Reaching

The other evening I was relaxing in my yard, lying in our Liberian made hammock. I was exhausted from hours spent downtown fighting the crowds to finish the last shopping for orphanage Christmas gifts. My big girls and some of the smaller kids were around playing and some pushing me in the hammock.

As we were chatting about the day another voice rang in……”Ah reechee-O!” is what I heard. I looked up and we all shouted “Bye, Massa!”. One of the kids opened the gate and out she went! This was Massa, the woman who hand washes the laundry for us. Yes, for all 13 of us!

As I lay there and looked around at my kids enjoying the beautiful African evening I was again reminded of the blessing of God! He has brought us here! We are so honored that He has chosen us, sent us and is using us to do His work here in this most beautiful place.

On Thanksgiving as we went around the table all sharing what we are most thankful for this year the overwhelming response was “we are thankful that God has finally brought us to Liberia!” This place is our home now, and all of us love it here. Life here is hard, different, frustrating, fun, new and amazing! Our sweet kids who have been covered with rashes of all different kids, been chewed on by too many ants and mosquito’s, had malaria and a variety of stomach issues, who bath out of buckets with cold water unless someone heats it on the stove for them, sweat through the hot, humid African nights are MOST thankful that God brought us here (they were also very thankful for their sweet baby brother)!

Now back to “Ah reechee-O!” As I sat there thinking about this statement in that melodious tune that graces the Liberian voice I just chuckled to myself. I imagined some of our friends and family visiting us and hearing that and the confused look that would probably be on their face. “What is she saying?” would probably be their question! She was saying, “I am reaching” with the O added on the end in classic Liberian speaking style. She was saying, “I am going home now!” Everyone in the yard knew exactly what she said without even a pause. I just had to smile thinking over the blessing and joy we have in being given the great privilege and responsibility of raising our family on the mission field in Liberia.

Blessings!
Vanessa

Back in Ganta

Greetings from Ganta! We arrived in Ganta last night and are preparing to head over to the orphanage today! Thank you to everyone who stepped in and supported the orphanage Christmas project. We had such a great response that we had all of the kids sponsored within a short period of time and also had overage to bring extra food for the orphanage. Check back soon and you will see some sweet pictures here of the kids Christmas party made possible by YOU!

God Bless!

Spirit Liberia staff

Kid's Class in the Rock Hill Community

This past Saturday Macey Bogdan, our 14 year old daughter, put together a Saturday bible class for kids in our community (Rock Hill). She planned it, organized it and taught it. She did a great job and the day was a success. She intended it specifically for the kids who attend Pastor Richards' church but many more from the community attended, about 40 in all. She did a teaching on the birth of Jesus and Pastor Richards' daughter Rochelle helped read the story to the kids and make sure they were understanding. Macey created a coloring paper for each of the kids using a graphic software on our computer. Kylee prepared popcorn and juice for the kids which was served in a "small plastic", Liberian style :-) They also played some games, including a bucket toss. The kids gathered up all of the rubber buckets from our house (we had quite a few as we use them for bathing and laundry) and hand stitched some small throwing bags made from an old T-shirt and filled them with rice. It was a huge blessing to the community and our kids had a great time too!


Rochelle Richards with baby Matty on her back.
Group picture of the kids.

The bucket toss game.

The kids coloring.

Libby and Judah enjoying the class too!

Macey and Pastor Richards

Rochelle talking to the kids.

Kylee with Matty watching the class.

The treats all ready to go! The orange bags are juice and the blue bags are popcorn. They will bite a hole in the juice bag and suck it out. This is a typical way you can buy drinks on the streets of Liberia, even scalding HOT tea!

Dealing with Liberian kids in this type of setting often proves to be difficult. When handing out the treats they were hiding them and trying to trick us into giving them seconds.....Jacob (our oldest Liberian son) was there to be the sheriff and enforce the LAW :-) The kids can get pretty rowdy and they are rough too, so next time we will plan on having some more adult supervision to help keep the kids under control. At most events where there are kids you will see women patrolling the area with a switch in hand!

Good job guys! We are proud of your desire to join us in ministry!

Gbarnga Central Prison

During our most recent trip to Ganta we were able to stop and minister at the Gbarnga Central Prison again. It is along the same route we take to Ganta. It was a wonderful time of ministry! Below is the sign board that has some statistics from the prison.


Ministry time...this includes preaching, bible reading, questions, tracts, and prayer.







We gave farina again as a gift of love to the inmates. Food can be very scarce for the prisoners. They greatly appreciate this non-perishable food which they can eat as is or it can also be cooked. It is a dry product made from ground cassava. We add sugar to give it flavor.



I had the opportunity to spend time ministering to the only female prisoner at the compound. She is sentenced to life in prison for murder. Please pray for her, she needs God to convict her heart of the sin and she needs to repent!

Shad and I with Matty inside the prison.

The prison staff and me, Matty and our staff.

God Bless!

More on the trip....The Guinea Border

We had the opportunity to minister at the border between Liberia and Guinea. There has been a lot of political unrest in Guinea recently so we felt like this was a really necessary part of the trip. We were invited to come and give a message for the staff devotions at the border post. What a blessing! Please keep the situation in Guinea in prayer. The situation is very serious.


Pastor Richards teaching.Evangelizing and handing out tracts.

God Bless!

Excuse the interruption......

But Daddy's Home!!!!!


Greg has been back in the states for a while and we are so happy to have him back with us! I will get back to posting on the Ganta trip soon.





Everyone worked hard to get the yard and house ready for Greg's arrival!



Paye sweeping up the clippings.

Shad mowing in the front yard.......the area where we had a green mamba fall from a tree last week!

Mark cutting bushes with a cutlass inside the yard.
Pastor Richards mowing inside the yard.
Bestman raking clippings.
We had a wonderful time of ministry in Red Light market this past Friday. The whole staff was able to be there along with Greg and me. Red Light is a market area not far from where we live. It is a very notorias place that is crowded, smelly and known for thieves! We had a hard time finding an area to preach this night but God worked it out and we had a good number of people who came and heard the preacing of the Gospel.

Greg, Bestman and Pastor Richards crossing to the area where we would be preaching.





Greg preaching.
Bestman preaching.

One of the cuties that was in the crowd :-)

Full Gospel Plantain Farm

During our visit in Nimba county we were able to go to Kpoapa village to see the new plantain project that we have sponsored for Full Gospel. They are doing well and we were so excited to see the plantain farm!


Just arriving in Kpoapa

Walking the trail to the farm

A young plantain tree

Some general inspection and discussion by our staff (You can see the larger plantain trees in the background).

The men!

The women and kids!

Me and Mrs. Valentine along with people from the village and some sweet gifts they sent with us! They gave us some wonderful squash (pumpkin), corn and cucumbers.