Thursday, April 14

Arrived in London at 7:30 am, and was picked up by my friend Alan! Alan is a videographer/producer from the UK that has been out to Liberia a couple times to cover SP projects. I've really enjoyed spending time with him and his son Tim, and it was great to have someone I know pick me up from the airport!

It was straight to the SP office for me, where I greeted Bev and the rest of the office crew. Once again, it was nice to meet people face to face who I have been communicating with over email for years! In the afternoon we did some filming of Bev for the pre-marathon video, and then headed back to the office for a presentation.

Bev and I were able to share for an hour about the work in Liberia, and the projects that the UK office funds (including CLP). It is always a blessing to be able to share about our work in Liberia, and encourage the office staff in the UK and to thank them for their work!

That night Andy and Lynn took Bev and I out for Italian- the weather was beautiful, but I hadn't acclimated yet and was wearing about 4 layers and a stocking hat in 70* weather! :) I finally came around a few days later...

LONDON

I was able to take a week and travel to London to cheer on Bev in the London Marathon! It was my first trip to the UK, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Although there were many times where Bev just laughed at me, considering I come from a town of 585 people... but I had a great time. I'll try and give a brief synopsis of the trip!

Wednesday, April 13

Left for London today. The airport was an absolute mess! Three international flights left within 4 hours of each other-- if you've never been in the Liberian airport, this means triple the chaos. I actually watched 7 passengers stand on the tarmac as they watched their flight take off. Let's just say immigration was a little too slow that day!!

Every time I leave Liberia lately, I think about how grateful I am that I'm not leaving permanently, and how much of a mess I will be when that does happen! I'm pretty sure I'll have to have someone with me because I'll probably cry my whole way through checkout, immigration, security, etc....

ybevruns video!

check out the video I did for Bev as she prepares to run the London Marathon this sunday!

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150166357703672&comments

one last push

check out bev's last blogpost before leaving for the UK today to run the LONDON marathon to raise funds for our projects in Liberia!

http://ybevruns.blogspot.com/2011/04/one-past-push.html

I'll be leaving for London on Wednesday and will be shooting and filming the marathon on Sunday, April 17th.

Also, check out this video by Samaritan's Purse, showing Team Samaritan's Purse (what Bev is doing) for the Atlanta Marathon last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxOqvjpkhXI

The marathon is being featured on ESPN next Sunday- if you think of it, check it out!

prayer and fasting day

Today is a statutory holiday in Liberia- Prayer and Fasting day. It originates back in World War II when the United States had a military base here in Liberia, and Germany declared war on this tiny country. Knowing it did not have the capability to fight Germany, the president asked the entire country to fast and pray that the war would not come to Liberia.

And it didn't.

Once again I thank God that there is freedom to pray and worship God in Liberia.

it's a boy!

Tonight I was given the opportunity to name the little boy that was born healthy and safely yesterday morning... his name is Jonathan- "God's gift." Hopefully I will have a picture of the two of us tomorrow!

some of my thoughts...

If any of you know me well, you know that I am a processor. Generally I don't like it when I am put on the spot for things. Like to pray in a big group without warning me ahead of time... in fact, once last year Kendell asked me in devotions (a group of 50-60 people) to open with prayer and half way through I started to black out... next thing I know Bev is looking at me like 'what is wrong?' Just me panicking is all. :)

You would think that after such a big event such as the Festival last weekend, that I would be writing about it every day, but in this case, there was so much work and so much planning involved for so long, that once it was over, it was almost like "what just happened here?"

All good things, of course.

I needed to process last week and weekend. I needed to reflect on relationships that I have built in this country and if I've been giving them enough time and energy, or if I need to step it up.

I needed to process what it was like to spend a few days around our CEO, to see who he surrounds himself with-- amazing, godly men.

I needed to process if Liberia is truly ready for a revival in this country, and what its future holds.

I needed to process the event as a whole- the amazing 1500 person choir, the Liberian music, the Tommy Coomes Band, the fast fingers of Dennis Agajanian, the excitement in the stadium.

I needed to process how powerful the simple message of the Gospel is, yet how we try to complicate it so often, and then we are too afraid to share it.

I needed to process the beautiful scene of people literally running to the alter.

I needed to process where my own heart is.

I needed to process how my love for Liberia has changed into a deep love for Liberians. How my heart can literally hurt for the people here and the injustices they suffer every day.

Last week and weekend really was amazing. The conversations, opportunities and growth that happened for thousands of Liberians, and myself, was just plain awesome. At the same time it was hard.

It's hard to meet someone right where they are at in their hurting. It's much easier to distance yourself from that pain and move on through life. It's easy to do that here. Every day I am faced with stories and people at my door with a sad story. People with needs. Day after day of this and it's easy to become calloused to what they are going through. Easy to get frustrated at another request for money.

Tonight, I received a phone call from one of my friends who sells carvings for a living. His wife was in labor, but was unable to deliver so she needs an operation. He was calling for help. To make a long story short, we were talking on my porch and he said to me, "If everything goes well, and the baby is healthy when it is born, you can have him to raise as a thank you from me!" I shook my head and said, "I don't need a baby to raise! You just go get your wife to the hospital!"

I thank God for people like Bob Pierce, who founded Samaritan's Purse. I thank God that he recognized that in this line of work, it is easy to distance yourself from the pain and suffering you see every single day. I thank God for the prayer that he prayed, "God, break my heart for what breaks yours."

And honestly, I thank God for answering that prayer for me. May He keep my heart from hardening.