The Website of Miah and Michelle Collins

These are a few observations and fun stories from Liberia that I (Michelle) wanted to share. Miah and I spent 2 weeks in Liberia doing training with their students, coaching Trokon and some of his ministry partners, and doing some pre-marriage counseling for Trokon and his fiancee, Ube, as they get ready to be married in December. Miah did the first trip to Liberia in July while I got to see my family in Europe. This time I got to go with! We will have another training session there in January.

Josh.
Josh is an ex- child soldier from the war who is trying to readjust to society. The most amazing thing was that Patrick and Trokon are mentoring him as he adjusts back to the Monrovian lifestyle.  He was always so polite to us and we watched him cleaning our yard, and bringing us water day in and day out without asking for anything. My heart was filled with extra compassion for him because of his gentle spirit in spite of all that he had been through.

Liberian Jokes.
Jo Jo? Johhhhhhhhhh. This is how you introduce your jokes in Liberia. In Liberian English, you never pronounce the endings of words, you just let them fade off. And if the word is longer than 2 syllables, you never say any consonants after the first syllable, just the vowels. So, as you can expect, it sounds very strange and it is almost impossible to understand when they speak quickly and with their slang. This quick Liberian English is what they use to tell most of their jokes because as they start laughing, all consonants become too hard to pronounce and they just mumble the vowels.
When I was lying on the mattresses with the girls one day, one of our favorite pastimes, they started wanting to tell jokes. But they really wanted me to understand, so they told them to me in better English than usual. I still didn’t understand them. One thing that I have really learned over these last few years is that humor is most definitely a cultural thing. Many South Africans think it is hilarious to make fun of other races. I get offended by this, but I now understand their intent.  Liberians think it is funny to tell civil war stories. I am honestly really disturbed by this, but because they are laughing so hard, I can’t help but laugh with them. Seriously, Liberian laughs are very contagious. Here are a few examples of jokes:

Jo Jo? Johhhhhh. There was a pastor who held a church meeting during the war. He began to talk bad about the rebels and speak against them. Then, there were some rebel soldiers walking by the church and they heard him speaking bad about them. They went into the church and pointed their guns at everyone saying, “Who is it that is speaking against the rebels? We will shoot him right now.” Everyone was quiet. They said again, “Whoever was speaking against the rebels should identify himself or we will shoot everyone!” Then the pastor said, “ Whoever begins cursing is not the man who was speaking against the rebels!” And the pastor started cursing.

That is the end of the joke. Now, I’m sure like me, unless you are a Liberian, you are sitting there with your mouth open or waiting for them to continue on to the punch line. There is no punch line. That is the joke, and I am telling you that these girls could not hold back the laughter as they told that last line and then everyone just erupts in laughs. In some ways it is disturbing beyond belief and in other ways it is comforting to know that even these girls, most of whom stayed in Liberia during the war, are finding it easy to laugh at some extremely hard circumstances they went through. I think it is therapeutic to them as I think laughter all over the world is used to comfort people when they are troubled or sad. That is why I think South Africans use humor to deal with their new country after Apartheid. It is overwhelming to think of what people might have been through psychologically during these periods of political turmoil, but I now know that jokes can lighten that load and make things seem less daunting.  And as long as these girls can still laugh, life can go on, and things can get better. And ideally, they will never have to go back to a time when those jokes were actually a fearful reality in their lives.  Okay, with that said, here is one more joke that I want to write just so that I can remember it and their faces and accents when they told it. I’m going to spell things how they say things:

Dare wuz a Liberya wooma who ha two cheedre. Wa of doze cheedre wuz baaah, and wa wuz goo. Wa chai was goo to hah, wa wuz reelay baah. She luh da wa chai, buh da oder she hat. Den, one day, da baah chai dah, buh da goo chai wuz stee aly. Weh peepo cay fo da funero, eeyeh deh wuh cofateen heh, she say, “ Gaw, wah you go tay, den you doan tay? Gaw wah you gotta go tay, den you doan tay?”
Translation:
There was a Liberian woman who had two children. One of those children was bad and one was good. One child was good to her, one was really bad. She loved the one child but she hated the other child. Then one day, the bad child died but the good child was still alive. When people came for the funeral, and they were comforting her, she say, “ God why you go take, then you don’t take? God why you gotta go take, then you don’t take?”
(as they say this they motion one hand to one side and then the other hand to the other side, basically saying she wanted God to take the bad child and not the good child and was complaining to him.)

Struggles of a missionary.

