Many people have been wondering how the building project is going so I thought I should give a little update here. The first house is almost finished -- Rev. DiCanio is living there already. There's no running water yet, but the drains are working so he can wash/flush etc with buckets. (I won't go into more details! LOL) The window bars are in place but the windows still aren't installed -- please pray that this will be done very soon! It's wonderful being right on the ocean front, but there are drawbacks too -- like the salt air which coats everything and corrodes metal very quickly. So the sooner the windows are installed, the better to protect things inside the house. The generator arrived last week so they have electricity at last -- only at night of course because it would be far too expensive to run it 24/7. The generator house is built, septic tank is done, and they're working on the security wall.
We've been able to get a month's extension on the lease for my apartment, which is a relief because I was supposed to be moving out on February 15th and I didn't have anywhere to go yet! So I'll be in the apartment until I go home for the Easter Convention, and then when I return, I'll be moving . . . somewhere :-) Lord willing, there will be something built at the site by then so that I can move in.
The rest of the work is going on as usual. I've had a rather long break from school, because the Ministry of Education changed the dates for exams and the second semester start date, but school opens again next Tuesday so I'm busy getting ready for that. I've been glad that there's been no school, actually, because things have been SO busy! With Rev. DiCanio being away and then having to spend so much time overseeing the building project, I've been helping out with other administrative type things which take up a lot of time.
The reading club has really grown recently, with a lot of new kids coming. Last Tuesday I read with 17 children/young people between 3 and 5pm. It's great to see the interest, and kids bringing their friends along, including some who don't attend Sunday School here. But the increased number of children means that I'm really rushing to let each one have a few minutes reading with me individually. I would love to extend the Club time to 3 hours, but there just isn't time at the minute. Pray that the interest will continue, and that I'll find a way to accommodate all the kids who want to read. Of course, for those of you who may not know, the children can all stay for the entire two hours and read silently from the books that we have on the shelves, while I call them one by one for their individual reading time with me. Well, I say "silently" -- that's the plan anyway! :-)
Monday, 4 February 2013
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! I was thinking yesterday of Joshua 13:1 -- "There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." This is true in my personal walk with God -- in my knowledge of Christ and my love for Him, I have SO far to go! (And it's struck me recently that every time I take a step forward in this regard, my eyes are opened a little more to see how much more land is there to be taken, land that I hadn't even known existed before this.) And then of course, in the work here in Liberia, and in the work of God world-wide, there is SO much land waiting to be possessed for God and His Kingdom! May we see great advances made this year!
Thank you for your prayers for the Children's Day service. The Lord helped us all -- a few first-time parents came in to the meeting, the children did a good job and things ran relatively smoothly, and everyone heard the Gospel as Rev. DiCanio preached. Pray that this Word will bear fruit!
Rev. DiCanio is at home over the holiday period for a well-deserved vacation, so pray that things will run smoothly in his absence! The work on the building project has been slowed down while he's away, which I'm rather thankful for! They are working on the generator house, and I'm keeping an eye on that (not that I really know what I'm looking for LOL).
Thank you all for your prayers for me through the nine months that I've been in Liberia. And keep praying with me and for me in 2013! May the Lord bless you all.
Thank you for your prayers for the Children's Day service. The Lord helped us all -- a few first-time parents came in to the meeting, the children did a good job and things ran relatively smoothly, and everyone heard the Gospel as Rev. DiCanio preached. Pray that this Word will bear fruit!
Rev. DiCanio is at home over the holiday period for a well-deserved vacation, so pray that things will run smoothly in his absence! The work on the building project has been slowed down while he's away, which I'm rather thankful for! They are working on the generator house, and I'm keeping an eye on that (not that I really know what I'm looking for LOL).
Thank you all for your prayers for me through the nine months that I've been in Liberia. And keep praying with me and for me in 2013! May the Lord bless you all.
