Christmas Eve at ELWA Hospital

All is peace all is quiet.... Singing Christmas carols by candlelight at ELWA Hospital..

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

Happy Christmas!

ELWA Radio Update

ELWA Radio was burnt down on the 8th November 2011, but the day after we were able to restart the radio in a small satellite studio in another building. The "studio" is basically just a room at the moment but we have the CDs that were rescued from the fire already stored on shelves and Rose, in the picture, has been helping to clean the soot off them. We now have air conditioning in the studio which fills the hole you can see at  the top right of the photo below.



The "satellite" studio at ELWA Radio is up and running
but still needs some work done.

Below are some of the charred CDs that were rescued from the fire. Still usable but need cleaning.

 We were fortunate in being able to rescue the sound board from the studio but as you can see (below) it is a bit the worse for ware and the sliders don't work very well. We have also been able to replace some of the computers that were destroyed. But as you can see there is a lot still to do.... but praise God we are on the air and still broadcasting the gospel!

The rather charred soundboard that was rescued from the
studio that was burnt down

Below is a video that gives you a bit of history about ELWA Radio and its importance to Liberians... There are also some photos of the recent fire. Please pray for the complete restoration and renewal of the radio station and that we can continue to remain on air while doing so.



ELWA: Radio ELWA Restoration Intl from SIM USA on Vimeo.

Radio ELWA burned down

I left to go to Senegal on Tuesday for some SIM meetings and will return on Saturday. Sadly, the evening after I left, ELWA Radio station was burnt down and much of our equipment destroyed. This was the day after the elections in Liberia and there has been some tension around Monrovia. There will of course be an inquiry into how this happened. No one was hurt, Praise God.

As soon as the emergency call went out we were quickly supported by teams of soldiers from the UN peacekeeping forces, and 3 branches of the police. The Fire service attended and we were able to save some of the tapes and CDs and the mixing console. Please pray that God’s name is honoured throughout this and that we can find the finance, energy, and spiritual strength to rebuild.

The radio’s managers have continued to broadcast from a small satellite room. They are determined that God’s word will not be made silent. Please pray for safety and for Liberia.

The Vice President of Liberia Joseph N. Boakai, has toured the site and expressed his sympathy. http://allafrica.com/stories/201111100766.html

If you would like to contribute towards the rebuilding and restoration of ELWA Radio you can contribute via the SIM website www.sim.org/index.php/content/donate and specify your donation to go to Project Number 95107 ELWA Radio Restoration.

Alternative Christmas...

How many day's till Christmas? Sorry to bring the subject up so early BUT if you are thinking of "Alternative Gifts" for friends and family, can I suggest Jenny's school project here in Liberia; buying books for needy school kids. Teaching a child to read opens up so many doors here in Liberia. Happy shopping!
The web address is www.sim.co.uk/gifts/alternative_christmas_gift_projects/booksforschools

Seaweed... and other news

We should be coming to the tail end of the rainy season soon but we are experiencing fantastic storms regularly still in the evenings and at night. Our beaches all along Liberia are suffering a plague of rather smelly seaweed.



A plague of seaweed along ELWA beach



The Liberians say they have never seen anything like it and we believe that it may be the result of exploration for offshore oil! Hope it will improve as it has made swimming in the sea impossible. We hope they find oil too as Liberia could certainly do with the income. Liberia is the third poorest country in the world.



The best news is that Samaritan’s Purse has agreed formally and in writing now to the funding for the new 80 bed hospital! The staff at ELWA are delighted as the old hospital is now on its last legs.  We are looking forward to new opportunities with this new building to develop our staff further.

Site of the ELWA Hospital from the present one.

The presidential elections on take place on the 11th October and everyyone is campaigning around Monrovia. Everyone is hoping and and praying  for peaceful elections. Schools have closed for this period of time to keep the children safe. Monrovia Bible College, where Jenny is about to start teaching the degree students who are training to be teachers, has postponed the start of term until the beginning of November.

Liberian rivers and forests from the air

I was invited to go up country in the Samaritan's Purse helicopter, to a graduation ceremony for a discipleship programme at a village called Palakolleh. I helped give out the certificates to a group of 120 people who had been through the three month course.

Dan, the helicopter pilot, and his family live next door to us at ELWA. This is a short video of the ride over rivers and forests. Enjoy the view....

Time for a Festival...