There is a proverb here in Liberia that says, “White teeth, black heart.” And they use it to describe how people like to put up a front in order to make themselves look good, but on the inside, they are struggling. I know that most of the time, missionaries are only supposed to write the great inspiring stories that everyone wants to hear. At least that’s what has been done in the past and that is what we feel pressured to do whether people tell us to or not.  It is hard to be open about struggles when someone else has never been here or felt the things we have felt, and sometimes it might seem like the struggles sound too much for the missionary if we write about all of them, and people will ask us to come home or abandon the mission we started out doing. But, I am a firm believer in sharing my burdens with other people and being open about my problems. Not in a needy, obsessive, pathetic way, but in a discerning way in order to let others help me. I think that this is something we are told by Jesus and Paul to do as believers, and I don’t think we do it enough.

Okay, I will stop preaching and tell you how God moved in my mind and my life in a powerful way in the time I was here in Liberia.
I think that missionaries like to pretend they are fearless. But I cannot take on this pretense. I am not any stronger, nor do I have any less fear than any other believer, but I believe that faith is trusting God in spite of fear and without knowing for sure what the results will be.  There are times when I can be very afraid of the places I go to and the situations I live in, but I accept this weakness in me so that Christ might be made known, and His power can be displayed through my life.

During my time in Liberia, the Lord led me to read the book of Acts and be inspired by the early church and their radical lifestyles of worship to God. They knew how to sacrifice in order to preserve community and equality.  For the first time the words, “ and they had everything in common and they gave to anyone who had need”, really convicted me. I have always been passionate about community and about sharing with other believers, even to a point where this makes me seem strange or backwards to my family and others in my culture. But it was this trip that showed me that I am still so limited in how I share with my fellow believers and how I look after those who follow Christ alongside me. But the early church, the ones who had been with Jesus, took this type of community very serious. I noticed that this type of community is even more serious to God, who took His wrath out on those in the early church who lied in order to keep some possessions for themselves. Read Acts 4……..Wow! I just can’t help but ask the question, “What does God think about our understanding of “community” now?” But the accounts of the actions and lifestyles of the early church became a deep solace for me as I wrestled through my selfishness and fear while living in community with my Liberian sisters.

The other words of inspiration that God used to comfort me and edify my soul during this time were the words of Martin Luther King. I have been reading Martin Luther King’s autobiography, and what he was able to do and to lead others to do because of his faith, in the face of violence, persecution from all sides, misunderstanding, and fear, was phenomenal.  Mostly, his accounts of what he went through in his head before and during his times of going to jail for the movement and suffering for the movement really spoke to me while I was in Liberia. People would criticize Dr. King for trying to bring integration too quickly or rushing the process when the time was not yet ready for it. This is the same temptation that Satan uses in missions. He makes us think that if we go to a certain place too soon, they might not be ready for the Gospel, or wait until the doors are open or they are out of war and then they will be ready to hear and it will be “safe” enough to go. We would never say this temptation out loud, but it is something that has plagued us in the Church.  Dr. King knew this trick and rebuked it straight up. Here are some of his words about waiting for the perfect, ideal time for things.

“ Frankly, I have yet to engage in a “direct action” campaign that was “well-timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word, “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait!” has almost always meant never. We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that justice too long delayed is justice denied”. …. “Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.”

I think that if we really see ourselves as co-laborers with God, if we really believe that we are to fulfill the Great Commission as Christians, we must see that the Gospel too long delayed is the Gospel denied.  MLK’s words spoke the message to me so strongly that no matter what you have to go through or what obstacles you will be faced with, if you truly believe in your end goal, that belief will overcome.

The passage of scripture that we memorized on our training program this year was Romans 12. There is a verse in this passage that God spoke to me over and over again during these two weeks and it was, “Do not be prideful but be willing to associate with those of low position.” The funny thing is that the longer I lived with these people, the more I realized that they are the ones who fulfilled this scripture in our training.
Lastly, I will end with some lyrics of Lauryn Hill, which witness with my life that He is continuously working out His salvation in us:

“Mounting down the walls of inhibition. Evaporating all of my fears. Baptizing me into complete submission. Dissolving my condition with His tears.
Bathing in a fountain of His essence. He’s drawing out my nature with his hands. Humbled on a mountain by His presence. Burning to be worthy of His lamb. 

This is actually an assigment that I wrote for one of my christian counseling certificate courses. It’s very broad but it states a lot of my views of christian counseling and what I believe in terms of the integration of psychology and theology. I might change my mind after more studying, but here are my beliefs so far....

The concept of Christian counseling has been talked about and tossed around, misconstrued, and misunderstood and yet few people have truly tried to define in detail what Christian counseling actually is. There are many different pieces to the Christian counseling puzzle that must each be looked at meticulously in order to consolidate in our minds a clear, succinct definition. These pieces include biblical, theoretical, and practical, aspects of counseling as well as the integration of theology and psychology.