Friday, 23 November 2012
We had our first women's Bible Study this evening in the Paynesville church. It's something that the women have been asking about for awhile, but we've only gotten around to getting it organised at this point. To tell the truth, I don't know many of the women very well yet because I've been spending so much time with the children! Even after the Sunday service and the prayermeeting, one of the kids usually manages to get my attention with a question, or "Miss Joanne, can I say my verse to you?" so that by the time I get outside, a lot of the women have already left. So hopefully this will be a means of getting to know the ladies as well as ministering to them.
I've been teaching on the Ten Commandments in the Wednesday Bible Club, and I've been challenged by how foreign the law of God is to many of them. One 11-year-old told me that he didn't know what the Ten Commandments were until he started hearing about them in Bible Club. Until a couple of years ago, he lived in the bush and it seems went some of the time to a Jehovah's Witness church; then his father died and his mother was left with 5 or 6 kids to raise. So she brought this boy to a family in Monrovia and asked them to take him in and send him to school. (I'm not sure if there was a prior connection between the two families -- I don't believe they're related in any way.) This family attend our church, and now the boy is one of the brightest and most conscientious students in the Sunday School, Bible Club, Reading Club, and anything else that's going! More importantly, he's showing some encouraging signs of a work of grace in his heart. Pray for him and others like him. This is just one story out of many that could be told.
We are planning our first Children's Day Program for the Sunday School in Paynesville FPMC. It will take the form of an end-of-year program, where the parents will be invited and the kids will be presenting what they've learned during the past year. It's planned for the Sunday service on Dec. 16, Lord willing. Please pray much for the preparation and the day itself.
Continue to pray for safety on the roads. There was an accident a couple of weeks ago just outside the Christian school where I teach. A drunk man drove his lorry off the road and knocked a 20-ft container over, crushing two men under it. I went down to the scene, and at that point they had pulled one man out, but he was very dead, and they hadn't realised yet that there was a second man under there. It is certainly sobering, and sickening, to see the low value that is placed on human life -- not only through the carelessness of the drunk driver, but also in the people who were standing all around talking excitedly and taking pictures of the dead man on their phones!
Pray for the 15-minute radio broadcast that goes out on two different stations each Sunday. Rev. DiCanio is airing Dr. Cairns' series on the Law of God at the moment. Pray that people will be brought to see their sinfulness before God and their need of Christ. A man visited last Sunday who had heard the program -- the first visitor we've had as a direct result of the radio broadcast.
I've been teaching on the Ten Commandments in the Wednesday Bible Club, and I've been challenged by how foreign the law of God is to many of them. One 11-year-old told me that he didn't know what the Ten Commandments were until he started hearing about them in Bible Club. Until a couple of years ago, he lived in the bush and it seems went some of the time to a Jehovah's Witness church; then his father died and his mother was left with 5 or 6 kids to raise. So she brought this boy to a family in Monrovia and asked them to take him in and send him to school. (I'm not sure if there was a prior connection between the two families -- I don't believe they're related in any way.) This family attend our church, and now the boy is one of the brightest and most conscientious students in the Sunday School, Bible Club, Reading Club, and anything else that's going! More importantly, he's showing some encouraging signs of a work of grace in his heart. Pray for him and others like him. This is just one story out of many that could be told.
We are planning our first Children's Day Program for the Sunday School in Paynesville FPMC. It will take the form of an end-of-year program, where the parents will be invited and the kids will be presenting what they've learned during the past year. It's planned for the Sunday service on Dec. 16, Lord willing. Please pray much for the preparation and the day itself.
Continue to pray for safety on the roads. There was an accident a couple of weeks ago just outside the Christian school where I teach. A drunk man drove his lorry off the road and knocked a 20-ft container over, crushing two men under it. I went down to the scene, and at that point they had pulled one man out, but he was very dead, and they hadn't realised yet that there was a second man under there. It is certainly sobering, and sickening, to see the low value that is placed on human life -- not only through the carelessness of the drunk driver, but also in the people who were standing all around talking excitedly and taking pictures of the dead man on their phones!
