Mighty Be Our Powers

"Liberia still has a long way to go.
Even in Monrovia, roads remain wrecked and many building are ruined and abandoned.
Most neighborhoods don't have reliable electricity and running water;
women and children walk by the road carrying buckets on their heads
and used plastic water bottles create huge piles of garbage.
You can see exhaustion on the faces of those in the city center,
crowded together and struggling to survive.
Almost everyone is poor.
Unemployment is around 85%, only half our population can read or write,
and life expectancy hovers at 58 years.
Official corruption remains rampant and crime is a serious problem.
The desperation everywhere in Liberia can make it a hard place to visit......"
-Leyma Gbowee 2011

That was an excerpt from the book Mighty Be Our Powers. I read it before I went on the trip. After the trip I went back to that paragraph that I had copied into my journal and highlighted everything I found true and had seen while I was there.
I highlighted everything.
The entire country is running on generators and will be for at least the next four years. The generators run out of fuel and go off multiple times during the day. One turned off in a restaurant we were in and the waiters calmly brought out lamps as if it happens all the time. Which I'm sure it does.
There are security guards outside of every store and restaurant because opportunistic crime is so bad.
As we drove places there were hundreds of people outside sitting on chairs in front of their shacks. Hardly anyone has jobs, so they often have nothing better to do.
There is no garbage collection so trash is just thrown on the streets. Even when they do collect it they just throw it into the jungle. There are no landfills.
All of the buildings are run down, or just shells. Bullet holes were seen in most of the structures.
It was a hard place to visit.
But seeing how the Lord is working gave me such hope.
God is working in Liberia. I feel so blessed to be witness of it.
Please keep Liberia in your prayers.

Meet the Team!

U.S. Team (left to right): Gary, Brandon, Jessica, Caitlin, Cassidy, Me, Tad, Chad, and Emily
Liberian Team (left to right): [top] Ethel, Jeraline, Rancy [bottom] James, Paul

Gary Hopkins is the YL area director in the Palouse.
James started YL Liberia,

We stayed at the YL training center in the middle of the Monrovia. These were the wonderful people I shared meals, stories, memories, and laughs with during my time in Liberia. I miss them dearly. God spoiled us with these incredible people :)

All Area Sports Day!

Our first full day was spent at the Young Life All Area Sports Day. We brought the sports equipment we gathered at home and set off to the venue for the day. We experienced our first YL African Club. For those of you familiar with YL, club was just like any Monday night club in the U.S. They had a mixer (game involving all of the kids), they called random kids up on stage to do funny embarrassing games, they sang current songs, they sang worship songs, and there was a talk at the end. For some reason I wasn't expecting it to be the same, but it seems the YL formula is the same all over the world. It was great to see the kids (high school age) getting excited and have such high energy.

The U.S. team was in charge of running each of the different sporting events. We were essentially the referees. This was our first interaction with the kids and it was fun to see how excited they were about meeting people from the U.S. We prayed the night before that we would be able to remember names because that means a lot to a kid when they know you care enough to remember their name. Liberia's main language is English, but they speak what is called Liberian English. Liberian English is essentially a mixture of English and some of their slang, and on top of their accents it can be hard to understand them sometimes. We did well though! And you could tell it delighted the kids to see that we knew them by name. It was the first time most of them had ever met an American, and for some the first time they had ever met a white person. There are many stereotypes of white people that Africans have and we made it one of our goals on the trip to break some of those. Showing Christ's love to these kids definitely broke some stereotypes.

 There were about 200 kids at the sports camp which was a great turnout.  Some of them we got to see later in the week at the Campaigner camp we put on. But more about that later :)

These were some of the neighbor kids who came and hung out with us all day. Absolutely precious :)

St. Peter's Church Service

We went to St. Peter's church in Monrovia the first Sunday we were there. We attended the morning service that was the exact anniversary of the day that a massacre happened in the church 22 years ago. The chances that we would attend on that specific day still blows my mind. The service was focused on remembering what happened that day. 600 people were killed in the church. Two survivors told their testimonies (It was hard to understand them, but our some of our Liberian team later explained what they were saying). One spoke of how he hid underneath a chair and was miraculously never found. Another spoke of jumping out of one of the top story windows. We learned that one of the rebels who had supported the massacre ended up coming back to the church, finding Jesus, and preaching to the congregation. I still can't comprehend the forgiveness that had to happen to even let that man back into the church. That story alone has made me reconsider several relationships in my life where I need to let the Lord help me forgive. If these people forgave that man, I can find the strength to forgive.

