Meet Hendrik

HEY THERE

How are you doing ? (My experience is that every Canadian says this instead of "hi").

I am Hendrik. I´m 18 years old, I love meeting friends, listening to music, doing sports and what else is there to say ? Oh yeah, I´m from Germany. So as some of you might have guessed by now, I am the new German volunteer, who helps Tania and Don with all the tasks they have to do for the project in Liberia. As Greta before me, I work with QYFC in the Liberia project and at some other places like the Emmanuel baptist church and PECI here in Prince Edwards County. I arrived on September 11th here in Canada. My full name is actually Hendrik Nestvogel, I am from near Frankfurt, which is localized in the middle of Germany, not the one in Ontario (Frankford), even though they sound pretty much the same. I have 2 siblings, one younger sister and one younger brother. Back in Germany I did kick-boxing and just finished school in June 2017. I am here in Canada to serve God for a year and to grow in faith and personality. The poverty and horrible circumstances in Liberia, have never really been present to me because I never heard about Liberia and the great need of it´s people. But after getting aware of it, I hope to help Tania and Don the best that I can. I got some experience on how that looks like, at our apple pie fundraiser, where we made about 85 apple pies and sold them to raise money for the school being build. I tell you serving can be tiring and hard, for example when you don´t want to go on pealing apples after you did it for hours, but when you see what you accomplished with God´s help it´s worth the afford. So that was a little information about me, I hope you´ve enjoyed it! 

Hendrik :)     

 

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

New Kru Town

Today we got to visit New Kru Town. It's a part of Monrovia, not far from the compound  we are staying in and most of the people that live there, are very very poor. From Caroline (a volunteer from youth for Christ) we had heard that especially the older women were in a bad situation and didn't receive any help. We decided to buy two bags of rice, devide them into 50 portions (one portion is a meal for about 10-15 people) and hand them out. So that's what we did. Arriving in the community it was already heartbreaking to see how people live and it got worse the closer we got. We walked from hut to hut. Because it's raining season big parts of the ground turned into huge puddles and even in some of the houses there were puddles of water. Some of the huts are very dark inside, there is no furniture, only concrete floor and often no daylight. Walking through it, it felt like walking through cells.The women and all the people that were around were very surprised to see us there and were very thankful. We told them that we were here through youth for Christ and blessed them. A bunch of the kids gathered up around us, waved to us and wanted to shake our hands or touch our skin. Our rice  bags were emptied very quickly. It made me sad, because I wished we could have given so much more and met everybody. At first what we did, felt like a drop of water on a hot stone. But the smile on people's faces reminded me once again that it was not only for the food that we were there, but that our visit had a greater impact. It will spread like a wildfire that people from Youth For Christ were there. And like Tania said, it's the word "Christ" in that sentence that is important. Even the fact that people from a different country travel so far to see Liberia, are interested in the country, want to help  and tell people  that they are loved by God, is a big encouragement. That is what we've been told by our friends here over and over again.
Today made me thankful and humble once again about the luxury we live in back at home and also angry at the injustice of the world. But it was also a great experience to see how small gestures can mean so much and that Christ can connect people from whatever background they might come..

- Greta

Cemenco !!!!

Hello all

Well we have completed our first week and I have some exciting news to share with you.

We have received a donation of 500 bags of cement!!!! That is 55,000 lbs of cement that has a value of approximately $4000 US!!! The cement was donated be a local cement plant named Cemenco which is a division of Heidelberg Cement. Heidelberg is the company that recently bought the cement plant in Picton where I have worked for over 10 years. I have been corresponding with Mr Gaignard, the Plant Manager of Cemenco for a couple of months and on Monday we finally had a face to face meeting. Mr Gaignard was very interested in the project and very interested in helping the people of Liberia.  It was so nice to meet a Plant Manager with such a big heart. He granted our request for 500 bags of cement and asked us to keep in touch in case there was more ways in which he could help the project. This is far beyond any answer to my prayers that I could have imagined.  I must say a huge thank you to Cemenco, Mr Gaignard, and  to Dan Fritz the Senior Vice President of Heidelberg North America who put me in touch with Mr Gaignard and recommended that our project be supported.

                                                                                                                                                 Don 

                     

               


                                 

     
                      Me and Mr Gaignard after the meeting 

                                                                                                     

TIA-This is Africa

So we are here!! I've been saying since committing to going on this trip to getting off the plane in Africa that "It hasn't hit me yet that we are going"... well it's hit me:) words can't express how awesome of a time I've already had in the first week being here! Our days consist of a lot of sweat, work, laughing, visits, EATING, and naps. We have eating a lot of foods from the African culture and  some that ...resemble some American food haha but overall VERY FILLING!
I can't imagine what we would do without our YFC team here in Liberia. They are incredible making sure we keep safe and delivering us to the places we need to go. Thank you !

So far we have been able to get to our worksite and clean out all the bush and trees with the help of our workers. It's been hot but free from rain as well so that is a blessing! Greta, Don, and I have all gotten the opportunity to ride a tricycle taxi aka a KK! Tania soon will get her opportunity! It was super fun and interesting to see the looks we were getting! Haha
We have also met with a lady named Dietta. She runs and funds the school all by herself! Taking children off the streets that can't afford school or are orphans and putting them into her free tuition school. She has such a wonderful heart and needed to be blessed for her efforts. We brought her school supplies for the kids that she teaches. We also brought our medical supplies to the local clinic. They were so greatful for the supplies. They gave us a tour of the clinic and what they do to help their people.
It's truly been a great experience so far and can't wait to see what the rest of the trip has in store for us!:) #TIA

Bye for now!
Brooke