Another week has passed quickly and it’s difficult to remember everything that has happened the last few days. I do know that we have spent an amazing amount of time on the road….

Rufus, me and Adama

It seems that among the celebration on Independence Day, there was also plenty of stealing. Two of our friends had their phones stolen, including Rufus, and it seems that the phones came up missing “among friends”. This part of the culture is terribly discouraging, particularly when our presence seems to promote this activity because people believe we will simply replace what has been stolen. So, Wednesday morning we made a trip to Lonestar to buy new cell phones. I’m still holding Rufus’ phone and will give it to him before we leave hoping that his friends realize we will not just automatically replace whatever they take from him.

We also spent part of the day on Wednesday with Eric’s brother, Prince. He took us to his “working place”, the Sajj Restaurant. The restaurant caters to international customers and we enjoyed french fries with ketchup and amazing frozen fruit drinks. We had our computer and Prince was excited to tell us that they had wireless internet. Unfortunately, it worked as slow as our air card. We learned that the only fast internet is at the Keneja Hotel which conveniently sits behind our house on the Atlantic Ocean. $5 allowed us access to the hotel and wireless internet. When you walk on the Keneja property it feels that you’ve stepped out of Liberia and into another country. We sat under a cabana by the pool overlooking the Atlantic Ocean accessing the internet. Adama and Saturday were with us and were a bit out of their element.

We also connected with a couple we met on our way to Liberia who are opening a Montessori school. We toured the school and were impressed with the facilities and the supplies they had sent from the states. Again, it was good to see another progressive part of Liberia.

On Thursday Michal and Hezz spent time with a few of the girls that attended their sessions last week while I took Steve’s brother Isaiah to pay his school fees for next year. We made another trip to the Keneja Hotel to test skype for Sunday morning. We certainly take technology for granted in America and it was terribly obvious as we worked for hours to download skype and other software to download music for a local worship pastor. What seems like something simple took us hours. We were finally able to connect with Dan and Phil via skype on Thursday and look forward to speaking with Living Water on Sunday!

Today we traveled to the Deaf Home and spent a few hours with the children. I continue to be amazed at their beautiful spirits. They drew pictures for us and we found an amazing artist among them. There is a “religious” group that meets very close to the property that have unusual practices, so we made a point to walk as close to their building as possible and pray over it.
I also met with our friend Pete this morning to plan our trip next week. We will be meeting with church and community leaders on Monday and will visit the villages and school property. Tuesday will include a women’s meeting/youth sports program in the morning and formal program at noon.

It appears that Saturday will be a quiet day and anticipate church, skyping with Living Water and a soccer game on Sunday. Continue to pray that God uses us and that we’re open and have energy to respond. Pray for our health. I ate something wrong yesterday and was quite ill last night – although back to myself today. Also pray that I can make a connection with the new consulate at the embassy.

We love and are missing everyone!