The harshenss of reality...

I've been thinking a lot about the harshness of "real life" in Liberia and am having a difficult time accepting that it's ok to live in reasonable "comfort" here. It is hard to put out of my mind and heart the ruggedness of reality on the streets of Liberia and on the faces of children and adults.


One of the stops made on a daily adventure was to a village called New Kru Town. Here, we found these children at the well. The amazing thing was that the water they were bringing from the well for drinking, cooking and bathing was water that we would not think of washing our clothes in - yet it is survival to them.

The children in this town were quite taken with our white skin and we got off of our bus with big day bags over our shoulders filled with food for the day, purified drinking water, cameras and all the other necessities we thought we needed for a day out. You could tell that they were quite curious what we had in our big bags and what we might be able to give them. Some of the children were quite thin and malnourished. One of the nurses on the team whispered, "Can I give them something to eat?" I had to tell her "no" realizing that we would be mobbed with children looking for food and we didn't have enough to go around. That was a tough lesson of "reality" in Liberia.


What our family has learned, though, it that we can make a difference for a few with what we do have. We have been connected to several teenage boys and have had the blessing of helping some through school. To the right, you'll see a few of them. Nell (front row, second from the left) is in the 10th grade and Rufus (front row, second from the right) is in the 9th grade. We found that Rufus has taken the name "Rufus Doe Hostetler" on his school records and we're proud to call him our son. This year, Kenneth has joined our schooling group (back row, third from the left) and is in the 7th grade. We love his bright, contagious personality and feel he has a lot of potential. We caught this picture on the day of a big soccer game (a story for another time) and their bright smiles tell why the small investment is worth it. Our son, Momodu, is in the middle of the group in the front row and he was delighted to be able to play soccer African style again.


So, I guess the harshness that the country lives in turns to joy both for them and us. I have a hard time imagining that "comfort" would be worthwhile without the joy that serving and giving brings.


"As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work; We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul - not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is stength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy.." Colossians 1:10-12 (The Message)