Our Last Day In Liberia

Today is our last day in Liberia. We are sad to leave our wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ. We have mixed emotions. We are looking so forward to being back in the arms of our family, but we will miss being in the arms of our Christian family here in Liberia.

Yesterday we travel to an area inside the capital city of Monrovia, and area known as Sinko. We divided up into groups and then walked from house to house sharing Christ. The houses are very simple, with no running water or electricity, dirt floors, grass or tin roofs, mud walls and outside fire for the kitchen. Clothes are washed in tubs outside and laid on the ground to dry or hung on clothes lines.

I see people who have cuts or wounds that need attention. Sewage runs freely along the paths that we take. Though these living conditions seem underdeveloped, the people are so gentle, kind and willing to hear about Jesus. As we walked from home to home, many received the Gospel with great joy and some became Christians for the first time.

After our time of evangelism, we met back in a small church of the local host pastor. Then, a theological discussion broke out among 20 Godly men about baptism. The discussion was very good, and the conclusion after studying Scriptures together was that baptism by immersion is essential to be saved. That to be save, we must 1) Believe in God 2) Repent of our sins 3) Confess with out mouth that Jesus is the Christ, Son of the Living God 4) Be baptized by immersion and 5) We must maintain our salvation by living a Christian life.

Today, we will travel and witness along the cost as we make our way to airport.

We must be at the airport 4 hours before our departure. So this will be our last blog written from the country, but we will continue to keep this blog going and have regular updates on our Liberia mission work.

Jeff: Hello again from all of us here in Liberia. It will be a short  note but I wanted one last message before we go. We went out to a church on 9th Street. We went there and did house to house ministry for a few hours and then had a wonderful discussion on baptism. After that we went and did some shopping for all of you and called it a day. We had a great evening and we plan on on last time of street witness before we go to the airport. So that means we will be home soon. I love you Jill and I hope your knee feels better and I miss you sooo much!!!  Cora I will see you soon and I love you!! Ray Ray you make a my Day day and I love you. Kiss Gabrielle and hug her too!!

Bye for now and I will see you SOON!!!!!!

Market Preaching & House To House

 

Hello again, I want share with you about how the Lord was working overtime this morning. We started the day by having church in our room. We did not just have one service, we had four separate services. We had three in the first one. Then we had five in the second service and eight to twelve in the fourth. We are talking about ladies who clean our rooms,security for the building, front desk hostesses and construction workers from next door. WOW GOD IS GOOD!!!!

Once we were done with church we went to the orphanage and the children gave a short presentation. We then left and drove to a village in Firestone compound where we street preached and business to business preaching. I can not describe all that we did but we get home we will share so much more. My bride I miss you so much and I can not wait to be in your arms. Cora I love you and please help take care of your mother and sisters. Ray ray you make a my dayday. I love you Gabrielle!

Hi, this is David. Here I am holding little Victory. He was given the name because of our church supporting the Children's home near the time of his birth. Two years ago, he was just a tiny baby, now he enjoys sitting with me. My new son is named Christian. So, we have VICTORY and CHRISTIAN now we just need one named CENTER :)

With Monrovia's infrastructure still destroyed, it is a challenge to move about the city as traffic is such a challenge and as you can see in this picture, even buying gas is different. The gas is pour into the car from a glass jug.  Gas here is alittle over $4.00 a gallon. It takes 65 Liberian dollars to equal 1 American dollar.

We traveled to an area known as Firestone, because the Firestone Corporation has a interest in the rubber trees of Liberia. We preached within their area. In these two photos, Jeff Hashbarger is preaching, standing on a box we borrowed from a nice market vendor. Jeff does a lot of our open air preaching for 2 main reasons. He can be loud without losing his voice and for some reason he withstands the heat much better than us old guys.

Josh is a lot of fun. He's our camera guy. He's always filming our work, keeping track to battery life and time left on our digital tapes. Josh is 23 and single and of course, we've been teasing him about finding a wife and he's about had it with out teasing. Josh can sit in various positions and even fold his legs in such a way as to make plenty of room for passengers in our cars.

When we are finished preaching, we continue to hand out the Gospel of John. It is almost a riot or mob mentality. It is so dangerous that I have asked others to do it for me, because the young children will climb up your body and pull your clothes just to have the Word of God. They will cry when we run out if they did not get the Word of God.

 

Mike preached the Word today within the Firestone area. He noticed how much of a strain it was on his voice after preaching. He did a great job. Mike's grandfather gave him the opportunity to preach when he was very young. If only he could see Mike preaching in Africa!

