Liberia Trip Part 1

Last week I shared with you our family history and ties to Liberia. This week I would like to share some more details of our trip and what prompted us to return to our family roots.

As I mentioned last week, Liberia sits right on the coast of West Africa. So needless to say, it is breathtakingly beautiful! My husband and I found ourselves saying time and time again… “If Americans knew about this place, they’d pay big bucks to come here.” Yes, no lie, it is that captivating! Aside from the color of the water, some of the places we saw reminded us so much of our trip to Hawaii. Not even joking!

Beautiful scenery!

We spent our first two nights in the capital city of Monrovia staying with friends of our family, actually a man who grew up in Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Grandma and Grandpa took in several young Liberians who needed a place to live. They raised them as their own. In the short time we stayed with this man we saw the fruit of the spirit flowing out of him that Grandma and Grandpa had invested so much time sowing. The family we stayed with lived in a small gated community with three houses inside. The houses shared a water pump and generator run electric power, which was only on from about 7:00 pm until 6:00 am. They did not have power during the day. They cooked over a coal fire. They did not have any running water. But thankfully they had a toilet that was able to be flushed when you dumped water down it. The mother was a nurse and who had received her training here in the States through a grant. This was quite comforting to us because she was able to acclimate us to Liberian life and prepare us for our next phase of our trip, a ten-day trip interior, where life is entirely different from life in the capital city.

Once departing the capital city we found ourselves on an all day car ride to the interior. Please note here that on a good day you might make it to the mission in about 6 hours from the capital city. However, if there has been any amount of rain whatsoever, you can expect that time to increase drastically. All I can compare the interior Liberian roads to is our off-roading excursions here in the States, only, forget the fun of flying through the dirt on an ATV. Oh no! I have to say, there was not really anything fun about being bounced around like popcorn. And believe me when I say our driver was not to blame for any of it! The roads truly are that rough!

We were blessed with a great driver the entire time we were there! Praise the Lord for that because driving in Liberia is like “diving on another planet!” (as one of our Liberian friends says). And may I add that there are no restrooms anywhere on any of these long jostling roads. So, yes, we did have to pull over for an up close and personal experience with nature. Thankfully, I was prepared! My husband’s aunt and uncle who are currently missionaries in another African country warned me that I would more than likely find myself in situations such as this. So, out came the lapper (a large piece of fabric when wrapped around you it can be worn as a skirt, as well as its many other uses when needed) and away we went. For most Americans, we would have trouble getting past the jarring all day car ride much less having to do our business along the side of the road. For me, it was somehow all so exciting. I was being stretched beyond recognition and loving every minute of it! However, this was only the beginning of my stretching.

We arrived on the mission late in the evening and quite exhausted from our popcorn journey. The Liberians on the mission greeted us as if we were old friends and it was such a comforting feeling, to say the least. Our living arrangements for the next ten days was with the pastor on the mission and his family. You could tell that they had put out their very best for us and was it ever humbling! We were received with such love and honor. By American standards, this family did not have much in the way of material possessions but you would never know that based upon their attitudes and actions. It truly was such refreshing to be surrounded by people who were so enamored with the Lord that the little they had was more than enough. Yes, their lives have challenges, but they have the Lord, and the Lord does not leave the righteous forsaken (Psalm 37:25).

The next ten days were filled with many adventures including an eight-hour motorcycle trip further interior to visit more churches. Getting a round in Liberia always seems to be full of adventures. Our motorcycle trip was just that. We traveled with two other motor cycles, and five of us all together. We had bikes break down, flat tires, we saw an entire village filled with excitement over a bush cow that was killed (meaning the village would have plenty to eat), and we rode for an hour straight in the pouring down rain. Thankfully this was the last hour of our trip and we had finished viewing all of the churches, so we were heading back to the mission to recharge.

The motorcycle my husband and I road on

One of several bike fixes on our motorcycle trip.

One of the churches on our motorcycle trip required us to walk over a bridge that a logging truck had tried to drive over several months before and collapsed part of the bridge in the process of crossing. So the truck was hanging on the bridge leaving only a single footpath for one person to pass by at a time. This made the bridge steep and honestly quite scary. Please note that my picture does not do the situation justice. It was a sight, unlike anything I had ever seen.

Men carried heavy loads across the bridge to the other side on their heads all day long. 

Safely on the other side, we met some precious church people who were so excited to see our arrival. There was one man who told us a story of my husband’s grandfather and the impact he had on an entire village all because he was willing to eat the snake that the village had just killed. This man was a product of our grandfather’s willingness to “become all things to all men that he might win some” (2 Corinthians 9:22). It brings me to tears just thinking about the stories that were shared as we encountered so many beautiful people!

See Liberia Trip Part 2 and Family History With Liberia for more details of our trip.

Lord, I pray that as I share about this trip that you open our hearts and minds to the world around us. Open our hearts to others who are in need. Help us to go outside ourselves and share with others the love that only you can give. In Jesus precious name.