Chronicle for 2010-11-22

Mission accomplished in Yekepa!

The matriculation ceremony on Saturday morning was a huge success. People came from miles around for the ceremony to honor welcoming the freshman class into ABC University. Our friends Betty and Anthony Jonah were there from the orphanage to support their son Emanuel. Anthony is also a religious leader in the community as was present for that representation as well. There were tribal leaders, UN leaders, the equivalent of a governor and a senator, and all of the ABC faculty, of which I was a part.
I had the honor of addressing the audience on the proposed ABC business program. What an awesome opportunity it was to speak to these current and future leaders on the opportunity that lay before them in the business program at the university. After the program, the senator sough me out and commented on how interested she was in what were we doing, and that she w old like to keep in touch as the program progresses.
Thank God I had accomplished my goal for this trip. The program is ready to submit to the commission on higher education, there is a buzz a round the campus about the business program, and the community is excited about how we continue to rebuild and grow ABC out of the ashes. We were able to put shoes on the orphans, deliver books to the bush, check in on the read ABC program at multiple schools, teach workers and students on some small crafts, and establish a plan for our future work with the wonderful people of Yekepa. It was one of the most rewarding 5 days I have ever had.
And now the trip home
Yekepa is not an easy place to get to as i am sure you have gathered from my prior writings and with less mental enthusiasm about leaving than there was about arriving, the trip is just that much harder. We left the campus immediately after matriculation on Saturday and set out on the long bumpy ride back to Monrovia. It took almost 8 hours and we arrived after dark. Driving in Liberia after dark is a scary proposition there are no street lights, many vehicles and motorbikes have marginal lights or none, and it is generally very dark due to the lack of any ambient light. As you pass by the villages, you can see the glow of a fire emanating from the buildings and families gathered round. Since it was a Saturday there was a tremendous amount of activity in many of the tans and villages, people on the move everywhere. We finally arrived at the guest house around 8 pm, had some dinner and settled in for the evening.
There is something to be said about waking up to a view of the ocean, the warm salty air and the sound of waves crashing on the beach. Knowing we had a long flight home we opted out of attending church and sat on the patio reading, talking and reflecting on our amazing trip.
An african woman came by with a small boy, maybe one and a half, in her arms. She was crying, the boy was lethargic, conscious, but not very responsive. Peter questioned her for a while then decided to take her to the hospital. After some blood work and other tests, it was determined the boy was very malnourished and possible had malaria, tow scenarios that kill so many young children in Liberia. The boy perked up after some food and water, the mother left with some medicine and the boy would live to see tomorrow but the day after is a long way away.
I was concerned when leaving on this trip, that the passion i felt in July to help in Liberia would have changed, softened, or diminished. That the honeymoon period on my passion would have somehow ended. As I sit here on the plane reflecting, my passion and desire to continue helping is more prevalent than ever. My desire to get the ABC school of business up and running is strong and i know with the help of God it will become a reality in the fall of 2011.

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Chronicle for 2010-11-19

Last night in Yekepa. The time has gone so fast, I can't believe tomorrow we already head back to Monrovia on the first part of a long journey home.
We had the opportunity to do a few projects for Loving Through Literacy today. After chapel, which was held inside the new gym, we headed out for New Yekepa, a small village in the bush a few miles outside the town of Yekepa. We were visiting the school run by Yoh who is a graduate of ABC University before the war. There must be well over a hundred students who attend the school. Emmanuel Gaye visits the school weekly on behalf of LTL, to deliver books in the "books to the bush" program as well as teach phonics for our Read ABC program. We had an amazing time with the children and it was great to see how they are progressing in their phonics.

After lunch we were able to sit in the reading class Emmanuel is holding for the women who work at the university. The women have such amazing testimony in their desire to read and move beyond where they are at in their education. Each of them took the time to read a bit out of their book they had been assigned for the week.

Later in the afternoon, Maritta spent some time with the women who work around the staff housing to teach them some small crafts and how they can differentiate the products they may sell in the marketplace. She has also spent the week working with Becky on product ideas for Amani Liberia which she plans to launch in the spring of next year.

