FSM 336 CM/FM

01/99

Copyright © 1999 by The Family

This magazine is for those who are 16 and up, though most parts can be read with younger ones at parents' or teachers' discretion.

See GNs 824 and 825, "Reaching Africa the Right Way," ML #3217.

By Aaron, Phoebe, and Heidi, Africa

The Forgotten War

What is Liberia like? A country totally destroyed by civil war that has been on again off again for the last eight years. Talk with anyone in Liberia, and the conversation will soon lead to traumatic first-hand accounts of horror, cruelty and heartbreaking loss. Because of the fighting, the nation has reverted to Stone Age conditions of chaos, killing and even cannibalism. The war erupted again briefly but violently on April 6, 1998.The situation deteriorated quickly. Buildings across Monrovia (the capital and largest city of Liberia) were destroyed by fire and shelling. Scores of families suffered greatly; fathers and mothers, sons and daughters were killed; people throughout the city died of starvation.

Liberia's Recent History

Liberia was founded in 1822 by freed slaves who were sent to their native land by the American Colonization Society. For years the country's political system was controlled by the descendants of these slaves, Americo-Liberians, who comprise about 5% of the population. However, discontent among the native 95%, largely due to economic troubles, led to the end of this US-allied government. A group of military men from the indigenous population killed the Americo-Liberian President William Tolbert in a coup April 12, 1980, and installed a young sergeant, Samuel Doe, as president. Doe subsequently imprisoned and killed many of his opponents.

A rebellion against Doe's government in 1989 led to a bloody civil war in 1990, with groups divided along tribal lines. Following is a summary of the current situation from the CIA World Factbook.

"Years of civil strife have destroyed much of Liberia's economic infrastructure, made civil administration nearly impossible, and brought economic activity virtually to a halt. The deterioration of economic conditions has been greatly exacerbated by the flight of most business people with their expertise and capital.

"Civil order ended in 1990 when President Samuel Kenyon Doe was killed by rebel forces. In April 1996, when forces loyal to faction leaders Charles Ghankay Taylor and Alhaji Kromah attacked rival ethnic Krahn factions, the fighting further damaged Monrovia's dilapidated infrastructure.

"Fighting waned in late May 1996, allowing West African peacekeepers to regain control of Monrovia. The Abuja II peace accord was signed in August 1996 replacing the Chairman of the ruling Council of State, Wilton Sankawulo, with Ruth Perry."

Family members first visited Liberia in the latter part of 1996 when Aaron and Josh stopped in the capital, Monrovia, for a week during a tour of West African countries. Over a year later, Family members were invited by an NGO [1] in Liberia to come and help get four schools for orphans open and running in a two-month period. The NGO was providing a grant of US$90,000 to run the schools for one school year. (See GN 824 for more on this project in Liberia.) [1] NGOs are non-governmental organizations, usually charities.

In August 1998, Aaron, his two children Jason and Elia, and Phoebe arrived from

Nigeria. Within a week they were joined by a team from Gambia, Joe and Charity. Then in the next weeks the rest of the team came—Heidi, Dan, Susy, Liz, Simon, Chad—a total of 12 of us. We were to remain for two months.

We have experienced so many new things here. Having already been living in Africa, we were used to taking precautions with food and water, etc. But in Liberia, the situation is much more intense. Cholera is an everyday disease here and malaria is at an all-time high, hitting people here with some of the worst cases in Africa.

Although we had worked on many CTP projects in Africa, this situation was new for us as we had never before worked directly with so many of the large NGOs, nor with a NGO that was asking for our help to do the job. Efficiency is a word that is important for them, and the more we prayed and found ways to streamline their requests or the big jobs that they asked us to do, the better things went and the happier they were with us.

Setting Up the Schools—Millennial Training!

Our assignment was to create four schools virtually from nothing—one in Monrovia and three outside. Three of them had buildings; one of them didn't. All were in very poor shape and we had to take care of the renovation of these buildings. In the Monrovia School we painted Family educational murals up and down the staircase.

Two of the schools were in an area called Mamba Civil Compound, which is about an hour and a half outside of Monrovia. One of the schools is located on the main road, the other one's in the bush. When I say "in the bush," I mean really in the bush! You need a four-wheel-drive vehicle to get there, and every time we've gone, the car has driven into mud up to the doors. One time the mud even went up past the doors and we had to be pushed out by a strong Liberian man who happened to be passing through the jungle at the moment.

For the bush school, we got together with the entire community in the area.—All the leaders for the region were there as well as many parents that were giving their time to help build this school, which is the only one for miles around. It was so special to see these men who've been through so much, and who, because of the war now recognize the priority of working to build the school, with nothing to gain except the good of their children.

Selling the community on pitching in, working together, and sacrificing to help their children learn and grow was exciting. It gave us a real taste of what our job will be like in the millennium. It was clear that our training in organization and people-handling is going to be a key and strength in the soon-coming millennial future. We felt a special love for the people here in Liberia who have gone through so much.

Working alongside the educational department representative for that region, we interviewed 25 teachers but were only able to hire seven. A lot of people came saying that they are educated or that they have experience teaching, but you could tell by the things they did whether this was true or not. The educational representative told us that an uneducated Liberian who comes for an interview will just come and sit down. If they've had education, they'll wait for you to invite them to sit down.