 

Children from our local church
enjoying the Festival

Wow that man’s good! We really enjoyed our evening with Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham ) along with thousands of other Liberians during the “All Liberia Festival”. Many enjoyed his teaching and thousands around the country took the opportunity to make a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. Now the work has really begun as the churches here begin the follow up. Our own local church is involved in this too. The Children’s Festival was a similar success and we transported 150 children in a Landcruiser shuttle service to the stadium. Jenny’s British health and safety radar was on high alert as we piled the children in until we saw the thousands of other children arrive crammed into open top trucks. Seat belts optional! The morning was filled with songs, games, dancing clowns, trick cycle riding, and topped off with an excellent Gospel message. We even managed to arrive home with all the right children - a miracle!

Will showing Franklin Graham
round ELWA Hospital

Early Sunday morning found us recovering in bed only to receive a phone call to say that Franklin Graham wanted to visit ELWA Hospital. All systems go then! It was great to be able to show him around and explain the hospital’s needs. Samaritan’s Purse (the organisation Franklin heads up) has requested an outline proposal about the needs of the hospital. This is a great opportunity!

 

What a priviledge! Giving out books to
a rural school in Bomi,donated
by schools in England.



Jenny has finally completed her evaluations of ELWA Academy and the report is in draft. It was a great to spend time in the classes meeting the children and staff. There is a really strong Christian ethos in the school and we have now begun to outline training opportunities. Along with two of the ECUL Church leaders, Rev. Samuel Johnson and Rev. Boaki Hayleson, we have visited 6 of the 7 ECUL schools. We have arranged our first network and training session in April and have a number of needs, such as training materials, food and transport costs (some of the teachers will be arriving the night before from their schools which are a distance away, up country). If you would like to give towards this project you can donate through the SIM website at www.sim.co.uk/donate if you are from the UK or www.sim.org/donate if you are from elsewhere e.g. USA. Mention project number 95402.

We intend to take our first day of holiday on Tuesday this week. We plan to lounge around beside the pool in a local hotel! Ah Bliss!!

Highlights

Highlights of our recent time here;

• Singing Liberian worship songs in our  church. We really enjoy clapping and dancing and we are beginning to understand the words we are singing. It is English.... "but not as we know it!"
• Meeting with the leaders of the ECUL Church. We started  working alongside the two men responsible for Education. There are 5 schools, some near, but one a long way away. They are passionate to help their schools  improve and grow and it is great to work with such Godly and experienced people. Two of the schools are trying to add a classroom each year in order to grow large enough to accomodate a new year group annually.We will visit them together to gather their ideas of what training their teachers would like to receive.
• Will spent time at the radio meeting the presenters. ELWA Radio is highly regarded in the community.  Many have been encouraged by their programmes. Some of the comments sent into the radio by listeners are:
• “I like to listen to Women of Hope even though the first program I heard, the speaker criticized how badly some men treat their spouses. Through your program, I learn to love and treat my wife with respect and dignity. Thank you so much for your work and may God bless you.” 
• “Thank you for your radio program. We are very poor but I thank the Lord for providing us with a radio to listen to your programs regularly. My sons-in-law drink too much and hence my daughters suffer. Your messages helped my daughters cope with their situations. Please pray that they may grow in the Lord and help their husbands find Christ.”
• “Your message on anger touched my heart. I used to lose my temper even without a reason. I am now more able to control my anger with the help of God.”

  

  Moses Nyante - Manager od ELWA Radio

  
• At the moment ELWA Radio broadcasts 126 hours per week. The station airs a total of 30 programs and of these 25% are sponsored and we are looking for sponsors for the other 75%. Anyone interested in sponsoring a radio program please get in touch. Many local churches in Liberia are already sponsoring programs which is very encouraging.
• Another highlight is that we are now proud owners of a newly made living room suite. Jenny is in the process of making matching cushions. The bed should arrive tomorrow, so tonight should be the last night of sleeping on the floor!!

What we miss from the UK....An evening with friends. a day on the river, cool evening air, Chocolate, Strictly Come Dancing and a trip to the cinema.

We really enjoy in Liberia....Lebanese bread, an evening with new friends, Papaya, the sea view 24/7 and constant sunshine!

 

Christmas...

On Christmas Day we spent the day swimming in the sea first thing and then with various American missionary friends and their families. It was lasagne for lunch and we shared the small Christmas pudding we had brought with us. They insisted on calling it figgy pudding and sang along but I don’t think it was very popular (maybe it’s an acquired taste!) We then Skyped and phoned our families which was lovely.