I have spent much time with Del over the past couple of days working on the plans for the college of business. So much to do here before next fall and many needs to pray on. Two big needs are books and instructors. The library at ABC is well stocked with books, but none of them relate to business. I will need to hold a book drive of my own centered on business books, in order to shore up the library with the required materials to support the program. We also need instructors willing to spend some time here, even if it means small 4 week blocks. Please let me know if you are interested or know anyone who may be!

Tomorrow is matriculation and I will have the opportunity to address the university and the community about the college of business we are planning for ABC. I need to take some time to figure out what to say...fortunately I know I will have no problem sharing what is on my heart!

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Reading with the children in New Yekepa

New Yekepa is a small village a few miles into the bush.  Maritta and I took some of the Loving Through Literacy team there today for the weekly phonics lesson as well as to deliver books through our mobile library program called "books to the bush".  Below are a few pictures from this amazing day.  Thanks again to the Chandler Christian School first grade class for the books you donated through your book drive!

Chronicle for 2010-11-18

Started the day with the students in a chapel service. They hold chapel each day of the week, at 7:30 am, and it is a great way to get the students energized and ready for the day.
Nils and team were hanging lights in the gym and were able to get 9 out of the 30 hung today. There has been a flurry of activity all over the campus in preparation of the matriculation ceremony that will be on Saturday morning. I can't believe how fast the week has gone.
I joined Del in his classroom after chapel to speak with the students about the business program. There was a great deal of enthusiasm for the program, but apprehension as well over the math components. We will need to be creative there and figure out a way to maintain standards, yet get these students through math.
Maritta and i had the opportunity to join Becky on a tour of the campus gardens with a missionary who is focused on agriculture and wanted to see the gardens. The amount of food they produce is amazing, and most of it is well thought out for the various seasons, campus needs, and market conditions. She has done a great job with it.
Maritta has been doing some great work with Becky and the ladies who work at the campus in teaching them some various crafts they can produce and sell.
Maritta went to the marketplace today with Becky...not quite anything like our marketplace at home...but was an experience.
Del and i met on the business program again this afternoon and were able to get the courses mapped out in a plan that will still allow for a double major. Yestereday i was a bit concerned after we had mapped in the new general Ed requirements from the education commission. With a little bit of creative work, we were able to make it work, and I hope we can have most of it wrapped up tomorrow.
The evening was capped off with a short meeting on the campus 3 year plan. The vision is to have room to house 300 students and educate 500. There is much work to do in growing beyond the 100 students today, but seeing what God has accomplished here in the last 2 years, i am confident the vision can be accomplished.

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Chronicle for 2010-11-17

I woke up this morning tired and wondering what the heck was I doing in Africa. I felt beaten down, really wondering if I was cut out to accomplish what I set out to do. As I laid in bed, I asked God to give me the strength and wisdom to accomplish great things today.
God listens!!
Maritta and I joined the work crew for their morning devotions. It is always fascinating to see these guys start their day in worship, talk about an energized crew once they are done, it is amazing to see everyone hurry off and get right to work.
We walked around a bit and I took advantage of speaking with professor mulbah while his class was on break, they were talking about organizational leadership and working through the proposition of bringing in a student government. Just up my alley having been both an elected senator and appointed treasurer. Professor Mulbah invited me to speak in his class for a few minutes on my undergraduate experiences in student government. It was a great interaction with the class, and I had a blast.
God was answering my prayer!
After class, i caught up with Maritta and we were headed late to lunch, on the way I saw Eleazar and we started talking about the business program. He shared how much excitement there is for the program and then we started discussing some ideas around a business he is starting.
We missed lunch.
Emmanuel Jonah was headed over and we were off to the orphanage to meet with the kids, do a craft project, sing some songs, and share the flip flops that were donated by Mrs. DeHaan's first grade class. All of the children were so excited, it was an honor to spend time with them. What a blessing Anthony and Betty Jonah are to these 57 kids. I could go on for hours with a list of all that these kids need from mosquito nets to mattresses to beds, to clothes but most of all they need our prayer, love and encouragement. I had the privilege to put a new pair of shoes on each of their feet and it was awesome! Thank you CCS first grade class for giving me one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Was God ever answering my prayer!
Del and i sat down later in the afternoon to review the business program and map in some new general Ed requirements from the government. Professor Vaughn stopped in and asked me to lead the faculty bible study discussion this evening. What a great opportunity to share why I was back in Africa for the second time in 4 months.
After meeting with Del, i met up with Becky, she had asked me to teach her how to make chicken fajitas for dinner. It was fun to freak out the Liberian women since by their reaction I am confident they had never seen a man (white or black) in the kitchen.
What an incredible day, thank you God for listening and answering my prayer in such an awesome and awe inspiring way.

