Time Lapse

You know those videos where they speed up time and show you a 24 hrs. of a bustling city in 30 seconds? That’s kind of what life feels like here. Last week I talked about the lessons we’ve learned in 6 months of being here. I don’t think either of us can believe that we’ve been here 6 months already. It’s a crazy feeling!

Last week was an eventful week! The largest EQUIP supported health facility, Saclepea Comprehensive Health Center, had a staff strike! The strike was against the Ministry of Health not EQUIP, but it still effected us because Saclepea is a large facility (80+ staff, in-patient and out-patient, maternity and isolation wards for TB and Lassa Fever). We had to make sure that critical patients were cared for and transferred if there was a need. At this point the strike is still going on, but is supposed to be suspended for one week while county health officials and the head of the Ministry of Health try to work out the issues.

Thanks so much to those of you who spent time in focused prayer for Ivory Coast. Last week French forces arrested Laurent Gbagbo and turned him over to the forces of the opposing side. I haven’t heard what they decided to do with him, but it didn’t seem to help the overall violence in the country. The bottom line is that this conflict is along tribal lines. That makes it a perfect storm for widespread genocide no matter who is in charge. Please continue to pray.

This week we continue to tackle the beast that is meeting the water and health needs of Nimba County. We pray that we do this with the Gospel on our lips and in our hearts. We also turn our eyes toward the death and resurrection of our Savior- He is after all the reason we are here. We pray that Easter will be alive in your home, but more so in your heart. We pray that we all would experience Easter in the dusty corners of our hearts that need cleaning out (hopefully you won’t find any hand sized spiders like I do here!).

Weekly Prayer Needs:

Pray for our hearts to be focused on the Gospel.

Pray that we would run with endurance this crazy race.

Pray that our marriage would be guarded and guided by God.

Pray for all of the little projects that we are invested in here. Pray that there would be fruit and that we would have wisdom as to how to continue.

Training Daze

All week I (Jessica) have been back and forth between Ganta (our Liberian hometown) and Saclepea (about 1 1/2 hours away) organizing and assisting in the training of 17 Physician’s Assistants and RNs in the Clinical Management of Rape. Even in Liberia there are tons of details that go into having an effective training! It isn’t easy-o!

Philip from EQUIP Liberia’s Protection Team talking about legal and ethical issues of treating survivors.

The refugee influx along with Liberia’s instability and cultural taboos provides and open door for issues surrounding sexual gender based violence (SGBV). EQUIP’s Gender Based Violence Program is actually addressing these issues and working with Liberia’s justice system to find perpetrators and get convictions. Truly something that is unheard of in Africa.

Trainees work on case studies in groups.

Along with the justice component of SGBV there is the clinical management of gender based violence. Women (also, men and children) that have suffered these attacks should be seen in the clinic immediately. The training that EQUIP conducted gave clinicians the tools they need to counsel, examine, refer and collect forensic evidence for rape and abuse survivors.

Liberian’s always make time to relax! Even during a training!

The training has gone really well. The communities that the trainees have come from (many from clinics along the Ivorian border) commonly experience this type of violence and cases of abuse. These issues are not foreign to Liberians because unfortunately many were victims of such acts during the war and it is often a part of the culture rather than an anomaly.  Cases are unfortunately drastically under-reported and most go untreated for physical and emotional problems that result from such abuse. The participants were eager to learn how to work with the survivors in their area to begin healing and hopefully assist the survivor towards justice.

A representative from USAID came to the training and was highly complimentary. She even suggested that the way that we did the training should be a framework for the whole country!

Short Week, Long Weekend!

Last week we worked hard and enjoyed the likes of Grandpa. Glad to know he is a big hit even outside of Liberia! This week we are cutting it short in Ganta and on Thursday will be heading down south (not to the land of the pine unfortunately, pat on the back for the Old Crow Medicine Show reference) to Monrovia for a long holiday weekend. What holiday might you ask? Armed Forces Day…ironic in a country that has been disarmed, but we will ignore that small oversight and take a few days of a much needed break.

