Report from Liberia (Wednesday, February 20)

Wed, February 20, 2013 – Greetings from Ganta. We had a very good day today. Ernie and I had coffee at the restaurant, linked up with Darryl, and our driver and arrived at the church at 8:45 am. I got all my stuff set up fairly quickly and was ready to begin teaching at 9 am.

Just a few minutes after I started teaching they had a power voltage problem with their generator and I had to shut down my projector or risk blowing the bulb. So, as they worked on the generator, I continued teaching without any slides, sound, etc. I prayed that they could get it fixed pretty quickly but was prepared for the worst. The lesson that I had for today, relied very heavily on clips from the video Bible and I knew that everyone would get a lot from the material. Fortunately, after about 10 minutes or so the power was fixed and I was able to fire up my projector.

Everyone really liked today's lesson, as I knew they would (not because of anything special that I did, but because the material and how it is to be presented is really good). We covered how Jesus took a bunch of fishermen, tax collectors, and other less than ordinary men and developed and trained them to be great leaders, evangelists, teachers, and writers who would "build" His church and take the gospel to the world. In the lesson, we show video clips that demonstrated Jesus' method of developing disciples and then apply that knowledge to how they too can develop disciples in their churches. They loved the videos! After I showed each video clip, I would then lead them in a discussion on what they saw Jesus doing that helped his disciples grow and mature. They would talk so much that I had a difficult time getting them to quit and move on to the next topic.

At lunch today, a group of the pastors asked me if I would be willing to come back and teach and train them (the pastors) to teach Lead Like Jesus to their churches. I told them that I would be glad to but would insist on a small class size of 25-30 leaders/pastors (max) and to give me at least four (4) days where we could get deeper into the lessons, give each person the time to do teach-backs of small sections of the material, as well as the time to discuss how they can embed Lead Like Jesus into their leadership culture. They agreed. So, Pastor Freeman will be working with me and the other pastors to set a date in late October when I can come back.

After we finished our last class at 4:15 pm this afternoon, the church held a short ceremony for us as a way to thank us for coming to Liberia and teaching at their conference. Of course, they sang and danced, and even had a group of young girls sing a special song for us. Several people spoke and then they presented each of us with a very nice African shirt as a gift. I'm not sure that I've ever met any people around the world who are more loving than these folks are. I'm still amazed that they can be so joyous when living in such austere conditions as they do. Isn't the Body of Christ awesome?

Once the ceremony ended, our driver took us to the church where we put on the gutters and we each had the opportunity to speak to a group of young people. Each of us spoke for about 15 minutes and gave them a short overview of what we were teaching at the conference. We then went back to the hotel and rested for a few hours.

The pastor, his wife, and several other leaders and pastors came over to our hotel after their evening service was over (at about 9:15 pm) to meet with us and thank us for coming to Ganta.

Tomorrow, Darryl will be traveling back to Monrovia to meet with a representative from the US Embassy. It seems that a young girl, who badly needs hip surgery that has been arranged for her in the US, cannot get her VISA approved by our embassy. Darryl has found a clinic in the US who will do the surgery for no cost, but the young lady can't get "our" embassy to allow her to enter our country? Go figure? We let millions come across our border illegally and break our laws, and we want to give them a "path to citizenship"? But, a little girl who badly needs surgery and is asking to come to the US in the legal and right way for a temporary length of time, we refuse to let her in? Now what is wrong with that picture??

While Darryl goes back to Monrovia, Ernie and I will complete our last day of teaching and then travel to Monrovia on Friday morning, where we will link up with Darryl for our flight to Brussels on Friday night.

Please continue to pray for us and especially for Darryl's travel tomorrow and our travel on Friday back to Monrovia. Also, please pray that our embassy will grant this young girl a temporary VISA so she can come to the US and get her hip fixed. Thanks so much for your prayers and the words of encouragement you have posted on the blog.

Blessings!!

Fred