We would ask them simple questions, such as "What is a teacher's log? What is math? What is grammar? How would you control a classroom?" Even setting up a mock classroom with us as students and them trying to control us was a way of discerning whether a teacher had the kind of experience we were looking for.

Excerpt from Phoebe's Log About Job Interviews for the Schools:

We went out to Margibi today to interview the teachers and others to work at the school. Resumés had been collected from the various ones who wanted to apply, so we took some time to go over the resumés to assess each one and to make sure that each person was worth interviewing. Then we began our interviews, calling in one person at a time, with different ones of us asking questions. Out of the eight people interviewed, only three passed the test.

This village is way out in "boonie-land," and the people are quite simple and uneducated. Some of them can't even spell or write properly. All in all, it was quite interesting to experience this and to see what a need there is for education and training.

We interviewed two watchmen. Both of them had worked for a big company before, so they were used to receiving a lot more money than we have to offer, but jobs are so scarce that they seemed willing to take the job anyway.

We also interviewed about seven cooks. Every one of them claimed to be able to cook anything under the sun! We even asked them about dishes from other countries and they all claimed that they could do them. Half of them could not speak English, of course, or write their own name. Several of them were practically in tears asking for the job. I asked several of the cooks what kind of cakes they could bake, and they said, "Name a few and we'll tell you which ones we can bake."

So we had to very prayerfully interview each applicant and follow the Lord's leading as to who to hire, as you sure could not judge a book by its cover.

The School Organization

Mary, the principal of the school in the bush, is a real saint. She moved from Monrovia to the bush site, and the community there built her a special hut. Living there is like going back hundreds of years, but she loves the children so much that she's laying down her life for them. She's created a whole world with her school and the entire village revolves around it. Not only that, she's become the leader there in that village because they recognize that out of love she's giving them something that they need. This has created the respect that all in the village feel for her.

Gloria is the principal in another of the schools we set up. She's a very gentle, sweet lady who also loves the children very much. There are no other schools for miles around, and many kids that are over sixteen, even seventeen or eighteen, haven't had first-grade classes. We took some of these older kids into the upper classes even though they had had little previous schooling, and gave them afternoon tutoring.

This project has been very difficult and very different from anything we've been used to, as we are actually hiring the teachers and staff. It's unlike most situations where the Family comes in and assists. In this case we were not just the helpers but also the administrators, setting it all up from scratch. This gave us a lot to work on, as we found that any mistakes on our part very much affected the schools and the lives of the staff. If we were not on time with paychecks, for example, or getting the food to the schools for the daily meals, there would be big repercussions.

One problem we faced was that since the admission is free, so many parents wanted their kids to go to the school. There were also relatives of children who'd lost their parents who also wanted these children to be able to attend. We couldn't take them all, but how could we turn them away? There were so many decisions like this to make, so instead of making them ourselves, we pushed them down to the level of the principals. We gave them the opportunity to pray and decide what was best in each situation. (See section "Leadership—Teaching Them to Hear from and Follow the Lord" on page 8.)

To set up an infrastructure that would insure the schools would continue to work after we were gone, we also hired and trained two counselors to supervise the schools on a rotational schedule—an educational counselor and a Christian counselor. Their job is very important, as they'll visit the schools on a regular basis and make sure that they're up to par in the education department as well as on the Christian side.

The job of the Christian counselor will be to go in and spend time teaching classes to the schools, somewhat like an evangelist. He will also spend time with each individual child, especially those that are going through troublesome times, often the result of their experiences in the war.

Real-life Testimonies from Liberian Children

(Warning: Some graphic details. Not to be read to children.)

We interviewed over 750 children who were registering for the school. Their sad, traumatic and gut-wrenching tales often brought us to tears. The young and innocent are the most tragic casualties of war.

Below are some of the testimonies the children gave when we interviewed them. We share this with you not to drag you through the terrors of the war, but to break your hearts for these little ones, to help you keep them in your prayers and to help us all continually look to the Lord for peace-not only in Liberia but in other African countries that are experiencing the horrors of war.

(Editor's note: We were wondering whether the Lord would want us to publish such sad and graphic tales of the atrocities of war for you, our Family, as we wouldn't want to cause anyone to fear or be disturbed by hearing what these children have been through. When we asked the Lord, He answered not only with explanation and comfort, but with great commendation for the dear Family members who have gone there to help His children who have endured so much.)

(Jesus speaking:) These atrocities are common fare in Africa, at least in this part of Africa. If read with prayer, these stories will not cause scars or fear. I want My children to be apprised of these things. I want them to see what these teens in the world have been subjected to, so that they will weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those who now have hope and love and life, because of the efforts of My dear missionaries who have gone there.

Print this commendation of My beloved warriors of the faith-those who did not fear for their own lives, but stayed to minister to My children, even in a life-threatening situation. They have loved not their lives unto the death, and for them is laid up an everlasting reward. For I do honor My children, My missionaries who risk their own lives, who daily lay down their lives to help and change the lives of My little ones. These are My little lambs, who need Me and who need you so much. And My missionaries have not failed them, but have gone to help them in their hour of need, and for this I will reward them. (End of message.)

