Family Visit!

I was incredibly blessed to have my Grandfather, Dad, Sister and Cousin come and visit me in Liberia for 2 weeks! To say that they had a true African experience would be an understatement! Here are a few pictures of their time here.

Dad and Grampa are introducing themselves to the students at the
Orphanage School in Yekepa.

Dad and Ma Jonah, the "mom" of the orphanage. She was pretty excited when
she figured out this was my real dad!

I showed Dad and Grampa the old iron-ore mine up in Yekepa-
with TONS of old, HUGE equipment.

That's one big scoop!



One of the three tipped over trucks on the road to Yekepa. It was quite the ride!

Getting a campus tour from my good friend Dave, the project coordinator.



SP had a visiting surgeon here for two months... Dad and Grampa were pumped to be able to go in and watch a few of his operations.. little did they know what was to happen later that week...

Dad is helping wash down the Samaritan's Purse helicopter.

Grandpa posing by Franklin Graham's seat!


So midway through the trip, my cousin Anna was having severe stomach pains. Thankfully we had Dr. Cooper here with SP to come and check her out.
Me, Bev and Ali keeping Anna company in the hospital room.... I am the human IV stand.

It ended up that Dr. Cooper thought it might be Apendicitis... and Anna had to have an operation right here at ELWA hospital! Ali, Bev and I were able to go into surgery with Anna, to help keep her calm. As we were gowning up, we couldn't help but laugh at our "duck bills" as masks!

Here we are, in surgery. Anna had a spinal done, and as Dr. Cooper has her intestines out, she looks at me and says, "Has he started yet?" :) Yes Anna he has.

Obviously an overwhelming experience to have surgery, much less in Africa. I was able to hold her hand the whole time and keep her calm. The appendix came out, but didn't appear to be the problem. He did in find an adhesion to her stomach wall from a previous surgery that was causing the pain. Looking back, it was totally orchestrated by God... it is VERY rare to have a surgeon here, not to mention one of the best field surgeons out there. Thank you, Warren for all of your help! You really are a God-send!

(AND the bill for EVERYTHING was only $245! Can't beat that!)

Ali-Bali and I at the lookout in Tubmanberg.

Grandpa and his grand-girls...

The five of us (before the surgery)

Underwear Town. Apparently the man who built this town did most of it in his underwear. Hence the name :)

We went to see some of the SP projects in Bopolu.
Dad and I decided to take the motorbikes instead.

One of the main reasons I wanted my Grandfather to come to Liberia. He spends most of his time working at Hope Haven in Ireton, building wheelchairs to send overseas to the disabled. Samaritan's Purse, Liberia distributes some of those chairs. He was able to meet one of the beneficiaries and see a chair that he made!

Me and my Pa

The five of us on our front lawn.

Grandpa's in AFRICA!

No, this was not posed...


It was a great trip and I thoroughly enjoyed having each one of them come and experience a little part of my life here in Liberia. Even though there were unplanned medical issues/scares, it just proved once again that God's hand is in everything- big and small.