Spirit Liberia

Tubmanburg Visit

2010-08-26T05:59:00.005-07:00

We recently visited the Tubmanburg cental prison in Bomi County. They have started an adult school there and asked us if we could provide them with t-shirts for the school uniform. We were able to provide these and everyone was very happy!

We preached, did one on one evangelism and distributed the gifts. It was a successful day.

Mark Koffa (in the orange) was able to speak to these 3 men individually and they all repented and accepted Christ. We will be visiting back with them for discipleship and also to get them bibles.

Sample of the t-shirts.

Timothy Surgery

2010-08-24T02:24:00.003-07:00

I am happy to announce that Timothy has had his surgey. The operation was on Friday and was as success! The surgeon says that he will not have a problem with that leg again. We are so happy for him. Thank you all for your help!

Still waiting.....

2010-08-18T06:59:00.002-07:00

Visited with Timothy yesterday and found him crying and in pain. The surgeon has been ill and not able to get him in yet. Please keep him in prayer that he would be able to get in for the surgery soon.

Timothy update

2010-08-13T11:33:00.003-07:00

This is Timothy. Many of you have been asking about how he is doing. Here is a quick update!

When I went to visit Timothy today I was expecting to find him recovering from surgery, instead I found him moving around on his crutches, happy and smiling! His surgery was scheduled for today but the surgeon was ill so they have postponed him until Monday. Please continue to pray for him. I will update with more when the surgery is complete.

Got Bibles!

2010-08-09T07:11:00.003-07:00

We received an invitation to go for a special visit on the LOGOS HOPE. LOGOS HOPE is a huge ship that is touring various ports around the world doing evangelism and many wonderful programs. They have a wonderful book store on board and we were sooooo blessed to be able to buy 4 boxes of New Testaments. We have been completely out of Bibles, so this was wonderful! We are beginning to work on the shipment of a container (which will have Bibles) but it will be at least a few months before that happens. YAY!!! Thank you to LOGOS HOPE!

Workshop/Crusade at CBCMI - Yamah Town

2010-07-13T11:56:00.015-07:00

We recently hosted an evening evangelistic crusade and a 2 day pastoral/leadership workshop at the Christian Bible Church Mission International Fendell branch (Yamah Town). This church is about 35 minutes outside the city limits. We had a wonderful time and the pastors really enjoyed the teaching. Our focus was on some things specifically related to issues in the church here in Liberia.

Our daughter Macey was the MC for the day workshops.

Some of the attendees of the workshop.

Pastor Joseph Richards, our resident pastor, spoke for all of the events.

The evening service with the small bulbs we string up and run off of our small generator. I am sure you can imagine how HOT it can get with all of the people packed inside these small buildings. You can see how Pastor was sweating!

Evening service again. This is Emmanuel, one of our part time musicians.

This is Alex, also one of our part-time musicians. These guys are very special to us and we LOVE them! They travel with us to all of our events.

2010-07-10T00:50:00.004-07:00

Last week we hosted a pastoral workshop at our home. Greg did some wonderful teaching on unity in the body of Christ. He was specifically targeting the issue of churches of different denominations not being unified. We should put aside the differences in the small areas and work together and love each other based upon the foundation of Christ and being one body together. It was a great time. The teaching was excellent and the pastors seemed to really absorb the lesson.

Special Worship Service at Gbarnga Central Prison

2010-07-01T01:19:00.006-07:00

We recently had the privilege of doing something new at one of the prisons that we minister in. For the first time we were able to bring our equipment and bless the staff and inmates with a special worship service. As far as we know this is the first time anyone has done this in a prison here in Liberia. It was a huge blessing to us all and we hope to repeat this in many other prisons. Greg and the music team led music, Pastor Richards spoke and I was the MC. It was wonderful. We were also able to give the prisoners some food and flip flops. The conditions inside the cells can be very filthy and many of the men don't have anything to put on their feet.

Singing time!

Pastor Richards preparing to distribute the flip flops (we call them shower slippers here).

Setting up the equipment.

Pst. Richards and I waiting for the service to begin.

Kakata Prison Release

2010-06-25T13:43:00.007-07:00

During a recent visit to Kakata central prison we found it to be a special day! Many of the people who were waiting in prison finally had their day in court! There are a lot of people in the prisons who really don't deserve to be there and you could feel the joy in the place that day.Waiting for the public defender to return and see who would be released.

Mixture of sadness and excitement watching their fellow inmates load up in the truck for release.

There were about 20 men released this day. It was a very interesting experience to see it all happen. Please pray with us for these men that God would move in their lives and we would not see them back in prison again.

Another Happy Birthday!!!!

2010-06-17T14:17:00.026-07:00

Happy Birthday to Mathias Vision Bogdan!!!! His first birthday was yesterday, June 23. Matty has spent the majority of his life here in Liberia so I wanted to do a special blog in honor of his unique first year of life.

It all started at our home in Phoenix, Arizona June 23, 2009!

Then he landed in Liberia on August 17 at just 7 weeks old!

First trip our to Buchanan, August 2009.

Then out to Margibi county August 2009

Back to Buchanan Sept. 2009

Ganta Oct.2009 with Pastor and Mrs. Valentine

First time to visit Gbarnga Prison Oct.2009

Sanniquelli prison Dec.2009

Full Gospel Orphanage Ganta Dec.2009

Relaxing at home on Christmas

Bondiway Prison, Harbel Dec. 2009

Gbarnga Dec.2009

Gbarnga Prison March 2010

Relaxing at home for Easter

Lorhn, Margibi County April 2010

Kakata Central Prison April 2010

Ganta, March 2010

Sanniquelli Prison, Nimba County March 2010

Margibi June 2010

What!?! All of this travel made him very tired.....

We love you Birthday Boy!

Matty celebrated his first birthday yesterday back in Gbarnga Central Prison for a special worship service. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. It was fun!

TV update

2010-06-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

The recent television show was a big success. We received a very unique letter from a contributor and wanted to share it here with you! It is a clear picture of how the Lord prompts His people in His time. The show was hosted by Vanessa's parents which is why the letter is addressed "Grandparents".

The writers name has been omitted for privacy purposes.

Dear Grandparents,

Would you believe it, your program is off now and I can’t remember your names, though I watch KTLN every night, (oh the joy of being 83).

When I was 5 or 6 years old, I stole 25 cents from my grandmother…no one ever knew. I felt badly and determined I would give her $100 when I went to work, but she passed away before I did it. That was the only thing I ever stole.

Recently, I promised the Lord I would give the $100 at His prompting to His choice. Tonight, He reminded me of that promise so I am sending it for the Liberian project.

Love in Christ,

A friend

Tune In Tonight at 9PM!

2010-06-01T09:24:00.002-07:00

Greg Bogdan will be the guest on a television program called TLN NOW! this evening, June 1, 2010. The program will start at 9:00PM CST and runs for 1 hour. It can be seen on the following broadcast channels:

TLN Chicago (also includes Rockford, IL and Western Indiana): - Comcast 138
KTLN TV (San Francisco - check local listings for cable and satellite): - Channel 25
KEEN TV (Las Vegas, NV): - Channel 17
Live Streaming via internet: - www.tln.com

As the Director of Spirit Liberia, Greg will be talking about our mission in Liberia, why we are there, and what our goals and plans are for the future. It will be an exciting show. We will be showing pictures and videos from Liberia as well so be sure to tune in and tell others to check it out!

The program can be seen across the world via the internetlive on www.tln.com so no excuses for missing it. Check it out!

Lorhn 2, pictures, pictures, pictures!!!

2010-05-31T01:30:00.028-07:00

The second day in Lorhn was wonderful. We spent time relaxing with the people, eating and just enjoying the day. In the afternoon, when the men came from their farms we had a soccer game! It was so much fun. Our guys played against the local team. In the evening we had a wonderful outreach service and had many people repent and accept Jesus as their personal savior. This included one of the town elders! What an exciting evening!

Mark, who is on our staff, is from Lorhn. His mother, father and many other family members still live there. It has been a real blessing to make such a positive impact in the lives of these special people. This is Mark's dad.

I had the pleasure of cooking lunch for my family with the other women in this African kitchen. It was really a fun and unique experience! I cooked Kidney beans with beef and rice. It was good!!This is Hannah, Mark's sister. She was a huge blessing to me and helped out in the kitchen a LOT!

These are some pictures of kids in the village. There are a LOT of them!!!
When we finished the beans there was a lot left over. We gave it to the little ones.

As you can see, they finished every last bite!

All of the guys enjoying some Dumboy. This is a traditional African food.

Everyone sitting around enjoying the day.

Beautiful view of Mt. Gibi.
Walking to the soccer field.

Enjoying some roasted corn while watching the activities :-)

All of us fans supporting our team! No one scored....no winner, no loser. This was a good thing :-) Just for fun!
Lorhn's local team in their new uniforms!

Our team along with some other guys from the community filling in.

The last post on Lorhn will be next! We are also working on a farm project here with a local organization focused on the rehabilitation of former child soldiers.

Lorhn

2010-05-28T02:02:00.000-07:00

We took a trip back out to Lorhn, Margibi County, recently. This was a real family adventure! Lorhn is about 3 hours from the city. We took a crew of about 16 and headed into the bush. We all slept in the little village. It was a great trip!

The trip started off with a breakdown. Our truck was overheating BIG TIME!! But, we still made it, just very SLOW......:-)

The boys relaxing in the back while we waited for the truck to cool down.

Alex enjoying Matty while we waited yet again for the truck to cool down! Alex is on our music team and comes for all of our events to lead the praise and worship time.

Finally getting close! This is one of 3 interesting bridges that we had to cross.

Slipped into the mud trying to line up for the second bridge.

Back on our way! Everyone loading up.....
YES!!! We made it!

Matty having an African bath. He is an old pro, they have bathed him like this in this village many times already.

We spent 2 nights here in Lorhn. The first evening we played the Jesus film on our projector and it was wonderful.
We took a break in the movie to speak briefly and also to present the town with soccer uniforms for the local team!

Mark presenting the gifts to one of the town elders. They were very happy!!!! They have asked us to also provide a hand pump for the town, as they have no safe drinking water. We hope to do this very soon.

I will post on the rest of the trip soon. What a great time of fun, fellowship and ministry!

Happy Happy Birthday!!!!!

2010-05-24T12:53:00.007-07:00

Happy Birthday to a very special man........34 years????? You have accomplished what can take most a lifetime.

Happy Birthday to the BEST Dad EVER on planet earth!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful, handsome, loving, caring, romantic and self-sacrificing husband EVER!!!!
We love you sweetie! Even though you are far from us physically you are with us in our hearts and minds and prayers today and always. You are the BEST!!!! You deserve the BEST day ever :-)

with much love,

Vanessa, Macey, Kylee, Elijah, Jacob, Jaden, Samuel, Liberty, Noah, Judah, Maxwell and Mathias.

Gbarnga Central Prison, Bong County

2010-05-19T01:16:00.008-07:00

On the way back home from Ganta we always make time to visit the Gbarnga Central Prison. They are always very excited to see us and beg us to make our visits more often. This prison is about 4 hours away.

Matty in the car. He was still smiling after the hours of driving! He had Mark and Pastor Richards to entertain him in the back. The were actually entertaining all of us while entertaining him!

Mark and Shad unloading some gifts and the cameras, tracts etc.

Prison information board. There were 103 prisoners this day with about 30 in for Muder and 8 for rape. The rest was everything from bad debt to drugs, to armed robbery.

Pst. Richards speaking to some of the cells.

Shad ministering in a different area.

Pastor Richards, Matty, me and Shad in the entry/office area.
The guys at this prison LOVE to sing! We are planning a praise and worship time here in late June or early July. Please pray that it would really make an impact on the lives of these men and women.

Let There Be Light!!!

2010-05-15T22:52:00.006-07:00

Well, I guess it would be better said, let there be ELECTRICITY! We cannot thank all of you enough that gave towards the generator. We were able to purchase the 15kw generator. It was installed this week and is working wonderfully.

I talked with Kylee today and she said that she is so used to not sleeping with air-conditioning (almost been a year now), that she had to put on a sweater last night. I asked her why she didn't just turn it off and she said that she wouldn't dare...she was so excited to be able to sleep with air-conditioning now.

As the director of Spirit Liberia, as well as the proud father and husband of my family in Liberia, I cannot thank you enough for your support! I do not take it lightly and I do not take it for granted. I stopped specifically tonight and prayed for each of you who gave so that we could improve our living conditions and effectiveness as a ministry.

When we chose to start Spirit Liberia back in 2007, we made a commitment not to quit, no matter what the consequences. We knew that God was calling us to a new way of thinking, a new way of living, and a new way of believing. This past year has brought many difficulties. We have had trials that we would have never expected, and days and weeks that seemed to last forever. But God has remained consistent just as He promised. He has remained faithful to provide for us as He sees fit. He called us to obedience, but He continues to remind us that He has not called us to sacrifice more than necessary.

We have learned over the past year that we do not NEED air-conditioning to live. We do not need lights and a refrigerator, or even a hair dryer and iron (well - some of us may feel differently about this!). But these blessings come as a reminder that we have a loving God, loving friends and family, and we can look to tomorrow knowing that God is in control and actively protecting, guiding, and providing. What an incredible God we serve.

THANK YOU!!!

