Mission Update 8-31-18

Liberty Elementary School:

There has been a lot going on at Liberty Elementary School.  We had a very successful end to our first school year.  

Parents packed into our church house to celebrate their Kindergartener's graduation.

During graduation, parents were shocked to hear their children reading for the first time.  For many families, these kindergartners are the best readers or the only readers in their homes.  

Last year, we offered preschool, kindergarten, and first grade levels. After completing end of the year assessment tests, we learned that many of our first grade students tested at a third grade level. Great job teachers!  As a result, this coming school year, we will be offering grade levels preschool through third grade. 

I am excited to announce that we are breaking ground on six additional classrooms today!  What excites me most about this construction project is that it is being funded completely by Liberians!  I smile as I see this wonderful church and school thrive!  Though the church is only two years old and the school is only one year old, they are making an incredible impact on their community.  Our partner church in Monrovia is funding this construction project.  Thank you Lord Jesus for all You are doing!

Thank you for helping us build seventy-five new desks.  This week, the last desks will be built.  

I want to say a very special “THANK YOU” to our friends at Water of Life for drilling a free well at our school and church!  Drinking dirty water is the way of life for many Liberians.  Many people get their water from polluted rivers and holes in the ground.  On behalf of our school, church, and entire community, thank you Water of Life for giving us clean drinking water!

Hunger Months:

August and September are known as “Hunger Months” in Liberia.  During these months, impoverished families spend all the money they have, sending as many of their children to school as they can afford.  Many people are going to bed hungry.  

Our school is supported 100% through your generosity.  Your giving pays for every student’s uniform, school supplies, PE T-shirt, PE trousers, textbooks, and medical treatment.  You also pay every teachers' salary.  Thank you!    



It will cost us $15,000 to run the school this year.  We are expecting our enrollment to reach 200 students.  Praise God, we have been able to raise a little over $7,500.  We are over half way there.  Will you prayerfully consider supporting our school again this year?  It costs $75 to send a child to school and medically treat them for a whole year.  

You can donate online at liberiacalls.blogspot.com or by sending checks to Hope for Home Ministries, P.O. Box 393, Troy, OH 45373.  Please write “Liberia School Sponsorship” on the memo line of your check.  Thank you!

His Safe Haven’s Group Homes:

We are in the process of constructing a village of specialized group homes for special needs orphans.  Currently, we have three houses under roof and three additional foundations laid.  Our village will be equipped with a therapy center, dinning hall, medical center, playground, and agricultural projects.   

Here is a drone video of our village under construction.

Please keep our staff in your prayers.  I write with tears in my eyes.  Last Sunday, we lost a little girl from our group homes named Abigail.  We fought extremely hard to save her life, but God called her home.  These words are extremely painful for me to write.  We are grieving deeply.  Please praise God with us that Abigail is home with Jesus and pray for us that God comforts our team!

Mobile Medical Clinics:

During the past two months, we have seen over 1,000 patients at our mobile medical clinics.  Our goal is to treat the soul and the body of each of our patients.  Every patient is prayed for multiple times while visiting our clinics and hears the gospel one on one.  Here is a list of diagnoses and treatments from our last mobile medical clinic.

These patients are waiting to be seen in Samay Town.  On this day, we had to turn away over 100 patients.  The need was greater than we could meet.

Philip prays for every patient he registers. 

Elizabeth, one of our physician assistants, prays for every patient they screen.

Lucy prays for every patient she tests for malaria.

Mercy is our pharmacist.  Here a child waits for her parents to come to receive free medicine.  Mercy prays for every patient she serves.

Cyrus met with every patient individually to make sure they understand the Gospel.  We host our clinics in the churches we work with.  Pastors from these churches follow up on every decision that is made for Christ.  Our pastors tell us that these clinics have made their churches famous in their communities.  Approximately 20 people, from each mobile clinic, give their lives to Jesus.  Thank you for buying all our medicines and paying our staff’s salaries!

Training Pastors:

We have about 100 pastors and church leaders enrolled in our two Bible Institutes.  Since the illiteracy rate is high in the bush, we are creating our own pictorial curriculum.  After training and testing the pastors, we give them a copy of the curriculum to teach in their churches.  Our lessons are also recorded recorded in Liberian English and Kpelle and are given to our students on solar powered audio players.  We are in the process of writing a 52 lesson survey through the Old Testament and a verse by verse study through the book of James.  Here are a few pictures from James chapter 1. 

1:2. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

1:3. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

1:4. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

1:5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

1:6. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 

1:7. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

1:8. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

1:9. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,

1:10. And the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.

1:11. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes.  So also will the rich man fades away in the midst of his pursuits. 

1:12. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 

1:13. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 

1:14. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

1:15. Then desire when it is conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 

1:16. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

1:17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

1:18. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation.

Prince is currently drawing this picture...

1:19. Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, so low to anger.

1:20. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 

1:21. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

1:22. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 

1:23. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

1:24. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

1:25. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.  

Prayer Requests:

1.  Our family is in the process of moving to a new house.  A missionary friend of ours has returned to the States after many years of faithful service in Liberia.  He has offered his home to us.  We decided to make the move because his house has running water and our house’s water source is a quarter mile away.  This month we will be doing some renovations to the house in preparation for the move.  Please pray for our family as we transition. 

2.  Please pray for our elementary school as we enroll students for next school year and as we seek to raise the remaining $7,500 that is needed for its operation. 

3.  Please pray for my wife as she begins a new homeschooling year.  Now that we have added Annie, Abigail, and Abraham to our family, Melanie is teaching 7 children at 5 different grade levels. 

4.  Please pray for Annie, Abigail, and Abraham’s adoption process to speed up.  We were hoping to visit the States in November but it is beginning to look like that will not be possible. 
5.  Please keep our staff and family in your prayers as we grieve Abigail's homecoming.  

Thank you for partnering with our family in sharing the good news about our Lord Jesus here in Liberia.  Please remember that our doors are always open to visitors.  We are praying that God would add workers to His harvest field.