The weather has been uncharacteristic, it is meant to be the dry season but we had a huge tropical storm on Christmas Day evening, which brought the temperature down wonderfully (to 26°C!) The humidity is the real issue and we are getting used to it now. We know that on occasions we just have to rest in the late afternoon but mostly we are acclimatising. We seem to drink gallons. Our kidneys are writing a letter of complaint…

Just as an aside… We came across this large wall the other day painted pristine white and written in large red paint was the sentence “Only dogs peepee on this wall!” We had to giggle at that!

We went to Waterside the other day, which is a huge open air market with stalls and little shops selling everything from plastic buckets, live chickens, lapas (Liberian wrap skirts), to second hand toys, clothes and shoes. All markets are like a large jumble sale as all clothes toys and shoes are second hand. So when you hand in your old clothes etc. you know they really do get to countries like Liberia. It is rare and very expensive to find any new items here. We bought an odd collection of large saucepans and ladles for cooking Liberian “soup” (chicken stews really!), plastic containers for storing food away from ants, an ironing board (ironing is a hot but essential job to kill the mango fly larva which if not killed might burrow into your skin) and a water melon (Yum!)

Jenny has had many conversations with people in the education system and is beginning to form a picture of the needs which are considerable. She is impatient to get on but the school holiday goes on until 16th January! (That would make a few British children rather envious!) There is such a need for Education here. There are no free schools, some are very expensive and many children are not in school at all, as their parents cannot afford to send them, or in many cases they have no parents.

We have been befriended by two local Liberian girls. They live about 10minutes dirt road drive from here but they regularly visit us and seem to have adopted us as their second parents, even giving us local Bassa names. We went to visit their family and their father who has had a serious stroke and can no longer work has twice walked all the way to visit us. They had 12 children (not sure how many are their own or are adopted extended family members) but 5 died in the war!


Princess and Elizabeth and some of their family.

We had a great morning yesterday with the one of the leaders the ECUL church, Jeremiah and his wife, Annie. There is a good relationship between SIM and the Church but it needs developing. In recent times there has not been the mission personnel to take this forward. What we need now are the right people to come out and work with this young and growing church. We would like to see training in teaching, leadership, outreach and vocational opportunities to lead to sustainable development. The leaders of the church have meetings in early January and we hope and pray that they will appoint a person to be responsible for education in schools so that Jenny will have someone to work with.

For a real treat and to spend a little of our Christmas gift we went to a local hotel for the day earlier in the week. They have a lovely pool and beautiful garden area for relaxing and a wonderful beach with shaded loungers and we sat around chatting, reading and swimming all day. It was a wonderful luxurious break.

May God richly bless you in the New Year

Written in the cement of our front doorstep is “To God be the Glory”, always a good sentiment I think!

PS We have added some new photos to our photo gallery on the top right of this page...

Sunday

The Church that has been planted by SIM over the years is called the Evangelical Church Union of Liberia (ECUL). On Sunday, to round off their week of Annual Conference we went to their final worship service. The choirs were phenomenal and everyone sang, prayed and danced over a four hour service. The preaching was powerful, four men were ordained and Will was invited to say a few words as the new Director of SIM. We were given a very warm welcome.


We came home for a lunch of peanut butter and pineapple and a swim in the sea!

When we have sorted out our internet connection and have a bit more bandwidth we will post some video of some of the singing.

Later... We have sorted out our internet connection... so here is some video of some of the singing at the conference.

Settling in...

We went out trying to find furniture yesterday and although we were not successful it gave us some ideas to use a local carpenter, who we have asked to come next week. The furniture in the stores is extremely expensive and we believe that by asking a local carpenter to make something for us we will give to a local trade.


We also visited the local market with Annie, our Liberian friend who worked with us in the review earlier in the year. She helped to explain all the unrecognisable vegetables such as sweet potato leaves, water plant, palm nuts and a whole variety of beans etc. There was a selection of fresh fish and also a number of smoked fish which I think we will try very soon. Everyone seemed very friendly and a little crowd of curious children followed us around saying "hello" at regular intervals.
We had supper with the Director of Samaritan’s Purse and his family. They are from Canada and have 2 lovely adopted boys from Haiti. We really look forward to working alongside them in the future.