The new generator

Sanniquelli Prison, Nimba County

2010-05-12T01:43:00.000-07:00

We had a great visit at the Sanniquellie prison. It has taken me a long time to get this post up due to major difficulty getting the pictures to load. Sanniquellie is deep inside Nimba county (about 7 hours from our office) and is a very unique and beautiful part of Liberia.

Entering the prison with Matty on my back. I put him there to limit the people trying to hold him :-)

Shad and myself and Matty with some of the prison staff, including the superintendent.

Pastor Richards preaching inside the yard.

Some of the inmates, notice the elderly man. His story is very sad and it seems that he is in prison due to some people trying to steal his land. This type of retaliation is common here.

Shad preaching to the individual cells. Some of the inmates are not allowed into the yard due to bad behavior/aggression.

Pst. Richards speaking to the inmates in the yard.
Farina we gave as a gesture of kindness to feed the prisoners. Farina is a milled product made from dried cassava. Cassava is a starchy root that is commonly eaten here in Africa.
The inmates listening as Pst. read through the gospel tract with them that Spirit Liberia has produced in Liberian English.

Mark (the one always behind the camera) and Matty having a great time together!
On this day there were about 107 prisoners in this prison. 7 of them were women and all of the women were in prison for murder. I have noticed that nearly ALL of the women we find in prison are there for murder. Murder and rape are the top crimes at all prisons with usually 20-30 people in for each. The next highest is robbery. Ministering to these people is a special calling. The conditions are rough but God is blessing us, the inmates, the staff and the country through our reaching out to this most desperate population.

Generator Again...

2010-05-02T13:13:00.002-07:00

I have good news to bring you this morning! As of this morning, we have raised about 1/2 of the $4,000 needed for the generator. We are getting close! Please take a few moments and click on the thermometer to the right and give what you can if you have not yet. We really appreciate everyones help!

Update on Generator

2010-04-23T20:10:00.005-07:00

Picture of the family last night without generator...need help...

Go to www.spiritliberia.org/urgentneed-generator2010.html to help!

Spirit Liberia Needs Your Support

2010-04-19T09:49:00.010-07:00

For many of you who follow this blog, you have seen the hand of God at work on a regular basis with our ministry. Lives have been touched, futures changed, and hearts restored.

Had it not been for the support of many of you reading this blog, our ministry would have never been able to continue functioning. As you can imagine this year has proven to be difficult. Fund-raising across America is at an all-time low. People are struggling and in turn ministries are struggling to continue to function and accomplish their goals.

We praise God that we have not been drastically affected. We have, in fact, been continuing to function strong and have continued to see blessing after blessing.

I am writing this today to you to ask for your prayers and financial support for a very important project. Spirit Liberia has an immediate need for electricity at our facility in Monrovia! As you can imagine life in Liberia is difficult. But add to that difficulty living with limited to no electricity and you can imagine how much more stress, anxiety, and struggle it puts on life.

Our facilities are used for our main offices, meetings and pastoral care, community projects, and also living quarters for our family. We have been trying to function with a 5.5kw generator. For those of you who know anything about generators (which did not include me until recently!!!) this is way, way, way too small. It cannot manage the electrical current needed to run a missions compound.

To give you an idea of what we are up against, here are some of our realities of electricity right now:

- We only use electricity for a few hours in the morning and evening when getting ready for the day and ready for bed in the evening once it gets dark.
- We cannot run more than one air-conditioner in the master bedroom. This means that most days we spend in the heat of Liberia with little to no relief (believe me when I say that part of being effective in ministry is having the few hours in the evening of air-conditioning!)
- We cannot run the air-conditioner and a hair-dryer, coffee pot, or iron.
- The generator currently breaks at least twice a week. When it is down there is NO electricity until it is fixed.
- We also cannot pump water to our cisterns when it is broke, which means we get to pull water in buckets by hand and take them to the house.
- We do not have communication with our internet when it is down.
- There is no refrigeration when the generator is not working.
- There is no light and by agreement with our landlord we are not to use candles in the house – spend a day or two in Liberia and realize when it is dark it is a different darkness than we experience in most of America!

These are just a few of the realities of not having a large enough generator.
So here is the good news! A church in Phoenix has donated $5,000 towards us getting a 15kw generator. We need to raise an additional $4,000 minimum to get this purchased and installed. Once installed we will be able to have more consistent electricity and we will also be able to run it more often, truly aiding in making us more effective for ministry and aid in Liberia!

Please donate today online by clicking here or send donations via mail to:

Spirit Liberia, Inc.
2219 W. Melinda Lane, Suite B
Phoenix, AZ 85027

Thank you for your support and prayers!

Congratulations!

2010-04-02T13:45:00.002-07:00

On behalf of the entire Spirit Liberia family we want to send a big CONGRATULATIONS to Morris Matadi and Brocks Pokai from the Initiative for the Development of Former Child Soldiers. They have reached their funding goal and IDEFOCS will be represented by Director, Morris Matadi at the Unreasonable Institute leadership workshops in Colorado. Good work guys! We are happy for you!

2010-03-26T08:21:00.007-07:00

Our most recent trip to Ganta went very well. We always love getting back to see our dear friends at Full Gospel. This trip had quite a lot on the agenda. We had some meetings with the church leadership to help facilitate some reconciliation within the church body. Although the meetings were not easy, God took control and it was a blessing for all. Praise the Lord! God has some wonderful plans for these people and we are excited to see what He will do here.

Church Meeting

Visiting Kpoapa (village in Nimba where Full Gospel has a church branch and also where their farm projects are located).

I was able to reconnect with a friend I met here over 1 year ago. It was a happy time!

Full Gospel's Plantain Farm (a project sponsored by Spirit Liberia)

Full Gospel Kpoapa branch newly renovated church building.

Our recent vehicle purchase, a toyota 4 runner. This isthe first time we have been able to drive our own vehicle to the bush since moving to Liberia. What a blessing! No renting :-)

Full Gospel garden project site, also sponsored by Spirit Liberia.

Full Gospel Cassava farm site in the beginning stages of clearing. Also a project we are partnering with them on.

Next I will post on the prisons we were able to visit on this trip as well! We always try to pack as much into these trips as possible. It can be very expensive to travel to Ganta and beyond so we want to make it well worth it! Thanks and God Bless!!!

Back from Nimba County

2010-03-06T12:58:00.004-07:00

Matty in Nimba County with one of his favorite people, Pastor Richards :-)

We just returned from a quick trip to Nimba County. It was a great trip and we are thankful to God for taking us and bringing us back safely! I will update more on the trip soon.

Margibi Project with IDEFOCS (Initiative for the development of former child soldiers

2010-02-24T12:11:00.017-07:00

Beautiful Mount Gibi

Last year we met a couple of guys from a group called IDEFOCS. They are former child soldiers working toward the rehabilitation and reintigration of former child soldiers. We have been priviledged to partner with them and sponsor an agricultural project in Margibi County, an area known as Peterstown. We will be doing many more projects with them including spiritual counseling with the former child soldiers that they are working with.

We had the pleasure of taking a trip last year to see their agricultural sites and put together a plan for a peanut project. The farm is underway and we will be taking a few more trips out to Peterstown soon and doing some additional work in the community there.

One of our staff members, Mark Koffa, is from Peterstown. This project has been close to his heart. He is so happy to see that he is able to be a part of helping the community he is from, and where much of his family including his mother and father are still living.

The area is beautiful! After leaving the main road you drive for about an hour (depending on the road conditions at the time) through a rubber plantation. The backdrop is a beautiful view of Mt. Gibi.

This area is a source of serious spiritual stronghold. There is a lot of spiritism practiced here in Africa, and this area of Margibi has a notorious reputation for this.

The road leading us through the rubber plantation. Beautiful.

A VERY rough spot in the road. We had to all get down from the car and walk to the bottom while Mark slid the car down this very muddy trench!

Group picture with some of the staff from IDEFOCS and a couple of local motorcyclists who were leading us to the right road.

Walking in the bush to see the farm site.

Mark and I with Mr. Printher, the agricultural specialist who is managing the farm and also teaching agriculture to the former child soldiers.

Gathering to discuss the farm project.

Some local cuties finishing our gatorade :-)

Walking our things into the village. Notice the pack-n-play the kid is carrying on his head! I am sure Matty is not the only baby who has had someone carry his bed into the bush on their head!

Mark graciously carried Matty all the way to the village for me.....about a 20 minute walk! This is too cute.

Greetings from some of the kids! I visited them here last year when I was pregnant with Matty and now they got to meet him!

A local woman with Matty. This little white baby is always a curiosity for people.
Some young girls in the village who are going through some initiation into the secret society. Very sad.....

Marks dad holding Matty. There is a myth here that white people can't/don't breastfeed their babies.....Matty and I have been able to help dispel that myth throughout Liberia!

The house where Matty and I help slept. My first time sleeping in a village, I have to say I LOVED it!

Artwork on the wall inside the room where I slept.

IDEFOCS has been accepted into a special program where they have the opportunity to travel to Colorado for some special training. They have to raise the funds for the trip within the next 27 days or so to qualify. Please check out their website and support them if you are led! Thank you!

IDEFOCS.org

Introducing our new boss!

2010-02-21T09:26:00.003-07:00

Let me clarify :-) We don't actually have a new "Boss", but we have a new baby in the family. He has been named Gregory in honor of my husband (Boss)! Congratulations to Shad and Gayduo Flumo on the birth of their new son! He was born February 7th. Mom and baby are doing GREAT! Please pray for this young family as they raise their 2 sons in the fear and admonition of the LORD!

Me holding baby Greg, Gayduo on the right.

What a sweetie!

Orphanage pics.

2010-02-17T03:38:00.003-07:00

I know it has taken me a long time to post the orphange pics. Even now, I am only going to post a few. Our internet service is slow!

The visit at the orphanage with the kids was such a blast! They were so happy and the gifts and the party were awesome. Thank you all for being a part of making this happen!

We also received a gift to help them finish their girls dormitory and it is now complete! We are so happy for them. We would like to raise the funds to help them get bunkbeds and mattresses for the kids this year. Contact us if you are interested in being a part of that project.

Some of the kids receiving their gifts.

Pst. Richards giving out popcorn and juice!
Pst. and Mrs. Valentine with Me and Matty.

Praising God for the rain!

2010-02-15T02:45:00.003-07:00

While we are trying to raise the funds for drilling the well deeper, God is FAITHFUL!!!! We are in the midst of dry season which is the reason that the shallow well we have at the house is now dry. Response has been great to our need for drilling our well deeper, but we are not quite there. God is so amazing in His provision for us! As I am writing this to you all, the rain is heavily falling and this is the second day in a row of rain. This is bringing the water level up and our water situation will be MUCH improved!

Praising God in the rain,

The Bogdans

The Well Is Dry

2010-02-11T06:28:00.004-07:00

As most of you who read this blog know, our family settled in Liberia back in August of 2009. We moved into Spirit Liberia's missions house/office and things for the most part have been very good. We recently had a church partner with us with support for a larger generator for the house which will be such a blessing!

I (Greg) am currently in the States. When talking to Vanessa yesterday she informed me that the well at the house has run dry. There is no more water! Thankfully we get our drinking water from a different source, but this means that there is no water running to the house. Cleaning dishes, cooking water, washing clothes, general cleaning...are all now effected by this. It is obviously a major, immediate need.

We need to dig the well at the house deeper. This is going to cost $3,000.00US. I am writing this today asking you to please consider helping. As you can imagine this is a significant hurdle for us to overcome, and we need to do it quickly.

Please pray for us and help us financially in any way you can. To donate, please CLICK HERE and give through Paypal. If you have questions or need to discuss this, please feel free to e-mail me as well (Click Here).

Thank you for your prayers as we try and deal with this difficult situation!

In Christ,
Greg

Tubmanburg Central Prison

2010-01-30T13:48:00.004-07:00

We have had some great things happening here. I know the blog has not been updated regularly, but that does not mean that we have not been busy! In fact, the exact opposite. We have been soooo very busy and things are going so well. We visited about 4 prisons at Christmas with gifts and ministry, delivered gifts to the orphanage and now in January have gotten 5 new agricultural projects started, done a lot of evangelism, helped organize a pastoral workshop for Pastor Kris and the guys from Fresh Start Fellowship in Oklahoma just to name a few!

During a recent visit to the Tubmanburg Central Prison (located in Bomi County) something interesting and exciting was discovered! The words from the inner part of our Liberian English Gospel tract were painted on the wall inside one of the cells. We were so excited and encouraged by this.

I will do my best to get the orphanage Christmas pictures up here soon. Thank you Dax for getting the internet back up and running again! I will try to upload a few pics......

Kris grilling his specialty.....Fajitas! He bought and prepared a special Fajita dinner for our family and our staff. It was awesome! The grilling was done on our coal pot/grill. Our son Elijah is pictured here with him.

This is the wall inside a cell in Tubmanburg Central Prison. These words are taken from the tract we designed and printed. How cool!

Update on Vehicle

2010-01-07T05:39:00.002-07:00

All of us here at Spirit Liberia would like to send a huge THANK YOU to everyone who came beside us and donated the money for the vehicle "matching gift" we received. We were able to get the vehicle, a 1993 Toyota 4Runner, and we are so incredibly blessed to be able to know we have such wonderful supporters.

