Day 2 in Liberia

 

Our second full day got us up early! We started our day with devotions at 6:45 am. After devos and breakfast we hit the road at 7:30. Our first stop of the day was at a local souvenir shop. These were three small huts on the side of the main road. Guys bought a range of things from wood carvings, bracelets, necklaces, and paintings.

After a quick stop at the shops, we went over to the main campus, Dumbar Farms. The name can be deceiving as this place is near downtown Monrovia and not at all a farm. Dunbar Farms is the home of Abide in the Vine Church, along with the school and orphanage. Here we had a field day with the kids. First, we got a tour of the campus and saw all the finished construction that guys from our last trip helped build, and the new construction currently taking place. We got introduced to many of the church elders who were working on the construction project. Before the field day most guys walked around talking to the kids who either went to school there or lived there, others helped Pastor Emmanuel’s wife, Fatu make donuts for the kids, and a few of us got the opportunity to sit in on a discipleship meeting.

With about 300 kids we walked a block down the road to their field. This was an open dirt field with a few poles in the ground for soccer goals. The first game we played with the kids is a game called Lappa. This Liberian game is girls only, so a lot of kids thought it was very funny that all of us big guys were playing with them. The game is played with about 5 players on each team. There is one person in the middle who has to organize different shoes while trying not to get hit with a ball being thrown at them by two players from the other team who are standing opposite of each other, attempting to hit them with the ball. When the player has all the shoes organized in the middle, without getting hit, that team scores a point. We had about 5 games of Lappa going at the same time so there was a ton of noise at excitement on the field. After Lappa we took on the girls in kickball. Kickball is a big deal to the girls here. They don’t just play at recess like we do in the states, they have organized teams with practices and leagues. The guys won a competitive game of kickball, and it was on to football. Football, to them, is soccer. Many of the kids asked us if we played sports and it took a while for them to understand that American football is very different than soccer. It was now the boys’ turn to play and these kids can play! We were all very impressed with the skill level of the 8^th grade boys we played, who we only beat because of a little help from the ref (their teacher). It was very cool to see the amazing gifts that God has blessed so many of those kids with. Many of us reflected afterword how fortunate we are that in the U.S., there are so many opportunities to play the sports we are gifted in at a high level. So many of these kids will not have that opportunity because their opportunities are so few.

After soccer we headed back to the main campus for lunch and to start the second part of our day: Construction. One of the guys, Jamin Stuhr, gave the rest of us a great “pre-game speech” before we went out into the hot sun and humidity to do some hands-on labor. The weather today was a nice 86 degrees, with a UV Index of 9, and 80% humidity for most of the day. Our job was to haul bags of sand to the construction area. This was about a 50-yard walk down a hill. 20 of us guys all had our own bags going back and forth bringing the sand down while the kids cheered us on. This was very tiring work but extremely fun. We truly saw what Colossians 3:23 talks about when it says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man.” The people we were working with had immense joy in doing difficult labor because the work they were doing was for the Lord.

Each night we have met in small groups and big groups to recap the day. In our meetings before leaving for this trip we talked about the definition of poverty: broken relationships with God, broken relationships with others, broken relationships with ourselves, and broken relationships with creation. By this definition, we are all in poverty. Tonight, we were all asked a very thought-provoking question. If 24 Liberians came on a mission trip to Sioux Center, where do you think they would see poverty? This really forced us to think about how we are currently living and what needs to change in our lives. A common answer that came up revolved around having a broken relationship with God because in our lives we are all very distracted and comfortable. The people here have to rely on God for everything. Dependence on Him is ingrained into who they are. We reflected on the fact that our lives are pretty easy, and we get easily distracted by all the things we have and are able to access. This was an amazing discussion as it echoed that of the group 2 years ago when we wrestled with what it looks like to truly rely on God for everything in our lives.