August Experiences

Romans 5:2b-5 — “And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Hold Spirit, who has been given to us.”

James 1:2-4 — “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

So each month we (the interns) are to write a report on what projects we have been a part of, what kind of challenges we have faced and what kind of successes we have experienced. I think my biggest success story for the first month of working in Liberia has been generated through the challenges I have faced…challenges with culture, health, insecurities, and being far outside my comfort zone. This may seem backwards and may not seem like a true success story, but I believe the Lord has led me into those challenges. I fully believe that wherever God leads me, even through the valley of the shadow of death, I am blessed that He is leading me. If I know the Lord has led me to a place in life, that is a success story regardless the difficulties.

My first month in Liberia has not been only challenges but it has had a few. Apart from the outward challenges that I have experienced (getting sick) I have been challenged internally, both mentally and spiritually. Being introduced to a new culture, a new work place, and an entirely new community of people, I have been challenged to rely on God as my constant. In unfamiliar situations it is easy for me to be a recluse. I naturally seek temporary comfort through alone time. Although I have always kind of considered myself as more of an extrovert, I am learning that at times I am most certainly an introvert. But through the years the Lord has shown me that while seclusion brings me temporary comfort, it does not make me come alive. God wants me to come alive. Not that being introverted is wrong…that’s exactly how God has created some people. I have found, still, that through community, openness, and vulnerability God establishes in me strength and purpose.

Furthermore, the Lord has taught me through the years that while I desire comfort, comfort is not conducive to growth. When I become comfortable, I become complacent; when I become complacent, I become apathetic; and when I become apathetic, I become spiritually dull. Therefore, the Lord has challenged me by moving me from one unfamiliar situation to another to not grow comfortable with my situation. This process can be a little overwhelming and lonely at times, but those feelings only make me run to God.

I say all of this to express that I have been challenged my first month in Liberia to die to my own habits of reclusiveness and comfort-seeking. God has challenged me by putting me right in the middle of circumstances that I do not naturally appreciate. But as long as the Lord is leading me into these challenges, I welcome them with joy knowing that my Father has bigger plans for me. I know He is developing His son into what He created him to be. I thank God that He challenges me because I know that He is making me more “mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

It is difficult to know where to begin in describing what I have had the opportunity to experience thus far. This first month has been hectic, yet strangely, often slow-paced. I have had the opportunity now to visit two sub-bases outside Monrovia. The River Gee base (River Gee is a county within Liberia) is where I spend most of my time. I was also able to briefly visit another base in Lofa County in a town called Foya. There is one other base in another county that I have not yet had the opportunity to visit. These bases are where most of the field work is based out of. From these bases, each day staff branch out to the villages in the surrounding areas to share Christ’s love through Bible storytelling, sanitation and hygiene education, water provision projects, agricultural projects, and so many other things. 

One of a couple hand-dug well projects. 

This particular well was 27 culverts 

deep...that's 54 ft.

I have had the opportunity to visit several of the villages near to and far from our base in River Gee. Being the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) intern, I get to work on hygiene and sanitation provision (e.g. latrine construction) and awareness and water provision projects. Hand-dug wells, school latrine construction, and hygiene awareness and promotion are a few of our primary focuses. Some of the villages that we have reached are very far, and traveling has been a major challenge. But even through the challenges, the experiences have been amazing. 

This is a new four-cubicle alternating-pit latrine for one of the schools. Alternating-pit latrines are considered more sustainable due to their design. In a single cubicle alternating-pit latrine, there are two pits in the ground. One pit is used at a time. When the first hole is filled, the other is then opened. During that time, the first can compost. After the second pit is filled the first is ready to remove the compost (which can then be used as fertilizer) and begin to be used again as the second composts. A four-cubicle latrine acts along the same principle but has five pits in the ground that can be rotated.

The roads here can be brutal. We ride motorbikes or sometimes walk a couple hours to reach many of the villages. Before I came to Liberia, I had never ridden a motorbike. I am slowly learning but my skills are not yet to the point of being able to ride on these roads. Therefore, I have the pleasure of squeezing on the back of a bike and holding on for dear life as we bump, slide, and get stuck on these roads. After a long journey (sometimes about 4+ hours) and a very sore tailbone, it is great to get to the villages and stretch the legs. 

