Report from Liberia

Friday, Nov 22.

Greetings from Ganta, Liberia.

This is my last day in Ganta. Since I didn't have to teach this morning, I decided that I would go through the wait at the restaurant and have an omelet with my coffee. I got to the restaurant, sat down at a table and when the waitress came over I placed my order for a cup of coffee and a spanish omelet (I had one of those last year and it was pretty good).

The waitress turned in my order to the cook and I patiently waited for my coffee, which I thought would be brought to me before my meal. I sat there about 15 minutes in which I did not see the waitress prepare a tray with a coffee cup, a sugar bowl, and creamer as she normally has done. So, I sort of figured out that something was wrong and maybe she forgot the coffee and motioned for her to come to the table. When she did, I asked her about my coffee and she replied, "sir, we are out of cream and therefore cannot make any coffee for you." For a second or two, I thought that I was going to explode, but I took a few deep breaths and told her that I will drink my coffee black and do not need any cream or sugar. She seeming shocked but said she would bring me some coffee.

It still took her about five minutes to bring the coffee and another 10 or so minutes for my omelet, but I wasn't under any time crunch so I just chilled and enjoyed my breakfast. After I finished eating, I went back to the room and got my stuff and waited on my driver. He arrived at about 9:10 am and we were off to meet with Alex and Fannia to plan next year's training.

Our dates for next year are now set. I will be coming back to Liberia from 14-23 November, 2014. The plan calls for two (2) days of teaching the current group of leaders on the One-on-One leadership/apprentice level. Then, this group of leaders will have three (3) days to teach a new group of leaders (approximately 75) that they will recruit to commit to the four-year development process.

We also came up with a tentative plan for year 3. It is this year that we will have to decentralize the training somewhat. We are now looking to use three (3) different sites where we will train the new group of leaders for that year (total of up to 225 new leaders). We did briefly discuss year 4 when we will need to train 675 new leaders and we understand that we do have a big challenge ahead for us logistically to find places where we can hold the training that will have sufficient classroom space, places for the people to stay, providing meals, etc.

Tomorrow, my driver and Fannia will be picking me up at 7:30 am to head back down the Ganta road to Monrovia. We should arrive there no later than 2 pm and my flight leaves at 8:50 pm. So, I will have a bit of a wait but I've got a lot of reading that I can catch up on.

My next post will be once I get back to Lexington on Sunday afternoon. My flight arrives at the Cincy airport at 2:30 pm and I should be back at the house by 4:30 pm or so.

Thank you so much for your prayers. I would ask you also to keep the Liberian leaders in your prayers and for our future plans here to train leaders in this nation who will live, love, and lead like Jesus!!

Blessings!

Fred



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