Only cause I can't help it

In Liberia, this past time, I hardly took out my camera at all.  Really I'm just the worst at remembering to take pictures.  We had Amy on our team take pictures, and I just got them yesterday! Which is why I am especially excited today because I get to share a few more with you.  Amy and I sat at my kitchen table for quite a while yesterday filtering through them.  She had about 2,500 pictures, of which we narrowed down to 300 to put into a facebook album, and then I just randomly picked a few to put up on this blog because I couldn't possibly try to pick the top 10.  That'd be nearly impossible for me.

I'll try my best to explain them as we go along:

We met these little guys on a walk around the property where we were holding our leadership conference.

The Leadership Conference in action.  Hogan is going over Self-Leadership.

We gave all the participants a certificate  for completing each 3 day course.  If you look very carefully you can see that  I signed all the certificates.  Oh my goodness.

This girl on the left is singing her heart out at church on Sunday.

Pastor Robert (on the left) asked me to sing too.  I told him there was no way I could  sound as good as his choir, but  he had me do it anyways.  I sang Revelation Song.

The foliage in Liberia is AWESOME

The night before we watched, "The Gods must be Crazy", and the next day the ladies  made us cake...

Aaron, my buddy, gettin jiggie with it

My skirt got about a million prickery things in it, and these boys were helping a sister out.  They call the prickery  things homework... kinda funny

CHONCO Nicaragua

You'd think that after 4 years of trying to learn Spanish that I'd know something, but oh geez when I go to a place like Nicaragua I'm reminded of how much I suck at Spanish. I have to believe there is hope for me yet, but up until this point I haven't had much luck. I did have a real proud Spanish speaking moment though. I've been in Nicaragua this past week helping to lead our high school mission team, and we were out shopping on Friday, and a little lost. We were looking for a little shop called Rosanna's, so I stopped a guy to ask for directions. “Hola, Como estas? Donde esta Rosanna's?”

Now just encase you start to feel a little proud of me too for being so bold, please understand how completely pathetic that is. Why am I proud of that!? I learn that in Chapter 1 Spanish 1. I digress. Maybe there is no hope for me.... oh well. Next attempt: Arabic.

Out in the country-side of rural Nicaragua there are rows of green and sometimes smoky Volcanoes that make up the skyline. We spent the week in Chunco a little farming village putting on a day-camp field day kind of extravaganza called the CHONCO OLYMPICS. It was a marvelous success. Throughout, the week we played baseball, 100 meter race, a 1 mile race, that game where you see how far you can throw a big heavy rock, basketball, soccer, sumo wrestling and a few relays.

At the end of the week we shared the gospel with the kids and saw about 25 people total make a decision towards Christ. It was a very powerful moment. It's just amazing the way God uses all of us. Though normal days, and through out-of-the-ordinary experiences he has placed us directly in the midst of the people that he's chosen us to minister to. Sometimes I'm so caught up into my own mind that I lose track of God working right around me.

Volcano Smoke

In that moment with those Nicaraguan kids, it was certainly hard to ignore though.

Here are some pictures from the week:

Africa has a way with me.

Africa has a way with me. Driving past the perfect rows of tall rubber trees, it let's my soul take a deep breath. It's like an element of me becomes what it's suppose to be in Africa. I just returned last week from a 2 week trip to Liberia with the college-age team. Our goal was to do a leadership seminar, and build from it a team of leaders that could decide for themselves what ways their communities could change. Rain beating on the tin roof, we shouted at each other teaching the group about how to plan out a detailed project plan. They sat at tables together listening and taking notes about how to grow in leadership skill and capacity. Trying to catch every breeze possible through the open doors, we sat with groups of Pastors and Leaders and discussed the details of every principle.

In the morning our team drove through the city to witness Liberia waking up, and ladies going to the market in the foggy morning- their colorful fabrics wrapped around their waists. We drove past fields of corn, cassava, and sweet potato scattered in between the coconut trees. We got to the location of our leadership seminar on the first day, and there were 3 men on time... the 37 others surely just woke up late or got stuck in traffic... right? Oh well, not everyone in the world depends so much on a clock.

One of these men smiled and introduced himself to me, “James”. We ate oatmeal and cornbread together for breakfast, and he told me about his church, his family, and his farm. James- a farmer by trade, and a pastor by calling. After a while in conversation with him, I began to realize how brilliant he was. A humble farmer on the outskirts of Monrovia, he soaked up every bit of the leadership seminar taking pages and pages of notes with plans to reteach all of it to his church and the people in his community. He beamed with excitement and pride telling us how grateful he was, and what he was going to do with it. This is why we do this, for people just like him.

Liberia Video Blog

Now that we're home from Liberia I've had a chance to upload all the little videos I've taken over the past couple weeks. Several of them are completely pointless as you'll find out, but at least they're short so you'll only have to sit through the pointless ones for a few seconds to get to the other ones that have a little bit more purpose behind them. Either way, I hope you enjoy them. I'll put them in chronological order here:

Here is Amy Lyford, who has contributed to this blog quite a bit this go around.  Here is her reaction 17 seconds into the trip.




Here we are just taking a drive through town on our way to go do some planning for our upcoming seminars.  



On our first day of Leadership Training Dave Bearchell taught on the "Diamond Life" Personal Leadership Idea, and had Jonathan help him teach segments of it.  Here we see Jonathan's bundle of nerves on display, or his he kidding?



The evil smirk on my face is because I realize that Rodney never voluntarily jumps in front of the camera. We have to make him, just to prove that he came with us.  Rodney is the President of Service to Servants which is the organization that has brought to life every Liberia project that we've thought to do this far.  Otherwise this short video is one of the most pointless in the bunch.



Here we are Erica, Zac, and I on Friday afternoon looking for a place to get some gifts for people back home in downtown Monrovia. Just ignore the hot mess that is my hair.



Here we are: Miatta, Erica, Amy and I in the backseat coming back from Diana Davies Orphanage where we spent some of our free time.  A few years ago we went their to install a generator, and we at least wanted to touch base with them while we were in town.



The Friday that we were flying out to go back to Atlanta, Dave, Jonathan, Erica, and I stopped by THINK to visit the kids that I had met a few years ago.  Here's a short little hello from them to you.



Dave is so good with these kids it's ridiculous.  These kids at this organization are all rescued from abusive situations, many of them have been traumatized, but Dave bring a light to these kids that's unexplainable.  Here he is discussing their kickball game.



Crazy to think I taught these kids this song 2 1/2 years ago, and they still remember it.  We took a group picture, and then they started to sing.  I couldn't help but video it.



Here is the last video I got in Liberia. It's a goodbye song from the kids at THINK.