We Are Here!

We are sitting on our veranda in our new home in Liberia. It’s 29°C and we are enjoying a cooling sea breeze. We are watching a pair of multi-coloured lizards flirting with each other on the branches of the pine tree in front of us. We arrived in Liberia on the 23rd November at 5.00 in the morning having visited Casablanca and Freetown airports on the way. The second evening meal on the plane was served at 1.00am in the morning and was probably extra to our needs… We sat beside the team from The Times newspaper who were coming out here with Hugh Bonneville, an actor from Downton Abbey fame. They are here to prepare a piece for their Christmas charity appeal.


We have met a lot of people in the short time we have been here and remembering names and putting them to faces is already proving a challenge. We went to a traditional Thanksgiving supper with some of our new American friends, also with SIM. No Turkey but great chicken and of course pumpkin pie.

Our home is lovely; it has great potential but has been empty for a little while and is need of a little tlc. Work is calling and meetings are waiting but we need to sort a few essentials in the house first, like buying a fridge and a bed etc. We ate our porridge this morning to the sound of rousing African choruses wafting over from the next door compound, a sound so familiar from our time in Swaziland. It’s great to have a sense of being in a place where we believe God wants us to be.

Thinking of all our friends and relatives in the UK … has it stopped snowing yet?

Excitement twinged with nerves...

We have got to that stage where people are saying to us, “Are you still here?” We do apologise for still being here and yes we are here until the 23rd November when we fly to Liberia. The other comment we hear a lot is “You must be really excited!” Well, yes we are, but the excitement is tinged with nervousness... Have we packed the right things? Have we got the right documents? Will our old and decrepit bodies adapt to the heat and humidity? Is it possible to sweat in a ladylike way? (Jenny’s problem!) Can we do the job? (both of our problems!) But we always come back to the fact that this is God’s work we are embarking on, and all things are possible in His strength.


It has been really good to spend time with our family over the past few weeks, putting the world to rights, chilling over a good meal and saying our farewells. Six months ago we did not realise how difficult it would be to say goodbye to close friends, and we hope to stay closely in touch with you all

If you want to know a bit more about the background of Liberia, Jenny has just finished reading an excellent book called “The House at Sugar Beach” by Helene Cooper. It gives a fascinating insight into the lives of Liberians and some of the recent history. Well worth a read…

Finally… Anybody know how to get six suitcases and two adults down to Heathrow for 2 pm on 23rd November? Any suggestions/offers of help welcome.

We Have a Date

We are now back in the UK and are officially nomads. If you find us wandering the streets, please take us home for a hot meal and a bath! Actually, we are being very well looked after by Jenny's Mum and friends from church and will be visiting around the UK to say our various goodbyes.

We have booked our tickets and we hope to be flying to Monrovia, Liberia on the 23rd November. It feels great to know that we are finally on our way after so  much preparation. We just want to say a big thank you to all those who are supporting us.

Moving on

Several months ago, when we decided to go to Liberia, moving out of our house seemed a small task! How wrong could we be!! After 20 years of living in one place and collected endless clutter (let me tell you, teachers are extremely talented at collecting useful clutter!) we have finally moved out. The attic is now groaning with the boxes of stuff we are storing for the future and we have bought a 20 foot container which is on a friends local farm and is now jam packed full of our furniture.  We spent the last week living on a mattress on the floor and a couple of picnic chairs in the main room while we finished painting and cleaning. Our tenants moved in on 8th October and we are now officially nomads. We are staying between relatives, mostly Jenny's mum and good friends from our church, who have a holiday cottage that they let out.

At present we are in the States. We have spent the last 4 days at Charlotte, N. Carolina at SIM International Headquarters. We have had a fantastic time meeting up with some wonderful folk who have worked in Liberia for many years. They told us many of their stories of  how they built the radio station and started the hospital to how they survived the war and their evacuations.

Lunch at SIM USA Headquarters in Charlotte with some of those who have served with SIM in Liberia in the past.

We have listened to some extremely good advice and our brains are now stuffed to capacity with information and we are eager to get to Liberia now and begin our own work.

Before we go though we are saying our goodbyes to family and friends which is a fun but also painful time. We are here at the moment in New York spending time with Matt and Jo and our beautiful granddaughter, Beatrice, and will be home again on 18th October.

Powerpoint presentation on what we are hoping to do in Liberia.

