A Full Day!

January 19, 2009
**WOW** what a day!!!
The day started early as George picked us up at 7:30 AM. We drove for just under 2 hours (past the camp travelling west) to the Pan African Christian University where we are sponsoring a student. Prince is his name and you can't even imagine how happy he was to see us… not even imagining he would expect us to keep our promise to him. Marsha met this Liberian man at the camp last January when she sent him to school. Most of his studies are theology and he pastors the church at the camp that we're working with. He has no living relatives that he knows of and so he calls us his family. It was a great visit. We enjoyed a Coca-Cola with the dean of the school in their cafeteria, we felt very honoured. We piled him in the small car with us and away we went with our luggage hanging out the back. Upon entering the camp, the UN saw our supplies under the half-opened trunk and gave us a rough time entering the camp. What do they care when organizations come in to help? CONTROL CONTROL CONTROL!!! or should I say a bribe is all they wanted??! Prince should have registered us at the door and the guy was real ticked. After that episode, we continued our rough ride through the "road" towards the church, dodging people, sewer, garbage, and scrawny chickens. We ended up walking the last bit since George's car was dragging with all that weight. Hannah came running and we held one another for a long time!! She is a single mom and life is very tough at the camp for her. As a midwife, she had just finished delivering a baby that morning and went home to clean up and was worried she wouldn't be there on time.
We were welcomed at the church with loud singing and dancing, welcoming us in Jesus' name – very emotional to say the least! Prince could hardly speak for the joy was overcoming him as he introduced us. Then we laid out all the clothes, shoes and Bibles. The Bibles were taken up immediately by the church staff as they are short on Bibles. Hannah doesn't even have one so shell get one. George only has a New Testament so we'll take care of that, too. They are hungry for the Word!!
While we layed out the clothes and started distribution, some men went for a few bags of rice. In the meantime, it was total mayhem – we have never in our lives seen such greediness for used clothing!!! They were each allowed to take one item and then once everyone had one, go for another and so on until all items were gone. Of course the shoes, sandals, and crocks went first and then the fighting began…. You'd think something like this could be simple but not so in a world where there is nothing!! At one point we actually feared for our lives… ok, *I* did, Les was more calm.
An electrical cord caught on fire and all of a sudden the women and children stood up, screaming on the top of their lungs, rushing out the only door in the back. The immediate thought of guns and fighting came to mind. We were at the front so I was thinking as fast as I could how we could take our stuff and run….. After a young girl stepped on the fire, someone pulled out the plug and the episode was over with our hearts pounding.
This mayhem lasted for a few hours and we just wanted to leave and let them deal with it the way they know best. Our voices just weren't loud enough – wish Marsha was here!!! But Prince begged us to stay, saying it would be a lot worse had we not been there and so we did. We called Marsha on the way home and she encouraged our perspective on things here… we can't even imagine being that desperate!!
We read out names of the sponsor kids that we had and found the ones that were left at the camp. We are not starting any new sponsorships at the camp but will be faithful to those we have committed ourselves to. We hope and pray that those who have started sponsorship with these kids can continue. We will be registering them tomorrow morning first thing and then finishing up with rice distribution to the sponsor families. Sponsor families, please check your email for more info on this. We'll get an updated status on the camp tomorrow when we meet again with Prince and Hannah. We will also have more info about our sponsorship in Liberia once we have been there and have assessed the situation for ourselves. Contact us when we return if you are wanting to sponsor someone or check our website in a few weeks when we have the updated information on this.
On the way to the camp, there's a toll booth, we got pulled over asking us again about the luggage. The police were standing there with machine guns. Just wanted to know what we were transporting,
On the way home we picked up our lost luggage – yay! a fresh change of clothing was very welcomed. :) All of a sudden our modest guest home seems very clean and luxurious. :)
To God be all the Glory and Honor and Praise!
Sending our love from Accra,
Les, Jackie, Kyle & Kelvin.