Orphanage Visit!

After church we went and visited Mother Victoria's orphanage. We had a huge dufflebag of toys, sports equipment, crayons, jump ropes, etc. to give to them. The children were so excited to see us. Their ages ranged from a few months old to about 18 years old. It was heartbreaking to think that each of them had no parents; that their parents likely died in the war, and that they may have even seen them killed. Sixty-four of them were living at this orphanage. I could not imagine caring for that many children while barely having the funds to get by. And to think there are hundreds of orphanages in Liberia all in the same situation. It was encouraging to see how Mama Vic is making sure that these kids grow up knowing the love of Christ. Gary spoke to the group and prayed over them and told the kids that even though they do not have a father on earth anymore, they have a heavenly father who will always be there for them and will always love them. These children are in such a hard situation, but I am so glad they are being taught the truth. We were able to  play with the kids before we left which was incredibly fun. They are so full of life.

Service Project

Painting the cafeteria with Tema!

On Monday we did our service project at the Salvation Army High School. We picked up trash, did some landscaping, painted the cafeteria, and installed two toilets. They only had 6 toilets for all of the students (over a thousand) that attend school there. 8 still isn't very many, but it's better. We were able to talk to some of the students hanging out around the school while we worked. Any opportunities for conversations were wonderful and I learned so much. The principal was so thankful for our hard work. It was great to be able to help out, and I wish we could have stayed and done more!

Dancing the Azonto. Of course :)

The team with the principle of the school

Campaigner Camp: Preparation

Checking out the camp the day before kids come

We were given the opportunity to do program for the Campaigner camp.  Jessica, Brandon, and Chad were the brave souls who signed up to do all of the planning. For those of you unfamiliar with Young Life, program is the skits/walk-ons during club, and the mixers (games). They also plan the outdoor Olympics which is a handful of different competitions between teams.  It was incredible watching the program come together, and to be able to bring something new to the table for the Liberians to potentially use in the future.  We were constantly learning from them, and they were constantly learning from us.  Sharing what works good for us, and them sharing what works best for them. Together we were able to improve our ways of showing Jesus to the kids.  Young Life has been around longer in the states so they appreciated all of the input that we had.  We were informed that the rest of us who were not doing walk-ons for program were work crew bosses for the campaigner camp. I was in charge of the dish washing crew. Others worked in the dining hall or were outdoor crew picking up trash and doing landscaping.  Seeing and being able to help in the preparation for camp definitely opened my eyes to how much work goes into camps.

Campaigner Camp: Here we go!

We arrived at the camp and met our work crew. We used all of the Malibu Club t-shirts that were donated as work crew shirts. The kids absolutely loved them. I guess Young Life t-shirts are a hot item with them J There were about 150 kids at camp. They are all high school kids, just like Young Life in the U.S.  Doing dishes was not easy, but serving beside my new friends was such a blessing. Hearing their stories, and sharing mine was also an amazing way to see how God works so uniquely in our lives. Other than serving behind the scenes with everything at camp, we were often talking to kids during down time. We were the first Americans most of them had ever met. Ben was talking to me and I saw he was holding a book called “25 bible stories”. I asked him what his favorite was and he said the story of Joseph. We talked about the forgiveness in that story and how it can directly relate to the forgiveness I have seen in Liberia, and how that forgiveness is what will help Liberia to rebuild itself.  How incredible to hear that from a 15 year old.  Hearing testimonies was one of my favorite parts of camp.

That and dancing. Liberian’s love to dance. I didn’t meet a single one without a sense of rhythm. They seemed to enjoy our zero sense of rhythm though. As in they laughed hysterically every time we tried to dance like them. Oh well haha. The night we got back from camp James told us we could go with him and sit on the street and drink soda. Of course we said yes. We tried to say yes to everything because we’re in Liberia and who knows if drinking soda on the street is more interesting here that in the U.S. Turns out it is. The song Azonto came on (the entire country is crazy about this song right now and we had learned some of the dance moves to it throughout the past week). Of course we jumped up and started dancing the few moves we know. A crowd of 200 Liberians formed watching us. We stopped traffic! I had not seen any white people walking on the streets of Liberia, let alone sitting on the side of the street at night. We tried to break the American stereotype and I believe we did a fantastic job of that this night. Kids were running up to us asking us if we did Young Life. Don’t ask me how they knew, I have no idea. I truly believe though that God was using us that night on the street. Dancing , embracing their culture, laughing with them.  What a unique way to show God’s love J