To begin understanding this subject, we must look at what we define Christian counseling to be and then discover what scripture says about this subject in general. I believe that Christian counseling is the imperative calling on our lives as we follow Christ to carry each other’s burdens. In doing so, we fulfill the Great Commission as the helping relationship between the counselor and the counselee sharpens them into greater disciples of Jesus. Counseling plays out practically in that the Spirit filled counselor empowers the counselee through psychological and theological insights to grow into wholeness through the Word, through prayer and in community with other believers.

There are two categories of scripture that give us a calling to lay counseling as a ministry (Tan, 1991, pg. 23). We each, as born again followers of Christ, have a calling to the laity, or in other words, “the royal priesthood”. We are all given a responsibility to each other and no specific group of people is required to do all the work God has given to that church. Paul lays this out for us clearly as he tells us that we are all members of one body, and we each have individual functions (Romans 12:4-5). This calling to a purpose in the body includes helping each believer to fullness in Christ and building each other up in love (Ephesians 4:4, 16).

The second category for a scriptural foundation of Christian counseling is the calling we have to counseling. Lay counseling is something we are all asked to do as we follow Christ together. I believe that parts of lay counseling will naturally happen in our relationships as we carry each other’s burdens and really encourage and strengthen one another to become more like Christ (Galatians 6:2). But we are also specifically called to confess our sins to one another and to exhort one another daily (James 5:16, Hebrews 3:13). This word to exhort one another in Hebrews is the same word as is mentioned in the gifting of exhortation in Romans 12:8 and it is to be in a “paraklesis” relationship or a helping relationship with each other. The gift of exhortation is a specific calling to counseling for some believers and indicates that this gifting is a part of the body and therefore essential to the health of the Church as a whole. The word “paraklesis” is also an essential biblical aspect to Christian counseling in that it is the same word that is used to indicate the Holy Spirit in Luke …….

As Christian counselors, we are to rely on the Holy Spirit at all times. We must realize that the Holy Spirit is The Helper and The Counselor and we are in turn helpers alongside of Him. Being Spirit-filled as a counselor is essential in terms of truly being effective in people’s lives and having wisdom to bring people into the glorious freedom of being the sons of God (Romans 8: 21).  So throughout all of our goals and methods and approaches, it is through the Holy Spirit that we operate and improve as Christian counselors.
As Christians have become more and more aware of the need in the church for Christian counselors and even psychologists, we are faced with the dilemma of the integration of theology and psychology. For many Christians, the only referencing material needed in counseling is the Bible. The Bible for them becomes the complete authority on any problem, an exhaustive guide to any human condition. If we take this belief to the extreme and to the ultimate end result, the counselor’s own theology would suffice for their counselee’s problems and the integration of psychology would not be necessary, and in fact, integration of psychology might even be edging on the side of heresy.

The other end of the argument is grounded on the theology that “all truth is God’s truth”. Ultimately, the belief here would be that God reveals truth to us in different forms, specific, general, and personal. In this line of thought, the integration of psychology and theology is completely relevant and almost necessary as God can and does reveal Himself and His truth through secular and scientific discoveries.
More practically, Larry Crabb suggests that there are four different ways of integrating psychology and theology (Tan, 1991, pg 32). The first approach is that psychology and theology are considered as separate fields but of equal value. This is more of a complimentary perspective where the counselor can use each field, but must separate them in their sessions. The second is that the counselor can integrate a little bit of both, a “tossed salad” approach. In this approach, the counselor can mix the two fields and just hope that they come out making sense. The third approach is called “nothing buttery”, where psychology is irrelevant and only scripture is needed for counseling. And lastly, there is the integration of the two fields of study called “spoiling the Egyptians”. This approach uses whatever psychological models are relevant but keeps a theological basis for counseling.

Growing up with scientists, I have naturally upheld the theology that all truth is God’s truth. In Romans 1: 19-20, Paul writes, “ For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made…”.  I do not have a problem filtering secularly discovered truth through scripture and through other Christian perspectives, but I am also not fearful or skeptical of using scientific facts to further develop my faith. Therefore, my perspective of integration would be similar to that of Tan in that I would prefer to integrate the psychological models that would be effective and beneficial to my counselees in terms of their wholeness, spiritual growth, and effectiveness in ministry. I would also be careful to verify that these methods do not contradict scripture or give space for demonic influences in counseling.  But I believe that the two fields have a dynamic relationship in counseling and that they must both be used in order to be fully effective in our gifting as Paul urges us in Colossians 3:23,” Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men”. Therefore we have a high calling as followers of Christ in the field of counseling to use psychology and theology for the glory of God and for the equipping of the saints for His service.