Pray for the 15-minute radio broadcast that goes out on two different stations each Sunday. Rev. DiCanio is airing Dr. Cairns' series on the Law of God at the moment. Pray that people will be brought to see their sinfulness before God and their need of Christ. A man visited last Sunday who had heard the program -- the first visitor we've had as a direct result of the radio broadcast.
Saturday, 13 October 2012
At the beginning of September, I started helping out at a nearby Christian school a couple of days a week. I’m teaching Bible and Reading to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, and then doing a choir or singing class with high school students once a week. The students are from quite a mix of backgrounds – a lot are from Pentecostal churches, and several are Muslim. They are also at quite a mix of levels academically -- in the fifth grade class, for instance, most of the kids are between 12 and 15, but there is one 19 year old who is a very poor reader! And then in the 6th grade class, I have one or two good students who work hard and get top marks -- and then there is a boy from Guinea who speaks French and very little English -- and certainly can't read English. I have no idea what he's doing in sixth grade! He doesn't speak enough English for me to find out if he's actually at sixth grade level if everything was in French. I spoke to the principal about him, and he promised to look into it, but then the boy hasn't been at school for the past week. I asked the other kids where he was, and they told me that he had washed his uniform and hung it out to dry and someone stole it! And he's not allowed to come to school without a uniform, for security reasons.
Please pray not only that the kids will learn academically, but also that their hearts will be opened to the Gospel. Pray that the singing class will be the means of teaching the young people solid hymns and choruses – all that they know so far seem to be Pentecostal-type choruses. They're very keen to learn new songs -- so I'm happy to take advantage of that and teach them some good ones!
Thursday, 23 August 2012
Encouragements
I've been here five months now! Hard to believe :-) I was having a bit of a self-examining session the other day in light of that and thinking of what the Lord has done in these five months.
I've been really encouraged by the Bible Club the last two Wednesdays. We've had approximately 30-50 kids at Bible Club ever since the VBS in July, and they have been very enthusiastic -- but also getting noisier and more unruly each week. So 2 weeks ago, I had to be very serious with them (cross in fact) and gave them quite a lecture on their behaviour. They were still mostly listening well to the lesson, but the rest of the meeting was getting out of hand. So both Nathan Barco (the man in charge of the children's work) and I were quite sharp with them and told them they need to mend their ways or they'll go home for good. We were pretty burdened about this -- because there's no point in their coming to the meeting if they are causing so much noise that they can't hear the teacher, and more importantly hear God's Word.
But last week and yesterday, we saw a dramatic improvement in behaviour! And I don't believe it was simply our scolding that made the difference -- it's the Lord settling them down in answer to prayer. So we are thankful!
We're encouraged by a couple of kids who really are wanting to learn the memory verses, and even one or two who have attended the prayer meeting and prayed in public. We don't know their hearts, of course, but these are encouraging signs! Pray that soon, if it's the Lord's will, other teachers will be raised up so that we could divide the children into classes and teach in a manner better suited to the different age groups. When I consider the folks in the church at present, I cannot think of one person who is even near to being ready to take a class! So I'm glad that the Lord is in charge of the work, not me, and He is the One Who does exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think!
And while you're praying for teachers, you better also pray for more space! At the moment, we only have the one room for the children. If we were going to divide into classes, we would need somewhere to put them. Thanks for your continued support in prayer.
I've been really encouraged by the Bible Club the last two Wednesdays. We've had approximately 30-50 kids at Bible Club ever since the VBS in July, and they have been very enthusiastic -- but also getting noisier and more unruly each week. So 2 weeks ago, I had to be very serious with them (cross in fact) and gave them quite a lecture on their behaviour. They were still mostly listening well to the lesson, but the rest of the meeting was getting out of hand. So both Nathan Barco (the man in charge of the children's work) and I were quite sharp with them and told them they need to mend their ways or they'll go home for good. We were pretty burdened about this -- because there's no point in their coming to the meeting if they are causing so much noise that they can't hear the teacher, and more importantly hear God's Word.