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Chronicle for 2010-11-16

What a great day in Liberia today. Had a hard rain in the afternoon. It is amazing how loud the rain is when hitting the metal roofs. The sound is defening.

Had a great day hanging out with Maritta today and showing her around the ABC campus. The day started out with joining the students in chapel this morning and it was nice to see those who i had met during the summer as well as have the opportunity to introduce them to Maritta. We spent some time meeting with Becky Chinchen this morning and mapping out the weeks events for Maritta's plans for Loving Through Literacy while she is here.

We went with Emmanuel Gaye over to the Peter Sieway school to check in on how they are doing with the LTL program. There were 6 teachers who went through the Read ABC program in July, including the head administrator. It was obvious we still have some work to do with the program, as the teachers are enthusiastic about teaching phonics, but not necessarily following the program as designed. We will be visiting the Randy Godfrey school as well as the school in New Yekepa and it will be interesting to see how the program is going there. Hopefully we will get some great data to better equip the team next summer.

My bling wife is so amazing. She brought along craft materials to sit down with the women students (23 of them) and show them how to bling out some sandals and hair clips. It sounds like they had a great time. From what Becky said, this was not only the first time the women student have come together for an activity like this, but probably the first time many of them had the opportunity to really do a craft like that. Thank God for the amazing woman he put into my life.

While Maritta was crafting, I went with Emmanuel Jonah and Auggie (one of our team) over to the orphanage his parents, Anthony and Betty run. Auggie is going to help make a gate to secure one of the doors to the womens dorm. There are 33 girls / women at the orphanage and at one end of the dorm there is a remote door that is not very secure. The hope is we can help provide more security to the women. It is always so amazing to spend time there. Anthony and Betty gave me a tour of the facility. They are doing the best with what they have, but there is so much need, so many children are sleeping on the ground or in broken beds, yet they don't complain as they are just happy to have a roof over their heads. Maritta and I will return there tomorrow afternoon to spend some time with the children and do some crafts with them.

We spent the evening with Pete and Joanna Vaughn. They are an amazing couple who have committed the last couple years of their life to helping get the campus up and running here. Pete and I spent time discussing the business program and it was encouraging to hear his perspective on how much the program is needed. I am looking forward to seeing Gods plan in moving the business program forward.

More adventures tomorrow!

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Well today was like being on the Indiana jones ride from Disneyland for 7 hours , minus the rolling rocks and the all terrain vehicle instead it was a white van but the jogging, and potholes and dip pity does were all there. We arrived safe and sound on campus, and the abc campus is very pretty. Very serene and quaint, takes adam and I back to college days, the people were all very happy to see Adam back and to say hello to me. We had a wonderful dinner of rice and greens( looked odd but tasted good) lots of fresh vegetables, and fruit, yummy sugared plantains and mango with lime on it tastes yummy... , the bugs are out tonight and so I will spend my first night officially sleeping in a princess bed...the campus here is buzzing with activity of lots of people working students and non students helping to build....there are 2 kittens on campus that I seem to be the only one that sees the need to cuddle them, wow things don't change, we also saw 3 horses on the side of the road today...all is good so we will see what tomorrow brings.
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It is the middle of the night and i am finding it hard to sleep with the 7 hour change in time. We arrived in Monrovia safely and spent the evening with the team and Chinchens at the guest house on the beach. Such a beautiful evening and sunset on the coast. We will head out for Yekepa early in the morning tomorrow. Del said the roads have gotten better since we are now at the tail end of the rainy season, but we are still expecting a 7 hour drive.
It is nice having Maritta here with me in the experience. I am anxious to get started on some of the work we are here to do and thoughts of all the things I want to accomplish are racing through my head.

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Back to Yekepa

Maritta and I are leaving for Liberia today, on our way to ABC University in Yekepa.  Since I was there in July I have been working on an entrepreneurial business program for the university.  Please pray for God's guidance as we travel today.