Back to camp though. The last morning of camp I was feeling ill so I missed going to Say-So and the last worship. I guess the kids took initiative with worship and it was one of the most amazing things to witness them all coming together leading their own worship so passionately.  Since it was a campaigner camp, most of the kids were already saved. It was designed to strengthen their faith and teach them the basics of living the Christian life and having a relationship with God.  However, 4 kids stood up for say so and said they asked Jesus into their lives. They also told us that 3 muslim kids attended the camp that weekend which is huge because the consequences of them leaving their muslim beliefs behind and accepting a relationship with Jesus can result to them being completely disowned by their families. They already have so little, so losing their family's love and support is devastating.
Those 3 days at camp were my favorite of the trip because we had a chance to really get to know people and serve side by side with them. Seeing kids engaging in the sessions and begin to own their faith was inspiring. Being a part of conversations with kids and hearing what God is teaching them was even more incredible.

 Professional Organization of Olympic Persons or P.O.O.P! [We later found out they don't use the word poop. They didn't quite understand our humor there haha]

Introducing new games :)

 After the flour war during the outdoor olympics

 Meeting some of the girls

 First use of our mosquito nets!

Camp Photo :D

The People

[The photo I walked through the grass to take]

Another excerpt from Mighty Be Our Powers by Leymah Gbowee:

"When Geneva [sister] died and we brought her body home [Monrovia], a group of men I'd known for years from the Old Road neighborhood stopped by. They were poor boys who never finished school and now survived on odd jobs. They had come to help- to sweep and carry water, to dig my sister's grave. They offered us fifteen hundred very, very hard-earned Liberian dollars to help pay for the funeral. That's the depth of love that exists in that place."

I experienced this love every day of my trip. One specific time stood out the most. It was the last day of our trip, and Jessica and I went on a walk to take some pictures. We accidently walked through some cheatgrass and got hundreds of the small burs stuck to our pants. They were the comfy/clean pair of pants we were planning for the plane and we just looked at each other in frustration of what we had just done. Within 10 seconds a woman walked over, and a boy came over and they knelt down and started pulling the cheatgrass off our pants. No "Hi would you like some help?", just walked over and started picking them off. We had delightful conversation with them, and I kept saying thank you, but I could not believe they were seriously helping us strangers. They did not leave until all of them were out of both of our pants which took about 15 minutes. I experience this depth of love and the servant hearts of these people every day.

The Bigger Picture Firsthand

Why have these people been put through hell? Why have I lived a life of comfort? Why has God brought me here to see all of this? How is my life going to be different now? These are some of the hard questions I have tried to reflect on since I’ve been back.

Seeing these people who were completely broken down now clinging to the Lord as they rebuild their country is enough to know why the war has happened. It gives me a wider perspective of something that seems all bad. All of these people have an intense story because of the war and it has allowed them to build extremely deep relationships. Having everything taken away from these people has put them at a point where the only thing they have is Christ and faith. We have been treated so well our trip here, but seeing kids at camp eating 3 bowls of rice because they don’t know when they will have their next meal is devastating. Seeing the toilets they have to use, or lack of, and smelling their body odor knowing it is not their choice to smell that way. Because of these things they are less caught up with body image and impressing others with looks. They are satisfied if they can wear a clean shirt that day whereas I impulse buy on a daily basis. My life is cluttered. I want to live differently now that I’m home by ridding myself of some of that clutter. I want to go though my closet and donate clothes. I want to look at my bank account, analyze my income, and challenge myself by giving more. I am going to put more effort into my studies. Every kid I met had the biggest hopes and dreams and goals for their education, but money is holding them back.  I'm getting a college education and I view it as a much larger blessing in my life now. I hope to help fund people here in Liberia to help them go to college.

Why am I in the top 1% of the world? Why did God place me here? I don’t think I will ever be able to answer that question, but the fact that God did put me here, and that he sent me to Africa, I know I need to be an ambassador for Liberia. I need to share with others what I have seen, and what I have learned. I need to redirect my finances to helping the poor instead of living more than comfortably. I need to have a consistent prayer life and expect to have prayers answered if they are in his will.

God did not bring me to Liberia to give me an ‘experience’. God brought me to Liberia to change my life. To return with a new relationship with Jesus, and a new resolve to see and live life differently.