The roads to some of the communities are
very very challenging to get through.

...and sometimes there are no roads at all.

One of these particular journeys, I had the opportunity to spend the night in one of the villages. This was great to experience, and I pray and expect I will have more chances to do this again. The people of this village were so welcoming. That evening a worship service was being held in one of the homes. We heard the music as we were eating dinner so we headed over to participate. Worship here in Liberia can be so free. I love that people are free to dance, shout, and clap all they want. While I think some people, just like anywhere, do this more to show off, it is great to see those who are genuinely filled with God’s joy and cannot help but express it through worship. It reminds me of King David and his way of worshiping God through song and dance. I have learned from them that worship is not for those around me to observe, but it is a gift to God. That should be my focus as I praise Him, not what everyone else is thinking. 

These are a couple pictures from the sanitation and hygiene awareness that we have done in the villages.

Again, describing what life here is like is difficult, especially since I have not kept up with writing down my experiences. I do not count this as a loss, however, because it has been the lessons learned that have made a major impact on me instead of the particular stories that I could tell. God has been showing Himself to be so alive and active since I have been here…revealing more of who He is and who He wants me to be every day. These are the things that I would love to share with everyone…both the little lessons and the big lessons that He has shown me. Often I get to write down what I feel the Lord is teaching me in a journal. Journaling has been such a great way for me to communicate to God. It is almost like we are writing letters back and forth. I would encourage everyone to give it a try…even if you don’t think you are very interested or very good at journaling. Anyways, I love to look back at the lessons that He has taught me to observe where He has helped me grow and where I have lost focus. I would love to share just a few of these journal entries as my way of showing what God has been teaching me here.

July 26, 2013:

Here is a thought that has been developing in my head. In 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (you can click on the links to find the passages) Paul discusses the wisdom of God, given to believers. In verses 9-10 Paul references Isaiah (64:4) when he writes “However, as it is written: ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ – the things God has prepared for those who love Him – these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit.”

So, if I understand correctly, we can’t have any real wisdom, wisdom of God’s mind, unless He directly gives it to us. Isn't it interesting how much we have been deceived! The original sin came about by an attempt to know more…to have God’s wisdom and to basically be gods by ourselves. We tried to obtain wisdom from the enemy. He deceived us, and instead, really gave us foolishness. Now we constantly and foolishly still try to gain wisdom through our own power. We try taking the future into our own hands, we try explaining creation and miraculous mysteries with our own minds, perceptions, and intuition in an attempt to receive the credit of being wise or to control our future. Here in 1 Corinthians, we are reminded that this attempt for wisdom is sinful and futile. God, and only God, can give us wisdom when he wants…it’s His job.

This seems so tough to be okay with sometimes. But verse 12 is encouraging. It says, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” Now we can’t get too carried away. This doesn’t mean that we’ll know everything. It means that God will give us wisdom little by little according to His plan. That isn’t His obligation! It’s His gift and we need to receive and hold wisdom humbly. We didn’t earn it, it was shared with us. We should be so thankful.

We also know that the Spirit dwells within us. How cool is that!? The spirit is a direct connection for God’s wisdom to reach me (John 16:12-15). This is so important. We know from Scripture (John 16:7) that we are at an advantage now because the Spirit lives in us. That’s not how it has always been, not until after Jesus’ death. So why do I always envy the way God used to communicate with His people? I like how straight forward and obvious it was…an angel, God’s voice, Jesus, etc. The problem was that an occurrence like that had to happen to you or to a prophet who would then tell you. Now we have the Spirit, our communication and power, with us 24/7. We can hear him constantly. It doesn’t leave us like the angels would after the message was delivered. We don’t have these “big” occurrences because we don’t need to. Wishing for them would be like wishing to be away from your wife for long periods of time just so that the occasional visit would be a great and extraordinary experience. No! If you love someone, you will want to be with them constantly, constantly growing closer and learning about them. That is what God has now offered to me…to be with me constantly, so I can know Him better, grow closer to Him, and hear Him constantly. But just like in any relationship, we can grow complacent and forget to appreciate the blessing of the presence of the Spirit. Just like we don’t always treat our loved ones properly because we take for granted the fact that they are always with us, I don’t always trust the Spirit and treat Him right because I have grown complacent of His presence. I need to appreciate this gift. I am so blessed. I just need to listen and trust the He will really guide me, like He has promised to do.

