Team perspectives

Hello all,  today was a busy day. We traveled to the Doe community to hand out rice, visited the worksite, and did a short kids program in an orphanage.  Here are some perspectives of each part of the day from the  team.


Today was a good day, busy, but good. We began the day by heading to the Doe community. This community is the 7th poorest slum in Africa and 2nd poorest in Liberia.  The challenges of the Doe community are very evident, from the pools of dirty stagnant water, to the deplorable road conditions, and unsafe/unsanitary housing conditions. The Doe breaks me every time.
In the Doe we met a women who has opened her home to pregnant teens and their children.  She takes care of their needs and after they have their babies she takes care of them too. Most teens will abandone their babies after birth. As a mother I can't even imagine that level of desperation. The commitment it must take from this women to care for these teens knowing they will probably abandone their babies is a love and compassion that could only come from Christ.  The house was 12x12 and held 3 pregnant teens, the women and her husband, and 23 orphaned kids. We were able to provide them with enough rice for two weeks. It was heartbreaking to not be able to do more.  I hope we brought a little hope to that home today. There is something so humbling about feeding people. It is an honour and a blessing to provide such a necessity of life.  Please pray for the people of the Doe.
- Tania

Further into the Doe community we reached a house with five units (8X30). There was five families living there with approximately 20+ kids. We were immediately welcomed by one family and the crowd quickly grew when we pulled the camera out! These families struggle with feeding all the mouths that are living there, having no jobs or education, and the climate. We were able to bless these families with 25 bags of rice to help feed ALL of the families that lived so closely together. Just walking through the Doe community it was such a struggle to hold back all the emotions because their living conditions were so horrible. The garbage, water, dirt, and over population is not remotely touching the surface to describe what it is like to walk through the Doe. We were able to walk out happy to say we spread the love of Jesus and to give a helping hand.
- Brooke


A little "easier"experience today was visiting Dianna E. Davies orphanage. The 34 kids living there welcomed us very polite and with a smile on their faces, shaking all of our hands. One of the older kids welcomed us, another one prayed together with us and than we all sang a song together. After that Tania narrated the story of David and Goliath and the kids got to interact. It was great fun! The highlight of our visit was the tie dying afterwards. Every kid got to choose two colours and then we coloured T-shirts for and with them. Thanks to a group of Canadians, who make teddy bears by hand and donated them to us, we were able to give them to the younger kids, too. The older kids got soccer balls and socks etc. and were super happy about that. For me it was great to see the orphanage (especially after having seen the Doe community), because it was an amazing example how even in the worst situations there can be hope. Good things happen through God's grace, no matter what the circumstances might look like. (The orphanage was build 1998 during the civil war and since then became a home for a lot of kids).
- Greta



We also visited the construction site today and I was very happy to see the progress  that is being made. The workers have built many forms and were finishing casting them as we were there. Tomorrow, when the concrete is set up these forms will be removed and put up on another section of the school for more casting. Each day we are moving one step closer to having a roof !! This is very exciting for me!! Pastor Clarence has assembled an amazing construction crew this year and I am very encouraged to see the quality and the quantity of work that they do.
- Don