Rome Collins, age 11:

My father was accused of being a policeman who took government money. My uncle, my father, and I were taken together. Some of the soldiers who arrested us took my father behind a building while they told us to wait. A couple minutes later we heard gunshots. It was then that the soldiers came back without my father and mentioned for us to approach them. Instead of listening to them, we ran as fast as we could away from them, back to my village. Little did we know that the village was under attack as well. We found my brother dead, and later my uncle was shot, too. My mother and I escaped. We walked through the bush for two days till we made it to Monrovia.

I'm happy to be here. In the future I want to become an engineer. That way I can do what my uncle was doing before he died.

Markpah Copper, age 14:

During the time of the war, Johnson's [rebel] soldiers took control of our village and no one was allowed to leave. A couple days later Charlie's [President Taylor's] people came in and got rid of Johnson's people and arrested all of us civilians. My sister's husband and myself were arrested. I was accused and punished because one soldier said he recognized me as one of Johnson's soldiers. I begged them to let me go and denied ever being a soldier. They didn't listen to me, but instead they had me sit in a swamp for hours.

When they pulled me out, I continued denying being a soldier. They stabbed my legs over and over again, until they saw I wouldn't stop denying it. Then they took me to the nearest checkpoint where they stuffed me in a building packed with other hostages. After being there for a couple of hours, they came and slaughtered everyone one by one. I escaped and returned to my village where I found my sister had been shot to death.

I'm very happy for this school. I'm going to learn to be a doctor just like my father is. I want to be a doctor because a doctor can save people's lives.

Yeaphan Mensah, age 15:

When the war began, my whole family escaped together to a nearby village because ours was under attack. On the way, my cousin was shot and killed. We met up with a group of ladies who said they'd help us escape by river, and they provided us with canoes. My mother and baby brother drowned when the canoe they were in tipped over.

I'm very sad. Every day I think about them and I feel alone. I don't know what I'll be when I grow up, but I definitely won't be a soldier.

Shaw Kola, age 13:

We were in our town when soldiers came in and said for us to move from the town. While we were leaving, my brother was sick. They took him and they cut his neck. They wanted me to laugh, but I couldn't. They wanted my dad to laugh, but he refused. So they tied up my father and said they were going to cut his ears off. They took my sister and carried her into the house and raped her. They took all our food and belongings. We were starved.

I'm happy to be here and attend the school, so I can learn to benefit my people.

Mamie Singbe, age 15:

During the war my parents and I were running away. They [the soldiers] caught me and asked me where my dad was, but I wouldn't tell them. They told me to laugh because they were going to kill my father. I was weeping! They caught my father and shot him dead. My mom and I ran away. They caught my mom and they tied her up. I was crying. We hadn't eaten in three weeks so I went to find some food for my mom and myself, and I was caught and beaten. I came back to my mom and then I went to my little brothers back at home. My mother finally ran away and we're all back home now.

This is my first time at school. I'm real happy to be here because since they killed my father, I have no one to care for my education. I like coming to this school because I can learn all my scholastics and how to pray and read the Bible.

We were able to print a ton of Family educational material that we thought would be a blessing in the situation. We gave this to the Christian counselors, as well as introducing a packet of Christian material that EURCRO worked on.

Again and again we realized how thankful we are for the Family, and how special it is that we have the Family infrastructure. There is so much Family material we take for granted. In situations like this where we're in charge of setting up, you really realize what is in store for us in the Millennium, and how much

material we have on hand to help reconstruct a Godly system, with schooling, education and training in every area.

The Fruits of War

There are so many examples of people who have been through so much. One young girl had a brother who government soldiers in her village believed to be a Krahn (that's one of the tribes that government soldiers were fighting against). She was just nine years old when she begged for his life, but the soldiers killed him right in front of her. They then took her, raped her, and kept her with them till she was sixteen. At that time she pleaded with them to let her go and by a miracle they finally decided to do so. Later she found her relatives and ended up coming to the school for education.

Like so many other Liberians, instead of becoming bitter, she saw the events that took place in her life in a positive way. She's just trying to make the best of it and knew that the Lord still loved her and though those things happened, He had never left her side. That's how she shared it with us. It was incredible to see someone who had been through so much and yet still really loved the Lord and still saw His hand in all the difficulties she had been through.

Lessons in Sensitivity to Liberian Tradition and Culture

We learned so much about how to work with the school system structure there, how to work hand in hand with the Liberians, how to hire, fire, pay salaries, and manage people. We learned how to deal with their gripes and their groans, not always having the answers, but many times just hearing them out and praying for them, which often solved the problem.

When we began to set up the schools, we got together with those we were working closely with and made it very clear that they should be honest and straightforward with us. We wanted them to tell us if we did something to offend them or that was contrary to their culture. We shared that we don't know everything about their traditions and could do many things as a blunder of the mind, not on purpose. We shared that we would like to learn and make progress in the way we treat people. This helped set the record straight right from the beginning, so that they would trust us more and be willing to be open, candid, and honest, which is what we needed to have a good working relationship.

