So Animal Kingdoms Safari ride always has seemed a little exaggerated...not the case... Today I took the bumpiest ride of my life which latest about 5 hours to a village called Pim Pam in Robertsport, Liberia. On the way there, we went through about 4 counties, some of which seemed to have only one little hut. There were a ton of cows, but the skinniest I have ever seen.
When we arrived we went straight to work and painted a house that will be used for the living space of a evangelist and for Church services. "House" is not what Americans would picture, though this "house" is nicer than most.
While driving around I saw poverty like you would not believe. Some children were screaming "white women" and some, I think were blowing kisses.
What is strange about his poor poor place, is that it is at the same time the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Gods beauty can not be tampered with...proof He is truly amazing. it was like a silver lining to this impoverished place... Today I put my feet in the same ocean that I do every summer in the Outer Banks, this time I was just on the other side of that ocean. This water was so warm and the beach so clean and undeveloped. The entire beach only had about twenty people on it.
After our drive around Robertsport, we went straight back to work, and sweat rolled down me in this African heat and my body began to look more like red than white from the ridiculous amounts of paint that some how ended up on me instead of the house. More than once men said to us, "you work like a African," which I took as a BIG compliment.
A lady from the village named Ma-Mi and her baby son came up the hill we were on to help. She worked real hard and cooked for us - I felt awful I was not able to get much down. I would imagine Ma-Mi weighed only about 85 or 90 pounds. hard to know if it was from the lack of food or the large amounts of labor she does on a daily basis, as a single mom.
You would not believe the work these people did. They cut down trees...with a blade! From the tree we gathered palm nuts and golden plums. Both of these I thoroughly enjoyed.
When we were going to bed (about 7pm because the sun went down and there are no lights) we set up a mosquito net on the cement floor, leaving the boarded windows open for air, until our friend Emmanuel came in and said, "shut the windows so the..." About this time the biggest spider in the world crawled in scaring us all. I would imagine it was about 6 inches long and 6 inches wide (not including its legs). We chased it around until it was dead. My mom would have cried!
Speaking of my mom, today was hard for me because she had surgery and I have worried a lot, hating every second that I was not with her. Trusting God He has it under control, and thanking Him for giving me peace.
This is a Scripture that I saw painted on a building today, which was extremely encouraging. I am believing that God will take away my worry and fear... I assure you He is doing that for me!
"I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, 'May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart." -Matthew 11:23
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