Reporting from Liberia

We have been spending a great amount of time with our CCM Pastors, learning about their ministry, understanding the culture and getting to know them.

It's been so good to see the villages that I did not have a chance to see last time I was here.

Thursday and Friday the morning we had Peacemakers training and in the afternoon we went to visit the churches in the villages close by. Saturday we had a Training for the Children's Leaders and in the afternoon we had over 500 children for games, rope jumping, singing and dancing.

Sunday we went to church and after we had lunch the girls played kick ball and the guys soccer. It was a very fun day.

Today we stayed home discussing WHAT'S IN OUR HANDS and brainstorming how to develop the Liberian church to accomplish what they want to do.

Tomorrow we are going site seeing to downtown Monrovia and having lunch at one of the Pastor's house.

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Going back to Liberia

As most of you know, Robert and I will be going to Liberia as part of an 8 member scouting team from Trinity Church.

We are leaving on November 8th and returning November 16th.

The main purpose of our trip is to build relationships with the Community Church Ministries (http://www.ccmafrica.org/).  Trinity plans to work with CCM for the next 3 to 5 years. Also our team will:

• Spend a day working with children, possibly 500, as well as training/coaching the childrens leaders.
• Present a 2 day peacemakers/conflict resolution workshop.
• Visit some of the new church plants outside Monrovia.
• Develop a vision for future projects/trips.

Our prayer requests are:

* For God to use the trip as He wills.  

* For Health and energy to accomplish what He would have us do.

* To see wholeheartedly God's plan, God's people and not our circumstances.

We appreciate your prayers and support.

Thank you for sending us!

Robert and Laura Hill

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear
fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask
in my name. John 15:16

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Surprise Birthday party in Liberia

It started with many blessings and happy b-days from the REAP staff,
also Robert planned with the help of Christine, her husband Laurence
and the LOGOS Hope team.
He found a restaurant in Monrovia where he was trying to cater from,
but the place was closed for vacations. After few attempts he e-mailed
Christine and Laurence asking for help. Christine by Robert’s request,
baked carrot cake (one of my favorites), and I knew that she was
making Yellof Rice (yes, with F at the end), which is cooked here for
special occasions.
I thought we were having dinner here at home, but didn't know when
because we also were going to the LOGOS ship to meet with the team
who is going to work at the REAP camp.
We left late to meet the team, when we got there I saw the rice pot
and something I thought was the cake, was until then that I knew dinner
was on the ship. What I didn’t know was that the whole Latino group
and few others from LOGOS team were having dinner with us; they
separated few tables at the dinning room for the celebration. One of
the girls brought her laptop to play Mexican music.
They sang the “Happy B-day” in Spanish and the Liberian version in
English; that day the menu for dinner was Mexican food, so was
perfect.
We ate, danced and sang some. It was very special day and thank
God for it because otherwise it would be harder to be far from home.

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Logos Hope Ship

This weekend we were invited to the reception of LOGOS HOPE ship,
which is one of the Operation Mobilization ships.
http://www.omships.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=278
It was so much fun meeting so many people from different countries;
the team is formed by 400 people from 50 nations.
I went with Christine and her husband Lawrence and Maresha. The
Vice-president was present in the opening of the book store. The have
over 7,500 books on board and they travel around the world bringing
knowledge, help and hope.
They will be in Liberia till August 25th. I meet a couple from
Argentina who are missionaries in Liberia and also from the LOGOS team
a nice groups Latinos, who were very friendly and kind making sure we
had a good time and saw different areas of the ship.
We will be going later in the next two weeks to different events, one
of their teams will be working in a REAP’s camp for youth, doing
counseling, sharing their testimonies and also pouring the floor of
the administrative office.
Next Sunday Maresha and I will go to their Church Service on board and
will also stay till dinner to prepare some good Mexican food.

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Full and Fun Weekend

Saturday two weeks ago I was invited to church to teach in a workshop
about leadership. It was for the worship team leaders. I thought, Wow,
I have never spoken anywhere about leadership, but God was good to me
bringing to my memory some good examples from my own experience as
well as some public figures in sports who are good and bad examples of
leadership. The group was engaged and seemed to understand the
importance of using basic biblical principles in their leadership
roles.

After the workshop while waiting for my ride, I started playing with
few kids of the community around the church (of course my little
Robert was there). I didn’t have much to organize games with, so I
asked for a broom stick or something similar. Since the worship band
was practicing we had music, so with the stick and the music we were
doing the limbo dance; all of the sudden kids multiplied. Later on
older kids came and we had to change the game, so we did a one leg
hopping race. I got some exercise, some sun and a lot of fun.

Later in the early evening Christine invited to the beach the orphan
kids who were staying at her house. She prepared a lot of food,
brought a soccer ball and 10 of us got in one car (Liberian style).
For some of the kids was the firs time at the beach. We had a great
time and I got to enjoy a beautiful sunset.

Sunday was a day of adventures. After service Pastors and church
leaders had a meeting, so I just hanged out with the kids. After the
meeting they invited me to have lunch with them, it was quite an
experience. It was Fufu, which is like a round unbaked bread made of
cassava (looks like beige playdough) and some fish immersed in a soupy
gravy. They showed me how to each it; you take a piece of Fufu, make
it like a ball and dip it in the gravy. Since I was a guest I went
first, but everyone eats from the same plate, everyone dip their
fingers in the gravy. They were kind enough and separated some fish
for me.

After lunch we went to the pig’s farm that the church is considering
to buy to start a business to support the church and provide jobs for
the congregation. All the leaders, pastors and me got in 2 cars and 1
motor bike to the farm. The road was bad and the cars were too low, so
few times we had to get out of the car, either to push or just to be
able to go over some big bumps.
Once in the farm, the owner of the pigs explained that he started it
thinking that was a good business; he sold few pigs but later on he
didn’t have the heart to kill the pigs that he saw rising. He wants
the church to keep this business because he knows that their goal is
to help their people and that will be successful because they are
responsible and are doing it for the right reasons.
I love the people of this church, it was a fun Sunday !!.

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From top left corner clockwise, 1) the porch outside my room. 2) REAP's office and missionaries' house. 3) Little house where the generator caught fire. 4) View from my bedroom's porch