But last week and yesterday, we saw a dramatic improvement in behaviour! And I don't believe it was simply our scolding that made the difference -- it's the Lord settling them down in answer to prayer. So we are thankful!
We're encouraged by a couple of kids who really are wanting to learn the memory verses, and even one or two who have attended the prayer meeting and prayed in public. We don't know their hearts, of course, but these are encouraging signs! Pray that soon, if it's the Lord's will, other teachers will be raised up so that we could divide the children into classes and teach in a manner better suited to the different age groups. When I consider the folks in the church at present, I cannot think of one person who is even near to being ready to take a class! So I'm glad that the Lord is in charge of the work, not me, and He is the One Who does exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think!
And while you're praying for teachers, you better also pray for more space! At the moment, we only have the one room for the children. If we were going to divide into classes, we would need somewhere to put them. Thanks for your continued support in prayer.
Thursday, 9 August 2012
Skepticism or Reality?
The Independence Day Program was a lot of fun, although we had 11 helpers to nearly 200 children so we were slightly outnumbered and very tired at the end of the day! We rented a school near the Paynesville church
and had games and races and other activities (and food!) for children ages 4
and up. These kids are like kids the world over -- they have boundless energy! We arrived at the church at 8am to set up ( a lot of kids were already there waiting for us), then the program started at 10am and lasted til 3 or 4pm, and then cleanup. We did the usual sack races, egg&spoon and three-legged races, a water relay (I stole the idea from memories of our youth camp in the States, but it wasn't quite as well organised LOL), a treasure hunt (which the kids did NOT get at all), balloon basketball, musical papers (newspapers to stand on instead of chairs to sit in since we didn't have chairs). And then the food which Rev. DiCanio kindly organised and prepared -- bread and jam, juice, popcorn, and ice cream cones (I was almost as excited about the ice cream as the children!) The juice is interesting -- they made it up in little plastic bags so you have to bite a hole in the corner of the plastic bag and then suck it out. For one thing, how can that be hygienic? And secondly, I can't seem to bite and suck at the same time . . . . so I got sticky koolaid all over me. I guess I need more practice. They sell water on the street like that but I usually avoid it because I think it's unhygienic:-)
Anyway, it all went well I believe, and random people were passing on the street saying "thank you so much for your work." It's funny, people here thank you for things that they have no connection with -- like one time I was washing the windows in my apartment. All the workers from other apartments were coming over to thank me for doing it. I couldn't figure it out! It's not like they were going to do it if I hadn't done it! They probably think I'm rude because I don't thank them for washing their employer's dishes . . .
Yes, so as I was saying, the general community seemed to appreciate the effort on Independence Day. Or . . . maybe they just wanted some ice cream. We had a couple adult neighbours join the queue for ice cream, saying "I haven't had mine yet." Oh, this wonderful "African socialism"! "If I don't have, I can ask (and expect to receive) from someone who does have, and if I do have, I have a responsibility to give to those who don't have." I read that very statement (as nearly as I remember) in a Christian Religious Education textbook in Kenya, and the man who said it called it African Socialism. It's not Biblical! Try this: "If any would not work, neither should he eat." "Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread." (II Thess. 3:10, 12).
Not that we didn't give them the ice-cream since we had some left, but it's the general principle that is being illustrated here that I wanted to share with you :-)
Monday, 23 July 2012
Happy Independence Day!
VBS went well I believe -- a lot of kids came in (about 130 on the last day), and although we had the usual problems of overcrowding and lots of distractions, many of them seemed to listen intently. I need to keep reminding myself that even those who didn't seem to listen at all (and there were a few in that category!) may still have been touched because God's Word is powerful and will not return to Him void. We don't know what is happening in their hearts!
Some of the new kids at VBS have been attending Sunday School or the Wednesday Bible Club since then, and we're really encouraged by this. Five children (one of whom is only 4 years old) received their very own Bibles this past week in Sunday School as prizes for having learned and recited Psalm 121 perfectly. They've been working on it for many weeks now!
