here: https://youtu.be/v1O4OfzSL18

Establishing a church or even a Bible study in these towns is very difficult. Where do you find a Bible teachers in a town that has practiced demonic rituals for generations and has no Christian citizen? My heart breaks for the children who are being raised in these Godless villages, who for the most part, are cut off from the rest of the world.

Video: Road to Galakai. If you are having problems viewing the video click here: https://youtu.be/t0_8WgOxVB4

We must do something. This summer we are focusing some of our disciple making efforts on a town named Denta and the bush villages that are connected to it. Three of these villages are accessible by motorbike. One village is accessible only by foot. We have yet to travel to Tunuta, Komata, Kokota, Fanyeni, and Bata. Perhaps there are even more villages yet to be discovered. Please pray that God would raise up leaders, from within the harvest, in each of these villages to lead Bible Studies. We pray that these towns will eventually have healthy churches.

CHURCH CONSTRUCTION PROJECT:

Thank you for helping us construct our church house. Recently, a new porch was added, electrical wires were installed, and ceiling panels were hung.

Soon, we will give our church house a fresh coat of paint, add security bars to the window, and install light fixtures and outlets.

HIS SAFE HAVEN’S VILLAGE:

With the Lord’s help, we will break ground on our first group home May 1st. I am praying the Lord will enable us to build one group home per month for the next seven months. This would enable us to move all our special need’s children onto our new land. God has blessed us with all the money we need to build our first two group homes and training center.

This is how many mud bricks it takes to build two houses. Believe it or not, there are over 6,000 mud bricks packed into this "kitchen."

God gave us a lot of termite hills on our property. Abandoned termite hills make the best mud bricks. After breaking down the termite hills and making mud, we fill brick molds and bake the bricks in the sun. Recently, our brick production has been interrupted by frequent rain. Rainy season officially starts in May. This month we will buy a special brick mold that makes brick by compressing dirt.

While digging a fish pond to control water during rainy season, we discovered a rich supply of sand under the topsoil. We dug a second fish pond to mine the sand. We now have enough sand for a few houses.

Recently, a crew of men told me they would dig a well and install a hand pump on our land for $650. “What an amazing deal,” I told myself. After starting to dig, I learned $650 was the cost of labor. The total project costs $2,200. Needless to say, our well will have to wait for another day.

We have a crew of people removing stumps. They will likely be working for the next two months.

Thank you for all you are doing for our special children!

TRAINING THE ILLITERATE:

Liberia has a high illiteracy rate. Many who can read have a hard time with comprehension. We are doing everything we know to do to make the Bible understandable for these people. Prince is our mission’s fulltime artist. His job is to translate the Scriptures into pictures. We print these pictures with a lesson written on the back for those who can read. We also create audio recording of each lesson in Liberian English and Kpelle. In the future we hope to record these lessons in other dialects as well. After teaching the illiterate, we download these audio lessons on their phones. After memorizing the lessons, they can train others while using the pictures to jog their memory. Here are a few pictures Prince recently created.

“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hoviering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2 ESV).

“And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so” (Genesis 1:9 ESV).

“When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up - for the LORD God had not cause it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground - then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:5-7).

“And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:8-9).

“And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth” (Genesis 9:12-13).

"The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you" (Genesis 13:14-17).

RANDOM PICTURES:

Dry season is coming to an end. With the new rains came the realization that our roof was leaking badly around our solar panel mounts. We had no choice but to replace the roof on the back half of our house.

We moved our solar panels to a rack that we built in our back yard. While moving the panels, I was reminded of what life was like before we had electricity. Thank you again for giving us the wonderful gift of electricity, last year! We now sleep with fans and have lights. Thank you so very much!