We will try and get a picture of it posted in the next little while in case you would like to see what your giving was able to accomplish.

In Christ,
Greg, Vanessa, and the entire Spirit Liberia Team

URGENT NEED! IMMEDIATE REQUEST

2009-12-29T06:44:00.002-07:00

As I write this, I pray that each of you seeing this blog over the next few days will read through the entire blog and act upon what you feel the Lord is calling you to do! We have an incredible opportunity before us and we are asking for your help!

Well, the opportunity if finally before us! For those of you who know us or have been keeping up with this blog, we have had a major struggle since coming to Liberia. TRANSPORTATION! I know this is not something that many consider to be an important issue when looking at ministry opportunities, but let me explain a bit more!

Spirit Liberia is focused on prison ministry, Church/Pastor/Elder training, agricultural sustainability projects, and humanitarian aid. Much, or most to be exact, of our work is outside of the main city of Monrovia. We are currently the only organization focused on reaching the interior prisons of Liberia with the gospel on a regular basis. And our success has been incredible, but is hurting because of our need for more suitable transportation.

Since moving to Liberia in August of 2009, about five months ago, we have had to survive by traveling around in a car that can seat only five people. A small hatchback that is falling apart at the seams (well - I guess falling apart at the "solder joints" could be more appropriate in this case!).

Also, the car does not have air-conditioning and as you can imagine in Liberia that makes travel very uncomfortable. We also have to travel around with the windows down which has become a very serious problem in the past month. Due to increased rogue (thieving) activity, Vanessa has been attacked four times through the window. People have jumped in the back seat causing a diversion for others to jump in the front window, on top of Vanessa, to reach for things in the car. They have stolen a cell phone, which we have not been able to replace yet, and it is a dangerous situation to say the least. Vanessa has also broken a fingernail in one mans arm as he had another cell phone in his hand. Thankfully God gave Vanessa a better grip than that poor man who has had to extract a fingernail from his arm!

Since being in Liberia (I arrived mid-December) I have personally had to push the car alongside Vanessa as we tried to "push-start" it. It has been such a difficult issue since moving here and has been one of the major hurdles to our ability to increase our travel to the interior for evangelism and agricultural projects. We have not even been able to take the entire family to church on Sunday morning together because of the size of the vehicle.

Lastly, the past few trips to the interior, for instance when we delivered all of the gifts to the orphanage near Ganta a few weeks ago, the trip cost us almost $800.00US because we had to rent a car for three days. It should not have to cost us so much to do ministry in the interior!

BUT WE HAVE INCREDIBLE NEWS!!! Just in the past few days, we have had a partner step-up and offer to help get our difficult vehicle situation solved. This partner has offered a matching gift of up to $3,500.00US for a new vehicle for Spirit Liberia. Now most NGO's (humanitarian organizations) in Liberia have at least one Land Rover which costs around $25,000 used. But we are not asking for this. We simply want something that can give us the means to continue what we are doing and be more effective at it and spend less money than we have had to lately to accomplish what we are doing.

We have done some investigation and found a Toyota 4-Runner, 1993, in good condition that we believe we will be able to get for around $7.000.00US. It has air-conditioning, and a few other things that will really enhance our ability to continue to strengthen our ministry here and protect us as we drive. We are asking for your help! Let me say it again, we are asking for your help! Will you please consider what you can do today to help?

This partner has agreed to match any gifts given prior to January 5, 2010, up to $3,500.00US. This means that your gift will be doubled. If you give $20, it will be $40 towards the vehicle. If you give $500, it will be $1000! What an incredible opportunity and a wondeful way to finish off 2009 knowing that we will be able to reach more people with the gospel in 2010.

Please consider immediately what you can do. We are so thankful to God for His provisions and we are believing that enough people will see this blog and act immedately to allow us to see this incredible blessing come to fruition.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Greg and Vanessa and the entire Spirit Liberia Team!

We made it!

2009-12-27T09:52:00.002-07:00

We made it back from Ganta and had a wonderful and successful trip! We had a great visit with the kids at the orphanage and also visited 2 prisons. We stopped at the Sanniquelli and Gbarnga prisons and gave them some special gifts for Christmas. They were so happy and appreciative that we took the time to minister there and were thinking of them. This was such a wonderful opportunity to share the love of Christ.

I will post pictures soon. We are having internet and computer issues again, but I will do my best to get some cute orphanage pictures posted soon!

Merry Christmas!

The Bogdans

Reaching

2009-12-12T08:01:00.001-07:00

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

2009-12-12T07:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-12-04T12:39:00.006-07:00

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

2009-11-18T14:35:00.006-07:00

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

2009-11-10T11:33:00.005-07:00

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......

2009-10-31T12:22:00.007-07:00

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

2009-10-25T12:57:00.008-07:00

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.

Spirit Liberia Hits Walmart

2009-10-21T21:49:00.003-07:00

We had the incredible priviledge of setting up a booth outside of Walmart at Happy Valley and I-17 last Friday in Phoenix. It was a wonderful day of being able to talk to people about what we are doing in Liberia and how they can help. Praise God we were able to raise more than we had anticipated and Walmart has given us approval to be there nine of the last 13 weeks of the year!
I want to personally thank Marcus von Tobel and his son Anthony. I know for sure that Anthony has more guts and persistance than I will ever have and if it were not for him I am sure that our giving would have been about 1/2 of what it turned out to be.

We also had Vanessa's mom, Shirley, come and help out for a bit. It was such a fun day.

If you live in Phoenix and would be able to help out on a Friday between now and the end of the year please contact us to let us know at 1-877-236-9687.

Blessings to you all!
Greg

Visit with Full Gospel Orphanage, Nimba County

2009-10-19T12:52:00.010-07:00

We had such a wonderful time visiting with Pastor Valentine, his wife and all of the kids at the Full Gospel Orphanage! We were able to bring them some used soccer items, play a movie for them with the projector that was provided by Fresh Start Fellowship and we also erected a sign identifying the well and the orphanage. They are such precious people we just wanted to stay with them! Please keep them in your prayers as they have a huge task in caring for the 30+ kids in their care. They have been doing all of this without outside help. The government here is beginning to develop some strict guidelines for orphanages and they are finding it difficult to meet some of the new requirements. I looked over the process and it does seem to be extremely difficult to fulfill these new policies. Please pray that God would open the doors for them to continue this special work and meet all of their needs.

While we were visiting with them we were able to get profiles and pictures to help with the Christmas program we are doing for them. We are looking to have each child in the orphanage sponsored ( for $30 to buy them shoes, clothes and some fun things) by Christmas. We will be taking another trip out there in December to deliver the gifts and also to aid with teacing for the church's yearly convention! We are so excited :-)

Picture time!!!!!

This is a semi-group photo of the kids :-) There were some that were not in the picture.

Movie Time! We played a Max Lucado film for the kids......the Hermie and Wormie series which teach great character values through biblical principle.Me and my boy! This is Darcy and he is my special little guy out in Nimba county. He lives at the orphanage. This is him all dressed up in one of the soccer outfits we brought. I think we gave about 25 uniforms and 10 pairs of cleats, socks, shin guards and 6 balls. They loved them!

Pastor Valentine holding Matty.

A group picture of all of us with Pastor Valentine and his wife in front of the new sign that we brought. You can see that Matty was NOT happy!

Left to right: Pastor Valentine, Mrs. Valentine, Shad, Vanessa, Pastor Richards holding Matty, Bestman and Mark in front.

Back from the Bush!

2009-10-15T14:41:00.002-07:00

Hi Everyone! We just returned from an AWESOME 4 day trip to the bush (Nimba and Bong counties to be exact!) We had a wonderful visit and had a safe and productive trip. I will post with pictures ASAP. Sorry we haven't been posting much recently......serious generator problems have been the cause, and also a little something called Malaria :-) By God's grace I will post pictures from the trip tomorrow!

God Bless,
Vanessa for all of us!

Evangelistic Outreach Peace Island Day 1

2009-10-04T12:06:00.009-07:00

We partnered with Kris and Trent and the PICA (Peace Island Church Association) and held an outreach program on 2 evenings in Peace Island. Kris brought a projector, we had a screen, we pulled together some other equipment and the evening was a success! We played some Max Lucado kids movies and also did some singing and preached the gospel message. The crowd grew to about 1500 people, many of them kids! It was awesome and such a beautiful night. I brought Jaden along and he was able to get some first hand experience with the ministry that we are doing here in Liberia. What a blessing!

Setting up! Trent splicing some wires together for light sockets!

Mark and Kris trying to connect the sound equipment and the projector.

More set-up! It was a learning process! In the end we got it accomplished!

Finally working!

These are some of the cute kids that were anticipating the movie!

Singing just before the preaching.

Buchanan Trip

2009-09-29T12:21:00.033-07:00

We had wonderful trip to the Buchanan Central Prison with Kris, Trent and some of their friends here in Liberia. I think there was a total of 16 of us! We rented 2 bigger vehicles (thanks to Fairview) and took off by about 9:00 am. It was a long trip and we were sooooo exhausted by the time we got back! It was a wonderful trip and the guys did a great job preaching in the prison.

They have been requesting our assistance in getting a sign posted on the gate identifying the prison. We surprised them and brought along a stencil and paint for their gate. They were very happy and expressed that there is money in some governing budget that was supposed to be used for this and it has never been done. So, now they have their sign and they are very happy!

This time we brought some farina to the prisoners. It is a food item and is always appreciated. In most of the prisons here the prisoners are not fed well, if at all. We are working to grow and expand this vital ministry and God is opening the doors!

We rented 2 trucks and our group of 16 headed out to Buchanan! We are praying that God will provide 2 vehicles like this one for us. It is almost impossible to deal with these trips to the bush with our small car! These are very costly to be renting! (The Spirit Liberia magnet we borrowed from our car for the day)

In our vehicle: Front - Shad, Pastor Richards and the driver that came with the truck.

Middle - Macey and Matty

Me and Mark ( sorry for the extreme close-up!)

Rear- Amos and Saah (friend of Kris and Trent)

Bestman and Paye

The other vehicle: Front- Trent (he and Kris took turns in the trunk!)

Middle- Kimberly, Elva and Christo (friends of Kris and Trent)

We had a flat tire on Kris and Trent's vehicle!

Waiting for the repair!

Still waiting!

Trent taking a picture of Mark, taking his picture :-)

The other end of that :-)

Just arrived.....after 4 loooooong hours of bone rattling roads! We had a quick orientation meeting led by Bestman.Just inside the prison gate.

Entering the yard :-)

Some initial introductions.

The reason for our visit! Preaching the Gospel!

Preach it Kris! He did some great teaching and communicated with the inmates well!

Hanging the stencil for the sign painting.

The finished product!

Kris giving a bible to the corrections manager.

Pastor Richards handing out the farina.

Enjoying some refreshments while we waited for the other truck to return with the tire repair.

A wonderful day of ministry and fellowship! Thanks for joining us guys!!!! We love you!

A visit from Fairview!

2009-09-28T12:25:00.003-07:00

We had the pleasure of having a visit this week from Pastor Kris Ewbank and Trent Watkins from our church in Fairview Oklahoma. It was such a blessing to be with them again! They had a great visit and did some wonderful ministry.....we had some fun too! I will post soon with some pictures from our visit to Buchanan Central prison and an outreach program we did with them in Peace Island.

This picture is of me, Kylee, Matty and the group from the Peace Island churches anticipating the arrival! I think the Peace Island church group had at least 2 buses full of people waiting to greet them!

Finally landed! It is always a little overwhelming getting out of the airport and into the vehicles with all of your belongings! There were a LOT of people waiting to greet them.
I want to say a big "THANK YOU" to the folks in Fairview for sending some special requests for us with Kris and Trent....especially Sheila and Lisa! This is Libby playing with the doll that you guys sent. She loves it!

Buchanan Prison Visit September 2009

2009-09-24T14:11:00.003-07:00

I have attached a video of our visit to Buchanan Prison recently. It is only about 1:43 seconds long so it is short but gives a pretty good perspective on what the prison looks like and what the inmates get to deal with every day.

You can see Mattie in the hands of a very caring body guard too - Pastor Richards - which is one of Matties favorite people!

Full Gospel Orphanage, Ganta, Nimba County

2009-09-19T01:24:00.003-07:00

We are putting together a Christmas program for the kids at Full Gospel Orphanage in Ganta. We will be putting up more information here soon but for now I wanted to announce this to you all so that you could be considering helping out! There are about 30 kids ranging in age from 4 to 17, both boys and girls. We will be putting specific information and pictures up about each child and asking you to sponsor them for Christmas. This would involve purchasing a gift for them or contributing to the cost of getting the gifts to them or both! If you are interested in this project send me an e-mail and I will get you more information as soon as it is available. I have blogged on this orphanage a few times before, the links to a couple of them are below. Pastor Valentine and his wife, who run the orphanage are AWESOME!

Full Gospel Orphanage

Full Gospel Well

Back Online!

2009-09-15T13:34:00.003-07:00

Kakata Central Prison is one of our regular minstry locations. We minister there weekly. These photos are from a few weeks ago.

This is the drive leading up to the prison.

This little goat was tied up just outside the gate. It belongs to the prison!

They have already begun some small animal husbandry projects and also a tailoring vocational program.