Just in case you needed to see Grandpa again…

Remember the story about the bats? The roasted ones on the side of the road by the pineapples? Well, turns out one of our drivers, Franklin (or Frankie to his friends) is a true Nimba-ite and picked a few up on his way back from the bush. Our friend/co-worker Kristen stood in shock and awe as Frankie proudly pulled his bats out of the glove compartment of his vehicle. I’m sad to say that I was not there and once again failed to get a shot of the bats. The next day when I saw Frankie I gave him a big “No sir!” about the bat-mongering. He was perplexed and clung to the fact that they are sweet and delicious. So we had to ask, “What’s the best part of the bat?” All Frankie said as a delighted grin crept over his face was “the entrails”.

Oh, golly goodness. We’re not in Kansas anymore.

Weekly Prayer Needs:

Pray for rest.

Pray for endurance and patience when days are long and frustrating

Pray for us as the weather heats back up. Our few days of cool nights and mornings are beginning to pass.

Pray for discipline to stay in the Word and be led by the Spirit in all we do.

Pray for Jessica as she plans a Bible Club for children in the EQUIP neighborhood.

Pray for Kyle as he hires new WATSAN workers to complete the work ahead.

Pray that our lives would be conduits of the Gospel to those that we work with.

What We Signed Up For

We didn’t sign up for this. I’ve said it once…I’ve said it twice…I’m even shamefully guilty of saying it three times.

We didn’t sign up for this.

West Africa’s not the most stable place in the world. It just takes one misfire election and people start lining up to cross over the borders into seemingly safer land. In West Africa borders are little more than streams, and dense forests. Fear rises in a neighboring country and suddenly already resource strapped communities see 1, 2, 30, 40, 120, 220, 320, 500, 1,000…more people added to their populations.

People who have left all; clothes, food, jobs, homes to come to a foreign land because the other option promises an uncertain future.

“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 22:21

We didn’t sign up for this…but wait…maybe we did.

The truth is when you throw your hands up to the sky and tell God, “Here am I send me” you don’t really know what you’re doing.

You don’t really know what you are signing up for.

He told us to “Go” but He never said what we’d find when we got there.

We look around and we realize that we've found refugees.

Then it dawns on us “We signed up for this.” Yes, actually somewhere between "Here am I Lord" and "Send me" we signed up for this.

So they’re here (more and more everyday) and so are we and they are strangers and foreigners and so are we…in so many ways... and we have to learn how to serve “the least of these” because it doesn’t always come naturally. Sometimes we balk in our hearts and more often with our mouths at the ministry God gives us even when it is running over the border towards us by the thousands.

Pray for us as we serve those that enter our lives from across borders and from across town. Pray for us this Christmas season as we imagine Joseph, Mary and Jesus searching for safety as refugees in a foreign land. Pray for us as we search out what it is exactly that we did sign up for.

May it always be for the sake of the Gospel that we give our holidays, hearts and lives.

Too Plenty!

It seems since I (Kyle) haven't had a chance to check the email in a week or so (not so bad mind you) I was given the chance to blog for Monday. For the past week I have been supervising the concrete work for a second floor roof addition for the Waines home in Monrovia. To put it gently - things are not built here like they are in the States. Concrete forms are not made out of steel and well cut wood. They are made out of wahwah and bush poles....which work well! In addition to materials - how workers "think" about their work is different as well. Its not about how well things are constructed - but how little work can I do to get paid - wait..maybe its not all that different....

I spent a better part of the week trying to "encourage" them to revisit how they mix their concrete. Little did I know that a small blip in my life when I designed/mixed/inspected concrete would be so handy! For our project we needed "rich" concrete and instructed them what we needed for the mix. When the materials exceeded the usual amounts used to make Liberian concrete out came screams of TOO PLENTY! TOO PLENTY! (translated: TOO MUCH MAN!) When I insisted on a different way to mix the concrete - out came TOO PLENTY! TOO PLENTY! When I stated how much concrete we needed to mix you guessed it TOO PLENTY! TOO PLENTY! God in His Grace allowed my pea brain to calcuate the right amounts that it wasnt too plenty - but just enough. By the end of the week - they were mixing the amounts of materials without prodding - they mixed it in the proper manner (that required more work), and they started to see that quality work is just as important as getting paid - or so I hope.

Thank you Lord for a week to work with Liberians - and may this week lead to a change in their hearts that changes their character as professing men of God, and a change in their culture, country, and this continent. May Your Grace never be TOO Plenty.