As followers of Christ, I believe we also have a very different end goal in what we are trying to accomplish through our interactions with counselees. Christ has given us all a commission to go into all the world and make disciples. Therefore, in our lives as Christians, regardless of what we do, we should strive to make disciples of Christ or people who will walk closely to Him and desire to live life through His example. However, even as this is a calling on all of our lives, we are not called to focus on conversion in our counselee’s lives but to focus on being a helper to that person. This is the kaleo section of the paraklesis model where we focus on developing a relationship of openness and trustworthiness where the counselee can be “moved towards insight and growth”(van der Spuy, pg 52).

Another aim of Christian counseling is to help people grow into wholeness. But even our definition of wholeness would differ to that of secular counselors in that we would include a spiritual dimension with the measure of wholeness being the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:14-15). Spiritual growth and confession of sins must be included in a Christian counselors objectives as these are biblical mandates but also key in our desire to live healthy lives that are free from the burdens and pitfalls of sin.

I believe that as followers of Christ we have a high standard of holiness that is required of us. This calling to follow Jesus creates in us a completely different standard for dealing with many of the problems of life as well as creating a standard of sacrificial love and a way of thinking that completely changes our lifestyles. Where the aim of counseling in general is to help people deal with problems, change, grief, etc., and to be able to journey through those challenges well, the aim of Christian counseling, while having the aforementioned as a sub point, is to enable people to live the abundant life, and to serve God to their fullest potential. The spiritual dimension to Christian counseling does not limit the depth to which we can aid people, but in effect adds a separate responsibility to our methods and makes our end result a goal that is even more elevated. We are the image of Jesus to our world and this affects not only how we live and how we think, but also how we go about helping people in their time of need.And in order to truly be set apart in how we help people, dependence on the Holy Spirit and prayer are very essential and unique components to Christian counseling as well as using scripture as our standard and authority.

Lastly, we must look at the different models of Christian counseling and evaluate which models we can glean great information and methods from in order to be fully effective in the field. The model that I have chosen to critically evaluate is Tan’s biblically based model of counseling. Tan splits his model into three basic views: a basic view of humanity, a basic view of counseling, and basic principles or techniques of effective lay counseling.

The first important aspect to Tan’s model is the definition of counseling that he uses from Gary Collins:“Counseling can be defined as a relationship between two of more persons in which one person (the counselor) seeks to advice, encourage and/or assist another person or persons (the counselee[s]) to deal more effectively with the problems of life.” (Collins, 1972, pg.13) While I agree with the advising and assisting people to deal with the problems of life, I think that as Christian counselors, we must add in the Holy Spirit and spiritual wholeness into our definition as the Holy Spirit is our key source of wisdom in counseling and wholeness is the ultimate goal, not effectively dealing with the problems of life. These two things cannot be subtracted from our end goals or our definition.

Tan introduces His view on humanity as central to forming his biblically based model of counseling. I agree with most of Tan’s views of humanity, but I would add that we all have physical needs as well that can deeply impact our psychological and emotional needs.One of the first basic human needs Tan introduces is that we all have a deep need for spirituality and to have spirituality in our daily lives. There is also a proclivity to sin that each of us has which makes us dependent on an outside source for our redemption. I like that Tan does not make sin his proprium for Christian counseling because I strongly agree that not all suffering is a result of personal sin. I think that this changes how we approach problem behavior and problem thinking as it can be a factor, but it is not always the source.
In regards to Tan’s view on our basic need for acceptance and significance, I believe God has made us with a need for relationships as it mirrors who He is as a relational triune God (Genesis 1:26). So, there is a basic need for love and acceptance as well as emotional security. I also believe that God has not created us to just exist, but He has given each of us a specific purpose that is unique to only the individual and therefore we have a basic human need to find and live in that purpose.

Tan also says that there is an ultimate goal of humans to know and enjoy God and spiritual health (Tan, 1991, pg. 36).  I have seen this human need over and over again in my own life but also in the lives of others and I think that if we ignore this deep need in Christian counseling, that we will be leaving out a huge component to living a healthy life. In terms of practical approaches to counseling, Tan places a strong emphasis on the cognitive behavioral perspective. I think that getting to the root of our problem thinking can be key to allowing the Holy Spirit to bring change in our lives.  I also like that he acknowledges that a cognitive behavioral strategy might not always address the real issue but that there are also demonic and physical aspects to problems which must be considered in Christian counseling. I think that as long as we do not suppress possibilities for the causes of problems but constantly evaluate different causes, we can tackle the issue without neglecting the root.