Pastor Richards walking to meet me with Matty :-)

This is land just outside the prison yard. We are planning to help sponsor them with a farm project here. The men should be starting to clear the land within the next couple of months.

We are so excited at the opportunities God is bringing before us in this vital area of ministry. Please keep these new prison ministry projects in prayer! There is such a huge need for help and this is a wonderful opportunity to show the love of Christ to very desperate people.

The kids are doing much better! Thank you all for lifting us in prayer!

Delay!

2009-09-09T14:06:00.002-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posting! I know you are all anxious for an update on what is going on over here. We have been experiencing some sickness in the family and also have had some serious computer issues! I will be doing an update as soon as possible. I hope to do it within the next couple of days. Please pray for us! There is a lot of sickness in our family right now.

God Bless!

From Greg

2009-08-31T12:51:00.001-07:00

Staff Picture: Mark, Paye, Vanessa, Greg, Shad, Bestman, Pastor Richards

Well, Vanessa put me on the spot so I am going to have to write a blog here again! She mentioned a few days back in her post about our visit to Buchanan Central Prison that I would follow-up with some of my perspective on the visit. I am going to try my best to put into words the experience of my first visit to a prison in Liberia. But I can promise before I start this that it will be long and a bit personal. Here it goes…
Early Tuesday we all gathered in the yard to prepare the cars. We were heading to Buchanan Central Prison, a prison about four hours drive from Monrovia. Two cars would be needed to carry us there. I would be going with Shad, Bestman, Pastor Richards, Mark, Paye and another driver, Vanessa, Mattie and I. In case you did not catch that, we would be bringing Mattie with us on this trip. For anyone reading this who does not know who Mattie is, he is my two-month old son. So in total there were nine of us.
Yesterday we worked to prepare our materials – gospel tracts, bibles, and John/Romans booklets as well as clothing for the prisoners. We would be giving each of the prisoners one item of clothing. Some would get shirts and some pants. The items were packed up and ready to be tossed in the back of the cars in the morning.
A few of us gathered the materials as others checked over the cars and added the car-top carrier on Spirit (Spirit is our green car you see in many of the pictures with our logo on the side – not much of a car, but the Spirit keeps us safe and “keeps us on the path” as we travel J- thus the reason for the name).
As we finished most of the preparations everyone began to congregate in the Palava House for prayer. I ran back in the house and grabbed cameras, my bible, tire pump, drinks, and the few last things I could think of to gather in my bag. As I came out the front door, I walked past the diaper bag packed and ready to go. I stopped to pick it up and it hit me like a ton of bricks – I was about to take my wife and two-month-old son to a Liberian prison. Strange, weird, crazy, intense, odd, cool, confused…all of these thoughts went through my head as I stood there looking at the bag. My brain finally got through its processing and I grabbed the bag and headed for the Palava House.
I entered the Palava House and sat down. Everyone was talking, in their fast Liberian-style communication I still struggle to understand, and I realized they were more excited than I had seen them since I arrived. What was it that they were so excited about? We were heading out to visit a prison of about 90 inmates far outside of the city. It was going to be dirty, stinky, disease filled, and possibly unsafe. We were going to visit murderers, thieves, armed robbers, rapists, CHILD rapists, money launderers…and yes the list could go on. We would be traveling for hours on roads that are almost unpassable. We would be dirty, tired, worn out, and hungry. We would not have air conditioning, nice seats, clean cars, good food or restaurants to stop at along the way. There would be no bathroom stops unless it was the side of the road. We wouldn’t have power windows, power seats, power anything for that matter or even a stereo to listen to. Why were the guys so excited??? Don’t get me wrong – I was excited too. For almost a year now I have envisioned this day. The first time I will be able to go into a prison in Liberia and experience the open doors of ministry the Lord is giving us here. But these men have been doing this week-in, week-out for the past year. I struggled to understand their excitement.
Anyway, I talked briefly and made sure we had everything ready to go. Pastor Richards lead us in a heart-felt prayer of safety and protection and committed the trip the glory of the Lord. The prayer concluded and we were off.
The trip was difficult. For those of you reading this who have not traveled in the interior of Liberia, which is likely all of you, it is like nothing you have experienced. For me to say the roads are difficult does not do it justice. In America our road systems are not perfect, but try to imagine this. The roads have holes sometimes larger than our cars and they are everywhere. They call them “pop” holes because if you hit them your tires WILL pop. Small holes are everywhere and it is wet so you cannot really tell how deep the holes are. Sometimes it is safer to get two wheels on the side of the road in the grass because the roads are so difficult. Cars are coming at you from the front and speeding past you from behind. Motorcycles are everywhere and riding down both sides of the road, in the middle of the road, crossing in front of you, speeding past you, you get the picture! On top of that, people are walking down the sides of the street with large wheelbarrows full of merchandise and agriculture. They are walking with huge items on their heads, and coming back from long walks gathering water. There are kids, adults, and everyone in between. Trucks take over the road as they pass and you have to stay out of the way. Because of the heat outside and no air conditioning inside, you have to drive with the windows down. Every truck that passes could not even come close to passing an emissions test in America. They are truly helping create holes in our atmosphere as they spew black funnels of smoke from the sides and behind. Thank goodness there are no green organizations here! The country would have to be shut down. They are loud, angry trucks and splash red, dirty water everywhere as they roll through the holes in the road. If you time it just right, they may just fill your car with this water through the open windows. Our drivers were incredible though and we did not get a single splash on us. But Paye (one of our drivers) did stop the car at one point and when he was waiting for a truck to pass was drenched in mud…quite funny although I wouldn’t have been happy if it was me!
So we drove for what seemed to be forever and finally made it to the prison. Aaahhh! Finally to our destination and I was going to be able to enter a prison for the first time. We stepped out of the car and stretched a bit. Vanessa was holding Mattie as we entered the prison. Now – let me stop here. I fully believed that as we entered the prison we would be stepping into a holding area or waiting area of some sort. But boy was I wrong. We stepped into the prison and not five seconds later I looked and one of the women prisoners was sitting holding my child. There was no waiting or holding area – we were in the prison! Fear and panic began to run through me as I watched in horror, but then God really convicted me. What are we here for? Are we afraid of man, or are we afraid of God? Is God sending us here to preach His word or to sit in fear of what could happen to us. All of my fear, all of my stress and anticipation dissipated and peace settled in. It was as if God was holding my hand as we walked forward. The men in the prison all of the sudden did not look scary, but looked like young boys desperate for a fathers touch. I began to see through God’s eyes the love He had for these men – these wicked men who had committed terrible crimes. But they were no worse off than I. They were no more sinners than I was. God could forgive them just as easy as He could forgive me.
So we walked through a secondary fenced area and into the main outdoor inmate area. There were prisoners everywhere walking around every side of us. They were friendly and kind, smiling and telling us thank you for coming. Our guys began to get them organized into a small circle. About 25 men stood around as we began to speak. Bestman, one of Spirit Liberia’s guys, began to thank everyone for listening and began to speak about the word of God. He called on some of the men to read the scripture and lead an incredible devotional. I soon found out that the men in this outside area were the men that were trusted to be around us. They were men proving they had some good character and it was clear as Bestman spoke that the Lord was working in many of their lives. I was beside myself. I began to see why our men were so anxious and excited to come out here. THE LORD WAS WORKING ON THESE INMATES! It was one of the most spiritually beautiful things I have ever in my life experienced. Men, some of them of very shady pasts, with dedication to reading the word, following the scriptures and living for the Lord. I could not believe my eyes. All of my preconceived notions of prison ministry began to fade and a whole new love for these men was taking place in my heart as I stood and listened and watched.
Soon some of us were called into the main holding cells for the prison. Shad, Pastor Richards, Mark, and I went in. Inside these walls was a sight I will never forget. The prison was dark, not a single light in the entire area besides the sunlight that shone through small windows on top of the cells. There were six cells that housed almost 90 men. The cells were dirty, but not dirty like we see in America. They were pitiful. Men, almost 15 to a cell, lived day in and day out in these cells. They slept on the floors. There were no mattresses and no bathrooms. They had no blankets or TV’s, no chairs and no tables. Some of the men were in underwear. Each cell consisted of four walls and a bucket for a toilet. Men were sick and unkempt. They were not being fed enough, each one skinnier than the next. One man sat and told me that he had been in the prison now for almost a year and because of the lack of sunlight or light in general his eyes were not working well anymore. He could no longer read the scriptures we had given him. He wanted desperately to read the word, but he was no longer able.
Shad and Pastor Richards began to preach and it was as if the Holy Spirit moved down and took over the prison. Men began to intently listen and some told us stories of their lives, the sin they had committed, the families that they could no longer communicate with. There was repentance, salvation, and understanding happening at a pace I could scarcely hold on to. Men were asking for forgiveness, prayer, and telling me of the friendship they were creating with the GOD WE SERVE! The same God I serve is the God they were talking about. The same God I worship here in the states is the same God that was meeting their needs in the prison. They were desperate, but not hopeless. They were dirty, but being cleansed. They were suffering, but joyful.
Lives were being transformed in front of my eyes. Men wanted to tell me about how God was working and convicting and I could barely comprehend it. God was reaching the “least of these” among us through the hands of the men he has committed to my care. Men who did not come to me equipped for this work but men whom God had called for His service. Shad, Bestman, Pastor Richards, and Mark – all of them are men after God’s own heart. These men God has given me to train, equip, and ignite with a passion to serve Him. And yet today I am being taught as their student what it means to be used by a holy, all-powerful God. We serve a God that does not look at our strengths and talents, but who looks at our heart. We serve a God who does not look for the competent but the willing. A God who is searching high and low for those that love Him, and He found four willing and able men who love Him in an incredible way.
My first visit to a Liberian prison…it was everything I ever had imagined but for entirely different reasons. I was excited to go and be seen as a man willing to sacrifice for the Lord. I wanted to be able to see what God is doing first hand, but deep down I believed it would make me something special to be able to say I had been there. But I learned something completely the opposite. I learned that it was not a sacrifice, it was a pleasure. I realized that Christ came to earth to save men just like this; men who our society has written off as unchangeable, unreachable, undesirable. But God sees them as usable for His glory. And these men were used to change my life in one simple visit.
Now I know what it was that my men were so excited about earlier that morning. It was not about the drive, not about the fun, not about anything other than knowing that today we would experience God and the work He is doing in the prisons. These men are carrying the torch of the light of the Word into a dark and desperate place. How rewarding it was to see it first-hand.
In Christ,
Greg

Moving In!

2009-08-29T15:29:00.016-07:00

The first few days here were spent doing some work around the house/office to get things in order for the family. The "swimming pool" which is just a big tiled hole in the ground standing with rainwater needed to be fenced in so that the little kids won't fall into it. While the guys were working to put the fence up Pastor Valentine from Full Gospel Church in Ganta stopped by. When he saw the project he stayed the rest of the day to help finish it!

While the other guys were working on the fence Pastor Richards and Paye painted closets so that we could unpack the kids clothes. The musty smell inside them was TERRIBLE!

The last major thing that needed to be done was installing the razor wire on top of the fence. So, they loaded 39 rolls into the car and this is what it looked like!

Uloading, it was inside and on top of the car. Check out that sky!

Installation was completed in 1 day.

This is the satellite that gives us internet service, thanks to our friends from Fresh Start Fellowship in Fairview Oklahoma!

Buchanan Central Prison

2009-08-24T13:29:00.012-07:00

Friday, August 21st we made the trip to Buchanan Central Prison. It was an interesting trip. The last report we received talked about “a four hours bad road drive”. They were absolutely right! This trip should take about 1-1 ½ hours but it actually takes 4 hours due to the bad road conditions. We have never been out to Grand Bassa County before. It was an interesting trip, full of beauty.

The visit with the prisoners went very well. We were able to preach to the prison yard and then to the cells individually. This was Greg’s first visit to a prison in Liberia. It was an effective and productive trip. We distributed clothing to the inmates and they were VERY thankful. Each person was able to receive one item of clothing, for some it was pants and for others it was a shirt. There are 81 prisoners in total, 3 of them are female. We already have had some great testimonies from the prisoners and some wonderful discussion and questions.

We will be working to put together some agricultural help for this prison. They have prisoners that are ready and willing to work and have already had some good success with small gardens. Here in Liberia it is very common for people who own land that they are not using to allow local people to plant gardens there. This prison in Buchanan had done this very thing, planted a garden on some adjoining property. They had the blessing of the land owner but after the plants had grown and were close to maturity the land owner said he was not aware of them having permission to plant there. I am sure you can see his intention….to enjoy the harvest himself.

I am hoping that Greg will elaborate on this trip. He had some interesting conversations and this was his first opportunity to minister at the prison. Check back for a post from him.

Tomorrow we will be visiting the Kakata Prison. This is a prison we visit regularly. God Bless!

Driving! The white car we rented and in front is our Spirit Liberia car.

Bridge over "Flaming Tongue River"
Arrival at the prison, this is outside the fence.
Bins of clothes that were given out.
This man was alone in the rear of the prison and was HUGE! He has a really great testimony which Greg will tell you about. This was very encouraging!
Inside the prison.

Pastor Richards teaching

Greg, Bestman and Shad inside the prison

An Update....FINALLY!