July 31, 2013:

Isaiah 40:31 – “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Why is waiting on God so difficult for us to do? Why, when His timing doesn’t seem convenient enough for us, do we get so frustrated? Why do we think that we can actually handle things without him? It can be so difficult to wait for God’s timing. Saul struggled to wait on the Lord and he tried acting in his own power (1 Samuel 13:1-15). His position was stripped from him, his power was taken, and his mind (wisdom) was made useless. It is so important to wait on God. He’s not up somewhere playing cruel games on us to make us struggle with waiting. He has a plan and a reason. When we can’t wait, or more like when we don’t wait, we are basically eating the fruit at the Garden of Eden. We are telling God, “You haven’t given me enough so I want more. I want to rule my life. I want to be responsible for myself.” Just like He did at the garden, God simply replies with, “Okay, have it your way. I’m sorry that’s what you want.” We are then responsible for ourselves. We experience separation from our power source, and just like an unplugged laptop, our battery gives us the illusion that we’re now living, but in reality we’re dying. We’re dying because we couldn’t handle to just trust our maker, the one who knows us better than we do ourselves, our source to life, the omniscient and omnipotent Lord of everything…we couldn’t trust him and his timing. Waiting on the lord demonstrates our trust and our recognition of our dependence on Him. I love what this verse says about what God will do for those who wait for Him. He says that those who wait on Him will have renewed strength…that they’ll have perseverance. It seems that we often think of waiting as exhausting, but on the contrary, it’s rejuvenating. If we don’t wait we will run and we will grow weary. It’s exciting to think about how much God has planned, more than we could ever think up on our own. If we are in a time of waiting, count it as a blessing that He is giving you the endurance you will need for that plan...so you will not grow weary partly through it.

August 20, 2013:

What if I told you that God plants His saints in the most useless places? Doesn’t that seem a bit off? Doesn’t that just kind of irk you? Well, it irks me a bit. What if I told you that, nevertheless, it’s true? God puts us in places that we are utterly useless. We don’t like to be considered useless. We want to have value and ability. We want our time and efforts to not be wasted, to not be futile. But the hard truth is that our efforts really are useless. I have been experiencing this here in Liberia. I feel like my education is not applicable, like my past experiences have not brought me far enough to give me comfort in my circumstances, and like I’m honestly not good at starting new friendships in an unfamiliar culture. I feel quite useless at times. We must recognize first that we are useless and second, that God wants us that way. Ouch huh!? I think this is what Solomon realized when he wrote Ecclesiastes…our efforts and the things we strive for are quite useless. But, there is hope. You may say, “Hey, what about ‘I can do all things!’?” That is absolutely right! Once we realize that we are totally useless, we can have two responses. We can respond with total despair, crawl into a hole and cease to exist…or, we can turn to the one thing that can give us use and purpose…God. God wants us to depend on Him because He wants us close. That’s how He made us. But just like Adam and Eve, we want to do it on our own. We want credit, glory, wisdom and power. When we pursue that, God says, “Okay you can go ahead and try but that’s not how I made you to function. That’s not how I designed you.” That’s not how we were made to thrive. We were made to thrive via the Lord. That is awesome because that means we get to be close to our Daddy. We are useless people put into useless situations…and through that we can recognize our need for Dad. In our uselessness we can grow closer to God and His glory shines to us and through us. Furthermore, when we can accept our uselessness without the Lord and when God decides by grace and love to work through us, we can give Him all the glory. Others can better see Him rather than us. So next time you feel useless you can respond by saying, “That’s right and thank God! I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST who strengthens me!”

(References: Psalm 127:1-2; 1 Peter 5:6-7; John 15:5; Philippians4:13; My Utmost for His Highest – Oswald Chambers, August 10th entry)

August 29, 2013:

Lately, I have been feeling conviction from the Lord. A couple days ago I was sick with a fever and a bad stomach. I got frustrated and despised my situation. Since then, the Lord has stepped in to show me that I need to grow more in Him. My frustration came about as a lack of faith and trust in Him. I believe we are put through or allowed to go through difficult circumstances so that through God’s power we can overcome the trial, whether physically, mentally or spiritually. It is an opportunity for Christ to shine through our faith. I was further convicted within the next couple days as I was reading the blog of a good friend, Hannah Velling (she is currently in Kenya serving at a hospital). I was humbled as I saw my friend living out her faith and giving God all the glory. Hannah greatly impressed me through her writing and I came to realize that I’m not the best person out there…no duh right? Sadly, this really was convicting. The Lord has used the last few days to show me where I need growth. Hannah was so open and vulnerable about her experiences and her walk with God, and I thought she wrote with great wisdom. God used reading her blog and other experiences to put me in my place. He seems to keep doing that. He continues to put me in circumstances that I am unfamiliar with and uncomfortable with. This challenges me and I have the opportunity to see my weaknesses. Earlier this week I read something in My Utmost for His Highest that reminded me that this rebuke is a great thing and to not be ashamed. I can actually feel honored that I have been brought down. Sounds counterintuitive and like a contradiction…but sounds Biblical too, huh? (Something like those who are great must first become little) The scripture that Oswald Chambers used in this devotion was Hebrews 12:4-6.

Hebrews 12:4-6 – “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the ones He loves, and He chastens everyone he accepts as His son.’”

(Also see Proverbs 3:11-12)

Through this passage, I have learned that I am God’s son and all He is saying is, “Son, you’re not there yet. Reel it in and I’ll teach you more.” I know that God has big plans and I’m honored that He is including me in them…but I’m also humbled because I am finding myself more and more inadequate. But that’s good. If I am inadequate I am more inclined to lean on the one who is. I think that through being here, God is putting me through several tests. He has taught me a lot over the past few years and now it is evaluation time. And through these evaluations, He continues to teach me.

Oswald Chambers discusses about when God did this same thing with Elisha in 2 Kings 2. God taught Elisha through the great prophet Elijah, but finally it was time for Elijah to go and for Elisha to have a chance to put to practice what he had been taught. If God has been teaching me, He’s not going to let it go unpracticed…and I am learning that I am not there yet. And honestly, I will probably never be “there”, but I need to continue to seek the Lord and grow in faith.

Sometimes I look at others and say, “Wow! They have real faith. I want to be more like them.” That was my reaction in reading Hannah’s blog. But the reality is “He chastens everyone he accepts as his son [or daughter].” I’m not alone here. Even Kind David needed chastening. The great thing is that it means He sees me as His son! I want to welcome rebukes with joy and thankfulness because my Dad is drawing me closer.

To sum it all up...as I look through my journal and as I look back at my experiences so far I can see that God is stretching me so I can grow. He is putting me through challenging situations and through my failures He draws me closer and closer. I believe God is trying to teach me three main things…FAITH, TRUST and SURRENDER. These three things really go together. I thank God for these lessons.

I also thank God for all of you…my family, friends, church, mentors, etc. It is because of you that I can even be here today. A year ago I traveled to Liberia for 10 days. I never imagined the way that God would use that trip to give me such direction. So many of you made that trip possible, and, therefore, you made this trip possible too. Thank you for your continued prayer. I can honestly feel God’s response to your prayers. It means so much to me to have that support back at home. I ask that you do not grow weary in those prayers. That’s the thing about surrendering to God…you realize more and more how much you need that kind of support. Please pray for good health, opportunities to share Christ with those around me, direction for after this internship, and focus on the here and now (it can be easy to start looking too far ahead and then miss what is all around). Thank you and I love you all!

Here are a few more pictures:

Apparently this rock/cave was the home of an expat who did work in Lofa County.

Largest and probably most terrifying spider I think I have ever seen.

We are so blessed to have a plane to take us to the different bases!

Across this river is actually the Ivory Coast

This is a rooftop rainwater collection tank. This is not actually one of the projects that I have been a part of. It was a previous project that was completed just before I arrived in Liberia. I had the opportunity to see several of the previous projects when I traveled to Lofa County.

*This blog does not reflect the views of my employer, Samaritan's Purse. It is simply my own expression of my experiences here in Liberia