Greetings from Liberia

Sunday, Nov. 17.

Greetings from Ganta, Liberia.

I woke up at 6 am, made myself a cup of coffee, got a shower, repacked my stuff into the suitcase, and then went to eat breakfast at the hotel restaurant.

When I opened the door of my room to go to breakfast, I looked up and saw that I was about a hundred yards or so from the Atlantic Ocean. What a view! Very lovely indeed. (I will post a picture for you later on)

Just as I was finishing my breakfast, Fannia walked into the restaurant. I looked at my watch and it was exactly 7:30 am. I turned in my keys, got a receipt, loaded up my bags into the back of the vehicle and we set off for Ganta.

The road to Ganta was terrible. Fannia was right, it is much worse than last year. This is partly due to the government doing a lot of construction in numerous places on the entire length of the road, which is about 170 miles. Maybe in a year or two, after they finish the construction, the road will be much safer and better to drive on.

Our driver was great! He managed to miss most of the potholes and the ones he couldn't miss he at least slowed down for them. We did have a few exciting moments when we came upon a short detour around a section of the road they were working on. As we approached the detour, we noticed that the traffic had backed up considerably and then came to a complete halt. There were four or five large trucks in front of us, so we couldn't see what was causing it. We sat there for about 5 minutes and never moved.

Finally, our driver drove around the trucks in front of us. Once we got around them we quickly saw what had caused the hold up. Right in the middle of the detour and slightly on the left side of the road there was a tractor-trailer that had turned over on its side, leaving only a small portion of the road on the right side that you could drive around. However, another large truck (not a tractor-trailer thank goodness) had tried to get by the overturned truck but had gotten too close to the side of the road and had slid into the ditch. The road was completely blocked!

At that point, I realized that we might be in trouble. They probably would have to get a large wrecker to come from Monrovia to pull the truck out of the ditch and turn the other one back on its wheels. This could take hours. I did not want to be on that road after it got dark.

Our driver got out of the vehicle and walked up ahead to see how bad it was. By this time about 30-40 people in the nearby village had gathered to watch. In a couple of minutes he came back and told us that the truck that we thought was stuck in the ditch wasn't stuck at all! He would have gotten himself stuck if he had pulled forward a few more feet but he luckily stopped before that happened. So, this truck backed up about five feet and cleared a space just big enough that a car or small SUV could pass by and get through. In all, this little bit of excitement cost us about 30 minutes or so.

I also learned another lesson today. God keeps using things like this to teach me to be patient and not to worry or be afraid. There was nothing that I could do to change the outcome, yet the type-A person in me wanted to get out and take charge. Thanks for the lesson Lord! Forgive me when I doubt and want to make things happen myself.

We finally arrived at the city limits of Ganta at almost exactly 6 hours (1:30 pm) after we had left Monrovia. I can tell you that I was very, very relieved!!

The first stop was at the church where I will be teaching starting tomorrow. There were around 50 or so people from the church there to greet us. They had waited for more than an hour after the morning's worship service to greet me and welcome me back. It was really good to see Pastor Alex and the other members of the church again. They even had 10 or so children sing a welcome song for me! It was very touching to see their smiling faces and have them hug me and shake my hand. Several people asked about Ernie Perry and Darryl Hunnelley (who I accompanied on my last trip here) and how they were getting along.

We then left the church to check into the hotel. The place that I'm staying is called "Jackie's Guest House". It is nothing special, but it is clean, safe, has internet, air conditioning, and a restaurant.

I can tell you that I'm very grateful to be back in Ganta! Thank you Lord for a successful and safe trip from Monrovia and thanks to everyone for your prayers.

More to follow from Ganta, Liberia tomorrow.

Blessings!

Fred


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