My time with my family was wonderful! I think they were all a bit busier than they had anticipated, but they certainly helped me out a lot. They were rather traumatised by the traffic and the roads -- one day an accident happened right in front of us, and we ended up taking a lady to the hospital. Or maybe it was my driving that was traumatic! I was "arrested" one day for not pulling to the side of the road when the vice president's convoy was passing. My excuse was that the lead police vehicle, which would usually have "VP Escort" written on it, didn't have any such marking, and I thought it was just a normal police car passing (in which case you get out of the way, but you're not required to pull over and stop.) Anyway, it turns out that the "VP escort" vehicle had broken down and they were using a regular police vehicle as a substitute so a lot of people were having difficulty recognising it. So I apologised politely and didn't say much more than that and played especially dumb when they hinted about a bribe and they eventually let me go.
But apart from such minor catastrophes, we all had a good time. The electricity and water went off and on just enough to give my family a true picture of living in Liberia. :-) Truth to tell, I was more frustrated than them when this happened. Dad preached at the Sunday service in three of the mission churches, and at prayermeetings as well. He also spent some time working with the men at the building site (that's his idea of relaxing!) Mom and Jerusha helped a lot with VBS and the children's work in general, and with the Reading Club which meets twice a week.
July 26th (this Thursday) is Independence Day in Liberia. Apparently liquor is sold freely on that day and on Christmas Day, even to children, and a lot of kids as young as 9 or 10 get drunk. So it was suggested yesterday that we have some kind of program on Thursday -- games and activities for the kids so that they won't be at a loose end and will be less likely to get into trouble. It's all systems go since we're planning this at the last minute. Pray for this effort! Sin is practiced openly and unashamedly all around these children every day, and it's only the Lord Who can keep them from it and make it distasteful to them.
Some of the new kids at VBS have been attending Sunday School or the Wednesday Bible Club since then, and we're really encouraged by this. Five children (one of whom is only 4 years old) received their very own Bibles this past week in Sunday School as prizes for having learned and recited Psalm 121 perfectly. They've been working on it for many weeks now!
My time with my family was wonderful! I think they were all a bit busier than they had anticipated, but they certainly helped me out a lot. They were rather traumatised by the traffic and the roads -- one day an accident happened right in front of us, and we ended up taking a lady to the hospital. Or maybe it was my driving that was traumatic! I was "arrested" one day for not pulling to the side of the road when the vice president's convoy was passing. My excuse was that the lead police vehicle, which would usually have "VP Escort" written on it, didn't have any such marking, and I thought it was just a normal police car passing (in which case you get out of the way, but you're not required to pull over and stop.) Anyway, it turns out that the "VP escort" vehicle had broken down and they were using a regular police vehicle as a substitute so a lot of people were having difficulty recognising it. So I apologised politely and didn't say much more than that and played especially dumb when they hinted about a bribe and they eventually let me go.
But apart from such minor catastrophes, we all had a good time. The electricity and water went off and on just enough to give my family a true picture of living in Liberia. :-) Truth to tell, I was more frustrated than them when this happened. Dad preached at the Sunday service in three of the mission churches, and at prayermeetings as well. He also spent some time working with the men at the building site (that's his idea of relaxing!) Mom and Jerusha helped a lot with VBS and the children's work in general, and with the Reading Club which meets twice a week.
July 26th (this Thursday) is Independence Day in Liberia. Apparently liquor is sold freely on that day and on Christmas Day, even to children, and a lot of kids as young as 9 or 10 get drunk. So it was suggested yesterday that we have some kind of program on Thursday -- games and activities for the kids so that they won't be at a loose end and will be less likely to get into trouble. It's all systems go since we're planning this at the last minute. Pray for this effort! Sin is practiced openly and unashamedly all around these children every day, and it's only the Lord Who can keep them from it and make it distasteful to them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)