Later on two situations arose. One of our girls wore very short pants to the school while working, and even though we had counseled the guys not to wear earrings or anything like that, one forgot to take his earring out and ended up offending the teachers of the Monrovia school. They held it in for quite a while and finally shared it a few weeks later. It was really important to them. They don't mind people dressing like that in private or even out on the beach or other places, but in a public place or while working in Liberia (and in most African countries) people are expected to look proper and wear nice attire.

One area that was very new and lesson-filled for us was in handling the sensitivities of the workers, staff and teachers. Many of them have set standards of how they would like to be treated and what they won't accept from their employers. We found ourselves having to apologize a lot for our actions, or for words that we felt needed to be said, but we learned could be said in a different way. With such a short time to get so much done, at times we could be tough, which did not go over well with the staff.

We had a number of open forums where we were able to openly share our viewpoints about weaknesses in the staff's performance, and address different areas that needed to change and improve. Then they took the forum to share their hearts about anything that they did not understand or that had offended them. Some of the teachers did not like receiving suggestions from our younger people, so we had to sit down and go over that with them.

We also offended some of the teachers because we threatened to fire one of them if they did not cooperate. We apologized for such a stern action, but nevertheless they got the point.

Leadership—Teaching Them to Hear from and Follow the Lord

In all that we did, we put a lot of emphasis on showing respect to the principals and teachers. We felt this was very important, as it would in turn create the confidence they needed to continue doing the job in the future. They needed to learn to counsel and work together with their coworkers, and not be dependent on an expatriate (foreigner) leaning over their shoulder all the time. Most NGOs don't operate anything like that. If there's money involved, they always have a foreigner there to watch everything and control everything. But then, if and when they should leave, the projects either fall apart or stagnate. No one is taught how to follow the Lord and pioneer new things.

After praying about it, we felt that we would be failing if we did not trust the principals enough to let them exercise their leadership ability and grow up as leaders. One of the first things we did with the teachers and principals was to give them classes on hearing from the Lord. We also tried to show them how to do it through our sample of praying before meetings, hearing from the Lord, and depending on prayer as a means to make these schools what they need to be. We gave them classes on topics like faith, with stories from the George Müeller series to help them see that all they really needed was the Lord.

How We Organized Ourselves

We split our team up into different areas of responsibility. We had a few of the girls involved with the educational side—working with the teachers, sitting in the classrooms, seeing what needed to be adjusted or brought up to a better standard. We had the boys working on contracting the workers involved with building the shelves, tables, benches, painting the buildings, fixing the windows, doing cement work. We gave one of the boys the full-time job of promotion—capturing everything on camera, especially all of the children, so that we could use their pictures with their stories of the war to help raise support for the schools and pledges for the students.

Heidi was our faithful secretary who made sure that all the paperwork (which was much!) was done well.

Representing the Family and the NGOs

With our projects there came such a responsibility for all of us to represent the Family well, in addition to representing the NGOs that we were working alongside with, because at any moment we could have country directors of the international NGOs knocking on our door.

Everyone agreed that it was a very important key point in the work of our team—to make sure that we were up to par in what we would look like and act like and behave like and speak like. We needed to project a standard of mature, responsible professionals working with the goal of helping other people.

As days went by, there was a lot of work. Some days we were just very very tired, often working very hard up until two or three o'clock in the morning, trying to get the project finished up. Though we had our ups and downs, all those who were part of the project worked very hard to make it all possible. Only the Lord will really know all that everyone put into it. We borrowed many key people and pillars to make the project possible, which was no small strain on their Homes, but they did it willingly to make this area project happen.

A Serious Request!

By Jo

I was passing out tracts on the street where the Army barracks are, and it was going real well. Tons of tracts got out, and several people got saved. All of a sudden, I heard this voice shouting, "Hey you! Stay where you are!" I stopped and turned to see a soldier running my way with his machine gun in his hand. My heart started to pound like crazy!

When he finally got to where I was, he said, "Do you think I could get 50 of those tracts? I have 50 men under my command, and I'd love to be able to share this message with them."

I gave him all the tracts I had, and he took them as if I was giving him a million dollars. People just love the new tracts; you can't give them out fast enough. Now when we drive through town, so many people recognize us since we've given tracts out in every major area of the city. Many of the shops in the downtown area have our tracts on their walls. What a testimony!

Getting Out the Word

This was the first time that any of us had the new "African" posters. We had a hundred thousand and it was just a blast to get them out. We were able to distribute them everywhere—from guard posts and checkpoints, to the airport, to banks, to discos and restaurants across Monrovia. Everywhere we went, people were so hungry for the message and the Word and the posters. We found people making photocopies of them, so that we'd give a poster to one person and it would end up reaching 20-30 more. We saw them in taxis taped to the windows and the dashboard, and in windows across the city in different shops and businesses. Each and every time we went out to distribute the posters we found the response to be wholehearted. People were tremendously excited about receiving our message.

Our whole catacomb team was just starving for the posters as well; the more we gave them the more they wanted. All they wanted was the tools and the ammunition to do the job.

Caught in the War!

