Team #1- Success!

Well, the first team left Liberia a week ago today... its taken me this long to recover. ;) But seriously we couldn't have asked for the first ever Samaritan's Purse International team to go any better! They accomplished more work than was planned, and made incredibly relationships with the Liberians they were working with. On the last night in Yekepa, we threw a celebration with the team and the Liberian crew (about 60 people). It was filled with incredible singing and dancing, 50+ pounds of rice (COMPLETELY finished off), and a time of sharing which was really special for everyone. My prayer is that the next six teams are able to relate with the Liberians as well as this first team.

I spent most of my week trying to catch up on sleep, preparing for the next team... who knew taking care of ten men for 18 days would wear me out so badly! My second team arrives this week Friday, and we are heading up to Yekepa on Saturday morning... with me driving them in a 15 passenger van! It's going to be a slow drive, but it will be good.

This weekend I was able to travel to another sub-office of SP which I have heard about for years but have never been able to visit. While there I finally was able to learn how to ride motorbike- and had a blast!


I am finally able to live up to my last name! ;)

Free Bibles and Hard Work!

Friday afternoon was "good Friday" here at ABC, otherwise known as payday! Well every morning there is devotions with the work crews before heading out for the day, and Dave Petersen soon realized that the majority of his workers do not have their own Bible. So, when they came to collect their pay on Friday, they were gifted with their very own Bible, complete with signatures of the SP team and their favorite verses.












Richard giving the Liberian handshake.


John and Aaron bringing in some lumber.



Tom and Buzz enjoying their work!

finally some pictures!

Here is Cliff, helping Junior put together door frames. Junior is a former child soldier, whose battalion did most of the looting of ABC, and now he is here helping rebuild it!

Oh Chuck... he is my comedy relief for sure!

The team leader, Richard, having a teaching moment with Joe. Joe works as our night guard, yet wants to be a carpenter so badly, he works with the men all day also!


Richard brought some maps along- the world map, United States map, and also a map from Michigan to give the guys an idea of where this team is from.


And here is the group all dressed and ready for church!

My cleaning ladies working hard on laundry...
at one point they had over ten lines full of clothes!

Faculty house #1 where I live with half of the team, the
other half stays in Faculty house #2 right next door.

A view from inside the chapel- as you can see there used to be a grand piano inside...everything is stripped except for the metal.
Here are my ladies! Loretta, Betty, Helena and Oretha. They are great!!! (and Betty and Oretha now love spaghetti!) :)

African Bible College

Yekepa has been my new home for a week now, so I figured it was time to show you where I am and what I am doing!



I am living on the African Bible College campus, in one of the newly reconstructed faculty houses. ABC (African Bible College) was formerly one of the top Bible Colleges in Africa, with two other campuses on the continent. When the war came through, Charles Taylor was unable to pay his troops to fight for him, so instead he gave them "permission" to loot whatever they could find for their payment. The result was twenty-two completely destroyed buildings. Everything was taken- every inch of wire, steel from the rooftops and even sewer pipes were dug up to resell.

A few years ago, the founder of ABC along with his son Del and his wife Becky, returned to Yekepa to see what had happened to the college. When arriving they were unable to even see the front sign because the bush had overgrown over everything. Del and Becky committed to reconstructing the college and re-opening in September of 2008. Samaritan's Purse has committed to helping reconstruct eight of those buildings in order for that goal to be reached.



So much work has gone into clearing the bush around all 22 buildings, and things are now moving along nicely. There are six, possibly seven teams coming to assist the rebuilding process. The very first team arrived last week and have been plugging away all week, making fast progress in the men's dormitory.

The team consists of ten men, all mostly from Michigan, and all very skilled in electrical, carpentry, and eating! One of my roles is to make sure they are getting fed... well last week when we went shopping, we threw into the cart what we thought would be plenty extra... and I highly underestimated the appetites of ten construction men!

It has been so great being back in Liberia. One of the things I missed most was the Liberian singing. Sitting in church on Sunday, I couldn't help but smile when the choir came in singing. I have been trying to upload a video of that for you to see, but seem to be having some issues. I will get it up as soon as I can.

So things are going well. My days are long, beginning at 5:45 am and ending after 11pm, and filled with menu planning, making sure filtered water is available for the men, planning for upcoming teams, planning activities for the team, and making sure my cooking ladies have the supplies they need for the next meals. This team is great, with many different personalities, always making things interesting. Being the only female around, they certainly have no mercy in giving me a hard time, BUT they are always happy to help me wash dishes after supper, so I will let them tease me all they want!

It has been really nice being up country, away from the craziness of Monrovia... I only wish I was able to take the ocean view with me! But I am not complaining about the cooler weather, the mountains and the peacefulness. The people here are wonderful, my ladies are incredibly hard workers and love to sing and dance in the mornings! I love it. Last night they made spaghetti for the first time. We had some left over, (which is surprising :) so we will heat it up today for them to try. I was teasing them that it will soon become their favorite over rice and sauce!

Things you can pray for:
- Pray for safety for the teams and workers as they work long days in the heat, that they remain safe and healthy
- Pray for logistics as there are many supplies to be bought and delivered, and its not as simple as driving to home depot here... it can become very stressful!
- Pray for me as I continue to plan, arrange, and try to keep the team's stay as comfortable as possible.
- Pray for the relationships that are being made between volunteer teams and national staff, that Christ will be discussed and shared.

Hitting the ground running!

well... the first team has officially arrived safely. they came in last night, and unfortunately there was a misunderstanding about the time they were coming in... and they ended up waiting at the airport for quite a while before we got there! not exactly the way you want to start a team out, but they are pretty easy going guys and it all ended up alright.

today we were able to introduce the team to the Samaritan's Purse Liberia office and staff, allowing them to be a part of our daily morning devotions, and orientate them to some things about Liberian culture. After a quick city tour we visited the THINK home, a home for female ex-combatants, where they go thru a nine month program which gives them counseling, education and presents them with the Gospel, and also teaches them a vocation. an eye opening and effective program for sure. its hard to imagine the things these young women have lived thru in their short lives... things that we probably can't even fathom.

tomorrow we will be heading up to the construction site which is going to take us a good six hours in the van that we have... so you can be praying for a safe journey! we will be up in Yekepa for about two and a half weeks, with the goal of finishing the men's dorms, which will also help house the upcoming teams in the next few months.

i received an email this week from the construction site... with a picture of a 5 foot Gabon Viper snake which was killed this past week... not something i want to be running into up there...so you can pray that those snakes stay away from me and my team!