I walked from house to house with Josh and Gene, preaching the Word, getting a crowd together and we were able to preach the Word of God to construction workers to mothers with children, to people of all stations. We were received very well in all places we went.

 In this picture, Casey and Jeff have gathered a small crowd of interested people, interested in the Good News. They simply start talking about Jesus and people gather to hear and ask questions.

Please continue to pray for us because it is so very hot and we are not used to this extreme heat. The water in out bottles becomes so hot by the afternoon that it can burn our mouths. It is almost impossible to drink that water so hot. Continue to pray that the LORD may continue to use us in powerful ways!

We have 2 more days on the ground so we have much to accomplish!!   See you next time!!!

The Sick, Demonized & Lost Souls In Liberia

We've been everywhere, from the Interior (which means the bush) to the heart of capital city of Liberia which is Monrovia, downtown to the market places and streets, to the hospitals to the children's home... sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday, we took a great team of Liberian young people with us into the streets to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Liberian young people brought their drums and sing powerful African worship songs in the marketplace to gather a crowd. Then, Jeff Hashbarger preached the gospel! He preached a strong message of repentance and the Good News of Jesus Christ. We would then pass out tracts. I was passing out a tract which is the Gospel of John and how to be saved. I had to hold my tracts high in the air and people would crowd and push and shove to get the Word of God. When I had only a few left in my hand, the crowd just grabbed and fought over the last few.

Today, myself (David) and Casey will become official Liberian residents. We are both happy to receive this because it means that we can come and go in and out of the country without applying for a visa and it gives us much more benefits to do mission work as well.

Yesterday, we visited Triumph Christian Academy, pastor Mike Foday's school. The children were returning from Spring break. They sang for us, recited memorized Scriptures, prayed and greeted us warmly. We traveled from grade to grade, encouraging the students to continue to study hard, but challenged them to know that education alone without Christ is of no value.

We then traveled to Mike Foday's house and were our good Liberian pastor Aaron lives too. Here's a picture of the water tank the church bought for Mike Foday's home a few years ago.

Hello all from your brothers in Liberia this is Jeff. I want to let you know that a couple of days ago we went to Pastor Moses church and had a chance to witness on the streets and go house to house and business to business WOW what pleasure to share the gospel with so many people. When we where done there we went and prayed with every one in the JFK hospital. This is an area that really touched my heart. One lady that was there gave an excellent testimony on what had happened to her and her recovery. She had to have her ribs split and her lungs drained and yet all had said she was going to die, but glory to the Lord this young lady looks like she will recover fully. Well that was Tuesday...

So Wednesday we went back to Pastor Foday's school and got a short but wonderful presentation capped off with the sing of " When Jesus takes me home" When we left there we went out and street preached to some 500 people on the streets Praise to the Lord!!! Well that is all for now I love you Jill and I miss you SOOO much. Cora I am proud of you and I miss you. Grace I will see you soon. Give the Crab a Big hug and Kiss. Bye for now.

 

This is Casey:

I enjoy Liberia.  I enjoy the people and the climate.  This is my second home.  I have been touched this trip by the children.  The children in the orphanage, school, and the children that I have met over the last 3 years.  I get to see them grow up and see their faith grow.  They call me Uncle like I am in their family.  This touches my heart.  To see David, Isaac, Sam, Abigail, Mike is like seeing my nephews and nieces.  This trip is unlike any others that I have been on.  The LORD is really teaching me about pure religion of taking care of the widows and orphans.  My heart is crying out to these children everywhere in Liberia. 

 

The Lord is showing me the hurting people here.  The widows begging for money to eat for the day.  The are the lost people of Liberia.  They do not eat for days according to a fellow Liberian.  They do not have a place to call home.  There is no "Old Peoples Home" here.

 

Tricia, I miss you.  Zachary, it was great talking to you yesterday.  Haley, I miss you too.  I love all of you.  These kids make me think about my family.  It is great telling people the true Gospel of JESUS CHRIST!!!!   Most know JESUS and that HE died on the cross but don't understand why HE died on the cross for them.  To FREE them from the law is expressed on their faces!

 

Greetings:  Yesterday spent time in the open markets and it was a real eye opener.  Hundreds of people in a small area buying and selling.  It was a great place for the team to witness.  The people here are great.  The sun is extremely hot, hot, hot.    Even the Liberian people say it is very bad.  The team very excited and glad to be here.  Looking forward to seeing you soon, Shirley. Gene