(Editor's note: On Thursday, September 17th of this year [1998], fighting broke out in Monrovia between government troops and supporters of Roosevelt Johnson, an ethnic Krahn who had long been a rival of President Charles Taylor. Military sources said scores of people were killed in the conflict that ensued. Johnson took refuge in the American Embassy, amid a chaotic hail of bullets in which some of his retinue were killed and some Americans at the Embassy injured. Though he was not a welcome guest, the Americans did not hand Johnson over to government forces, and he was eventually flown out of the city.)

Our team was going about its regular activities that afternoon—some of us were in the apartment, some in town witnessing, a few of us were at the restaurant of one of our friends. At about 4:45 p.m., all hell broke loose. People came running down the streets screaming, panicking, fearing for their lives as military rebels opened fire against government soldiers. The town was whipped into a frenzy, with no one knowing where the gunfire was coming from. Just the harsh reality of the sound of gunshots filling the air, coming from different directions, was frightening.

Each of us in our different locations sent up desperate prayers, asking the Lord for His protection. Jo, who was downtown with our house help, saw some of the shooting firsthand and started running the other direction towards home. Heidi, Aaron and little Elia waited a little bit in the restaurant, and then jumped in our car, joining the caravan of cars headed towards the American Embassy. (We were so thankful that the car actually started, as we had been having to push it every time we'd start it for the previous couple of days!) Charity was out with a friend of ours and saw people taking aim out of their windows and firing their guns, other people running, mass confusion, tanks rushing down the street.

Within a short time we were all at the apartment. We took some time to pray and hear from the Lord, and He comforted us with verses and promises of His protection. The commotion died down and then started up again very close, just down the street from where we were staying.

Fighting and shooting continued throughout the night. We were on the bathroom floor most of the time, praying desperately. That was the safest place to be, because there were gunshots hitting the sides of the building right, left and center. One woman was hit by a stray bullet right in front of our apartment building. The major danger was from stray bullets whizzing all over the place.

I read "Not Even a Knock" (LWG IV, pg.197) with the kids, which never came to life to us as much as in this situation. Our friends kept checking on us, giving us reports on how things were going. The whole city was worked into a frenzy that night, as the guns continued to shoot and pound unendingly.

The next morning there was more shooting, this time rocket fire. Knowing that some of our friends were involved with the leadership of those fighting, we kept them in our prayers, asking the Lord to continue to keep them safe and sound and out of harm's way.

How the Lord Used the War to Grow Us Up

So many things raced through our minds during this time. We had to look at our time in Liberia and determine whether we had accomplished all that we wanted to, as far as sharing Jesus with people, as things like this really make you realize how life really is so short.

One boy we had been witnessing to the day before hadn't gotten saved. We saw him that Saturday in the afternoon; he was a bit drunk and was drinking more with his M16 hanging from his shoulders. We warned him not to drink any more, but an hour later as he was foolishly playing around, he killed his own under-sergeant. This was a real shock.

For all of us, firsthand fighting and anarchy like this was nothing we had experienced before. At first we made a lot of mistakes in the way which we related to it. Some of our friends are very cocky and enjoyed the excitement of the conflict. Because of our lack of experience, we sometimes tended to just go along with them and see things the same way they were seeing them, instead of realizing how horrible war is. What should have been coming from us were reminders about Jesus, prayer for people, and comfort for them; instead it was the opposite.

We pow-wowed this as a team, and came to the realization that the Lord let this happen to grow us all up. He wanted us to see that in situations like this, we have to continue to be real disciples and not lose ground in our job of bringing Jesus into the picture, into every situation, and looking for what He can do to make a difference in it.

After three days, the shooting and chaos came to a peak on Saturday afternoon with fighting right outside our door. We continued to pray. We had tried to go to the American Embassy as most of the team were Americans, but they couldn't give us protection or take us in as they were involved with an aspect of the fighting. We were really on our own, with only the Lord to help us.

From what people said, there had never been just a little fighting. If it started, it really started and turned into full-scale war, so that's what we were facing.

We prayed and the Lord comforted our hearts. He told us that the fighting would stop and that we would be okay. He said we just needed to hold on to Him, be a witness, get out the message, and share His love with people that we were coming in contact with.

Then the fighting did stop completely, just like the Lord had said! The commotion didn't, though. And in some of our minds we continued to hear gunfire for the next five mornings, as the rain dripping and hitting the metal roofs sounded just like gunfire. It kept us desperate and close to Him.

For the next week, we stayed pretty much in the apartment and didn't go out because of the continued instability. I went to a few different meetings with the heads of different NGOs, discussing communication between the NGOs, the government, and the outside world, finding out more about what was really going on, how many people had died, etc.

More than anything we learned that we could not be light or shallow about the things that were going on. We needed to take it seriously and see what the Lord wanted us to do, and what kind of witness He wanted us to be. When we did that, we started playing the part that God wanted us to play in helping others, strengthening others, and encouraging others that we were praying and that the Lord was in control.

Those Who Don't Put Their Trust in the Lord

Because of the responsibility we had working with an international NGO as well as representing the Family, we were invited to meetings in Monrovia with other large NGOs, such as "Save the Children," and other UN agencies. It was eye-opening to see how frightened everyone was after the fighting began. These people were so insecure—all their big jobs and their hefty organizations and all they represented and believed in couldn't give them peace or trust, or even the faith that things were going to be okay.