2009-08-21T13:10:00.005-07:00

Just arriving in Liberia! Left to right: Bestman, Shad, Greg, Pastor Richards and Vanessa

Sorry this has taken soooo long! I have a virus on my computer and it has caused some issue with uploading pictures.

We are doing well, the adjustment is definitely chaotic, but it is going well. We are rejoicing! God really paved the way. It was a smooth trip and He cleared our path and we literally had NO lines until we reached Liberia. Even when we landed here, they allowed me to take all of the kids out of the airport while they kept Greg to finish all of the paperwork and to get the bags. What an amazing blessing!

The guys had transportation arranged and we had a wonderfully warm welcome by the churches of Peace Island. Thank you all! When we arrived at the house there was a group here singing and welcoming us. It was special.

We are settling in and things are going well. We made the trip out to the Buchanan Prison. It was a great trip and I will post pictures from that soon.

We have the AMAZING blessing of internet connection from our house! Fresh Start Fellowship in Fairview, OK allowed us to have usage of a satellite which has given us delightfully fast internet service. Thank you so much! This will be so wonderful in helping us communicate with our family and friends.

Me and most of the kids outside the airport along with 2 ladies from Phoenix that are doing some great work here in Liberia!

Relaxing after a long day!

We made it

2009-08-17T14:23:00.003-07:00

I just want to let you all know that we made it here! I will do a better post tomorrow! It is 9:30 pm in Liberia now and after traveling for many hours with 11 kids we are tired!!!!

Thank you all so much for the prayer!

When Faith Hits Reality

2009-08-16T01:22:00.002-07:00

For those of you who are checking in to see where we are at with the move, be sure to check out Vanessa's blog she just posted before I am putting this one up. It is really a good post. As most of you know, Vanessa really is the one who is doing such an incredible job keeping everyone abreast of what is happening with us with this blog. I (Greg) seldom have time to post things on this blog, but I am working on it.

I have to say that I have such an incredible wife. Vanessa has been a blessing to me from the first day I had the undeserved honor of calling her my wife. God knew what he was doing - although I pray it has not been too hard on her!

I was spending some time praying this evening after everyone went to bed. This is such an incredibly exciting time for all of us. Doing the will of the Father is EVERYTHING it is cracked up to be. I cannot begin to tell you how many times over the past weeks as we have been preparing for our transition that the Lord has stepped in, made himself known, and blessed us to the point of tears. HE IS FOR REAL! And as our faith is hitting reality, GOD IS THERE.

I wanted to post quickly to just make it a public thing that I love my family to death. With all of the preparations that planning that has gone into making this move a reality, my entire family has pitched in, been a part of helping, shown incredible maturity and willingness to help. They are all wonderful.

As we have been preparing for this trip, it is so easy to see how we are doing on our packing. The bags get full, we weight them and get them as close to 50 pounds as possible and move to the next bag or trunk. Each of the kids needed shots, clothes, diapers (well, I think we have a few out of them now!), shoes, underwear (yes, we all still wear them), socks, and a thousand other things. We have had lists, and gone through each one with diligence and steadfastness. It has actually been quite smooth realizing that we had to pack for 13 people. But in the midst of it, the thing that has been the hardest, is keeping focused on Christ.

As I sit here tonight and write I have just finished praying, no begging God that I have not lost sight of the most important thing we had to prepare for...the spiritual battle ahead. It is my responsibility as the head of the home to make sure my family is ready. And many days I have feared that there is just not enough time to prepare. But God knows what he is doing, and he knows he is using damaged, unfit vessels for the work He has called us to. We realize how weak we are, but in Him we have strength to continue on. But the question remains - are we ready? We are not just going to Liberia to do some nice humanitarian projects that bless those we are helping and us in the meantime...we are heading into a warzone! The enemy is not happy and has made it very known to us over the past few months in ways that would have scared me off a year ago.

Liberia has the remains of a wartorn country from years of civil war, but God has brought us through the fear of the physical danger - HE IS IN CONTROL and will protect us. We are stepping onto soil filled with disease and sickness - but God has given us a heart full of love for the Liberian people that far outweights the potential danger of disease and sickness. We are going into an unknown culture, but God has given us hearts full of joy to live among these wonderful people of Liberia and become like family to them and learn from them. We are not scared of the physical dangers or sickness any longer. The Lord has removed that fear. But I continue to fear (in a healthy way) the spiritual battle ahead of us. I fear complacency, I fear compromise, I fear timidity and spiritual weakness. But I fear these things, and will continue to fear these things because I want to see God move through our family. I want to see Him glorified through our service. I want Him to know we love him above all else.

So why am I writing tonight? I am writing to plead with you to continue to pray for us as we go. We do not deserve the prayers that have already been lifted to our Savior for us. We have had so many people tell us they are praying for us. That is possibly the most humbling thing for someone to say to you. We cannot tell each of you who have prayed for us how much it means to us. We pray that God will allow us to simply see fruits from our labors worthy of the prayers that have been lifted to God for our family! And we pray that God will bless each of you that do continue to pray for us. We are walking onto the battlefield and you are right with us!

I want to close with something I feel the Lord is showing me... I have seen so many examples lately of men who have gone to the mission field and dragged their families along with them. The families suffer as the man goes about HIS MINISTRY and forgets about his family. God has called OUR FAMILY to the mission field. In fact, I see it like this: Vanessa and I have been called to begin to clear a airstrip for a bunch of planes that are going to be commissioned to take His message to the world. Our job is to do the hard labor of clearing the path for the planes to leave the hanger. Those planes are our children. And as we clear the fields and ready the planes, they are going to be preparing for the work the Lord has ahead of them. The better we do at clearing the field, the better chance they have at an effective "take-off".

In Christ,
Greg

It's almost time!

2009-08-15T21:36:00.004-07:00

The passports are ready. Yep! All 13 of them :-)Of those who are still awake, these kids are excited, but VERY tired! It has been a huge task to get everything ready to go! They have been super helpful in pulling it all together. Great job guys! You are being an extraordinary example of the blessing that children are to a family.

This is the luggage. We mostly have large plastic trunks, which are great for this type of travel. They are inexpensive, lightweight and hold a lot. They also have a place for a lock. They are awesome! We have 27 bags not including carry-ons.

Greg, being the chronic over-achiever, had to create a stencil and spray paint the grass from the Spirit Liberia logo on each trunk. I have to admit they look awesome! He also made custom tags for all of the bags with the Spirit Liberia logo and our address in Liberia.

Well, that is it for an update! We will post again as soon as we can! Thank you all for your prayers and support. We love and appreciate you and we will miss you! God Bless.

Saying goodbye....or as they say in Liberia "bye for now!"

2009-08-11T15:54:00.013-07:00

Two weeks ago we joined with our church family (Heritage Baptist Church in Avondale, AZ) for Sunday service which was the last time before we leave. They were such a blessing and encouragement! Pastor Jason commissioned Greg and prayed over him. We were still short on the funds needed for our travel expense and Heritage pulled together with everyone from the mom's and dad's to the little ones putting in their change and they blessed us with the full amount we needed.....and 70 cents to spare! God is amazing, isn't he?

Greg had the opportunity to bring the message and share his heart for ministry in Liberia. This picture is our "row". This was baby Matty's first time at Heritage.

They also took some time to pray over our family. Awesome!

After the service we all enjoyed a festive "Liberian style" meal! Everyone participated and brought Liberian dishes. Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to do this, especially to Patty who so graciously provided us all with links to Liberian recipes and for organizing it all!

The tables were beautifully decorated!

Everyone enjoyed a variety of Liberian food.

This is one of our display pieces that we put up when we present at churches.

The kids all had fun playing after the meal. What a brother! (This is Jacob and Liberty)

Just before we left we were able to get a quick family picture. Thanks everyone! We will miss you all very much.

Nearing the end.....

2009-08-09T18:49:00.003-07:00

We have had the privilege of worshipping with a church locally here in Phoenix whose congregation is primarily Liberian (AFE- Africa Faith Expressions). We have greatly enjoyed our time with them and have been very blessed by the experience our children have had here in preparation for moving to Liberia. For those of you who do not yet know, we will be leaving for Liberia on August 16th! We are very close! This was our final Sunday service as a family here in the states for a very long time.

This is our family pictured with Pastor James Nyemah. He and his wife Lucy have become dear friends and we will miss them.

Buchanan Central Prison

2009-08-04T12:42:00.006-07:00

This last week we were privileged to visit the Buchanan Central Prison in Grand Bassa County. This was the first opportunity we have had to minister in this prison. The visit was very successful and we are looking forward with great anticipation to what God has in store for ministry here. God is opening doors and we ask that you would pray with us as we walk through them!

The guys were warmly received and we have been asked to begin regular visits there. They have also requested to have Spirit Liberia sponsor some agricultural work to provide food for the prison. See below the prison report submitted by Brother Bestman.

PRISION MINISTRY UPDATE

Greetings Boss,

With God been our source of strength, vigorous prison ministry has begin this week. The long awaited Buchanan Central Prison Ministry was held successfully. Buchanan is the capital city of Grand Bassa County. It is about four hours drive from Monrovia and it is predominately inhabited by the Bassa Tribe which Mark Koffa and Pst. Richards belong to. After a four hours bad road drive, we arrived at this prison of seven small rooms with 84 inmates including two females. According to the prison authorities chart, crimes committed by these inmates include Murder, Man slaughter, rape, arm robbery, theft of property, drugs etc. Upon arrival we were warmly received by a Nigerian Major of the United Nation Military Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and other prison authorities. The UN personnel commended the prison ministry team for coming to share what he called "the life of eternity for heaven". He continues by saying, the Christian community of Liberia especially the prison fellowship of Liberia has forgotten this prison. What the inmates need most in this post war Liberia is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which has the power to set people free from the bondage of sin. He appeals to Spirit Liberia Prison Ministry to consistently visit and preach Christ in the life of the inmates at Buchanan Central Prison and other prisons in Liberia. He also appeals for agriculture tools to enable Buchanan prison be self sufficient in terms of food. The message is that Christ Jesus paid for our sin Rom 5:8-10 was preached to the inmates and correction officers. 50 copies of NT was given out and 93 copies of Spirit Liberia gospel tracts were also distributed. Also food items were given out. It is our prayer that God will provide resources for constant ministry at this prison and other prison as well.
Have a godly week with the family,

Bro. Bestman Todawiah
Ministry Coordinator

Some of the "bad road" that was traveled!

Pastor Richards handing out Farina inside the prison.Shad giving New Testaments to the inmates.Shad giving Farina also.Brother Bestman giving New Testaments and tracts in the prison yard.Prayer inside the prison.Pastor Richards teaching and giving out gospel tracts.

Thank you so much for your prayer and support of Spirit Liberia. Please remember these prisoners as well and pray that God would cut to the heart with His Word, and that lives would be saved!

Beauty

2009-08-02T15:30:00.005-07:00

This bridge is located on the main road from Monrovia to Buchanan (between Margibi County and Grand Bassa County). We were able to minster at the Buchanan Central Prison for the first time this last week. I will post on that soon, but I thought this bridge was pretty amazing. Do you see the beauty in it? It think this is just amazing and beautiful in such a simple and primitive way. Remember, this is the main road between two major cities and this bridge is too narrow for 2 vehicles to cross, and also notice the holes in the floor!

The Wood Cutter

2009-07-24T14:57:00.003-07:00

STORY OF THE WOOD CUTTER

ONCE UPON A TIME , THERE LIVED A MAN WHO SURVIVED BY CUTTING WOOD FOR PEOPLE. THIS MAN WENT FROM PLACE TO PLACE TO CUT WOOD FOR PEOPLE. WHILE CUTTING THE WOOD, WHENEVER HE LIFTED THE AXE TO CUT THE WOOD, HE CALLED THE NAME OF ADAM. SO ONE DAY, A RICH MAN WATCHED HIM AS HE CUT THE WOOD AND HE (WOOD CUTTER ) KEPT CALLING THE NAME OF ADAM. AND SO THE RICH MAN DECIDED TO ASK THE WOOD CUTTER WHY HE CALLED THE NAME OF ADAM WHENEVER HE LIFTED THE AXE TO CUT THE WOOD? THE WOOD CUTTER RESPONDED BY SAYING, “ HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THE SINS OF ADAM, I WOULD NOT BE CUTTING WOOD, I WOULD NOT BE SUFFERING, I WOULD NOT BE GOING THROUGH ALL THIS HARD TIMES". SO THE RICH MAN DECIDED THAT THE WOOD CUTTER SHOULD MOVE INTO HIS HOUSE. THE WOOD CUTTER MOVE IN AND EVERYTHING WAS FINE WITH HIM. THE WOOD CUTTER HAD ACCESS TO EVERYTHING THE RICH MAN HAD, EXCEPT FOR A LITTLE BOX WHICH WAS ON THE DINING ROOM'S TABLE WHICH HE WAS TOLD NOT TO OPEN. ONE DAY THE RICH MAN TOOK A VACATION. EVERY EVENING WHEN THE POOR MAN SAT DOWN TO EAT HE WAS TEMPTED TO OPEN THE BOX. FINALLY THE TEMPTATION OVERTOOK HIM AND HE OPENED THE BOX. WHEN HE OPENED THE BOX A LITTLE MOUSE JUMPED OUT AND RAN AWAY. WHEN THE RICH MAN RETURNED HE FOUND OUT THAT THE WOOD CUTTER DISOBEYED HIS SIMPLE ORDER,"DO NOT OPEN THE BOX". THE WOOD CUTTER WAS ASKED TO LEAVE THE RICH MANS HOUSE AND NO LONGER HAD ACCESS TO ALL THE RICH MAN OWNED. THE WOOD CUTTER LEFT AND WENT BACK TO CUT WOOD IN ORDER TO SURVIVE. THIS TIME WHENEVER HE LIFTED THE AXE, HE CALLED HIS OWN NAME AND SAID "I AM THE CAUSE OF MY SUFFERINGS AND NOT ADAM". "I DID THIS TO MYSELF AND NOT ANYONE ELSE". AND SO THE NAME OF ADAM WAS NOT CALLED BY THE WOOD CUTTER AGAIN.

