Breathe deeply

This evening, after spending a full day visiting the school, the Mother Ellen Harley Children's home, and several churches, we made a list of adjectives describing our trip so far. Here are some:

Overwhelming
Exhausting
Hot and sticky
Discouraging
Infuriating
Heartbreaking
Hopeful
Purposeful

A cloud filled sky, a hazy heat, and yet wisps of brilliant sunlight breaking through the weight of the air. This is how Liberia feels to me. I have spent the evening retreating into the make believe world of a novel, and in that escape I have found the air to breathe freely again. To face all those beautiful children, look into their bright eyes and find hope. To recognize progress made, and not feel paralyzed with all that remains.

God is good, "and I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in [Liberia] will carry it on to completion" (Phil 1:6).

I am thankful to have been able to participate, even for a moment, in that process.

Purposeful Perspiration

We have done a lot of sweating the last few days! They have been days full of purpose and meaning.
Each morning we met with about 75 teachers, from both our school and others, for professional development. Some of them spent hours each way getting into town and back again, because traffic has gotten so bad. What commitment they have shown!
I have really been humbled to think of all these teachers have come through, to think that I have something of value to share. We worked well as a team though.
We have covered topics from critical thinking and project based learning to classroom management and Bible in the classroom. With our connecting idea of the Environment and cleaning up garbage in Liberia it all worked together. They were very excited by the pictures Lake George students created in Photoshop to show what their community could look like if the trash was cleaned up. It was great to see some of their creative minds ignite with vision for how they could grow their classroom strategies.

After these exciting mornings we took a short break and then headed into the library to get it ready for students to really use the books. It was very discouraging to see the layers of dust collecting on these beautiful books, but it has really come together, and tomorrow we will open it up to train teachers and students on how to really use them. We have pocketed, labelled, and leveled 919 books!
I cannot wait to share pictures with you all of the before and after. It will be such a blessing to see kids in there tomorrow.

Sustaining a Vision

Wow! We went to visit James at the Green Center today, and all left awestruck by his vision and purpose. He has such a clear mission for the young people of Liberia, to participate in bringing about improvement and change for their country. He talked about all of the six components of the Green Center:
1. Composting (the most critical piece)
2. Recyclables
3. Production
4. Application of composting
5. Motor oil (reuse)
6. Educating youth

He has a social and economic mission for young people to find jobs in improving the health of Liberia.
He agreed to visit the school here and share his vision with the teachers and students. We hope to see real application of the concept of sorting, composting, and recycling. As James said, we must attach value to waste, so that people will be inspired to do something about it.
We did take lots of pictures and even recorded part of our interview with him, which I will share when I am back home and have strong enough access.
Such an inspiring visit!

Safe Travels

We have arrived in Monrovia, Liberia! The trip was long, but very smooth. All of the airline checkpoints went very quickly, with no stops. Even the airport here in Liberia was super organized. There is real growth happening here! Tomorrow we are hoping to visit the Green Center and meet James, the young visionary who is running the center.
Thank you to everyone who prayed for our safe travels, and who have been thinking about the team.
Now we are going to quite literally crash into bed. Sweet dreams all.

Amazing Photos

One of the things Lake George students have created for our teaching time in Liberia are retouched pictures, to show the difference it would make in the community to clean up the garbage.  We will use these as we train teachers to teach using projects, and incorporate real world experiences in their classrooms, focusing on the concept of sanitation, recycling, and environmental concerns.

These are some of the before and after photos.  Aren't these students amazing?

Crunch Time!

It is almost here, and packing is in full swing!  Thank you so much to everyone who has donated school supplies.  They really do make a huge difference.  If anyone would still like to donate any items please have them to one of the team (Dusty Johnson, Kellie Girling, or Sarah Olson) by Tuesday, or at the very latest Wednesday morning, so that we can get them all in.

Our plan is to prepare about 350 school supply bags for the children in The King's School Monrovia, and hand them out to the kids during their assembly day.  Traditionally they have prepared a day of songs and recitations for us, to show their appreciation for us coming, and then a game of football (soccer to us Americans) in the afternoon of course.  We want to show them how much we love them with a little gift that they can use.

Thank you again to everyone who has shown such support for this trip.  Stay tuned for news on our teacher training themes, which I will share soon (maybe on the flight, which may be the next moment I have to sit down and write).