Bibles!!

February 24, 2009

Here are a few pictures of the students at IFEM Christian Academy in Monrovia, Liberia with their new Bibles, purchased for them by Hearts for Africa. They received their Bibles at the school today and are theirs to keep and to take home each day.

Here is a note sent from Brother Chris, our ground worker in Monrovia:

"The students and teachers expressed appreciations and thanks to you very much.If you
see a lots of serious faces on the photos was after a very strong advise was gaven about
how this Gift should be carefully taken care of and properly make use of it. I asked the teachers about their urgent needs about the school.There were many things
talked about such as texts books etc.They frankly told me that in time past,text books
had been the major problem for them,but thank to GOD through you that,the worries of text books are over."

New books for the school!

For the first time in their lives, the students at IFEM Christian Academy in Monrovia, Liberia now have textbooks! We have recently purchased about 70 Math and Language books for the school; 10 for each grade. Within the next few days, Bibles will be purchased for each student that can read, which is about 60. What a blessing!!!

Here are some pictures of the students with their new books:

Pastor Mark (school administrator) with some of the teachers.

HFA upcoming fundraiser ...

Hearts for Africa is having their next major fundraiser!

Second annual HUGE garage sale/car wash/BBQ
Saturday, May 2, 2009
8:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Free Reformed Church Gym
45471 Yale Road, Chilliwack

Please drop off all donations by Friday evening, May 1 at the church gym.
Ensure that all donations are in good working condition and suitable for selling.

Contact Jackie or Marsha if you want to help out, donate or if you have any questions about this. It was such a huge success last year and so much fun, that we have decided to make this an annual event! As usual, 100% of the proceeds will go directly to Africa.

Hope to see you there!

The HFA Team

Here are a few pics of this event last year:

Trying to adjust to North American life. . .

January 30, 2009

It's hard to describe what feelings come over us when we see life in North America. Just constantly asking the questions, why is life so extreme half way around the world? with little or no education, little or no food or water, no Christian bookstores, no Bibles to go around, etc, etc. We're not called to sort out the world's problems but the questions still linger in our minds. So we're leaving it all in God's hands because our tiny human minds are just incapable of grasping it all. We remembered from our last trip to Africa that the shock coming home was greater than the shock going there.Each person matters. We're not reaching the masses at one time, but each single person is special to God, and each single person has needs, hurts, desires, and goals and needs to hear about Christ. Each single person deserves our time and energy. We have grown to love these people like family and care very deeply for them. If you're sponsoring a child, you will understand that unique bond you have with them and you care greatly for them.
In the next few weeks we'll be trying to adjust to our different society- such an overly "proper" and "technical" country. We miss Africa, the land of culture; the friendly and social people, the driving (well, maybe not!), the sunshine, the heat, the handshakes, and the people we have grown to love there. It's really hard to describe in words, so we encourage you pray about a future missions trip to Africa. It will change the way you live and view life! We'll keep you posted as God gives us direction for the "new" school in Liberia that He has put in our path. The needs are so many but will be tackled one at a time with God's help. With God, ALL things are possible.
Thank you for your words of encouragement, prayers, love gifts, and emails. Thank you to everyone who has made this trip possible for us - absolutely life changing and we wouldn't trade it for all the riches in the world!
God bless!

We're home!

January 29, 2009

Phew!!!! After 35 + hours of travel from Accra and a flight delay in Seattle, we're finally here! (Thanks, Greg and Marsha, for driving us home!) We got home around 9:00 PM tonight and needless to say are completely exhausted! As soon as we got home, the boys went to bed and were asleep instantly. We are hoping for a good sleep tonight and looking forward to being with our girls again tomorrow. Then starts the unpacking, laundry, and trying to sort through the events of the past 2 weeks... We will post more details once we catch up on some sleep :) so keep checking back for more updates.

Once again, thank you everyone, for all your support but most of all for your faithful prayers!! God is good ALL THE TIME and we give Him all the praise for everything!

Les, Jackie, Kyle and Kelvin back in Chilliwack...

Leaving Africa...

January 28,2009

Well, our time in Africa has ended and we're just heading out to the airport at 5:00 for a 10:00 PM flight. We will be in transit for 32 hours (Accra - Amsterdam - Seattle - Vancouver). We appreciate your prayers for a safe journey. Hannah took the bus in from the camp this morning for a final visit.
We enjoyed watching some local people take in their fishing nets today in Accra - it's a great community event and even the boys got to help!

Love Les, Jackie, Kyle & Kelvin

Some pictures of the local people taking in their fishing nets (Kyle and Kelvin are helping them in the second picture):

Our second last day in Africa!

January 27, 2009

Our time here is almost completed. We enjoyed spending some time at the market this morning... we're getting better at negotiating prices! Because we're white, the prices somehow double and even triple. Can't blame them, really. George, our driver was helping us negotiate for fairness on both sides but we also love blessing them with business, too.

Prince (HFA's university student) came into town this evening (a 2 hour drive one way) for a final meeting. We had a nice dinner together here at the guesthouse, discussing plans for the future and reviewing the sponsorship list of students that he's enrolled while we were in Liberia. He is extremely thankful for receiving this education – so thank you, supporters! None of this happens without your love offerings. Prince was sharing with us a little of how he came to the Buduburam Camp. He came and left 3 separate times, fleeing on his own with another group of people, at a very young age, by boat and by road. Rebels came to his home and everyone in the home fled in different directions; some out of windows, some out of back doors, etc. His father was killed and his mother was never found nor was her body ever identified as far as he knows. He's had little to no contact with his home village as there is no mail system in Liberia. He had to walk for weeks to get to the Monrovia, the capital, to get on a boat to Ghana. He's an orphan and considers us his parents since he has none. He is a very kind and thankful young man! We shared with him the photos of Liberia and he was very excited at the progress the country is making.
George also joined us – this was a real treat for them to enjoy pizza since they can never eat anything other than the market food because of the high cost of food at restaurants and grocery stores. (for example, yesterday at the grocery store, they had a 2 L of CocaCola Cherry for $8 cedis (equal to about $8 Cnd). Crazy! At the Monrovia airport yesterday, they were going to charge us $2 for one can of coke so we had a quick change of heart.

We have one final day here tomorrow. Bitter-sweet leaving Africa. The culture shock coming home will be worse than coming here. We miss our girls terribly and can't wait to see them again!! But we really enjoy the people here – such a people-friendly culture. We will miss seeing all the people lined up along the streets.

Blessings to you all. Thank you for praying for us – many times we haven't had the mind or time to pray and by God's grace He has sustained us each moment.

Waiting at the market while they run and get more supplies (waiting is teaching us more patience!):

Choosing drums to purchase:

I couldn't resist holding the store owner's baby (I wanted to take her home with us!!):