Holiday Fun
Wednesday, 3/10, Declaration Day in Liberia. This is the day Liberians go to the graves of their deceased family and clean the gravesites, and honor their dead. After having lost so many in the recent conflict, this is a solemn day for the citizens. No one is at work and all governmental Ministries are closed. We have taken this day to visit our friends and loved ones here. On our way Rev Ed Kofi saw us walking and pulled over to speak with us. He has been in Ghana for a few days and Wayne Shenk was riding with him. Unfortunately, Wayne is leaving tonight and we will not have the chance to sit down and talk with him like we wanted. Our first stop was with Bill Cox, our host from the visit last summer and now a family member. We gave him a birthday party last week for his 76th, with refreshments, a cake and sparkler candles. It made him so happy and Isela is so considerate about these things. We coordinated with his son Melvin and his nephew with balloons and guests. There were at least 25 people there and we took the projector and showed Lion King. So on this day we just stopped by to spend some time with him. After a nice visit we took a cab to an abandoned construction project he owns. It is a huge foundation and outline of a potential 10,000 foot structure appropriate for an office building. After walking around it we left for Red Light, a section of town that used to have a red light. It is now a chaotic, open air market that is a microcosm of life in Liberia. Thousands of individual vendors selling similar products in a filthy environment where no one has a trash can and no one cares. It is the last place we would choose to be but Pastor Mulbah, an ACFI pastor from Lofa County, who has left his County because of the recent violence there, has asked us to visit he and his wife, and you have to go through Red Light to get there. He has come to Monrovia to preach and participate in a 10 day crusade with other ACFI people in West Point, one of the worst slums imaginable. He is also founder of Youth Against Violence and has sought us out to be a friend and brother. Rather than asking for money or favors, he has given me a bag of 100 shell casings fired in the 14 year civil conflict. It is possible that some of the bullets fired by these casings came from child soldier brigades and actually killed people but the casings have been turned into crosses by the youth to represent their commitment to Christ and to stand against the kind of violence that ripped Liberia apart for the last 20-30 years. We look forward to offering these to our supporters. If you would like one of these please let us know. If enough of you want these prayer memorials I will get more from him. I know he could use the money. His generator burnt out last night making the nightly crusade very difficult. Without lights and a PA system not many will be reached.
So pastor Mulbah met us in Red Light to walk us into the community where he has rented temporary quarters for he and his wife. On our way to his home we passed a large group of young men in an animated intellectual debate about Liberian Politics. As it turned this is a group of Liberian Educators who meet regularly to debate issues. I was drawn to the group as Pastor Mulbah told me of their practices so I walked up and waited for a lull in the action. Soon I had my opportunity and I said,
“I would like to pose a question.” They nodded affirmatively and I proceeded, “Can Liberian men change?” They nodded thoughtfully and desired to know what I meant. So I went on and told them of the absence of fathers in the pregnancy of their women and birth of their children and how much better the outcomes would be if this could change in Liberia. We continued to discuss this issue and I gave statistical data to bolster my premise. They promised they could change with time and education. I asked them about the practice of treating their nation like a garbage landfill. That pastors, congressmen, senators, men and women alike, all throw their trash on the ground. I pressed in, “Can you change?” I wish I had a camera on them. Their sheepish grins were evidence that they knew I was right and that they all did this. Further, they were embarrassed. The invigorating discussion lasted 45 minutes as more and more people gathered for this impromptu debate. I ended the time with the solar radio and invited them to the agricultural meeting 3/25. One of the young men invited us to a radio interview to be shown also on local TV. We agreed and exchanged our information, passing out more prayer cards and giving the leader our Liberian phone number. We did not even know such a group existed, nor could we have found them, but God put us right in their midst while we were trying to do something entirely different. We continued the walk with Mulbah deeper into this community and finally arrived at his home. His precious wife is a nurse assistant (like a CNA). She has been trained on Mercy Ship and now works at JFK hospital full time. She makes $80 a month. This is a beloved family and we are blessed beyond measure to befriend them. Plus we gained a media contacts, appointments and a group of young men as interested partners. What a way to live.
Leaving Red Light was more than difficult. It took 30 minutes to walk out of the community and then we faced the throng of vendors, all pushing their goods, especially to the big white dude and his little princess wife. Finally I gave in and bought her a top and Rachael a dress (happy birthday Rachey) at one of the stands for 900 Liberian Dollars (LD) which is about 12 bucks. Hey, big spender…
We then took a taxi to see Sata and Isela, the baby we dedicated last August and they named her after ‘you know who.’ The precious little girl was born the day we left the US 7/21/09, and we dedicated her 2 weeks later. Opilo, the young man who cared for us so well this summer is Sata’s older brother and as the elder of the home had the right to name the baby. So upon her dedication she received the name Isela. She is now our God child and we pray for her and her mother often. Back home at the Blamoh’s we are ready to collapse again after walking more than 5 miles today. I write this before retiring to tell you all that God is AWESOME and He is guiding our every move, even when we have no idea what he is doing.
I wish you could be here.
Fred and Isela