This story was told by Shad Flumo in one of our weekly meetings. It is a funny Liberian tale that has a great message! Shad is known for these stories and they are always very entertaining! I hope you enjoyed it :-)

Salvation Testimony from Shad Flumo

2009-07-20T20:21:00.002-07:00

This is Shad Flumo. He is a Field Coordinator for Spirit Liberia. He is pictured here handing out John and Romans booklets in the Bonewen prison.
Shad is a real blessing to us as a family and also as an employee of Spirit Liberia. We have all of our staff write out their salvation testimony for us to give us a better understanding of where they came from and where they are today. When I asked Shad for his permission to share his testimony publicly here, he answered with an enthusiastic "YES!" Shad was eager to see God use his testimony to minister to anyone who would listen. Here is the testimony of Shad T. Flumo, Field Coordinator, Spirit Liberia

My name is Shad T. Flomo. I was born into a family that pretended to know God, but realistically they did not believe in the words of God. That is, they went to church on Sundays but failed to do what the Bible says. Although they listened to the Word of God, they allowed their children including me to become part of a brutal and satanic society called PORO AND SANDE SOCIETY. Brutal in a sense that it involves the spilling of blood. I in particular was at the age of 5 years when they made me join such society which by all indication meant that I have been sold to the DEVIL. I spend most of my time growing up with my grandmother. Even though, she was part of such society and encourages it, she also was and still is a devoted church goer. So through her commitment of going to church, I was also encouraged by her to start going to church. While staying with her, I started attending sunday school up to the eruption of our civil crisis in 1989. When the war reached Monrovia in 1990, we started a long journey through the masses of Charles Taylor rebels. During this period, I saw people being beheaded and shot dead for the first time in my life. I was only 11 years then. Having seen most of my friends become child soldiers, I was tempted to also become part of such - but a special grace of God was upon me which kept me away from them. By the year 1994, I started to live with my mom actively. By this time, my relationship with God grew from bad to worse. Though my mother knew the truth about God, she did not go to church at all. She was compelled to sell at the market on both Saturdays and Sundays. During this period, we lived in one of the most notorious communities in the Redlight area known as SUGAR HILL. Survival in such community meant that one had to also become a beast (ONE OF THEM). Between 1994-1998 I had a tough time as a child growing up with my mother. At times she treated me as if she wasn't the woman that bore me. She did not take me out neither did she shower me with gifts or show me motherly love even though I was hard working and did excellent in my studies. By 1998, I have grown into a bad boy in the eyes of my mother. I had a girl friend (FORNICATING) and I also took provision at times from our home to her because her family was poorer than ours. When my mother found out that I had a girl friend, she threw me out of the house. By this time, I was in the 11th Grade at the "Rock International Christian Academy". Because I knew how to sell, I sold bread on the streets of Monrovia to survive and completed my final high school lessons. When I left my mother's house, I sought refuge at my uncle's house and it was like running from the hot water and jumping into a burned oil. At my uncle's house I shared a room with my other smaller uncles who had the habit of gambling every night and I soon became a part of such habit. This habit plagued me for about 3 years ( 2000-2003). I became what is known as a PROBLEM GAMBLER ( That is, when ever I had money my first thought would be to gamble). I thought high school education at this point was sufficient. In fact, relation between me and my mom grew worse then before. One good thing about this period is that I was always bothered by the HOLY SPIRIT which continually reminded me about my wrong doings. In July of 2003, I left gambling through the help and advice of some elders and friends of mine that I decided to share my gambling life and experience with and by the grace of God, I was able to quit gambling. I have not only left gambling for the past 5 and the half years but also I have developed a hatred for it. However, when I left gambling I was not saved yet. I hardly went to church. It was in early 2007 that I felt the burden of serving Jesus Christ and then started attending church services regularly. This time I knew why I had to go to church and that is to become a new man in Christ. 3 months later, I accepted the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior and became baptized. Brethren, the Christian journey has not been an easy one. After I got saved, I became a prime target for the devil. I lost every thing that I had. I have had 2 accidents in a one year period, one of them resulting into the death of an elderly man. But all these things did not stop me from serving God. In fact, they strengthened me. I want to bless and thank God so much for being on my side while I went through the wilderness and I also thank God for SPIRIT LIBERIA which has been a great blessing from God to the Liberian people. I also want to thank God for all of my Brethren in Christ who stood by me during the times of difficulties. Today I am a new man and an overcomer of trials and temptations. I am married to a beautiful wife (Gayduo) and 2 kids ( Youngor and Samuel). May God continue to grant us His special grace we need in our christian endeavors because, it is only by His grace that we are saved.

Blessings from the container!

2009-07-11T12:36:00.003-07:00

While the guys were in Ganta installing the well for Full Gospel Church, they also took the opportunity to give the church some bibles, John and Romans booklets and tracts for helping them in their evangelism. This is just the beginning of the blessings that will come to the people of Liberia from the container that you all helped us ship!

See Below: Weekly Evangelism report from Bestman

Evangelism

While we were in Ganta, Nimba County for the installation of the hand pump, the full gospel church received 31 copies of New Testament and 68 copies of John and Romans to enhance their Evangelism. One to one evangelism was done by the team at check points back to Monrovia.
Have a good and godly day Sir,

Bye for now,

Bestman Todawiah
Ministry Coordinator

Bestman giving the tracts to Pastor Valentine. These gospel tracts were designed and printed by Spirit Liberia. They were created in Liberian english so that they are easier for the typical Liberian to relate to! They have a blank space on the back where the churches can fill in their church contact information for follow up on their evangelism.

Bestman giving the New Testaments and John and Romans booklets.

One of the boxes of New Testaments that came over in the container!

Water for life!

2009-07-03T21:31:00.006-07:00

We are pleased to announce the installation of a new well! Do you remember Full Gospel Church in Ganta, Nimba County? I have posted about this church and orphanage many times before. They are the proud new owners of a fresh water well provided to them by Spirit Liberia. This was only possible through the generous support of all of you ( and a great job by our staff!).

This was their attempt at digging a well. I saw this hole when I visited them in March. They had begun trying to dig a well, which was done by hand. After going about 30 feet down, they had not hit water and the man who was digging was too afraid to go back in the hole. Wells like this can collapse on the person digging. They took a step of faith and although their water did not come from this particular source, God brought the water in His own time and through His own means. We believe He is not only blessing them for their faithfulness to caring for His children, but for their effort in working to bring the water they so desperately need.

So, they covered the hole with this board and these sticks and kept the faith that God would bring them water. I was very concerned about all of the kids around and having this type of situation!

Pastor Valentine and his wife pastor Full Gospel church and also run an orphanage out of their home which houses just under 30 kids. They range in age from 4 years old to 17 years old. They are doing a wonderful job raising these kids and we are so happy that we were able to help them out with this well project. They have been carrying their water quite a distance everyday. Imagine how much water would be carried on a daily basis for so many people. This would be water for laundry, bathing, cooking, cleaning, drinking etc.

While the guys were working on getting the container released from port, they were simultaneously managing the digging of this well. We are so proud of them! This last week they made the trip out to Ganta to take the final step, which was installing the hand pump. This well was placed in a different location than the original hole that had been dug. It is in a much better location for easy access and in a lower elevation for reaching water easier.

Here are some of the children that will be enjoying fresh water from this well! Mark, Pastor Valentine and Bestman are in the back.

Installation of the pump and piping begins!

Water!!!!

Shad and Bestman enjoying the moment :-)
Pastor and Mrs. Valentine thanking the contractor who installed the well.

Happy happy people ready to enjoy easy access to fresh water for life!

We want to send a big "Thank You" to all of you who have made this special project possible through prayer and financial support. These sweet people are a beacon of hope in their community shining the light and love of Christ all around.

Delivery!!!

2009-06-24T16:01:00.006-07:00

Actually, there have been 2 deliveries!!!!

After a long wait, the newest Bogdan has finally arrived....two days overdue!

This is Mathias Vision Bogdan!

He was born on Tuesday, June 23 weighing 8 pounds 5 oz. and 22 inches long. Mom and baby are doing well and everyone is happy that baby Mattie is finally here for them to hold and play with!

Second delivery.... (which was actually delivered first!)

The container was finally released from port and delivered at the house on Saturday! Thank you so much everyone for your prayer and support throughout this process. We have learned a lot through this and hope that next time will be much easier :-) Everyone is happy and ready to move on to other things. God Bless!

Miracle

2009-06-17T09:21:00.003-07:00

That is all....just the word miracle...this is what I saw on my cell phone this morning when I opened it. It was a text message from Shad, one of our staff in Liberia. My heart jumped and I had to get up and call! Liberia is 7 hours ahead of us here in Phoenix so the day for them is already more than half over when we wake up.

We have been telling them everyday when they update us on the situation with the container, "Ok, we understand. Pay the money that is required, but we are still praying for a miracle!" We have sent the full money to them, which includes the $900 that was in addition to the over $2000 of excessive fees.

Today they were finally able to get some finalization! They were able to get the paperwork signed and get the final numbers on what we will be required to pay. They will be going to the bank to make the payment tomorrow. In Liberia when dealing with a government agency you pay all fees directly to the bank and they issue an official receipt which you then take back to the governing agency to show proof to them that you have paid in full. This is a way they are trying to cut down on corruption and fraudulent receipts.

So, the miracle of the day is that we will not have to pay the additional $900 after all! It will be an additional $200 which is WONDERFUL! We are so thankful that God provided this blessing for us. Of course all of this is still much more than we at first expected to pay, but God is in control and He has been glorified in the midst of this storm!

If things go according to plan ( which is unlikely...TIA!), then we should have the container in our possession by Monday at the latest. Please continue to pray this container through to it's delivery at our office. The container will be opened by customs agents at the port and we will be overseeing the inspection to do everything we can to ensure that nothing is stolen.

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness during this trying process. I have mentioned to you before that this has been interfering with the usual ministry schedule, but all was not lost! We receive our weekly reports from the staff they have been reporting that they have been evangelizing and distributing tracts at all of the government offices as they have been spending their days there.

Thank you all for your support and prayer! We will post pictures when the container arrives at the office. God Bless!

Below is one of the ministry reports :-)

Greetings Boss,
Weekly ministry updated is as follows:

1. Prison ministry

Due to our engagement with the Ministry Finance and the faultiness of our car, prison ministry was not possible.

2. Evangelism

As we were involved with the duty free section of the Finance Ministry, we distributed Spirit Liberia Inc. gospel tracts to both visitors and employees. The Director of the duty free (Mr. Wright) was personally witness to and given copy of our tracts. Have a blessed weekend.

Bro. Bestman Todawiah, Ministry Coordinator

It continues....

2009-06-15T11:54:00.003-07:00

The saga continues......

The guys waited at the Ministry of Finance all day today. They were assured they would be first in to see the commissioner since their appointment had been cancelled on Friday. They were finally promised to be able to see her this afternoon and that never happened. They have been told that they will be able to see her tomorrow so they are probably in for another day of waiting. Please keep praying for them and for this process. Everyone is getting very frustrated. Our goal is to get the container released this week, and we are certain it will take paying the additonal $900 for this to happen. But....God is still in the business of working miracles!

On a lighter note, at the start of rainy season as we were having our weekly staff meeting we discussed what impact the heavy rains would have on their ability to continue with the normal ministry schedule. They informed us that they really needed rainsuits to protect them from the rain as they worked. Greg and I talked it over and we decided it would be good to provide the rainsuits for them. Now our car has needed some body work for some time and we have put everything on hold due to the extra charges from the container. There is actually water splashing into the car from the street while they are driving :-) They are extra thankful for the rainsuits! We will be able to get this fixed soon, but in the meantime at least these cute rainsuits are going to good use! Oh....have I ever mentioned that we have the best staff ever????? Enjoy their smiling faces!

Left to Right: Shad Flumo, Bestman Todawiah (always has his hood cinched up!), Pastor Joseph Richards, Mark Koffa, and Paye Hallowanger ( Paye is a big man in comparison to most Liberian men and I was concerned that they would not find a rainsuit in his size. It is a little small, but they said that he had to try every rainsuit in the store to find one that even fit this well!)

Prayer Needed!

2009-06-13T07:27:00.002-07:00

Here is the latest on the container. We have a new appointment scheduled for Monday with the commisioner at the Ministry of Finance about the Duty on the container. I hesistate to even call it "Duty Free" because it is not going to be Duty Free. It looks like we will be paying an additional $900 of tax. Please pray with us for a miracle. We would love to see God do an amazing work on our behalf and have this meeting go very well. Thanks so much for your love and support everyone. We will continue to keep you updated on the status of the container!