This is a slightly edited version of the presentation we have been using to show to supporters and those interested in what we are hoping to do in Liberia. Hope it gives you a bit more of an idea of what we are going to do. Will and Jenny Elphick's Liberia Presentation

Progress so far...

We have half the financial support we need to get us out to Liberia and we are very thankful to those who have agreed to support us. We need to raise an additional £1200/month. Do you feel able to be a partner in our work and commit to a monthly donation?

Here are the details…

We need to raise money for our flights, rent, support services from SIM, pensions, food and living costs, medical insurance and yes, evacuation insurance too - hoping the last one is not needed…! We’ve always wanted to ride in a hellicopter but a trip over Niagara falls may be more fun than an emergency evacuation out of Liberia.

Although the rent from our house,and the generosity of our church will go some way to our target figure of £2300/month, we still have a lot to raise. It may be helpful to break it down and see what sort of possible combination of donations are needed.

If… 

2 people give £100 a month

9 people give £50 a month

20 people give £10 a month

25 people give £5 a month

And with 25% received in Gift Aid from refunded taxes, we are off to Liberia! If you want a ‘Standing Order Form’ this is the address to go to www.sim.co.uk/sof or donate online at www.sim.co.uk/donate.

No matter how small or large your donation is, we would be delighted for you to join our team of supporters. You will become an important, indeed essential part of the team as we do this work in Liberia. We will keep you informed of our successes and failures; hopefully not too many of the latter, and we can assure you that you will be truly valued.

Someone said to us recently, if God wants you to go to Liberia, he isn’t going to send you without the finance to do the job and we know in our head this is true. We just need to trust Him “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” Phil 4:19

We are really excited about our future but there are moments of nerves and the hardest part of our preparation is the fund-raising. It doesn’t come naturally to ask for money and we have to remind ourselves that is it all part of God’s plan. He wants people to be involved in His work in Liberia through prayer and financial giving.

Presentation on "What we are going to be doing in Liberia"

We are doing a presentation on what we are going to be doing in Liberia at Stonham Baptist Church, Little Stonham (on the A140) on 7th June at 7.45. We would love to see anyone who is able to come along. We will put the presentation on our blog afterwards...

Wet Saturday Afternoon

As Will has mentioned we are busy sorting the house out ready to rent it out and as is often the way when you start painting one wall the next looks like it needs a good lick of paint too. So after a few visits to the DIY store we have begun the task. Will is better with the roller and I with a paint brush but in all honesty I don't think anyone would employ us!

I realise that we are in a process of transition and as the time goes by it is interesting to experience a growing sense of removal from our daily work-lives. Parts of my responsibility are already being handed on to others and there are moments when I feel quite detached as meetings are held at my school to discuss the appointment of the next headteacher. Meetings to which I am not to play a part. I am however praying for a great replacement as is Will for his role at SIM.

I am conscious that many of the young people with whom we will come in contact in Liberia have been through very difficult times. They have experienced 14 years of civil war and for many this will have been the majority of their life. Many were used as child soldiers and saw things happen in their lives that no-one should ever have to see! The murder of family members or the abduction of siblings. This must have lead to many young lives being traumatised. In a small effort to try to understand and be prepared, I have signed up for a set of seminars on Resilience which deal with how emotions effect learning and personality and how to deal with young people who have been traumatised.

Here is a video from YouTube that gives an insight into the lives of girl soldiers from Liberia. It breaks your heart!

Taking time for sentiment...

One of the things I was not looking forward to doing before we go out to Liberia was clearing out our house after having lived in it for twenty years. But in some ways it’s very therapeutic, all those old paint tins you have been keeping just in case you need to do a “touch up” job but for some reason have never used, bits of carpet stored in the loft from when you first moved in and for some unexplained reason have kept thinking that they may be useful, clothes that don’t fit or are some throwback to the ‘70s.

Jenny and I have decided it’s time to be brutal, so we have piles to go to the dump and piles to go to the charity shop and smaller piles that have too much sentimental value that we have to keep them. “The Boy’s World “ book from my Granny published in 1960, with amazing stories about Climbing Mount Everest and the Mystery Lives of Salmon and Eels or a songbook I put together when I went out to work in Sierra Leone in 1974 with a prayer in the back of it that I wrote when I first became a Christian. Fond memories of people and places in the midst of taking the opportunity to get rid of the rubbish…