There are many dimensions to a person including physical, emotional, social, and spiritual. My personal story here is of my brother, who is a big reason for my desire to study psychology and counseling. My brother has been diagnosed with many psychological issues including schizophrenia, bi-polar, and social anxiety disorders. Growing up with him, I know that he was involved in witchcraft and demonic activity as well as taking many mind-altering drugs. I am not sure if the psychologists who have assessed him have any faith at all, much less a belief in the demonic factors that can play into problem thinking and behavior. In my perspective, my brother’s situation has many biological, demonic, and cognitive-behavioral factors and, in order for him to be mentally healthy, we must address all of these. I think that another practical approach would be to look at wounds that were dealt to us in the past and how those wounds affect our thinking and our behavior. We deal with wounds in the organization that I work for, and it is powerful to see how God transforms men and women when they have actually dealt with some of the pain of the past. This concept of looking into the past, or inner healing is powerful and I don’t believe that we can neglect this as Christian counselors.

On the topic of the relationship between psychology and theology, Tan uses the integration of psychology and Christianity and it is based on three approaches, nounthetic counseling, people helping, and biblical counseling. I agree with the idea of nounthetic counseling being a main approach to Christian counseling because one of the main reasons I desired to study counseling is that the Lord has already used me many times in my position in J-Life to confront behavioral issues in our trainees. I think that healthy confrontation is something that is lacking in most of our churches today and that this has contributed to a large number of sins not being dealt with until they have done a lot of harm, or sometimes, not being dealt with at all. I believe that as Christians, we have a calling to each other to confront sins and to love each other enough to restore each other to righteousness, although I also believe that this should be done in humility and with much prayer so that we don’t think of our selves more highly than we ought to (Matthew 5:18, Galatians 6:1, Romans 12: 3).  I like that Tan uses nounthetic counseling as only a part of the whole approach because it leaves space to deal with the root of the sins so we are not just unveiling the sins. It also gives the freedom to listen, as seen in the people-helping approach, which sometimes is all people really need. In a sense I think people helping has its place in Christian counseling, but I would also steer away from making this a main focus because it can become too humanistic. If you take any of these approaches by themselves, they would be insufficient because each one to the extreme is very unbalanced and can be easily distorted to serve the counselor’s personal agendas. I think that a balance of Tan’s three approaches is the key to ministering most effectively.

Finally, Tan has 13 basic principles for effective lay counseling. I would like to discuss three of them in more detail. The first principle that I deeply agree with is that the relationship between the client and counselor must be authentic and caring. Relationships between the counselor and counselee are very important to the effectiveness of the counseling in general. In our organization it is very evident that the warmth and caring attitude of some of the staff makes the trainees much more willing to open up to them and seek their advice. If I do not have a great relationship with one of the girls that I am counseling, it takes much more time to get them to trust and open up to me. Warmth and compassion is key in forming paraklesis relationships. John Piper, in his article, Toward a Definition of the Essence of Biblical Counseling, says, “Biblical Counseling is done by a person who has a healthy awareness of his own emotions and those of others and what is being felt, even if not expressed, by himself and others” (Piper, 2001, pg. 1).  I would also say that if there is too much dependence on you as a counselor and on your relationship, the counseling would not be effective.

Another principle is that counseling involves a process of exploration, understanding, action phases, and changing of problem thinking. This model corresponds with van der Spy’s Paraklesis model in that there is a time for developing a relationship and exploring the issues, then a time of enlightenment into those issues, then periods of action to change the problem behaviors and problem thinking (van der Spuy, pg ). I mostly agree with these two models and believe that it is a dynamic process where the counselee might need to return to previous issues in order to fully sort out some new problem areas and then mature into wholeness. My mentality is that we tackle the issues with the wisdom and enlightenment God gives us for that time, and that we are always growing into wholeness; we will not achieve wholeness completely on earth (Romans 7:14-25).

The last principle I want to unpack is that cultural sensitivity and cross- cultural skills are required. I work in an organization that has trainees staying for four months on a training site from as many as 14 different countries. There are many cultural conflicts that we deal with during the four months and each time that we help our trainees sort things out, I learn something new about a value or way of communication that is different to my culture’s values and communication. The way people think, behave, and communicate is largely based on their cultural background. I believe that as counselors, we must be sensitive to these things especially as Christians because our God has made each of us unique and we do not want to cause psychological problems because of a different cultural value that is not necessarily scriptural.

The subject of Christian counseling and Christian psychology is constantly changing and growing and I have only skimmed the surface of the deep waters of these subjects. I believe that we have a very high calling to counsel one another to wholeness and fullness in Christ and we must not take this lightly (Ephesians 4:1). I pray that as we continue to strive for excellence in the field of psychology and counseling that we are constantly connected to and reminded of Him who is The Counselor and that we continue to live lives that are holy and set apart for the glory God.