They operated in a very frightened manner—scared for themselves and for all their personal possessions and the things that the organizations owned. It made us so thankful for the Lord and that He is our strong tower and refuge and present help in trouble.

Liberians we worked with were urging us to leave, saying that we should go right away, but we told them that we loved them and that the Lord was going to take care of everything. They were very shocked at our decision to stay. We answered them in faith, because the Lord had told us everything would be okay and that we didn't need to leave. That really touched the hearts of many people, especially those involved with the schools, because they all expected that we would immediately run away from Liberia. They have no place to run, and it really touched their hearts that we didn't go.

Witnessing to Secret Service and Soldiers in the War

Many of the top officials in the present government played key roles in the past eight years of war and were then honored with positions of responsibility. Just by looking at their faces you can tell that many were involved in the savagery of the war. Many believe in Jesus but are unsure of the Lord's forgiveness for them, and insecure in any kind of faith in the Lord. We met some in positions of responsibility who many would consider unreachable. Those who fought in the war could come across as being very hard, but that's who needed our message even more. Here are a few we met.

A.: The lean, mean, fighting machine. This woman is said to scare away heavy-set men six feet tall—they would tremble at the sight of her. She's just a thin young woman, but very fierce—and a very high-ranking official. She melted in our arms and received the Lord.

It happened like this: While at a restaurant one day, we met this woman, who used to be a high-ranking officer in Taylor's army. She seemed tough and standoffish at first, but we just tried to be sweet. As we gave her a "What Everybody Needs Is Love" tract, we started to talk to her about love, trying to witness and start a conversation with her. She still had her hard front on, though, so that evening we never got into anything very deep.

We saw her the next day at the airport, and she had totally changed. She was all smiles, and so kind to us. She was telling me how she was so glad that she'd met us because of the way we're so happy and shining with love.—This had an effect on her, she said. She told us that she'd read that poster tract and that she knows how important love is. We started talking about the war and her experiences in it, and she was relating it to our message, where it talks about how if there were more love there wouldn't be so many problems in the world.

Because she was talking about how happy we were, I told her that she could have that happiness, too. When I asked her if she'd prayed the prayer on the tract, she said that she had and that she was so glad now that she had the certainty of going to Heaven and that God had forgiven her for all her sins and for all the bad things she'd done in the war. She didn't really talk about it much, since people here don't like talking about it, but in general terms she was saying that that burden had been lifted. Thank the Lord!

It was a surprise to see how much she had changed, because just the night before, I'd seen her tough and bitter self. I didn't think someone could change so drastically! Thank the Lord! With Him, nothing shall be impossible.

B.: He is a high-ranking official, and we met him the same night that we met A. He was not as tough as she was, and when we gave him a poster he started reading it right there at the table. In the course of our conversation, we started telling him about the story of the five missionaries and the naked girl. It seemed to trigger something in him and made him want to get deep with us right away.

He was also quite involved in the war. You can tell these people have a lot on their hearts. He especially is very disheartened with the way the country has turned out after the war, how the government is very selfish and not really working for the good of the people but for its own interests. So I started talking about how Jesus is the only solution to the problems that they are facing and all we can do is pray and do our best.

We also talked about the churches and he shared how he was so disillusioned with the way that religion works nowadays, with the Muslims and Christians fighting with each other, etc. So he was also very relieved to hear us say that love is the most important thing, and he prayed to receive Jesus into his heart.

C.: He's the owner of a restaurant and helped us with meals. Coming from a Christian background, he respected our beliefs and our faith and was very sheepy and interested in what we had to tell him. He also prayed to receive Jesus and was quite sweet with the kids. We had a long conversation about God's protection, spirit helpers, angels, etc., and he was totally flabbergasted by all the testimonies that I shared with him. I told him that I'd give him something to read (Power and Protection mags) which he readily agreed to and said he was quite interested in. He came to visit us all the time and loved the fellowship.

D.: He's a real sweet young man who became like a king, and who was a tremendous help and blessing to our work. He let us stay at his apartment our whole time here. He said that this was the only time he was able to relax from his stressful job. He was very happy to be with us since he usually hangs out with the same people doing the same old thing. All these people kept mentioning how they were sick of talking about the same shallow things with the same boring people, without much depth or real meaning entering in. He also got saved.

The day after I prayed with him, he came to me and asked, "Can you write down that prayer for me? I really like it and want to share it with my friends." He was very sweet and he kept reminding me about it. Then I gave him a poster with the prayer on it and he treasured it so much. He continued to visit us every day and was a real help whenever he saw a need, God bless him!

The list could go on and on of close friends that the Lord raised up while in Liberia; these are only a few examples.

The Need to Feed Our Kings

Right from the beginning of our two months of work in Liberia, we had kings to help us. The Lord raised up the young man we told you about earlier, D., about 22, whose father owned some of the nicest apartments in Monrovia that remained intact after the war. His apartment was a complete Godsend as it helped us to control our environment, which in this situation meant everything. We had to make sure that the water we drank, the food we ate, and the place we stayed in was mosquito-free, that the food was going through our hands and not other people's since cholera is so rampant here.

