Hope for Home, Liberia

Friday, February 23, 2018

Mission Update 2-23-18

Translating the Bible for the Illiterate:

Prince Kolley, our full-time artist, is translating the Bible into pictures for the illiterate. Liberia is an oral culture. This means life's lessons and history are passed from one generation to another primarily through story telling as opposed to a written means. In many of the areas we work, the illiteracy rate can reach as high as 80%.

Our mission seeks to train pastors and church planters using oral methods. I created this short video so you can see a few pictures we recently created. While teaching in the bush, we clip these pictures to a clothes line so our students can see the message of Scripture from beginning to end. To pass our classes, students must be able to correctly retell the message of a given book of the Bible, by memory, using only these pictures. After passing the class, students are given copies of the material so they can train others in their villages. If you are having trouble viewing the video, go to https://youtu.be/Qd78is4txEk.

Gbarnga Church Plant:

Our family has been a part of the Gbarnga Christian Fellowship church plant since it's conception a little over a year ago.

Every Sunday, the church house is packed and people are forced to sit outside.

Our church is very serious about discipling children.

Our children's ministry is also packed every Sunday.

It was our church's commitment to children that led us to partner with them in starting Liberty Elementary School.

When we constructed our church house, we built it upon a solid foundation but used plywood walls to keep the rain out during rainy season. We did this because of limited resources.

We have a problem. Our church's walls are literally falling apart.

We need to build permanent walls.

Two Sundays ago, our church took a special offering to construct block walls. Our church's members are among the the poorest in the world. Our church's weekly offering is normally between $15 to $20. I am very proud of our church as I heard our members say again and again, "We are not too poor to give." The special offering totaled close to $250. I know many people gave all they had out of their deep love for the Lord and for our church.

Currently, our church and school have two needs. First, we need 3 additional classrooms for our school to make room for next year's growth. Second, we need additional space for our growing church. We are looking at this building project as a one year solution for both these needs. During the week, we will set up portable walls to divide the church house into 3 classrooms. We also plan to extend the building to make more room for people on Sunday.

One year from now, we hope to construct a large sanctuary and additional classrooms to meet our long-term needs. At that time, our current church house will become our children's church.

Do you want to help me bless our church? $2,000 is all that is still needed to construct permanent walls. If you are interested in helping our church, please send me an email letting me know your intent. My email address is don@hopeforhome.org.

His Safe Haven Village:

Thank you for helping us build His Safe Haven's village for special needs orphaned children.

This year we hope to build 7 group homes, a training center, a kitchen and a dinning hall.

Next month, we hope to break ground on our first group home.

Last month, we prepared the ground for construction. Here is a picture of our new driveway.

We dug this fish pond to help control water levels during rainy season. In the future, 5 additional ponds will be dug.

We started digging a ditch across our property to help control water.

Progress was made one shovel at at time.

It is important for us to put in place a means of controlling water due to the large volume of rain we receive during rainy season.

While digging, we found an abundant supply of sand.

We used this sand to begin molding cement blocks for our foundations.

As of today, we have made nearly 1,000 blocks.

Our corner posts have been installed. Fence posts are being placed every 100 feet along our property line. This is important since property lines are often disputed in Liberia.

God gave us an abundant supply of termite hills. These hills are perfect for making mud bricks. Last week, we broke down a few of these hills in preparation for making mud bricks this week.

These children are why we do what we do! Many people in Liberia call special needs children "demons" or "devils". They believe these children have participated in the dark, demonic world and bear on their bodies the mark of their wickedness. Special needs children are viewed as a curse on a family. Families who choose to keep special needs children are viewed as a curse on a community. The community fears that the demons in these children will spread throughout the community and cause other children to be born with the same special needs. As a result, many of these children are "destroyed."

We pray that our mission will be God's (His) Safe Haven for these children. We want to rescue as many children as we can and place them with loving foster parents who oversee our group homes. We pray that our mission will be Liberia's go to mission when it comes to caring for special needs children. Through our training center, we want to educate God's church, parents and community leaders about the needs of special needs children. Please keep this ministry in your prayers as we lavish love on children.

Meet our Team:

A few months ago, we placed before you our dream team of staff members. As we looked at the mission God called us to, we believed these staff positions were essential for our ministry to move forward. Thank you for your generous giving. Last week, we were able to hire the last staff member of our dream team! Thank you for giving us the tools and resources we need to accomplish our mission! Here are our full-time staff members.

Church Planting Team:

Pastor Cyrus
- Hope for Home Liberia, Assistant Country Director
- Director of Church Planting

Artist: Prince

- Translates the Bible into pictures for the illiterate

- Draws pictures for every area of our ministry to assist in training the illiterate

Missionary Medical Team:

P.A. Susan

- Head Missionary Physician Assistant

- Medically treats all our sponsored children

- Leads mobile medical clinics

P.A. Elizabeth

- Missionary Physician Assistant

- Oversees Physical Therapist in our group homes

- Helps medically treats all our sponsored children

- Helps leads mobile medical clinics

Liberty Elementary School Team:

Pastor Matthew

- Principal of Liberty Elementary School

K1 Teacher: Joseph

K1 Teacher: Morris

K2 Teacher: James

1st Grade Teacher: Matthew

1st Grade Teacher: Cyrus

His Safe Haven's Team:

Chef Dennis

- Cooks nutritious meals for our group homes

Orpah

- Assistant Cook for our group homes

Foster Mom: Esther

Foster Mom: Betty

Foster Mom: Vivian

Foster Mom: Korto

Foster Mom: Beatrice

Foster Mom: Gorma

Foster Mom: Lucy

Thank you for providing for the salaries of all our staff members!

