Wednesday 3/24
Upon our early visit to MOH, Charlena informed us that we had not yet seen the right person and sent us downstairs to the office of Momulu Sirleaf, the 4th MOH office we had visited for our accreditation. He confirmed that his office had to review our application and provide the “Sectoral Clearance” we were so tirelessly seeking. At this point Isela was on edge. She had had enough of the runaround and was vigorously telling them so. (“Why weren’t we told this 4 weeks ago? Why does no one on MOH know this?”) When we mentioned that Ag had already accredited us and that Planning had already decided to certify us, the assistant to Momulu called Nimley at Planning and actually questioned our approval process. He did not believe we had cleared all these hurdles and was trying to prove us wrong. Nor did he believe we had been all through MOH already. Nimley confirmed our every word and the impertinent assistant backed off. Good thing, because the Costa Rican Princess was about to introduce him to a new conflict. Momulu stepped in and promised that there would be no more delay in their process. Yet we still had to create a new packet and letter and resubmit it to his office. Somehow, they were not able to just process the requests we made to Dr Dahn, Dr. Gwenigale or Kpanbala Sengbe. Unless God intervenes, we would not be able to receive the confirmation from MOH with just 3 days left and one of those days half gone.
When we got back to the office, we had a visitor named Sylvester Mulbah, a friend of Robert Browne. When he heard of our plans for Liberia and saw our success with Ag, he decided to give us more property. He said he had 1200 acres in Todee, a community near Monrovia and wanted us to have 100 acres of it. We were stunned, and I must admit, I could not quite believe it. Furthermore, he was the nephew of the President’s sister, Auntie Pea, a greatly beloved lady of Liberia. He told us he also had 1500 acres on the St. Paul River and if we would rather have property there it would be fine with him. Since we had seen neither, we said we would like to see them both before we could decide and we set Saturday for that purpose.
With our time almost gone we said our farewells and headed for Rev Blamoh’s church to sing and preach. Upon our arrival the people received us joyfully and we were escorted to the platform. Yvonne Jones, one of the other speakers was already sharing so we were able to catch our breath from the pace of this whirlwind day. After a vigorous time of worship, Rev Blamoh turned the service to us and we sang All in All. He had asked us to focus on the theme of the conference, Mark 16:15 and I had wanted to use the PowerPoint and projector but we could not find the message on the laptop, even though I had seen it on there just days before. We searched the computer files at the office and on the ride over unsuccessfully. Since I had planned to use the projector I had no notes but rather than worrying about it, the Lord seemed to assure me that He didn’t actually need the notes and that He knew exactly what he wanted to say. As I recall now, I never used notes during the entire time there. I had prepared them but there was always a good reason why they were not necessary. When it was time to preach, the Lord was free to just select the thoughts He wanted me to share. The outline may have been a little different but the message was better. God reminded me to use my own testimony, and though I was speaking on ‘Soulwinning, the Main Duty
of the Church, but when I gave the invitation, scores of people came forward. In my spirit, I felt that many of them were not saved and I asked them to raise their hands if they were coming to be saved. To my surprise, almost 50 hands were raised. I thought that they might have misunderstood me. Isela saw my questions and suggested Rev. Blamoh should translate for them in their tribal tongue. After we prayed for those responding to the invitation they returned to their seats and Rev. Blamoh did translate for them as requested. I closed the service and told them to meet me afterward down front if they wanted to receive Christ. After the benediction they all came back down front; men, women and teenagers. Some of the adults were shooing the kids out of the church so we could deal with those trusting Christ. Isela saw that and stopped them, even going outside to bring in more children who had tried to respond. When it was over, 42 people had called upon the Lord for salvation, at a meeting of church leaders. This leads me to believe that many church members and workers in this very Christian culture are actually lost. I shouldn’t be surprised because many church members here are not saved either. The next time we come we should have a major evangelism effort either with a series of crusades or movie showings.
Still Stunned,
Fred and Isela