The mistakes that we made were in drawing some of our friends to ourselves instead of feeding them the Word. With this particular king and some others we met, we started off on the right foot by talking to them about the Lord and getting them saved right away. But then this one young king and some of the other younger ones got discouraged as time went on, because they liked our girls and couldn't get more intimate with them like they would have liked to. Because they didn't continue to be fed lots of Word or get completely hooked on Jesus, these kings got disappointed and discouraged.

In hindsight we learned that if we would have just fed them the Word continually, even in conversation, or read the Word much more, given them more Word-based answers to their problems, and drawn them directly to the Word much more, we would have won these precious men to the Lord in a deeper way. As it was, we brought them to a place of familiarity with us.

After we talked about it, we printed up Reflections and other materials for our friends and contacts and went on the attack, giving them out each and every time we made contact with these ones. It really paid off and touched their hearts, giving them something that would last.

Something that also came up that we were able to talk about was our being asked out often by expatriates. Some of our kings came to expect that they could basically come over and take anybody out they wanted to, at any time. We found that this was not healthy for our friends, as it again drew attention to that one particular person on our team, which many times was one of the girls. That in turn led to our sheep being frustrated with what he could not have.

We learned that instead of just going because we were asked out, we should really shoot up a prayer and find out if it was the best thing to do. Most of the people inviting us out especially liked our girls. We found that when there wasn't a whole lot of prayer or thought involved ahead of time about what we wanted to accomplish with those friends and contacts, we weren't making a real solid investment in our relationship with them.

It helped to ask ourselves questions like "How will it help him? Why are we going? Is it necessary?" And then we'd pray and ask the Lord, "What do You want us to do with this man? Where do You want us to go from here with this man? What can we do to draw him closer to You, Lord?" Otherwise we would just be wasting their time and causing them to be familiar with us.

Monrovia is a very small place and the expatriate community is very small. Everyone very much affects everyone else. With some of our kings the Lord raised up, we needed to discuss among ourselves some of our weaknesses honestly—those things which have not helped us in feeding and taking good care of these precious sheep the Lord has given into our care.

Because of some of the pretty girls on our team, people seemed to feel it was open season to take our people out to eat, to the beach, for drives etc. If not controlled, that would have ended up taking up all our time here—going out with people that invite us out, not to mention the invitations to go out dancing or to night spots. Now for most of our team this kind of stuff was new, especially since many of the team members were new to Africa. And here in these countries, there are so few expatriates that the pretty ones stand out a whole lot more.

After reading the "Charter Responsibilities" GN (ML #3197, GN803) and the section on witnessing, we all got very convicted, realizing that we needed to be fervently witnessing when out. We saw that that needed to be our attitude, heart and mind when we went out with our friends, otherwise we found ourselves just socializing with them too much, which would not bear the kind of long-term fruit that we all wanted. Of course, simply being with them in a social way once in a while was okay. But in our scenario where we met them every day or every couple of days, we had to keep our minds on our job, so that our friends could see that what we are really all about is Jesus and sharing His love with others.

The main key lesson in all this was to try to find all the different avenues to draw the friend or king to the Lord by our sample, by our conversation, by the Word that we gave them, and by the way we acted with them. We realized as well that you don't need to sit in front of a really lousy movie when the king puts it on, just to make him happy. You can have the conviction that it's not good for you or for the king or friend, and speak up about it. Talking about things honestly, candidly, and lovingly was something that our friends and kings respected us for.

After much trial and error, we found out that we had to examine our motives to be sure that witnessing was our main objective. We found that if we went out for any other reason, the fruit was not good, in the lives of the people inviting us as well as in our own lives. Some of our young people just wanted to go out dancing and basically enjoy themselves. Enjoying ourselves isn't bad in itself, but after praying about it, and researching the Word, looking at the end result a little more than just the inspiration of the moment ("I want to do this!"), we saw that the effect on our people going to these places was not good —unless they were witnessing. With that goal, we could really go anywhere—as long as we were fervently witnessing.

We found the question boils down to what our job is. Are we missionaries, real disciples, always looking for an opportunity to be witnessing and sharing the Gospel? Or are we social workers or part of an NGO, and we just happen to be Christians? We had to stay on top of it and keep the reason of what we were there for in mind. If not we would have ended up going out after our work ended for the day and socializing with outsiders, just barely acting like Christians, let alone on-fire dedicated witnessers.

We tried different things: For example, if we went out to a nightspot, we would take lots of tracts and plaster the place with them. That worked well. Many people liked that and enjoyed getting the message in an atmosphere like that. We did make progress in all the areas mentioned above. But most importantly, we addressed it and we learned from it. We saw that each team member has the responsibility individually to do his best when it comes to ministering to kings and friends.

Bible Studies

A year ago, on our first visit to Liberia, we were able to team up with forty students and create a group of outside witnessers. Since our time with them was short, we were only able to cover the basics with them.

When we came back to Liberia, after a few weeks we contacted different young people and students as well as young professionals who were interested in learning more about the Bible. We invited about sixty people of all different types to a few meetings, and had a whole Endtime class with them—Daniel 2, 7 and 11. We then whittled the class down to 20 people who we thought were the most receptive and potential, ones who looked like they responded well in the large class and would do really well with more Word and discipleship training.