Another Container Update

2009-06-10T16:00:00.002-07:00

We still do not have the container released from port. We expected to have everything taken care of today, but it didn't happen. We have been having a lot of difficulty. The guys have been spending most everyday at the Ministry of Finance working to get the Duty Free approval. This has totally interfered with their regular ministry schedule which is also super frustrating! Please keep praying for the container to be released quickly! We will have to pay large fees, which is very disappointing and if we do not have it released by Friday we will have to begin paying storage charges at the port. Thank you for your support and prayer everyone! We will update as soon as the container is released!

Update

2009-06-03T14:58:00.004-07:00

We found out that the container arrived last Thursday! No one had bothered to call and let us know, but after the guys went over and investigated they found that it had indeed arrived. We have a grace period of 10 days from now to get it out of port without incurring more fees. The Ministry of Finance is being very difficult and we are looking at paying much higher duty fees than we should be. Please pray with us that God would show us favor in the midst of this very frustrating situation. The biggest issue is the used clothing that we sent for distribution in prisons, orphanages and to the needy in general. They are saying that people have abused the duty free and sold these items on the street so they are not allowing them to be duty free anymore. In addition they are grossly overestimating the value of such items as used clothing and shoes. We are looking at paying over $2,000 for this duty which is almost half of the total value of the items in the container! We know God is in control and that he will see this process through to the end but it really looks like we have hit a brick wall. Please pray!!!! Thank you and God bless!

The Shipment

2009-05-31T11:22:00.002-07:00

The container is scheduled to arrive tomorrow! We are not sure it will actually arrive tomorrow, but we will post an update when we have the information. God has been opening the doors on getting the duty free approval and it is close to being completed. Please continue to pray with us that this would be accomplished within the next couple of days! This has not been an easy task for our staff, but God has come through in some miraculous ways. If we were not able to get the Duty Free Voucher, we would face huge port charges and taxes. We can not afford to pay these fees and could lose the container. Thanks for keeping this in prayer with us!

Amazing Grace!

2009-05-22T14:30:00.005-07:00

Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now am found

Was blind but now I see!

John Newton (1725-1807)

As the prison ministry of Spirit Liberia has been growing and developing, we have felt the Lord speaking to us that we would see prisoners come to Christ and pick up the torch by in turn teaching their fellow inmates. As we packed the shipping container, we discussed the process of giving full bibles to the inmates that were saved and progressing in their faith. God has already begun the process and we can't begin to put into words the incredible blessing that this mighty work of God is growing in our hearts.

We receive regular ministry reports and updates from our Ministries Coordinator, Bestman Todawiah. Please read below and be blessed by what the Lord has done in the heart of one particular prisoner.

Kakata Central Prison- April 20, 2009

Kakata Central Prison at the time of our visit had 79 convicted and non-convicted inmates. Regular counseling and preaching was done at this prison. One of the inmates Albert Mulbah, 25, convicted for raping a 12 years old wept bitterly while the message of “Christ is coming soon with rewards” was being preached. He finally give his life to Christ Jesus and a copy of the King James Bible was given to him. At present we are working with him through counseling and Bible drill. Through the power of the holy spirit he is showing fruits of repentance and the love of God. Bath soap and tracts were distributed to the inmates.

Kakata Central Prison May 15, 2009– prison ministry at Kakata was very wonderful. Lives were touched through the power of the Holy Spirit. One of the inmates who give his life to Christ during our prison ministry sometime ago, ( Albert Mulbah) is now conducting devotions and Bible studies with his fellow inmates. Praise God almighty for this revival! More testimonies espected from Kakata prison. Furthermore, considering the needs of the inmates about 79 persons were able to purchase some locally made food call farina and few T.Shirts for the most needed. Unfortunately, those items were not even enough for the most needed.

~Bestman Todawiah

This is Brother Bestman giving the bible to Albert.

Receiving these testimonies of what the Lord is doing in Liberia has truly broken our hearts and brought us to tears many times. We are so eager to get over there and take part in the hands on aspect of the ministry! We are so thankful to God for opening hearts and doors for this ministry in the prisons. Many thanks also go to all of you who are faithful in support of this work. Without your obedience to God leading you in support, this vital ministry would not be progressing.

Evangelism Update - May

2009-05-21T19:18:00.003-07:00

The staff has been taking some extra time on the days when they go out for prison ministry to also do some evangelism in the local marketplaces. These pictures are from Harbel. Harbel is where the Bonewen prison is located, in Margibi county. Read below a ministry report from Brother Bestman Todawiah, Ministries Coordinator.

With God being our strength we were able to preach the infalible word of God in the Market places. During this time a gentlemen (Mohammed) who said his parents are Muslims came requesting for a copy of Spirit Liberia printed tracts. When asked, why he wanted the tract he said “I want to know Jesus”. He did a photo with Pst. Richards. Also during our regular Kakata prison ministry we evangelized the streets and market places of Kakata about 45 miles from Monrovia.
~Bestman

Hot Air Balloon Garage Sale???

2009-05-19T08:30:00.005-07:00

We have had multiple garage sales in our preparation for the move to Liberia. In March while I was in Liberia and Greg was home alone with all 10 kids.....he was brave enough to attempt a garage sale! Our neighbor is also moving, so we have done a couple of them together and this was also the plan for this particular day. Our neighbor made some beautiful signs to direct people to our sales and we thought that was some of the BEST advertising ever.....until the Hot Air Balloon!

Here in Arizona hot air ballooning is very popular. Greg and I took a hot air balloon ride for our 10th anniversary and it was amazing. Many mornings we can look out of our windows and see 6 or more balloons in the air. On garage sale day, a balloon made an unusual, unintentional landing right in front of our house! Needless to say it drew quite the crowd and everyone was laughing and saying we went to extreme lengths to draw people to our sale!

The kids loved it and I am glad they were able to get some great pictures!

Kylee, Macey and Eli on our driveway.

Elijah in front of the balloon as it was deflating.

Evangelism at the Guinea Border

2009-05-15T06:57:00.005-07:00

During my recent visit to Liberia in March, we were able to make an evangelism trip up to the border between Guinea and Liberia. At first arrival things were a little tense. We were being questioned by some of the border patrol about what we were doing there and it became pretty intimidating for me! After they understood what we were there for and believed that our intentions were good, the tone changed and we were warmly received.

This picture is of some local people and some border staff. Once we were accepted people came running from across the street to be included in the picture!

Pastor Richards talking with a young man. He was requesting a tract and wanted to talk about the gospel!

Bestman sharing the gospel with some young men who also came across to receive a tract and listen to what we had to share! The people are hungry for the gospel!

We were at the border office talking with a group that began to gather.

Do you see me looking strangely at that man? The guy beside me was laughing too! The man that is facing me came over and began speaking to me in a local dialect which I could not understand. I informed him that I did not speak that language and did not understand him. He proceeded to continue chattering on, obviously knowing that I could not understand what he was saying.....the reason for the look! Then he began speaking clear English and laughing and telling me that if I was going to be in the area I should be able to speak the local dialect. I laughed and told him that it was my first time there and I had not yet learned the dialect. It was funny and we all had a good laugh. The Liberian people have a good sense of humor and are just wonderful people!

This was a baby squirrel that some local kids were carrying around. It did not even have it's eyes open yet. It was quite adorable!

These are the little guys who had possesion of the squirrel. I think they were hoping to sell it!

Boldy Go !!! (Root Source May 2009)

2009-05-12T08:12:00.002-07:00

This post is an excerpt from our monthly e-newsletter "Root Source". If you would like to be added to this e-mail list send us a blank e-mail to bogdans@spiritliberia.org with "Root Source" in the subject line.

From the first time Vanessa and I stepped off of the plane in Liberia, we knew that God had a plan that would unfold in front of us and take us on the ride of our lives. Little did we know how significantly that plan would change everything we knew, everything we felt, everything we believed about life. God was changing our hearts in such a drastic way that we still continue to be challenged in ways we would have never imagined.

As you all know, Vanessa and I announced several months ago that we would be moving our entire family to Liberia in April. But God had a different plan and we had more things to take care of here before we left. We feel strongly He is opening the doors for us to make the move now in mid-August. This move will challenge our entire family in many ways, and we ask you to please be in prayer with us as we make this difficult transition. We are all so excited and our anticipation could not get any greater!

God has called us to "Boldy go and proclaim the gospel to all nations" and not to have a spirit of fear. We want to follow God's leading in faith and we have total trust that He will fill the gaps. We must raise a total of $15,000 to cover the cost of airfare to move our family to Liberia. This cost is obviously a one-time costs and is for one-way tickets. This would only take 100 people committing to a one-time gift of $150.00.

We need to purchase tickets in June to ensure we can get everyone on the same flight and get the best price on tickets - which only gives us about 50 days to raise the funds for this need. We ask you to please prayerfully consider what you can do to be a true blessing in this area. Your gift will help us to accomplish our goal of being more hands-on as we oversee the organization that God has set before us. Please send all gifts to the address below or you can give through paypal:

Spirit Liberia
2219 W. Melinda Lane, Suite B
Phoenix, AZ 85027

Thank you for your prayers and support. Your
support is changing lives and saving souls.

Spirit Liberia Reaches OK and GA

In the past month, we have had several opportunities to spread the word about Spirit Liberia.

In mid-April, we (Greg and Vanessa) flew to Oklahoma to spend the weekend with some wonderful people. Fresh Start Fellowship, based in Fairview, has a true heart for Liberia and has just come home recently from a three-day crusade that saw over 100 people come to a saving knowledge of Christ. We spent the weekend discussing ideas and getting to know many of the people in the congregation. It was an incredible time of fellowship, fun, and brainstorming. We know God has some big plans unfolding!

On Saturday, May 2, Spirit Liberia also had the pleasure of being promoted on the Peter Nehsahn Christian Radio Show in Georgia. Greg was interviewed by Peter Nehsahn, an author, pastor, Liberian, and host of the program. It was a wonderful interview and a true blessing to be able to speak to so many people about the projects, plans, and vision of Spirit Liberia.

They have requested Vanessa and Greg to join them again for another program in the near future where we would take listener calls so they can ask questions about Liberia and our mission there.

Gbarnga Central Prison, Bong County, Liberia

2009-05-08T17:27:00.006-07:00

During a recent trip to visit and assess a well project for a church we are working with in Ganta, the staff was able to make their first visit to Gbarnga (pronounced barnga) Central Prison. Our prayer is that eventually we will be able to routinely visit and minster at every prison in Liberia.
Bestman, Mark and Pastor Richards collecting ministry supplies to be used.

Prisoner visiting schedule

Brother Bestman ministering to a cell of inmates.

Shad ministering

Mark praying with a cell of prisoners

Bestman and Pastor Richards ministering to the few women in the prison.

Preparing to distribute soap and small bags of farina to the prisoners.

Showing the love of Christ to the prisoners through meeting some basic humanitarian needs.

The visit was a wonderful time of ministry. The Lord is really giving our staff a heart's desire to grow and expand the prison ministry. I have included a report on the prison ministry submitted by Brother Bestman, our Ministry Coordinator. Their hearts are very burdened by the condition of many of the prisoners. I will be sharing some more testimonies from prisoners soon. Please pray with us as we seek God's will for this ministry. We are seeing lives changed and open doors! Travel to the interior can be very expensive. To this point we have visited Monrovia Central Prison, Kakata Central Prison, Harbel Prison, Sanniquelli Prison and Gbarnga Central Prison. Visits to Kakata Central Prison and Harbel Prison are weekly visits and the others are made on special trips. We hope to visit the large prison in Grand Gedeh county after rainy season. Traveling there during rainy season would be impossible with our tiny car and it's condition. This will be a much longer and more expensive trip. It will take about 15 hours to get there so the guys will spend a few days there before returning.

You will notice in this report that he mentions that of the 82 inmates in the prison only 5 have been convicted. This is because the people can be accused of a crime and they are just routinely arrested and taken to prison. Once they are there they may spend LARGE amounts of time there without ever being charged or convicted of anything - innocent or not.

Gbarnga Prison

This prison is about 125 Kilometer away from the city of Monrovia. Spirit Liberia Prison Ministry was there to meet both physical and spiritual needs of inmates at the Gbarnga central prison. At the time of this visit 82 inmates were detained. Out of this total about 5 had been convicted. Murder and rape top the list of crimes. One of the murder convicted (Roland) is sentence for 65 years.
Salvation through Christ Jesus and the wrath of God for those who reject Christ was the message for the inmates. Gift – (bath soap and Farina) and tracts were distributed.

OBSERVATION

During our prison ministries we observed that 85% of the inmates are naked. Few of them that I personally spoke with said their clothes were raft off while they were being arrested by police or other security.
Most of the inmates suffer from diseases such as: Malaria, cold, skin disease, typhoid and stomach pain.
Some of the inmates are set free through the courts and in few days they are convicted again for other crimes. When I asked one of them he reply “ I have no training in any area that will sustain me and I am the bread winner for my family."

PRAYER

Considering the above observation I pray that God almighty will touch the hearts of men and women who love the Lord Jesus Christ to will help to save a life through the following:
Medical outreach through Spirit Liberia prison ministry.
Clothing and skill development program such as tie and dying, local soap making, African neckless making and Arts and Craft program.

