Friday, 3/26
Bill’s generator shuts down around midnight so the heat is stifling after that. I remember waking up in a pool of sweat so I guess the fever broke sometime in the early am. With dawn we arose and began planning our last full business day. Isela and I were to share the pulpit at the noon service at Rev Blamoh’s church but we had to deliver the paperwork to MOH before then. Yvonne carried us in so we had time to prepare what Momulu would need to see. Dropping off the file we asked if he could have it for us this afternoon and he agreed. We then headed to church. I set her up with a continuation message from Eph 5 and turned it to her. She spoke on women’s empowerment from Prov 31, that if women want to be elevated it must come from them through the Holy Spirit by their virtue, demonstrated by the words of their mouths, the works of their hands and the ways of their feet, leading others into a life of personal empowerment. She turned it back to me and I continued with Eph 5, Husbands, love your wives. If men truly want women to be elevated in Liberia men will love their wives. God really used the team approach and both of our messages were enhanced by the mutuality of our presentation. God seemed to use us together in a much greater way. A vigorous question and answer time followed and we finished in prayer for them. They closed the noon service by 1pm and we flew back to MOH. By now you could almost imagine more delays and sure enough, Momulu was not there when we returned and no one knew where our paperwork was or when he’d be back. Just as we were about to leave he opened the office door and seeing us said, “Oh, I have your letter.” He pulled out the official sectoral clearance and showed it to us. We took it as if it was the holy grail and in a way it may have been. Without this document, we would not have been cleared by MOH and our mother and baby program would have had to wait till next time. With this clearance, we were now authorized to engage the women of Liberia in the Doula Program and pursue our God given strategy for saving lives. Furthermore, this letter would provide entrance into countless donor organizations. We had him make a copy of it before he sealed it for the Planning Ministry. We immediately headed for Nimely’s office at Planning. We did not have a ride so we had to hoof the mile walk but we were so thrilled that it barely mattered. Once in Nimley’s office he unsealed the letter and with a grin acknowledged our effort. He headed upstairs for the Planning Certificate of Accreditation. Though we had to wait a few moments for the unseen signature, the office was cool and we knew our biggest effort on this journey was completed. Within a moments. Nimely returned and asked us to sign for the Certificate. It is hard to describe the feeling we enjoyed in that moment. We forgot all the denials and delays and thanked the Lord for his continual encouragement. What should have taken a team of lawyers. millions of dollars of funding, and at least a year of effort had been accomplished by a husband and wife team who knew what God wanted and were not willing to accept anything less. We are grateful to all who assisted us in this effort. Now I know why God demanded 40 days and 40 nights to accomplish this. It was our mountain wilderness of temptation. Every sermon I preached here was focused on being filled with the Spirit and now we will go forth in the power of the Spirit. I expect that God has mighty things in store for this country and I am depending on him to bring it to pass. Some of you who are following this should make plans to go back with us for the July or August trip.
Leaving the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs, we walked across the street to Capitol Hill. We wanted to see some of the legislators who started out helping us. Stopping by Senator Blamoh Nelson’s office we laid the evidence before him in order of their importance. At least 5 impossible documents that he knew we needed but could not cross the line to bring to pass with all the power of his office. We had sat with him and Gabriel Smith our first week here. They knew these things were necessary but for them they were impossible. Now he looked in wonder at what God had done, “Wow, you two have been very busy.” He said, grinning broadly. We told him how saddened we were at not being able to visit his county (Grand Kru) but that it would be first on our list when we returned. We also saw Senator Devine and he marveled at the power of the certifications and accreditations. We were now as legitimate as any organization in West Africa and fully expect to be invited into every one of these nations.
Arriving back at the office we busied ourselves making copies of all these documents and putting the presentation together for our final Board Meeting Monday morning. Soon, we received a call from the Vice President’s office saying our appointment with him was Monday at 1pm. We had come full circle. This summer, the last thing we did was to spend an hour with the VP before heading to the airport and this time it looks like the same thing will happen. We tried to communicate with our peeps by email until the server shut down around 5pm, then headed for home with a sense of finality. God had accomplished his objectives and we were so satisfied. Late in the day Ezekiel showed up with the Moringa seeds. I had agreed to give him $35 for 5000 seeds but there were only 4500 seeds so I agreed at $30. We were so close to the edge that it was a real sacrifice but when I counted out the money for him I gave him $40 instead of $30 by mistake. I just couldn’t make him give it back so it left us really broke for the last 2 days. Lord, please bless it.
Fred and Isela