Bibliography
1.)Collins, G.R. (1988) Christian counselling: a comprehensive guide. (Rev). Dallas: Word.
2.)Crabb, L.J. (1975) Basic principles of Biblical counselling. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
3.) Meier, P.D., Minirth, F.B. & Wichern, F. (1989) Introduction to psychology and counselling: Christian perspectives and applications. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
4.) Tan, S. (1991) Lay counselling: equipping Christians for a helping ministry. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
5.) Piper, J. (2001) Towards a Definition of the Essence of Biblical Counseling, page1. http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByTopic/81/1517_Toward_a_Definition_of_the_Essence_of_Biblical_Counseling/

We are back from our international escapades. Michelle returned from Spain on Saturday and I got back from Liberia on Tuesday. I was very close to being stuck in Liberia until Thursday, so we were very grateful to be together just in time to celebrate our 3 year wedding anniversary on Wednesday. This article is a summary of what I was up to there. The next blog, called “From Addis to Monrovia,” is some of my writing during the trip so it has more stories and moments.

Michelle’s parents were in Spain for a NASA conference, and they flew Michelle out to spend time with them while I was in Liberia. She had such a great time with them, and we are so thankful for how well it all worked out so that she was able to see them this year. Michelle traveled NASA style, staying in lovely hotels along the coast of Spain and France, and I traveled J-Life style, sleeping in a school classroom with 10 other guys. She says that her trip was amazing, but I think we all know that my trip was way better.

Seriously though, I think God used both of the trips in really cool ways.

Michelle and I are helping to get J-Life established in Liberia with a local guy, Trokon, who I’ve mentioned on this blog before. The trip I took is the 1st of 4 that we will do over the next 6 months or so. Here is a little update on what’s happening in Liberia:

When I landed at the Robertsfield International Airport, I thought we had made a wrong turn somewhere. The landscape looked like Vietnam: flat, green, hot, forests, palm trees. I almost expected to see some US Marines walking out of the bush with green face paint and branches attached to their fatigues. It’s now been 7 years since Liberia’s civil war ended, and although things are peaceful now, there is still a strong UN Peacekeeping presence in Monrovia, the capital city.

It doesn’t take long to figure out that 10 years of war has had a crippling impact on this already underdeveloped nation. There is no electricity grid in the country.  High ranking officials, businesses and even the airport have to make do by running generators if they want to use a computer or charge their cell phones.  Other basic infrastructures like plumbing systems are also non-existent.

But the war’s greatest legacy has to be in the education arena. Illiterate and semi-literate young adults experienced constant disruption in their schooling for many years, and today there are many adult high schools that run night classes to help people catch up. One of the guys on our training started primary school at the age of 18. He graduated just 7 years later and is now in his second year at seminary. Even today there are not nearly enough schools or qualified teachers to deal with the growing population, and many churches and ministries have opened private schools to cater for the children in their communities who would not otherwise have the chance to go to school.

It was at one of these schools where Trokon and I conducted the first J-Life training in Liberia. Some of the highlights:
• Seeing how well Trokon has carried the values of J-Life into the Liberian context. He is a great teacher as well, which allowed me to hand over to him quite a lot of the teaching responsibility.
• Trying to work all of our material into a totally new context was such a fun challenge. Despite the mosquitoes and the heat, I slept well every night!
• Teaching people who place such value on education. I would find them studying the material in the evenings and discussing it with one another.
• The location of our training was beautiful. We were about a 5 minute walk from the beach. With the lack of any modern distractions, I spent some good time in the water. I even met a South African on the beach who had an extra board for me to go out for a surf with him. He grew up about 10 minutes from me, and graduated from high school the same year as me from one of our rival high schools (Kearsney College).  He is working as the financial administrator for a nearby hotel.

There were also some challenges along the way.
• Most of the trainees only started arriving on Tuesday when we were scheduled to start on Monday. Trokon was pretty unhappy about that, but once we got rolling, it was ok.
• Travel in Africa is rough. I was delayed for about 20 hours in Addis Ababa on my way there. Then on my way back, I got to the airport in Monrovia and they told me my flight was canceled. So I was delayed another 24 hours and had to be rerouted through Ghana. For a little while, I thought I was going to be stuck in Monrovia from Sunday until Thursday, and would have missed being with Michelle for our anniversary! Thankfully, I got home in time.
• Although the people there have a great passion for young people, there is almost no youth ministry happening in Liberia, so we are really starting from the very beginning. I am confident that Trokon, along with some of the other guys we have identified as potential partners in the ministry, will be able to start a movement of disciplemaking among the youth of Liberia.

The students now have 6 weeks to try to implement what they have learned before I head back there with Michelle to do 2 more weeks of training with the same group. I will be really glad to have Michelle with me there next time. With her doing some of the training, I will have more time to work with guys one-on-one.

