Festival Week Photos

I think I am still processing all of my thoughts that have come with all of the events of the past week, so until I have formulated them all, here are some photos!

The ABC University dedication program in Yekepa, Liberia. Was so great to see so many of my past team members and friends- God is producing so many Godly leaders from this school- very exciting!

Dave and Trudy Petersen were able to come out for the dedication program, all the way from Alaska- Dave was the construction manager at ABC when I first started out as a teams coordinator, carrying teams to ABC. They are very good friends of mine and it was a blessing to see them again, and to witness this big event with them!

On Friday morning, there was an Operation Christmas Child shoebox distribution in Monrovia. Absolutely adorable kids!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday night was the festival in Monrovia, featuring Franklin Graham.

Thousands came forward to make decisions for Christ! It was such an encouragement to hear the messages those nights- that the simplicity of the Gospel is powerful enough! Too often I think we become too caught up in the theology of it all, and it keeps us from sharing the simple truth of the Gospel.

Look at all these beautiful people coming to Jesus- and this is just a small section of them!

Each person that comes forward is matched with a counselor, to help them and answer any questions they may have.

There was some great worship time with both Liberian bands and also Dennis Agajanian and the Tommy Coomes Band.

With our Rural Festivals and the Festivals in Monrovia, over 91,000 people heard the Gospel, with over 13,000 commitments to Christ! Praise God for what He has done in Liberia!

THANK YOU for praying for this big event- continue to pray for the pastors and counselors who are now doing follow-up with each and every person who came forward.

And, as soon as I have my thoughts gathered, I will share more about what happened last weekend!

WEBCAST TODAY!!!

For over a year now our office in Liberia has been working towards a common goal- the Franklin Graham All Liberia Life festival in Monrovia! Samaritan's Purse has worked hard to make it possible to have it aired online in a webcast, showing the music, the invitation, the event and also highlighting some of our SP projects (including my literacy project!) during the webcast.

So, tonight at 7:30 EASTERN, go to www.samaritanspurse.org/Liberia to watch the Festival happening here in Monrovia (and to see my debut!) And, if you watch the invitation closely, you will see me on stage taking pictures of the event. It was an awesome experience.

Hope you are able to check it out!

first night of the festival!

Well, we survived the first night of the Festival! My guess would be that there were roughly 12,000 people in attendance, including the President and VP of Liberia. A whole slew came forward, no final numbers yet, AND the rain clouds disappeared! Thanks for continuing to pray! First thing in the morning is the children's festival, where we are anticipating over 20,000 children!

ABC University Dedication

God has done a miracle.

When I first started working for SP, I was hired as a Volunteer Teams Coordinator. What that amounted to, was taking care of every detail for all of the volunteer construction teams that would come to African Bible College(ABC) to assist in the rebuilding process. ABC was originally founded in the 1970's by Dr. Jack and Nel Chinchen, who really felt God calling them to open a Bible College in Liberia. Roughly 12 years later, rebels came through Yekepa, leaving the campus wide open for looting and destruction. Soon every inch of wire was ripped out of the homes and school buildings, as well as as much steel they could carry over the border to sell for profit, not to mention anything of worth was taken.

When I arrived in Yekepa, two faculty houses and a men's dorm were the three buildings that were semi completed in comparison to the 18 pre-existing buildings from before the war. When the second generation of Chinchens returned to rebuild ABC in 2006, they literally had to clear the jungle that had overtaken the campus.

Since 2008, Samaritan's Purse has assisted in this rebuilding process by giving financial support, full time construction managers, and construction teams that have been working tirelessly to rebuild this Bible college. As of 2010, all 18 pre-existing structures had been rebuilt, including the centerpiece of the campus-- the chapel. It was now the beginning of the expansion phase- a new communications building and radio station, a gymnasium, additional faculty housing, and married student housing.

