Tuesday, January 9, 2018

LIBERIA REPORT

As promised, I want to give you a report of my trip to Liberia last month with Training Leaders International.
I left Toronto on the evening of Thursday, December 7th and arrived the next morning in Amsterdam to meet the other 5 team members who arrived from various parts of the United States. We left Amsterdam together late Friday afternoon and flew to Sierra Leone for a stopover and then on to Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, landing after midnight. We were met at the airport by Pastor Thomas and some helpers and were driven to our hotel about an hour away. The windows of the car were opened, the weather was hot and the air was filled with the smell of smoke.

TLI team with Pastor Dyonah Thomas
 On Saturday we had a time of rest, went to a restaurant for lunch, had a quick tour of Monrovia, and went to some souvenir shops. The poverty of Liberia was evident everywhere I looked but I also noticed much new construction as a sign of a stable and growing economy and this was encouraging. Two civil wars ended in 1997 and the Ebola crisis ended in 2015 but stability seems to have finally come to Liberia.
On Sunday I was privileged to preach at Divine Love Resurrection Bible Center for Pastor Haven M. Johnson. This is a small church who loves Jesus and I sensed was being built on the Word of God. This too was encouraging.
From Monday to Thursday we taught for 5 3/4 hours each day and for 2 3/4 hours on Friday on Biblical Theology. The students, I had 14 in my class and 75 Pastors attended in total, had to read four chapters of a book which we had given them on the unified story of the Bible each evening, had a test each morning on the previous day's material, and will be writing an assignment to be handed-in in March before the next teaching session. These standards of achievement are part of Pastor Dyonah's intention to get government certification for Grace College. I had a busy week of teaching and knew without a doubt that I was sustained each day by prayer. I actually felt a special physical strength and mental awareness each day.
One of the highlights of the teaching was on Thursday just after lunch. Normally after lunch is a time of students nodding off and finding it hard to concentrate but one student asked a question and this cascaded into over an hour and one half of questions on church and pastoral practice, some of the circumstances they were encountering in their churches and communities, personal questions and so on. This question and answer time was worth the whole trip to me. Here is a picture of my class. I am the short white guy 😊. As I mentioned already, half of my class have been Christians for less than 12 years and are Pastors of churches without having had any formal training.

My class, 14 of 75 Pastors
Another highlight of my trip was my communication with the grade 4/5 class of Calvary Christian school which is the class of my grandson Jonas. I was able to direct them in some research on the country of Liberia. They in turn sent questions to my class in Liberia. My class sent them a video greeting and they in turn sent a greeting to my class. Part of that video was filmed in the snow which my class in Liberia found amazing. I was glad to be able to expose these students on both sides of the Atlantic to each other and the grade 4/5 class to a mission perspective. I will be speaking in the school chapel tomorrow and 1/2 of their Mission Fundraiser this year will support my next TLI trip.
We left Liberia on Friday just after midnight after a stop for supper at a beach resort on the Atlantic and arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday morning each team member then making their way home. I arrived home early Saturday evening because some gracious friends came to the airport and lovingly brought this tired brother home to his wife.

I have attached two files below. One is a testimony of Pastor Dyonah Thomas' vision for Grace College [excuse the background noises which I did try to filter out as best I could]. The second file is the latest Grace College newsletter. I found page 4 and 5 a great story of God's work in Liberia. Enjoy. Click on file name to open file in a new window.

Dyonah Thomas testimony

Newsletter

Final note. I posted this on Facebook this morning. "Would you commit to this? I have been praying about starting a prayer meeting in our home to pray for the continent of Africa. Each month we would pray for a different country and people and missions working in that country. This meeting would be on a Thursday evening from 6:30 to 8:00 pm once a month. Please answer yes publicly or privately only if you would actually commit to attending not just because you think it is a good idea for us to start this. Thank you." ron and gloria 

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