I really feel like this is some of the most impactful work we have done in 3 years of J-Life and I can’t wait to get back there again! At the same time, our colleague, Bhuti Kheswa, is working through the same process in Zanzibar. That is the first predominately Muslim country for J-Life to work in.

We are so excited to be part of raising up young leaders who will do things differently than in the past because they follow Jesus. We appreciate your prayer and support.
Also, we are still looking for some sponsors to help finish the funding of this project, so if you would like to be part of it, please get hold of us!

Cheers
Miah

So while I was in Monrovia I spent some time writing about my day to day experiences. I emailed all this to Michelle and she felt like I should put it on the blog… it includes some more detailed stories and challenges. Enjoy!

I sat down on the airport before takeoff and realized I didn’t have my passport. I got my bags down and looked through them… nothing. I started to freak out… looking on the floor, crawling around the plane. Finally, I told the air hostess and some of the other passengers. All these guys were looking around for me. They told me to go out of the plane to the boarding gate and ask there, nothing… sweat dripping from my forehead. In my brain I’m trying to decide if I’m going to get off the plane or not. I’m 90% sure my passport is on the plane but if it’s not I’m going to be in Addis without a passport! Then some Italian or South American guy comes running down the aisle with my flight center packet! “Hey Rasta, here it is.”
“Where was it?”
“That lady pulled it out from under her, she was sitting on it.”
An Ethiopian woman in her 70s had been sitting on my passport the whole time. Crazy!

In the process of figuring out the visa and the hotel I met Welleh, a Liberian man who had representing Liberia for the Street Children World Cup in South Africa. He runs a non-profit of some sort here. I may try to connect with him again some time. He was very helpful and cool. The Ghanaians who were being delayed were going crazy at the airport. Yelling and singing at the Ethiopian Airlines people. It was crazy, and the cops just watched them, didn’t do anything.

Addis is not as overwhelming as Yaoundé, and I would say it is slightly more developed. The architecture is very similar but the people are very different of course. It was great to see a few people running on the streets in the early morning. It seems likes everybody is a hustler though, everyone wants to “help” you on the street.  I did manage to find some injera at a restaurant for lunch. I paid about $3 and I couldn’t even eat half of it so I gave it to some shoe cleaning kids on the street.

You get a lot of attention in Addis; people were totally intrigued with me. Of course most people called me Rasta, but I did get “David Villa” as well, because of my soul patch! Yes!

I tried a Cappuccino in the hotel bar while going over my notes for the training and it wasn’t good at all, so I left the hotel again and found a great coffee shop where people were just chilling drinking macchiato and Fanta. They were just relaxed and happy, the shop sold very little food while I was there, it was all about the coffee. I have to say it was one of the most sophisticated coffee shop experiences in Africa. I started reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns” and listened to the Amharic around me. Cappuccinos were about $0.40 so I ended up drinking 4 of them through the afternoon.

Then I went back to the hotel, and went down to watch the soccer. There was also a cool couple from Cape Town doing some traveling in Ethiopia. They were going to watch the final on the big screen in Addis the next day with a concert beforehand. I said I would probably try to go with them if I was still stuck there.  I thought I might be there the whole next day as well but my phone rang at 3:30am to say that the bus was leaving for the airport in 25 minutes.

I finally got to Liberia and used someone’s phone to call Trokon. They picked me up with a guy from the church who has a car and took me to Patrick’s house where there was a room set up for me. We made some plans for the next day then went to the church to watch the World Cup final. About 150 people came to watch on a small tv. They were very loud and I was super tired. I fell asleep on my chair but caught a second wind for the rest of the match. Then walked back to Patrick’s place to sleep. I was definitely in “new adventure euphoria” at that stage. Everything was just very unique and cool.

This place is very undeveloped, probably the craziest place I’ve stayed, but it’s awesome. I go back and forth from feeling “man this place is tough” to “this is paradise.” There is no sewerage system, no electricity network, no middle class. It’s just very poor, everything is unfinished, unpainted. But the beach is a couple minutes walk from the church. You can hear the waves when we stand outside the church. That makes it very cool.

We spent the day shopping for all the food and getting mattresses from a warehouse downtown, run by a Lebanese guy. And Trokon was right, he does speak very clearly compared to most Liberians. Understanding people is a real challenge. But all in all, I’m loving it. I get so stoked every morning I wake up here, even though I’ve been chewed alive by mosquitoes, and my sheets are drenched with sweat. I really feel like this is significant ministry! And being able to encourage Trokon and continue moulding him, Hannah and Patrick for this ministry is so cool. They are really what this country needs! I’m very determined to see that J-Life Liberia is a success.
I gotta hit the sack, I have my mosquito net up now, so hopefully I will get some more sleep tonight. It’s time to turn off the generator as well.