Today I was given the privilege of attending and photographing the ABC University dedication program. I stood in the beautiful chapel, encompassed by the mahogany ceiling, and looked around to see all the wonderful faces of those who have spent so much time and effort in making this all happen. Everyone from the Vice President of Liberia, to Franklin Graham, to team members who had come out on volunteer construction teams, to the laborers who have worked tirelessly every day at ABCU.

The fact that today, in March of 2011, not only are the old structures rebuilt better than before, and new ones in progress, but over 100 students are attending ABCU, all earning a degree in Theology.

Many people said it couldn't be done. Today, the representative from the Ministry of Education recalled the first meeting about ABC being rebuilt and accredited. After the meeting was over, his response to his staff was, 'Don't worry about giving them accreditation, they won't be rebuilt and running for another ten years.' The year was 2008.

God has done a miracle in rebuilding this campus- in raising it from the jungle in this short amount of time- but as ABCU continues to teach "Truth that Transforms,"-- transformation will continue to come in Liberia as the students put their faith into action.

One of the ways the students are already putting that into motion is by responding to the refugee crisis on the border of Ivory Coast, just miles from the campus. As the majority of Liberians were refugees in Ivory Coast just ten years ago, they are receiving the opportunity to 'return the favor' to over 90,000 Ivorian refugees. Samaritan's Purse is working with the ABCU students, as well as the church networks in Nimba County to provide trauma counseling, distribute non-food items and begin agricultural programs to aid in the food shortage.

There is something that is so sweet when the church works together in unity, just how God intended it to be.

Monday!

Good day today, although my wake up call was not my alarm this morning, but a cockroach crawling up my neck onto my face. GROSS! But all is well, I notice that the little guy is dead beside my bed as I write this, so I can sleep well tonight!

Spent the day with a media crew that is here from headquarters, filming a promotional video today with one of our staff members. The shoot went really well and I am excited to see the final piece! I'll post the link when it goes up.

Speaking of final pieces, today I was able to see a couple of videos that came out of the first broadcast crew that was here a few weeks ago, which will be aired during the webcast of the festival- Tuesday, March 29th at 7:30pm EASTERN on www.samaritanspurse.org/liberia. Mark your calendars, people!

One of those pieces is a video on CLP (my women's literacy project)- which I am SO excited about- it will be the first time that CLP has gotten any coverage like this, since we've been running the program, and if I can say so myself, it's about time! :) So tune in to the festival that night to see some sweet videos that have been done here in the last few weeks!

Tomorrow the media crew heads up to ABC for the dedication of the African Bible College on Wednesday. Also tomorrow, our CEO arrives and we'll be able to spend some time with him in the afternoon, and I'll be showing an overview video of our projects here in Liberia. (Pray there is no technical difficulties!) I'm sure I'll update tomorrow on how everything went.

Thanks for the prayers, and I continue to ask for more!

this is it!

The week that we have all been praying and talking about, some of us for over a year, is finally here! Months and months of meetings, plans, ideas, training sessions, mobilization, publicity and many other things has led up to March 25, 26 and 27. Hard to believe that everything will be over in a week from when I'm writing this. But, we are believing that thousands will come, and thousands will accept Christ for the first time, and a new day will begin in Liberia!

With never attempting rural festivals before, 31,000 people came out in total, with 2,200 making decisions for Christ! God is moving in the rural areas, and we are praying it continues down here in Monrovia.

The first big wave of visitors came in this morning and tonight, with more to come tomorrow. The week is filled for me with video promos, the African Bible College dedication program and of course, the festival! Will keep you posted as much as I can throughout the week, but please continue to pray for the team as all the final details of stage/audio/set-up come together. Specifically pray for the spiritual warfare we face everyday-- the devil knows that God is moving, and he is fighting hard against it! But we can rest in the fact that he has already been defeated!

Want to be a part of the festival, or see what I've been talking about? We are broadcasting it online, and it will air on Tuesday, March 29th, at www.samaritanspurse.org/liberia. More details on that to come!

If you haven't already, read and see more of what we are doing in Liberia through the eyes of Cissie Graham Lynch. More updates on her website this week also!

