Liberia, Here We Come Again!

Wow! I can hardly believe that it has been nearly 7 months since I last made an entry on this blog!  You're right... that was way too long for you to wait for an update on PROJECT BUCHANAN.

However, I am happy to report that building construction on the new school property in Liberia has indeed begun!  Over the next few days I hope to "fill you in" with both words and pictures...

Here in Colorado, another year in the classroom has ended for Paula and me.  Now at last we can get out the old suitcases and start packing for our summer 2010 trip to Liberia!  That's right!  Exactly one month from today, we should be en route on a flight from Brussels to Monrovia. We can hardly wait to be on our way "back home" again!
 Since January we have been making plans to spend this summer in Liberia (just as we did last year).  Now at last we have our tickets and are starting to get really excited!  We are scheduled to leave Denver on June 24... and return on August 5.

We want to thank our many friends and supporters across the United States and Canada who are interested in PROJECT BUCHANAN and who have so generously helped to make our 6-week visit to Liberia this summer possible.

The Project Site in Buchanan!

NOTE: You can left-click on any picture to enlarge it and/or view all the photos as a slideshow.

This Google Earth satellite photo of the Buchanan area shows the locations of the two Pillar properties, which are about a mile and a half apart.  The Atlantic Ocean, which is not far away, can be seen at the bottom left. Also note the shallow bodies of water toward the top of the photo--these are arms of the slow-moving Benson River system that drains this low-lying coastal region and eventually flows into the ocean (off the photo) to the northwest.
 
This is a closer view of the PROJECT BUCHANAN property, a 9.6-acre peninsula of undeveloped land, covered with grass and low coastal scrub. The useable west-to-east length of the land is approximately 1000 feet.

Two days after we arrived in Buchanan, Paula and I walked up the road with Gabriel to see the new land...  I was the photographer on this trip, so I didn't get into too many of the pictures!

After a 40-minute hike from Gabriel's home, we finally arrived at the property.

We stopped for a few moments at the southwest corner, ...
 

... then we walked further along the shore to another lookout over the water.

 From a higher location on the land, this view southeast over the river and the surrounding mangrove wetland is magnificent!

We noticed immediately that there were termite hills almost everywhere!

In fact I counted no fewer than 55 separate termite mounds on the property!
 

We expect no particular threat to our buildings.  In the tropics the ubiquitous termite is usually taken into account and special construction is used to minimize the impact of these potentially destructive insects!  Termite hills can actually be very useful as a source of earth material for making tough weather-resistant "dirt blocks".  We may want to consider using this type of block in the construction of the smaller buildings on campus.
 

As you have already seen in the satellite photos above, a sizable portion of this property is covered with low trees and scrub.  On the ground this dense vegetation made it difficult for us to determine the best locations for buildings and other campus components (such as a soccer field and other sports facilities).  After going to town to purchase an ax, several machetes (known as "cutlasses" in Liberia), and a few other hand tools, we asked Gabriel to hire several young men to start "brushing" (clearing) the land.  By doing this, we hoped that the "up's and down's" of the west-to-east "ridge" of the peninsula would be easier to see.

By midday everyone was ready for lunch...
 

... and for some "time out" to sharpen cutlasses.

 

For several days the team worked very hard, ...
 

... including Emmanuel Sieh, who is a senior high student at the Pillar school in Buchanan.

 

This is the view eastward as one enters the west end of the property.  Here we hope to build a house that will serve as a residence for a Pillar teacher's family as well as a security place for the storage of construction materials and tools.  Farther onto the property, you can see where palm trees and other vegetation will have to be cleared to make room for the soccer field.
 

A west-to-east distance of about 250 feet along the top of the ridge was found to be fairly level and, in my opinion, would be the most suitable location for the construction of the two 2-story school buildings that have been proposed, as well as a small auditorium between them. We tied small white plastic bags in the trees to indicate the approximate locations of the back corners of one of the two classroom buildings.
 