We are well into training. Yesterday I went to the room to read at 5pm and I suddenly felt super tired. It was like the adrenaline suddenly wore off and the stress of the new place, new culture, and daily training finally hit me!
The food today was little rough: Foofoo with palm oil (with fish, crab, and pork fat) for lunch and then plantain soup for dinner. They also made a tea with lemongrass and some “maringu” leaves from a tree here and condensed milk. It was weird. Everything tastes about the same… something like shrimp. I’ve actually enjoyed the food up until today. There is a lady nearby who bakes great banana bread that we’ve had in the mornings a couple of times.

I would say the training is going pretty well. I think I work pretty well with Trokon. He has done quite a bit of lecturing already and he is doing a really good job. Although he’s quite an introvert, he really does a good job in building the community as well. Hannah is great and so is Trokon’s ministry partner, Patrick. The trainees can be a bit dull in lectures but things do happen that make me think they take the training seriously. For one, they constantly tell me things they are learning, and today (after teaching the Vision section about how leaders are readers) everybody has been reading tons of books that we got from the church.

There was super hectic rain today and it actually got a bit cold. I didn’t swim the ocean today for the first time since Sunday because of the cold. The beaches are nicer than I expected and the water feels great after a long day of lectures.

You can really see how the war has affected people here. Some of the guys on training are semi-literate, but at least they speak English so I am able to help them. We are starting Strategy in the morning. I really hope its not too intense for these guys and that they are able to catch the basic principles and not be overwhelmed by the detail. But seriously, the rain here is crazy, so intense

It’s Saturday night now, a full day of teaching Strategy. It was intense getting around the new material and I was exhausted by the end of it, so glad for a day off tomorrow, you have no idea. I’ve also been really encouraged to hear a lot of guys saying how impactful the training has been so far. A couple guys went into the community today and came back with gifts for me (mangos and biscuits)… so cool.

I suggested that we go and have some worship on the beach. Wow… so cool. Liberian worship is a lot like the Ugandan music. A lot of the guys said they had never been on the beach at night. It’s like 24 degrees but a lot of them were complaining about the cold! Rocking the winter coats! The moment the breeze picks up, they call that cold.

War Stories

It’s Monday night, week 2 of training. I’ve been getting little bits of information about the war. They don’t say much about it here but when we did testimonies everyone’s story had a section that started with “When the war started” and then continued “My father passed away” or “my family was separated” or “we moved to Ivory Coast.”
Pastor Matthew also told me some stories about the war on our walk. He was talking about how there was a food shortage: “You would just find people eating grass or wading through these swamps looking for something to eat. It was so pathetic.” He also told his near death experience: “Soldiers broke into the house and were collecting things. I was walking in the hallway and I froze. The leader of the group ordered one of the men to shoot me. He pointed the gun at me and then he slowly lowered it and then they left. I can only say that God protected me because those men were not merciful.”

We talking today about hanging out with youth you are mentoring and Patrick said that he could take one of the youth to the zoo. “You have a zoo here?” – It just doesn’t strike me as a city that would have a zoo. “Oh yes,” says Patrick, “there is a zoo. But there’s no animals.” Then someone else chimes in: “They ate them all during the war.” Super.

I learned something interesting yesterday. Hannah was telling me how the guys are not going to want to go home because of all the food they have been eating. “Are they eating better here than they would at home?”
“Oh yes, in Liberia we only eat one meal a day.”

So that’s how I figured out why they eat so much at lunch, because it is typically their only meal. So we are going to probably have to work a plan to cut down on the food a little bit to save money. I’m working with Trokon for that. The other problem is that because guys eat so much at lunch (together with the heat in the afternoon) it’s a struggle for guys to stay awake. So I think we might do something like a snack at 11am and then the big meal after lectures at 3, then odd jobs and sports at 5.

It’s Thursday afternoon. It’s sticky and hot today. I spent the whole morning going to town with Hannah because she needed to buy some extra food stuff. So it was another trip to “THE ATM” of Liberia.  Seriously, there is one ATM in this country. Hannah left me with her mom who sells purses and backpacks while she did the shopping. I did a little exploring and bought some gunpowder tea from a Malian’s shop. When I was standing there with it this guy obviously figured I could speak French since I had gunpowder tea. He was from Ivory Coast and couldn’t speak English. So I fumbled through a 20 minute conversation with him in French. That was my highlight of the day so far.

Last night I chatted to Trokon and started asking about his goals for the next months and year. That was really encouraging to hear his passion for this and how much he wants to move forward. We decided today that Trokon would help them more with the implementation which he is doing right now. He’s doing a mini “programming to Strategy” and I think its really helping.

Today I tried to explain a task a few times and the guys were not getting me. Finally they asked Trokon to come and explain it in “Liberian English” – I love it!