People you recently helped:

When Gorma learned that someone from the States had paid to treat her eyes, she broke into spontaneous worship. After seeing the eye doctor, Gorma kept repeating again and again, "Thank You!"

I once was blind now I am beginning to see... Little Solomon had a bad case of cataracts that caused him to be blind in both eyes. Thank you for paying for Solomon's surgery. The doctor said Solomon's eyes looked good so he should regain his sight. It is still too early to tell how much sight Solomon has gained.

Pastor Matthew was having a hard time reading his Bible. Thank you for paying for his eye exam and reading glasses.

A few months ago, our missionary community came together to care for a paralyzed woman named Titi. We flew Titi to our neighborhood and took care of all her needs while she awaited the birth of her son. A few days before Baby Steve was born, the doctor told Titi that Steve would die at birth because his lungs had not developed. We all started praying and God gave us a miracle baby. Last week, Baby Steve's grandfather made a special trip to our town to say "Thank you." He brought Steve with him. Thank you again for all you have done to save this child's life!

We are in the process of treating Christian's skin disease. Thank you for paying for his treatment.

Aiwajiyah Sumo is 51 years old and is in the 11th grade. When I asked him why he decided to return to school, he told me that he could not get a job without an education. Aiwajiyah's school threatened to kick him out because he was unable to pay his school fees. Thank you for keeping Aiwajiayah in school!

Prayer Requests:

1. Please pray that we will see healthy churches started on Kokoyah Road.

2. Please pray that God will provide all the resources that are needed to build His Safe Haven's Village.

3. Please pray for my wife as she adds our 3 new children to her homeschool.

4. Please pray for our new children Annie, Abigail, and Abraham as they adjust to life at our house and for us as we adjust too.

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Ministry Update 1-25-18

We have some exciting news to tell you in this week's video update. If you are having trouble viewing the video, click this link https://youtu.be/xYU4F0QMR5U or visit our blog at liberiacalls.blogspot.com.

Thank you for your partnership in the Gospel!

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Mission Update 1-19-18

Morris Town's Medical Clinic:

Recently, several students from the Bible Institute formed an evangelistic choir and traveled from town to town singing and preaching the Gospel. While singing in Morris town, a crowd gathered, the Gospel was presented, and seven people put their faith in Jesus.

Harrison and his wife, Mercy, started leading a weekly Bible study with these new believers. After a few weeks, the choir returned, visited nearby villages and encouraged new believers from those towns to join the study. The Bible study grew to 12 members. Recently, our medical team chose to lead a mobile clinic in Morris town to strengthen the young church.

Upon entering Morris Town, our medical team started setting up the clinic while Pastor Cyrus and Harrison walked from house to house inviting the sick to come for treatment. As people gathered, Cyrus presented the Gospel.

This kitchen was transformed into our registration center where medical charts were prepared and vitals were recorded.

This small shed was transformed into our medical clinic and pharmacy.

After registration, vitals were taken and every patient was prayed over.

While waiting to be seen by our Physician Assistants, Cyrus and Harrison met with each patient and made sure they understood the Gospel. Praise God, 22 people gave their lives to Jesus.

Once inside the clinic, every sickness was treated.

By the end of the day, we had treated 124 patients.

Each patient received free medication from our mobile pharmacy.

Please pray for Harrison and Mercy as they follow up on these new believers. This is a picture of Harrison and Mercy standing in front of their church house. I have been told their church has doubled in size since the clinic. Praise God!

I cannot overstate nor exaggerate the need for these medical clinics. For people who live in the bush, sickness is the way of life and demonic worship is prevalent. Through these clinics, both body and soul are being ministered to and God's church is being strengthened.

Baby Beatrice is an example of the lives that are being saved. When Beatrice was brought to the clinic, she was in critical condition, teetering between life and death.

We immediately transferred her to our local hospital where she stayed for one week before being released. I am sure Beatrice would no longer be with us had it not been for the clinic.

Believe it or not, the cost of Morris Town's clinic was only $190. The average cost per patient was $1.53. Beatrice's week at the hospital cost around $30. A little money goes a long way here in Liberia. Thank you for faithfully supporting our medical ministry!

His Safe Haven Village

Praise God, all 10 acres of our land have been cleared in preparation for the construction of His Safe Haven's special need's village. Soon, we hope to start construction on 7 group homes, a training center, a medical clinic, a community kitchen and a community dinning hall. More pictures will be coming soon.

Our family is temporarily expanding!

Annie, Abigail, and Abraham have been part of our child sponsorship program for the past three years. Though our mission provided food and support to their family, these children became malnourished while the adults in their family literally became fat. The adults were eating the children's food. After confronting this problem and seeing no progress we felt led to love these precious children back to health from within our own home. Annie, Abigail, and Abraham will be living with us for the next two months. Please pray with us for their health and that the Lord would make His will clearly known regarding their longterm care.

Sponsorship opportunities:

Gorman is in need of eye surgery. The cost of this surgery is $200.

James is in need of a hernia surgery. He has 8 children that he feeds and sends to school by cutting palm. Now, his pain is too great to cut palm. Today, James will have surgery. The cost of his surgery is $50.

Random Pictures: