September and October

Warning: Due to my failure to write to all of you consistently, this blog entry is quite long...sorry oh!

Lessons for the Month(s)

“But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.’”

Mark 10:42-45

I am amazed by how often the Lord gives me something to focus on to help me grow closer to Him and closer to what He is doing. It seems that when He wants to teach me something, He will place that lesson directly in front of me over and over again until I recognize what He is teaching me. Then when I lose focus, which happens more often than not, He will persistently, yet patiently, teach me the lesson again. I think that servant leadership is the topic in which God is currently doing this in my life.

Fish Town, River Gee sub-base

I believe God is revealing to me where my concept of servant leadership has been lacking. I have found that my stand on servant leadership has been that if we want to be good leaders then we must serve. This concept has, in fact, helped me to do nice things in the past, but as God draws me nearer to Him, I think He wants to challenge me to take the next step into His thinking. In the past, and even now, I have striven to serve people because I know that that is what I am supposed to do and that is how I will reach greater success. My primary motive has been to achieve greatness as the Bible seems to offer. Matthew 20:16 – “So the last will be first…” Psalm 145:14 – “The Lord…raises up all who are bowed down.” As I honestly evaluate my heart, I can see that my desire to be great, to be first, and to be raised up has been my motivation for service. Is it okay to be motivated to do “good” because of the reward? After all, isn't that the basic reason most Christians pursue Christ – to receive the reward of Heaven, the complete and eternal communion with God? Is following Christ actually in a sense a selfish act? Is it looking out for one’s own self? These are some questions that I've wrestled with as the Lord has been guiding me through the lessons of servant leadership.

While I don’t think I can fully answer these questions yet, I think God has been pointing out one main thing to me through these thoughts. I think right now God is more interested in my heart’s growth than my head’s. Doing what God wants, or obedience, is a great first step to having a relationship with Him, but if the heart is never right, we are missing out on so much more. The Pharisees often did what they were supposed to do, but their hearts weren't in it for the right reason. I think God wants me to recognize that service is not about what I will get out of it; instead, it should purely be about how God can bless another through me. If God chooses to lift me up through that service, that is His choice – simply a gift – but it should not influence my decision to serve.

 I have found my heart’s shortcoming evident as I look back at how I have chosen to love my family…the people closest to me. My family knows me better than anyone else (except for God of course). They know me so well that the things I do can almost be anticipated by them in advance. Their knowledge of my character is rooted deep. They are very familiar with both my strengths and weaknesses; therefore, my individual actions have less impact on their understanding of my character than they would have on a stranger. This intimacy is a great thing…I know my family will love me regardless of what I do. They've already seen my good and my bad and have continued to love me. My response to this unconditional love…complacency in the way I serve them. Because they already know me, I have no reason to convince them that I’m a good person; so I've grown lazy in serving my family. Basically, because I feel that there would be no reward in serving my family, I've at times nearly ceased in serving them. It is easy for me to serve strangers because I know that by serving them, I can win their appreciation and create a good view of myself in their minds. My family already knows me…there is very little convincing them that I’m a better person than I really am. Here in Liberia, that can be called bluffing. This "bluffing" often comes in the form of dressing nice in church to be recognized, or being flashy with possessions to make yourself look well off. I have come to realize that often my service to others is simply me bluffing…trying to make myself look like something that honestly I’m not.

I was pretty excited to find a fellow Coug fan!

A number of weeks ago the Lord brought me to read Psalm 145:14 – “The Lord upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down.” I marked this verse in my Bible and then forgot about it, but because it was marked, I revisited the verse recently and wrote down some thoughts. I wrote, “So if I seek to become small so that I can then become great, am I missing the point all together? I’m not completely sure, but it seems that I just need to give up my aspirations for greatness. I just need to serve, not so I will then be lifted up, but simply because God asks me to serve. The result should be of no consequence to my decision to serve.” That is what I'm starting to believe complete surrender can look like.

Several weeks ago, one of our security guards here in River Gee led us in devotions. He spoke from 1 Kings 13. This chapter is about an unnamed “man of God”. Back in the month of May of this year, I read this chapter and made some notes about it in my journal. This is what I wrote five months ago, “God used this man to do His work, but his name wasn’t even recorded. That doesn’t make him unimportant or his purpose meaningless; it just means his name didn’t need to be known. This is a good lesson for me. I so often think that in order for me to be important to God, I have to be important to man. I need to be okay with being a nameless man for God. I just need to follow Him and I will be important. Stop looking for human recognition and appreciation.” Through this morning devotion, God demonstrated his persistence in teaching me this lesson. There is actually a great article about unnamed people in the Bible that still played an important role. The closing thought in this article was very good. It says, “For ourselves, it is sufficient to know that, whether our names are blazoned abroad or unknown, easy or difficult to pronounce, short or long, full of meaning or unattractive, they are written upon God’s palms and in heaven every child of His is to have a new name.” Here is a link to that article.

So why is it so important that we do things without asking for recognition? What’s so wrong with gratefully accepting the recognition of your good work? After all, you worked hard for it. I think C.S. Lewis explains this error in thinking very well in his well-known book, Mere Christianity. Lewis uses a made up character named Dick to illustrate his point. Dick is a good man—he is nice mannered and treats others well. He does not, however, have a true relationship with Christ yet. This is what Lewis wrote, “There is a paradox here. As long as Dick does not turn to God, he thinks his niceness is his own, and just as long as he thinks that, it is not his own. It is when Dick realizes that his niceness is not his own but a gift from God, and when he offers it back to God—it is just then that it begins to be really his own” (Book 3, Chapter 10). The error in thinking that it is okay to receive recognition is thinking that you have done a good thing. The Bible tells us that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (James1:17, NKJV). When we do something that is good, we must recognize that while it may be us physically performing that act, it is not from ourselves—it is directly from God. Therefore, receiving praise without giving it up to God is quite simply stealing…it’s like plagiarism. And we clearly know that stealing and plagiarism are not good. C.S. Lewis is making the point that only when we can give credit where credit is due, that is to God, will He begin to actually affect our hearts. It is then that He’ll begin to change our very beings to be more like Him. By recognizing this, God will then actually help us to become “good” people.

As interns, we were challenged in October to consider five ways we can take the place of a servant leader. Here is the list of the things I would like to practice this month:

• Weekly write and print  Bible verses and devotional thoughts and hand them out to the RG WASH team
• On weekends help with cleaning the base (sweeping, mopping, laundry, dishes, etc.)
• Complement those I’m working with and those I’m working around
• Give up worrying about appearances – dance, sing, laugh w/out worrying about what people think
• Pray daily for those I’m working and living with – ask if there are any specific prayer requests

Some of these are quite menial but I think that’s okay; after all, if I’m pursuing to do great things for them, I may be slipping back into trying to be great. I need to recognize that no task is too small. I think that by doing these, God will continue to challenge my heart to grow closer to His. I also trust that as I seek to serve, I will find more ways to serve. What are ways you can serve others…serve them with complete disregard for what you will get out of it? Maybe you can partner with me in doing little things each day that will serve others without asking (outwardly or even in your heart/mind) for anything in return. Maybe it can start with those closest to you...those who’s love you may take for granted. Then we can begin to reach out to those further out. I would love to hear any stories/experiences that you have gained by doing this…not to be glorified but to encourage all of us. You are welcome to comment on this post to share.

Psalm 109:21(a) & 27 – “But You, O God the Lord, deal with me for your name’s sake…that they may know that this is your hand – that you, Lord, have done it!”

Experiences

So much has happened in the last couple months, and I’m truly sorry for not keeping you more updated. It will be difficult for me to share even half of what has gone on here in Liberia, so I thought I would share just a couple experiences with you by showing you a few pictures as I tell you the stories. 

Monitoring CLTS is Soloblo, Glarro District

Soloblo is a very small community in a very far away district. They are one of our Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) communities. CLTS is a sanitation and hygiene program purposed to eliminate open-defecation at the community level. Our CLTS program has been led by two national-staff facilitators, Emmanuel Brewer (a.k.a. Emman) and T. Johnson Cooper (a.k.a. Cooper). These two guys spend more time traveling and sleeping in the bush than doing pretty much anything else. They are such hard workers, and always have a great attitude. We have been so blessed by what they have done, and the manner in which they have done it. They have also served as great spiritual leaders for our River Gee WASH team. Anyways, back to Soloblo. Soloblo has had the best response out of all 20 communities we have done CLTS in. They are expected to be completely open-defecation free very soon. Thank God oh! In this particular adventure, we were traveling to this community to observe and encourage the progress that the community had made. 
The travel started with a three hour Land Cruiser ride along a bumpy, muddy road. As we were driving over a concrete culvert, we got high-centered and stuck...pretty much due to poor back-filling during very rainy conditions. I was amazed with the expertise that our driver, Desmond, and the others have in getting cars out of the mud. They were assisted by a man on a motorbike who was just passing by and after only about 30 minutes or so, we were free to continue. 

We then came to the next road...this road was so overgrown and bushy that you couldn't even see the road...somehow Desmond just knew where to go. It truly felt like we were just driving straight through the bush. Eventually this road cleared as we pulled into the community of Sackor. We parked the car and were greeted very kindly by the community members. We were invited into one home to sit and talk. They offered us a quota (often in the form of drink or small food), which is their way of expressing to us that we were welcome there. We could not stay long, however because we had to continue to Soloblo. 

From Sackor, we began to walk. The trail to Soloblo was also very overgrown (upon our return to Sackor, we pleaded that they clean up the path to make it safer and easier to travel on...bushy paths lead to more snakes, scorpions and other dangerous creatures venturing onto the path.). We marched through the bush for about 45 minutes before coming upon the next town, Quiah Town. Again, we could only stay for a short time because we had more walking to do to get to Soloblo. In Quiah Town, we picked up a guide...this guide led us down the next trail. We crossed over a log bridge then took a ride on a wooden canoe across a river. We walked a little ways further and finally reached our destination. 

Soloblo is a very small community, just over 50 people. They welcomed us very generously and were excited to show us the progress they had made in building their latrines. It was so encouraging to see their latrines...completely built by themselves, with their own materials, their own designs, and with their own sweat. I loved seeing the pride they took in showing us their work. After seeing all the latrines, the Town Chief, Frank Teah, invited us into his home. He left us there alone for several minutes...when he finally returned, he was carrying about ten coconuts and about twenty oranges. He began cutting into the coconuts and giving them to us to drink. I stuffed my belly with two coconuts and when he offered me a third, I had to politely decline. Time was not in our favor because we had to get back to the vehicle in Sackor before it got dark. Frank urged me to pack my backpack full of oranges to take back with us. So with a full belly, a heavy backpack and a whole lot of gratitude and joy from our visit, we began our journey back to the car and then back to base. This was one of my most memorable days here. 

School Health Clubs (SHC) and Global Hand-washing Day (GHD) Celebration

The month of October was a very busy month. With deadlines quickly approaching, our School Health Club trainers, Archie and Helena, had a heavy work load. Within the month of October, their tasks included training SHCs in 23 different communities, training students in four CLTS communities to make soap, as well as planing and implementing a celebration for Global Hand-washing Day on October 15th. With the help of the rest of the WASH staff in River Gee, and especially with the help of God, they succeeded in meeting their goals for the month. 

Archie (center)

Helena (left)

Each SHC is made up of twenty students, ten girls and ten boys. They are appointed as leaders in their schools to promote, encourage and implement proper hygiene and sanitation practices. The training of these students includes things such as proper hand-washing and the critical times to wash your hands, keeping the school clean by picking up trash and cleaning the latrines, proper handling and storing of food and water, and other hygienic practices.

Helena and Archie are so great with the kids. They play games, sing songs, and encourage the students to be involved, all while establishing a respect from the children. It was my pleasure to join them in several trainings, and although I took a back seat position in the classroom, evaluating the sessions and taking photos, I truly enjoyed observing the children as they learned. My favorite thing was having the opportunity to play games with the children. Often when I show up, the students and teachers assume that I'm the "boss man", there to critique the work that is being done. Even though I try to dispel this misunderstanding, it can still sometimes create an awkwardness that may be due to intimidation. Playing the games with the children is a fun way to break down these barriers and encourage them that I am not there as a big boss-man but that I am there to simply encourage them and love them.

Hand-washing was the primary theme for the trainings in October...this was in preparation to the GHD celebration. On October 15th, we held a large celebration in Fish Town, River Gee...the capital city in River Gee county. I wrote a short summary of this day which ended up being posted on the Samaritan's Purse website. Here is my summary of that day.

For Global Hand Washing Day on October 15, River Gee County in Liberia celebrated by bringing more than 200 students, teachers and local authorities together for several festivities. I thank God for His provision in a smooth program, plenty of food, safety in transport, and cooperative and interested participants.

We started the day early by sending several cars out to pick up students from the School Health Clubs in the nearby communities. We were able to begin a march through town at approximately 8:45 a.m. We marched down the main street of Fish Town singing hand washing awareness chants.

After finishing the march at the City Hall, we had our special guests and the students all wash their hands at a couple of hand-washing stations set up just outside the building. We began the indoor program at around 10:15. This program included songs, dramas, recitations of Scripture, and a quizzing competition all performed by the students of the School Health Clubs. These were certainly the highlights for the entire day.

One drama, performed by students from Teajaliken Public School, was especially good. The students’ understanding and motivation to share the message of proper hand washing was clearly displayed through the drama. I was impressed not only with this drama, but also with all the performances and involvement from the students.

The quizzing competition was another highlight for the day. Two schools, each with five selected students, competed in a game show-style competition, answering questions about proper hand washing. This was a fun part of the day and really energized the audience. All of the students were impressive in their abilities to share how much they have learned through the School Health Club training. I think their performance was a great display of the impact that God, through Samaritan’s Purse, has had on these children. The water, sanitation, and hygiene staff received many praises on the quality of education that has been given.

When the program was complete, everyone was given a cake of soap and asked to wash their hands. We then gave food to everyone, and the students were taken back to their homes. I thank God for all He did this day. His Spirit was clearly present. The atmosphere was positive and fun, full of laughing and dancing. I believe Samaritan’s Purse was represented well, and, more importantly, I believe God was pleased in the way He was represented.

This celebration was so fun to be part of. I was so blessed by the opportunity to spend time with the children in a more relaxed and fun environment. I set a goal for the month of October to be able to let go of my concerns with what people may be thinking about me. This day was a great opportunity to do this. As we marched down the street i was able to march, chant and clap alongside the students. In the town hall, I had the opportunity to dance to music (certainly looking quite foolish) and joke with the children. To top it off, I had the opportunity to serve the children by distributing soap and food. I was so caught up in the moment that I completely forgot that people may be judging my actions. I thank God for giving me a spirit of confidence - finally and abandonment of my own insecurities. I was personally blessed at the end of the day.


I have so many stories, and I hope to continue to share them with you as time goes on. But for now...these two will have to do. Thanks for making it through this post...I know it was long. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. I can't believe I will be back home is less than a month! The time has truly flown. I love you all!

 “But You, O God the Lord, deal with me for your name’s sake…that they may know that this is your hand – that you, Lord, have done it!”

Psalm 109:21(a) & 27

*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.