Steve’s Travel Diary

As I sit down to type up this blog report, I am looking back on the day and can only conclude that it was a perfect day and that includes the car ride to the seminar venue, conversations, lectures, and even my back. Click on READ MORE to get some details and I won’t be as long as I was yesterday.

My original title for this was going to be “TEST FRIDAY, TRAVEL
MONDAY(?).” But I’ve decided that after today, Tuesday, I need to change
the title to “UNEXPECTED EMOTIONS!” Click READ MORE to find out
why.

Sunday was more about reflection than activity. The event of the day was the church service at (ITEM Coordinator) Prince’s church. It is hard and at times unfair for a westerner to give an opinion of a “worship” service.
One of my doctoral classes 25+ years ago was “The Leader as Worshiper.” It was one of the more meaningful and helpful classes I had. The professor, a worship leader with a PhD in church music/worship, defined “all that we are responding to all that God is.” We are “eyes,” “nose,” “feet,” “hands,” “ears,” etc. So, in worship there is a place for kneeling (the body worshiping), singing (the tongue), listening (the ears), seeing (such as stained glass), and smelling (even incense). All can be a part of worship.
What we experienced didn’t all seem to be worship. That was our opinion.

Henry and I spent today, Friday, with the ITEM-Liberia team. I think this is only my second time here and Henry’s first. ITEM Associate, Dan Packer, has been our point man. Dan has done the bulk of the raising up of our team here.
Our first coordinator, Michael Allen, died in March 2020 due to an infection of some kind. His mentee/disciple, Prince Guankeh, took over. The planning and energy to move forward has been quite aggressive (in a good way) but I’ve held them back some, wanting to get here myself and get reacquainted with the team and be reassured that they understand the mission of ITEM. I was pleased with what I saw and heard.

Henry and I have been in Liberia for about 27 hours and it feels like it’s been 27 days. There has been endless issues but I think the most grueling part of the time in Liberia is over. In the past 27 hours, I experienced “new math” and concluded 1+1-4.

Greetings from Liberia. It seems like only 36 hours ago I was getting out of bed at the Red Lion near the Portland airport. And it was! It’s been a mostly (I said mostly) uneventful trip. There were a couple of frustrating, patience stretching moments but they are no in the rearview mirror. Click here to get a few more details, a preview of our time in Liberia, and a link to a few new pictures.

The two week trip is under way. Before I get home on the 22nd, I will be meeting with the Liberian team, doing a seminar in Nairobi, and then on June 19 I will be speaking to a group on the topic “The Need for Apologetics in the Church.” I can tell you for sure this trip will be a test. In fact test 3x.

Next Wednesday I will be returning to Africa. I will have two stops and doing a variety of things. I will be meeting with our team in Liberia, doing a seminar in Nairobi, and speaking at an apologetics seminar in Nairobi as well. These are great opportunities but there are going to be “Covid-test” challenges.

We awoke today to an absolutely gorgeous day. The sun is shining, the temperature is in the low 70’s, and Mount Mulanje is showing off. I was excited to see that for breakfast bananas were available. However, these just aren’t any bananas. They are mini bananas about half the size of those we have in

COVID–19 made the planning for this trip extraordinarily difficult. Travelers are required to have a negative COVID–19 test before entering each country, and each country also has its own timeframe for when the COVID test must be administered. Since our team had to go to Malawi, Uganda, and back to the United States, it meant