The classes had a real impact. Everyone seemed to realize the importance of the Endtime classes in relation to their lives. They saw how much more they should be giving to the Lord and how important it is to use wisely whatever time they have left before Jesus comes back. Since most of those attending the class had had so many loved ones die because of the war, they knew that life was short. They knew that they needed to make the most of the life they have left, by giving more of their lives to the Lord. The Endtime classes confirmed that and gave them the courage to put more into the Lord's work and into witnessing and reaching the lost.

Self-discipline is a real key in teaching

Africans. In general it's something that their culture lacks and that they really need. So after praying about what we should do in the Bible studies to instill more self-discipline in them, we gave them a class in memory and review, and expected them to memorize Bible verses every day. As a requirement to even come to the classes they had to recite their verses at the door.

In addition, they had to go witnessing daily and turn in stats sheets every week. We just told them that if they didn't go witnessing or if they didn't memorize, then they didn't need to come. We said the class was only for people who were going to put their whole heart into it and decide to be the disciples that the Lord wanted them to be.

Another point that really helped us was to set them straight about our convictions in the very beginning concerning the church system, as some of them had gone to different churches. We didn't put down any church in particular, but we talked in general about church structure, the ineffectiveness of most churches, and their lack of witnessing. We explained that our special calling is to tell people about Jesus, to share Jesus with others, and if they wanted anything to do with us, well, that was what they were going to have to want to do as well.

This really divided the people that were genuinely interested from the people who were just there because an expatriate was teaching. It bore very good fruit as it showed them the situation and the truth about us right at the beginning and then they had a decision to make. It also helped prepare them for some of the things about true discipleship that we would share later on in the classes that might be bottle-breaking.

Our classes came mainly from the Treasures. We started with salvation, the Holy Spirit, hearing from the Lord and prayer, and continued on to discipleship, etc. They all flipped out so much over the Treasures, the Daily Might and the Word Basics. We challenged them that the ones who went out witnessing the most were the ones who were going to be given their own copy of these books. Each one of them tried every day to convince us that the books were for them. Three of the 20 shone brighter and we were able to give these three books to them.

We prayed and challenged one of the men to stand up as a shepherd among them, so that after we were gone we'd be able to send them boxes of posters and they would be able to get them out across Monrovia and the rest of Liberia. Some of the young attendees got so turned on and they were such on-fire witnessers, that all they wanted to do was go out and tell other young people about the Lord. Some of them decided themselves to go to

Sierra Leone, and take the posters there as well.

Our Fearless Catacomb Witnessers!

There are warriors or rebel fighters who fought during the eight years of war called the "butt-naked soldiers." They are soldiers who take off all their clothes and are totally butt-naked. They believe that if they don't eat certain things, they don't commit sins, and they take off all their clothes, no bullets can harm them. They were considered quite fierce in the war and people were scared of them. In fact, if anyone saw one of the butt-naked soldiers, it was considered a sign that there would be fighting and people would run away from them.

During the fighting in September, two of our catacombers weren't afraid of them at all. They actually went up to these butt-naked soldiers while they were fighting and gave them "What Everybody Needs is Love" posters and witnessed to them. One of them got saved and the rest got the message! We were flipped out about the courage that some of these young people displayed for the Lord, and their determination to tell people about Jesus at any cost, even at the risk of their own lives.

The Permanence of the Word When All Else Fails

In other African countries we had not done as much teaching as we did in Liberia in that short time. For three weeks we taught every single day, two hours a day. The same people came every day, faithfully soaking up the Word. We felt that even if we were to fail in everything else, we were not failing by giving these Word classes because it was something that was going to stay behind after we were gone. Even though we were doing these large CTP projects, working with the schools and setting up schools, we knew that the schools could be destroyed by the war. Everything that we bought could be stolen or looted. The whole structure of the schools could dissolve. But the Word we put into these few soldiers of the cross would last forever and be instrumental in winning so many more.

There were many stories of people running into churches during the war, thinking that the building would protect them. Sure enough, the churches were burned or fired upon by the enemy soldiers, and everyone inside killed. Hundreds and thousands of people thought that they were safe in these buildings built by man, only to find out that they were not safe at all.

There were so many reminders around Monrovia, so many images to drive the point home that we can't trust in what we build as it is so temporal, even though it may cost so much or take so much time to construct. Everywhere you looked, buildings were absolutely destroyed, totally burned down. So many stores were owned by people who worked hard to build them or to buy them, only to have them totally destroyed in one night from a fire, or from the explosion of one missile.

After the September 17th fighting, the principal of the school in Monrovia came to our apartment. He shared the news with us that his home had been looted and all of his belongings stolen, everything that he owned. His wife and child had run to safety across the bridge to another part of Monrovia and he hadn't seen them for a couple days. Though he didn't know where they were, and everything that he owned was gone, still he looked at us with a smile and said, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Psa.91:1). He said it with such joy and with such faith that even though his world was falling apart, the Lord still loved him and hadn't failed. We were all very moved to see somebody go through so much and yet still look to the Lord in such a positive and trusting way.

Please keep Liberia and the work started there in your prayers, as now the American Embassy is closing the country to Americans, and it looks like war will be in Liberia's near future, unless we pray.