Dear Praying Friends,
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. I’ll explain the new math in a moment.
Today actually started last night when the power went off at 11:30pm when I was putting together yesterday’s report. When the power went out, the AC (what there was of it) went out and the Wifi (what little there was) went out. Here is another equation for you. 0+0=0 Zero power plus zero AC equals zero sleep. Literally, no sleep for this guy. My room was a sweltering 83 degrees all night and I spent the night trying to fall asleep one way or another. It didn’t happen. The management at the guest house was apologetic but I don’t believe their apologetic tone was going to make things better. They suggested I sit within a couple of feet of the wifi router, no change. They replaced the AC, no change. Oh, and there was no soap in the room. To cap it off, I got up in the middle of the night and when I turned on my flashlight, I was greeted by a roach. Henry said he found a roach and a mouse in his room overnight. All that to say, Henry went online and found spot right down the road which is more expensive but light years ahead of the other place when it comes to comfort. But that was only part of the unexpected excitement.
We were supposed to meet the ITEM team ASAP. Well, after finding a new place to set up camp, we went to the Covid test site. “Did you get tested at the airport last night?” Yes we did but we are heading to Kenya Monday and must have a test within 72 hours of departure. That means today, Friday. It was an amazing process. We waited in line after line. Our information was collected by at least four people in four different locations before we were finally tested. We probably spent 3 hours there. The combined minutes used to gather our information at those four stops was probably 10-15 mins max. The rest of the 3 hours was spent sitting I lines.
So, now our equation: 1 test Thursday took an hour at the airport. 1 test today took about three hours of waiting. 1 test + 1 test = 4 hours.
After finishing up our time at the test site, we made our way to the church pastored by our coordinator, Prince Guankeh. By then if was 3pm.
All that we did was get acquainted and hand out resources (see pictures). ITEM provided each of the team members with a MacArthur Study Bible, copies of my three booklets: The E4 Church Strategy, Apostles and Prophets, Signs, Miracles, and Wonders Today; and Spiritual Warfare According to the Apostle Paul, and a flash drive packed with short videos, books, and PDF commentaries, Bible Dictionaries, Study Bibles, and more, plus a device to attach the drive to their phone.
By His grace,
Steve
