Liberia Trip Part 2

Trying to share the extent of our trip in one post is about impossible so this week's post will be a continuation from where we left off of part 1 of our Liberia trip.

Along with crossing a scary truck collapsed bridge we also found ourselves trekking through swamps, rivers and even crossing over a “monkey bridge” to visit one of the churches. The "monkey bridge" is nothing more than a long jungle gym of logs and sticks that spans the width of an entire river. The “monkey bridge” trip is done by a pastor every weekend for Sunday services. This is a two-hour walk for him from the mission and believe me when I say Liberians don’t mess around when they are going somewhere. I had trouble keeping up! When we took this particular trip we were met on the trail by a woman who knew my husband's grandparents. When she found out who we were, she literally shrieked and wailed with tears of joy. It was such an emotional moment I cried for about ten minutes after we left the woman. Oh, the heritage of Christ! What a beautiful thing it is!

"Monkey Bridge", swamps and rivers we crossed getting to one of the interior churches.

Another big part of our trip to the mission revolved around the school. My husband and I both have our teaching certifications. So because of our backgrounds and experience in education we spent some time doing a teacher training for the mission school teachers. Most of the teachers we were working with had no formal education beyond high school, and some had not even graduated high school. Their education system is extremely rote and completely different than the way our American teachers are trained to teach children. We were so blessed to see their desire to want to learn new ways to effectively educate their students. We are praying that the Lord opens more doors to be able to bring further teacher training to Liberia.  

Presentation of various teaching strategies at the training.

Yet another adventurous part of our trip was the food. I have to say, I truly do like Liberian food, but there was for sure some stretching going on in this department as well. Their cooking takes place outside over a fire in an outdoor kitchen. We ate village chicken, which by the way, is not at all like our American chicken, lots of rice, plantain, fish, snail, crawl fish, collard greens, pineapple, cucumber, and a couple things that we were not sure exactly what they were. We ate what was placed before us because we knew that much love and hard work went into the preparation of our meals and we in no way wanted to disrespect that! We truly were blessed beyond measure as far as the food went.

We ate this bush snail and these crawl fish.

The first half of our trip to the interior was both a blessing to our spirits and humbling to our hearts all at the same time. We were so encouraged and moved to see the Liberians that the missionaries sowed seeds into years ago are still serving the Lord with every ounce of their being. On the same token, it humbled our hearts because we have also seen that the needs are so great! We truly found ourselves laying things at the feet of Jesus because we realized that we do not have enough resources at our human disposal to meet the vast quantity of needs we saw during our stay. The needs are so enormous that the only thing we can do is to rely on God to be the provider. Otherwise, we would walk away shaking our heads and throwing our hands up in discouragement. If we did not hand over our burdened hearts for these people to the Lord we would end up drowning in the overwhelming sense that we are in fact inadequate to begin making an impact on the endless needs set before our eyes. Everywhere we turned, every place we looked, every person we met, there were major needs.

The second half of our trip was not as adventurous, but just as important to accomplish what God had called us to do. We spent time with the Liberian national church leadership as well as the American national church leadership. We spent some time viewing churches in the various towns closer to the major cities. We were able to get a clearer picture of how the Liberians operate, and they, in turn, they got a better understanding of the role that the American side can play in supporting them.

God desires to come back for a united body. He desires that we work and function in a capacity that accurately portrays the love of Christ in all we do in and for the body of Christ. And sometimes that requires us to sit down and get a clear understanding of how we can best support one another’s needs with the resources that we each have. God desires for us to come together, not to push one another away. It is our hope and prayer that as we continue our work in Liberia that we can continue to unify the body of Christ and portray His love accurately.

See Liberia Trip Part 1 and for more details from our trip.

Father, I thank you for opening my eyes to the needs of others. I pray that as I share these stories with others, that their hearts are pricked to reach out to those in need. Lord, I thank you that we do not have to travel overseas to be missionaries. We can be missionaries in our own backyards, in our work places, at our schools, at our local parks, and at our grocery stores. Let your love be evident in our lives no matter where we go. Let your love flow out of us and penetrate others around us. Help us to be everyday missionaries for your kingdom. In the precious name of Jesus Christ.