Brethren, remember that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ commended us to be our brothers keeper.

God bless,

Bro. Bestman Todawiah
Ministry Coordinator

The Middles!

2009-05-05T12:16:00.005-07:00

These are the final 3! They are the boys who are all in the middle.

This is Jaden.....yes, he is a BOY! He has beautiful longer hair and can sometimes be mistaken for a girl - which really irritates him! Don't be fooled by the hair, this kid is all boy and very excited to eat bamboo worms in Liberia! He is our bio son and he is 7, the oldest of the "middles".

This is Samuel. Samuel is adopted from Liberia and he is 5. He is the "middle" of the first group of 3 that we brought home from Liberia. Samuel is all charm, but always has something up his sleeve!

This is Noah, he is also adopted from Liberia. He was the baby of the 3 from Liberia until we brought little brother Maxwell home in November. He will be 3 at the end of the month. Noah loves to laugh and just be silly!

The "MIDDLES"!

BYE!!!!!

There they are.....the final 3.....for now! We will certainly introduce the baby in June :-) Thank you again for all of your prayer as we work toward moving this crew to Liberia. We are planning to move in August. God Bless!

The Girls!!!!!

2009-05-02T17:49:00.008-07:00

It's time to show off our girls! There are only 3 girls so they are totally outnumbered. They are so sweet and such great helpers! We are truly blessed!

This is Macey, she is our oldest. She's will be 14 in June. Macey is the artist, she loves to paint and draw. She is also a total bible scholar. God has revealed Himself to Macey in way that most people never experience. She has been close to God from a very young age. She is very special!

Meet Kylee! She is the second oldest..... she's only 12 but she towers over me (Mom) and big sister Macey. Kylee is the cook. She loves to cook and she is good at it. She loves Food Network and is not afraid to try any recipe or create her own! Kylee is the daredevil.....she did the Bungee Jump on our vacation last summer. She also loves the babies and spoils her younger siblings rotten! Kylee loves God and even though she does not love reading she has been working diligently on reading all the way through the bible this year.

Finally......there is Princess. This is Liberty. She is almost 5 and she is the light of our lives. Liberty has Down Syndrome but is healthy and doing amazingly well in every area. She is an absolute delight. She is bossy and sassy. She is lovable, caring, stubborn, spoiled and she is very motherly. Above all.....she is a perfectionist! She knows how things should be done, and she wants them done right! She is also an artist and always convinces others to draw with her on the Magna Doodle. Watch out! If you agree to draw with her she will hold your artistry to a very high standard :-)

Liberty was not in the mood for pictures today. She...in typical princess style....experienced every possible emotional breakdown during the process.

Kylee to the rescue!

And finally the recovery!

The sisterly bond is a VERY special thing!

These are our girls! Please remember to keep them in your prayers as we move to Liberia. Life will be very different and there will be a lot of adjustments. Most of all we want them to remain faithful to God and His convictions and leading in their lives. We also want them to be protected in health and well-being. Thank you!

Special Building Fund Service- White Dove Outreach Ministries

2009-04-30T08:54:00.005-07:00

White Dove has started their new agricultural project, which is located near Gbarnga in Bong county. We will be sharing pictures of their new project soon!
They recently had a special service to raise money for their building project. They need to put permanent walls up on their church structure. Spirit Liberia was honored to be invited to provide the guest speaker which was Brother Bestman Todawiah. Most of the staff was able to attend the service and it was a blessing for all! Unfortunately the congregation thought that I was coming to the service also, so they were disappointed when they realized that I was back in the States! I had just visited with them a week or so prior to the service but it was the same day I was leaving Liberia.

Pastor Melvin Mappy- notice how beautifully they decorated the church for the service! I am always impressed with the formality that Liberia conducts itself with. From their dress to their respect of elders and processes they conduct themselves with much more formality than we do here in the U.S. We have become so casual about everything. I find this formality quite refreshing!

Brother Bestman- he has been pinned! The pinning is done out of love and respect. The individuals purchase different flowers and ribbons and pin them on each other. This was only the beginning of Bestman's pins for the day!

The Congregation

Brother Bestman preaching and looking quite handsome in his Zoot suit!

Shad was pinned too!

Mark was pinned!

Brother Bestman was the king of pins for the day! As the speaker he was honored with all of those pins! I had to laugh when I first saw this picture! Too funny!

The service was wonderful and they were able to raise some funds for their building. All in all it was a success!

While we are making introductions........

2009-04-28T12:22:00.005-07:00

Our Spirit Liberia family in Liberia!

Left to right: Pastor Richards, Shad, Mark, Paye and Bestman
While we are making introductions, I thought this would be a good time to re-introduce our staff! These guys are a part of our family, and they are much more than just employees. We love them dearly and they are and will continue to be a big part of our lives. They have a heart for the ministry and we have been truly blessed in getting to know and work with them! A while back, I did some individual posts on them which I will provide links to. Paye is new, hired in January, so I have not yet done a formal introductory post about him.

Pastor Joseph Richards
Shad Flumo
Mark Koffa
Bestman Todawiah

For Pastor Richards and Shad, after you have clicked the link, to view the pictures you will have to scroll down and click older post.

Meet Jacob, Eli, Judah and Maxwell!

2009-04-26T17:59:00.009-07:00

I have been receiving requests recently to see pictures of the kids. So...... here are a few introductions! I will spread them out over a few posts, probably with some Liberia posts in the mix. For those of you who don't know this, we have 10 kids, with number 11 due in June!

These are my twins :-) They are twins not by birth, but by adoption! Elijah is our biological son who is 9 years old. Jacob is our Liberian son who is also 9 years old. They are great friends and just sweet little men! They are hard workers, kind and caring, most importantly they love God and want to serve Him!
Jacob

Eli and Jacob trying to wrangle 2 year old Judah into the picture with them!

Elijah

These 2 are the youngest of the bunch! Maxwell is our adopted son from Liberia and he is 1. Judah is our biological son and he is 2. This is the face Judah makes when we ask him to smile for the camera. Maxwell seems to think it is pretty interesting!
Maxwell

Judah

This is the start! We have 7 boys......so far! We will have a new little boy in June, and we have 3 girls. I hope you enjoy getting to know our family! I hope it will help you remember to pray for each of us as we take this journey to Africa. You will now have names and faces to put with your prayers.

Off to port!

2009-04-24T20:38:00.011-07:00

Wednesday afternoon, just over half way full! We were wondering if we would really make it for Friday's pick-up!

With the help of some friends, including Brother James coming back with more BIG boxes, we got it finished in the early hours of Friday morning! It's full, and we were able to throw in the kids Little Tykes play gym to solidify the last open space! They will be very happy to have this in our yard in Liberia!

Everything is in the container, labeled, weighed........all documents are in order. Time to close up! The truck is waiting!

A local towing company pulled the container out of the warehouse to be transferred onto the flatbed.
Boy, it was hard to lift this onto the truck! It totaled out at over 13,000 pounds!!!!

It is a good thing we had a crane on the tow truck to lift it :-)

Smooth landing, right where it needed to be.

It has been an interesting journey and quite the learning experience getting this all put together. Kind of like an adoption???? This time Greg got to do all of the drudging through paperwork and processing!

Big sigh of relief as we wave goodbye to our 13,000 pound baby!

Please pray with us as our staff in Liberia are working on all of the documentaion on that end to get this container out of port.......Duty Free. This can be a very difficult and tedious process. The container will be in Liberia in early June, so there is no time to waste. They have been faithfully going to the various government branches daily trying to work through the process. We need God to grant us favor in the eyes of the officials who will be processing our Duty Free voucher. Thank you all so much for being an integral part of putting this together. You are a blessing!

Packing the Container

2009-04-24T18:48:00.007-07:00

Packing the container was a BIG job, but it was an amazing blessing!

Greg and I started the process! I had the best job, which was logging the weight and description of each item placed inside the container. Greg did all of the hard work, arranging everything in a way that it would be secure and the best use of space. He said, "Now I know why I always played Tetris as a kid - it was preparing me to fill this container!"

We found that we had more than enough room for the items we had on hand so we invited Brother James Neymah to bring some items to put in our shipment. Brother James is the pastor of Africa Faith Expressions, a church which consists primarily of Liberian refugees now residing here in the Phoenix area. We have been so blessed to get to know Brother James, his wife Lucy and the congregation at AFE. We attend there every other week.

Left to right: Greg, Vanessa, Brother James, Joshua

As a congregation AFE is reaching back out to local churches and communities in Liberia. They are doing some great work, so we were happy to be able to provide room for them to ship bibles, backpacks and soccer gear in our container.

Brother James wanted to weigh himself.....

Would you like me to tell you his weight???? Just kidding. We had a great time together. It was wonderful having them helping with the packing!

This is one of their boxes, labeled for pick-up in Paynesville. They won the prize for the BIGGEST boxes in the container! They had one single box that was over 220 pounds!

Don't be fooled by the box, this was NOT a TV, it was soccer uniforms :-)

This is our oldest daughter Macey. She went on a trip to Liberia with us in March of 2008. She is very ready to go back. Her nickname in Liberia is "Missionary". Macey has felt called to the mission field since she was a small child. This is going to be wonderful training ground for her! In this photo she is holding samples of some of the Bibles, New Testaments, and John and Romans booklets that are going to Liberia.

The New Gospel Tract!

2009-04-21T17:39:00.009-07:00

We are so pleased to be able to announce the completion of the Liberian English Gospel tract produced by Spirit Liberia! We were able to get 5,000 copies printed in black and white.

These first 2 pictures were taken in the print shop. Can you tell Mark is happy????

Hitting the prisons and the streets with the new tracts for the first time!
left to right: Bestman, Mark, Shad and Paye

This is the tract outside. It is 2 sided and folds in the middle.

This is the tract inside.

We will be providing these tracts to churches for their use in evangelism. The one shown here has an open box for them to fill in their individual church contact information. The ones that we use for our evangelism have Spirit Liberia contact information.

Please pray with us that God would use these tracts in a mighty way for His glory! It was only possible to get these tracts printed because of your faithful support. We thank you all so much! You are having an impact and joining with us in spreading the good news of the gospel to desperate lost and dying souls in Liberia.

If anyone would like to have a printable copy of the full color tract email your request to us at: bogdans@spiritliberia.org and we will be happy send it to you!

Fresh Start Fellowship

2009-04-20T17:21:00.007-07:00

We had a wonderful visit with a church in Fairview, Oklahoma this past weekend. This is a group of people who have a big place in their hearts for Liberia. They have a wonderful diverse congregation and multiple families have adopted children from Liberia. Unfortunately we did not have Mark there to take all of the pictures for us, so we only have a few, but I will post what I have!

Hanging out at Garen's house, talking and having a great time!

Pastor- Kris Ewbank and his sweet wife!

Me relaxing after the service, and Garen Ewbank in the orange. Garen is a blast, and always a source of fun and laughs!

Sorry this is so dark. This is Dax Ewbank, Garen's son. He has an amazing heart for evangelism and is a gifted speaker.

The kids came up to get a closer view of the baptism.

Garen and the congregation waiting for the baptism to begin.

Kris speaking on Sunday morning.

Thank you everyone at Fresh Start Fellowship for the wonderful hospitality and fellowship! We are so excited to see how the Lord will grow this friendship.

Meeting Basic Needs - Another project!

2009-04-17T10:50:00.011-07:00

We have a program that we call "Meeting Basic Needs". You can find more information on our website under "Projects". It is just what the name indicates! Meeting basic humanitarian needs as we are able and feel led. Our ministry focus is not to be giving handouts, but to help with providing sustainability and responsibility. Sometimes there is just a need to meet a basic need. There are many different opportunities for doing this.

Meet Annie Duwah. She is the recipient of something very special!

This is Annie's daughter Comfort. Comfort has Cerebral Palsy, and has had some children that she had to give up. She is not able to care for them with her physical condition.

Annie and Comfort have been living in terrible conditions, in housing that leaks and floods, and is just in deplorable condition.

This is one of the places that they have been living. It is a room that they were renting, but had to leave because they could not even afford the rent for a place like this.

Annie and Comfort were previously employed by an Orphanage in Liberia but in the last year lost their jobs due to the adoption issues going on in the country and the Orphanage having to lay-off most of their people. Even when they were employed, they could not afford decent living conditions.

A very generous family who knew of their situation donated the money and asked that Spirit Liberia build a house for them. We agreed! The house was originally planned to be built in a different area, but we ran into some issues there and we built the house on the site where the well was dug in Rock Hill. Here is the beginning stage of construction!

Now it is complete! The house turned out beautifully. It has 1 bedroom, an indoor bathroom and a sitting room. There are bars on the windows and wood shutters that close up completely.

Annie and Bestman and Pastor Richards praying and dedicating the house.

Welcome home Annie!!!! We are so happy for you :-)

The Container!!

2009-04-15T10:09:00.004-07:00

The container has arrived at our office here in Phoenix and we are beginning to get it packed! Things are coming together on this end and the container should be on it's way to port in Louisiana within the next week. Things are running smoothly so far. Please pray with us that this shipment will arrive and we will be able to get it out of port in Liberia. That end can be difficult, but we have already begun filing the documentation. Thank you again for all of your help in getting this accomplished!