Want to see more pictures from our work in Liberia? Click HERE. Enjoy!

7 days and counting!

The Franklin Graham All Liberia Life Festival begins in one week! Please continue to pray with us for thousands of Liberians to be saved!

Saturday will be the children's festival, where we are expecting up to 35,000 children!

Everyone continues to work hard to make the festival a success, including 90,000 posters around the city of Monrovia!

first video is out!

Cissie Graham Lynch and her team that was out last week has been working hard at getting videos and stories together from their trip. Today the first video was launched about the trip to Foya on the SP helicopter. Click HERE to check it out!

a tuesday holiday

Today is J.J. Roberts birthday, the first president of Liberia. This also means that it is a national holiday, and one that is warmly welcomed by me! I've been going non-stop without a day of rest or a break at all for over three weeks, so I finally have some time to relax, catch up on sleep and say a quick hello!

Besides being incredibly busy, we have also been without internet at home for over ten days now, so the combination of the two equates to no posts. Hopefully that will change soon!

I did want to share a link with you to Cissie Graham Lynch's blog, where she will be posting about her trip to Liberia up until the festival begins here on March 25!

Here is her update from yesterday: http://cissiegrahamlynch.com/2011/03/liberia-behind-the-scenes/

On another positive note, I was able to purchase a new lens (which insurance covered!) and am back in business! I can't believe how much I rely on certain lenses for shooting and just don't feel right without them.

And last but not least, here are a few images from the rural festival in Ganta this past weekend, where 13,000 people came out on the last night and close to 1,000 received Christ! Praise God for what He is doing through these festivals!!

what a whirlwind!

Well, the last 14 days have been insanely busy with two media teams from our headquarters. The first team was a success, with a huge amount of great footage on Liberia for some promos of our projects. The second team was led by Cissie Graham Lynch, and her crew for some promotional footage before the Festival at the end of this month. I've definitely utilized my strength as a "maximizer" and have kept them all incredibly busy! In fact, I think we are all just wiped out, but we've covered a lot of ground this past week!

We've covered CLP (women's literacy), water and sanitation, basic health services, our new blood campaign, a fish harvest, our community health programs, the THINK home, market tours, child protection, OVC, HIV/AIDS and interviews galore!

It's been a lot of work, but it has been a lot of fun at the same time. It's been very encouraging and inspiring to work with such high caliber media staff from SP, and learn the tricks of the trade regarding their style of shooting stills and videos- I look forward to learning so much more in the future!

Update on the rural festivals: last weekend they were held in Foya, with over 5,000 people in attendance and over 500 people making commitments to Christ, including an entire group of ex-combatants! You could tell the festival was under a spiritual attack because the rains and the winds would really pick up as it was time for the invitation and registering those who had made a commitment. Please pray for the festival in Zwedru TONIGHT and TOMORROW, as well as the festival in Ganta on Friday and Saturday!

I'll be heading to Ganta to photograph Friday and Saturday night, so I may not be able to update until next week.

PLEASE continue to pray for the festival here in Monrovia also, which is March 25-27. Pray for details to come together, for hearts to be softened and the TRUTH to be accepted by thousands!

interesting combo

Today we traveled from Foya to Monrovia via SP chopper. A few days ago a boy came to the gate of our compound in Foya, with a baby deer for sale. Justin decided to jump onto this opportunity and purchased "Darryl" for about $7 USD. Instead of trying to transport Darryl to Monrovia on a vehicle, we decided to take him along on the chopper. I had him on my lap, wrapped in a towel to protect me from whatever might come out of him on that ride (and its a good thing that I did!).

We were about half way to Monrovia and I was enjoying he scenery- when I just started to laugh...

Here I am, holding a baby deer in a towel, riding in a helicopter, over the jungles of Liberia. Bet those three things haven't been put together in the same sentence before! Just another random day in Liberia.

Team one has gone really well- last big day of shooting with them tomorrow, and Team #2 arrives in the afternoon. Please pray for extra energy and creativity as we continue shooting this next week!