Even further east, beyond the school buildings, there is room for a basketball court.
 

This area in front (south) of the school will require further clearing and some landscaping.
 

Down the same slope from the school is this lower shelf of flat land. I anticipate a simple road entering the property from the west and winding along this southern side of the peninsula. "Hey, Paula! Wait for me! I'm just trying to get another picture!"
 

A few guest cabins could be built on the far eastern point of the peninsula (seen above) and be rented out to visitors in order to help with operational and maintenance costs.
 

In this final Google Earth satellite photo of the PROJECT BUCHANAN property, I have sketched in my suggested layout for the campus. Of course this proposal is provisional and may have to be modified as we move forward with construction (hopefully in January 2010).

At Home with the Tequahs!

NOTE: You can left-click on any picture to enlarge it for better viewing.
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Our trip to Liberia at the beginning of the summer did not start exactly as we had expected. We had been booked on a new nonstop flight to Africa, but then last-minute ticket changes were necessary, routing us through Europe and extending our travel time considerably. Then, the day we left Denver, there were afternoon thunderstorms in the New York City area which delayed our arrival there and we missed our connecting flight to Brussels! We managed to reach Liberia on Friday July 10, two days later than we were originally scheduled to arrive. Pillar Missions Field Director Luther Tarpeh met us at the airport and took us to Paynesville near Monrovia, where we spent the first weekend with our friends, Sam and Tabitha Walker.

On Tuesday Luther drove us from Monrovia southeast to Buchanan. The 90-mile trip "down the coast" was a slow and torturous ride over a road that is badly in need of repaving. (Thankfully a Chinese company has already started the job.) Since Luther wanted to return to Monrovia the same day, he immediately convened a short meeting with Gabriel Tequah (principal of the Pillar school in Buchanan) and Joseph Dedegaa (director of Pillar churches, who had come in from River Cess), so that we could explain the purpose of our visit to Liberia, particularly with respect to PROJECT BUCHANAN.

We spent the next few weeks in Buchanan with Martha and Gabriel (above), enjoying their hospitality and reminiscing on our past years of ministry together. Once again we were working together, but this time our focus was on PROJECT BUCHANAN and our plans for a better future for Pillar Mission's Christian school ministry in Liberia!

The school year had just ended for them (as it had for us in the States), and Gabriel was able to relax and share with Paula both the joys and the challenges of his work with the young people in the school. There is nothing quite like spending a late African afternoon out in the yard, casually visiting with friends in the shade of the old mango tree!

Most evenings a small gasoline generator provided a little light while we talked or sat around playing Skip-Bo until midnight. After that, the African nights were as dark and as quiet as we remembered them when we lived in Liberia years ago.

But then as each new day dawned, the town would quickly come back to life with the sounds of neighbors on all sides, some fetching water from the well and getting children ready for the day, others getting started with the day's laundry, and still others heading off to the market or cooking a little food on an open pot of hot coals. (How we loved the fried ripe plantain and the palm-butter rice with fresh ocean fish!)

Elijah (top right) is a student at the Pillar high school in Buchanan. He is also an apprentice to a local jeweler and makes some jewelry himself in several distinctively African stylings. One afternoon he came over to show Paula and Martha a few silver necklaces he was hoping to sell.

Remember young Elwain (Gabriel's little nephew) from my January trip pictures? This time he was quite shy.

.But he was just as adorable as ever, whether he was eating his midday meal of rice ...

... or "practicing" a rhythm on his plastic-bottle "drum"!

It is for the postwar children of Liberia, like Elwain and his friends who gathered on the front steps of his home one afternoon, that we have embarked on PROJECT BUCHANAN.

What a difference a quality Christ-centered education will make in Elwain's life! And with this education, what a difference he will be able to make for his country!

We're Back from Liberia!

