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.