NOTE: You can left-click on any picture to enlarge it for better viewing.
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Yes, we're back! In fact, we got back to Denver the middle of August, just when the school year here in Colorado was starting to "gear up". So I've been busy the last couple of weeks getting my science classes underway at Belleview Christian School (here in Westminster where I teach) and writing up a formal report of our trip for Pillar Missions.
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The primary purpose of our five-week trip to Liberia this summer was to move PROJECT BUCHANAN forward by putting together a comprehensive plan for its development over the next few years. On this trip our work was to include a study of the property’s topography, the creation of a possible campus layout, the development of a phase-by-phase building plan, and the structuring of a project management team.

Certainly we were hoping that our extended time in Liberia would also allow us to reconnect with our friends and be an encouragement to them. We wanted to become better acquainted with their needs and try to understand, in particular, the postwar challenges of the Christian school ministry in Buchanan.

As a science teacher, I felt that one way I could help the school in Buchanan was to take over some simple science lab equipment and show the science teachers in Buchanan how it could be used to enhance their classes. Finally ...

I knew that I would likely be asked to be the special speaker at several churches on the Sundays we would be in Liberia. I hoped to be able to use my knowledge of “Liberian English” and the Bassa language to connect with young people who might be wondering how God could use them to help Liberia.
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Our five weeks in Liberia went by so quickly, but a lot was accomplished. In my next few posts to this blog, I want to bring you up to date on PROJECT BUCHANAN and the progress that has been made toward getting building construction started on the new land. Liberia is currently in the heaviest part of the rainy season along the West African coast, but by November the dry season will be returning and outdoor work will need to begin in earnest.

A "Widescreen" View of the World!

Not so long ago, just about everyone still had a "full screen" TV--you know, the kind with the bulging glass tube and the squarish 4:3 (width-to-length) picture.  I can remember when I would carefully avoid purchasing "widescreen" videos, because I did not want to give up any part of my full-screen picture to those horizontal black bars above and below the picture!

Today most of us are happy that technology has taken a giant leap forward and given us "wide screen"--flat screen, plasma, and LCD TVs--with the picture in high definition and much larger than the old cathode ray tube could have ever hoped to produce!  But alas, I now have a different problem!  If my favorite DVDs are in the old 4:3 "full-screen" format (and most of the Gaither DVDs are!), I must make a choice.  I can distort the picture horizontally so that it does fill the screen--and also make everyone look fat!--or I must endure those two vertical black bars on either side of the so-called full-screen picture!

I suspect that "widescreen" is here to stay, simply because it matches reality better!  It's not just the way we prefer to watch TV, it's the way we view the world!  While reading the Bible, I noticed that Paul, that great and passionate missionary of the New Testament, also had a "widescreen" view of his world.  And--get this!--it actually can be viewed in 16:9--I Corinthians 16:9, that is!  There Paul wrote: "...a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries" (NASB).  He recognized what every missionary since his time has discovered to be true.  On the one hand, there is unbelievable opportunity and we must do what we can; but on the other, there is unbelievable opposition and we must depend on God to do the part we cannot.

A few weeks ago Paula and I took the cog railway to the top of Pike's Peak.  At 14,110 feet, we certainly had a "wide-screen" view of Colorado!  Tomorrow evening we will be in Liberia where we will have, not just a wider view of the real world, but also "a wide door for effective service."

Here in Colorado, it is already 2 AM!  In just a few hours, Paula and I will be heading for the airport with our heavy suitcases, and then we will be lifting off to begin our much anticipated five-week visit to Liberia!  Our passion is to see an expanded Christian school established in Buchanan.  In a country emerging from war, the opportunity to meet a need by giving education to its young people seems so obvious!

We certainly want to thank all our friends who have rallied behind us in recent weeks--and even in these last few days, I might add--and have made our trip financially possible!  We also want to thank all of you in advance for your prayers as we go, because only God sees the opposition that is invisible to us and knows what to do about it!