Welcome to Liberia

We have been here a week, and everything we thought about Liberia is both completely right and completely wrong. It’s the kind of place you just have to experience. I’ve been to India, to the Philippines, to the Middle East, to Europe, and to South America, but this West African culture is wildly new to us.

The Liberian people are truly amazing! There are educated and employed people here, however, the majority are simply trying to survive each day. We’ve been touched by their kindness in welcoming us to their country, and we have loved seeing their broad smiles and laughter. When driving down the road, if we look at them and wave, we see their white teeth light up in a smile as they wave back. We’ve never seen happier faces on people who have so little. It is reshaping our thinking of what really matters.

The city traffic here is nuts, and there seem to be no rules, other than try to stay on the right side…if you want. Everyone goes every which way. There are no traffic lights or stop signs.  With my new Liberian driver’s license in hand and driving my Toyota 4-wheel drive, I’ve adopted the saying, “If the front end goes in, the back end goes in.” So far I’ve not caused any accidents, though I have been brushed a few times and hit once (ugh!). And you gotta watch out for the motorcycles coming in all directions, slow Kekes (3-wheel drive taxis, pronounced ‘kay-kay’), and people in the street selling their goods.  We only have a handful of vehicles so fortunately the young missionaries don’t drive.

We jumped right into the work as we put in about 85 hours our first week here. I don’t think it will let up for a few weeks…or maybe even a few years. We admire our predecessors, the Prices, for their incredible leadership and work. What they accomplished was remarkable! They were short staffed for the senior leadership, as are we. We have young missionaries here helping, and they are remarkable, but they are more transient, and we’d benefit from longer-term trained finance, medical, and leadership couples. We began our tenure with trainings for the Mission Leadership Council, the Medical Council, and a number of other meetings and interviews. Then we moved on to the process of transfers for many of our 172 missionaries. Transfers are a six-week cycle where we reassign the missionaries to new areas with new companions (missionary colleagues), send home missionaries that have completed their two year service, and receive a new batch of incoming missionaries. This transfer cycle, arrivals came from Nigeria, Uganda, Eswatini, Fiji, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and the US. We’re looking forward to having some senior couples come here in the Fall, and we have no reservation telling them that there is a lot of work to be done, but they are going to love it! 

It is incredible to see the quality of young missionaries serving here and see how the gospel and Church have affected their lives. Many of them bring such strength in leadership and have been in the Church a long time. The faith of many African missionaries and their good hearts are off the charts, especially as I gain a sense of who they really are, what they’ve come from, and their commitment to serving others. So many have life stories you could make movies about. In fact, one church leader here I spoke with was a main character in the movie Freetown (a fairly accurate movie of the missionaries escaping from Liberia to Freetown, Sierra Leone during the civil war). I’ve learned to be careful about asking locals’ about their parents as many of them lost them at an early age. It’s best to simply say, “Tell me about your family,” and hear their story.

Nancy and I have traveled to meet missionaries and church members, to take them medicines, and conduct interviews. We’ve driven bumpy roads where even Dramamine doesn’t seem to help our stomachs. I’ve learned the mud on the roads can be even slipperier than driving on Maine’s ice. And it’s really hard to keep a car clean here. I think I’ll give that up for three years. 🙂

We’ve attended church in buildings without walls and with no electricity, feeling the sweet spirits of the people. Electricity doesn’t matter to them. However, not having electricity or computers to track membership records, donations, or contact information, creates its own set of challenges, so those are things needed as the membership grows. Many members and investigators walk from their villages or long distances to church. Some members are well off and have successful careers, while others are more middle class for Liberia, but that is not the norm. Most are quite poor. It is also not the norm to have specific addresses or street names when we’re trying to find someone. We are learning our way around, but it is slow.

The Church’s growth is happening so fast and the training needs are great. We want to make sure it continues to grow, but there needs to be leadership to sustain it, which is a primary concern. People are so hungry for the restored gospel, and you can see the dramatic impact it has on the lives of individuals and families. It is such a blessing to see how people change for the better.

Nancy has been handling most of the medical issues for the missionaries, among a wide array of other things. There is a lot happening from mental to physical, from external skin to internal issues. This in itself is a full-time job. We don’t have a nurse or doctor here, but we have medical help in Ghana that provides a lot of support over the phone.  Nancy is doing an awesome job of looking after our missionaries.  We review their well-being regularly and carefully, and they don’t hesitate to call any time. In addition to Nancy’s medical duties, she is an absolutely amazing teacher. I’ve been in awe watching how good she is telling the missionaries stories, teaching them about healthcare and well-being, giving them haircuts, and showing genuine love as if she was their own mother. She’s also exceptional at teaching gospel principles in church meetings. Wow! I’m glad to be here with her!

The heat hasn’t been too bad, thankfully, because of the rain. The rain clouds are fairly steady this time of year and block the direct, hot sun. I think we’ll actually prefer this kind of weather over the winter months of the hot dry season, though we’ve now gone many days without seeing the sun at all. It reminds me of when we lived in Seattle but with much, much bigger rain drops. July and August are the rainiest months of the year.

Our favorite times so far have been with the missionaries and seeing them in action as they relate and serve the people of Liberia. They’ve taught us the “Liberian handshake” which has about five different shakes and ends with a “snap.” The people love the missionaries, and they are good ambassadors for the Lord as they befriend at a minimum, and more importantly teach about Christ’s restored Church.  

Once we get past the crazy city traffic, driving out to the rural areas is beautiful but primitive, with small mountains, and green forest with palm trees. The missionaries live in pretty humble circumstances out in the bush, often with limited electricity and running water. We haven’t seen much wildlife, other than various lizards, and even a few geckos in our own home.  Perhaps as we venture further to the southeast or inland (where the roads get very rough) the wildlife will appear. We have adopted a skinny cat and two dogs in our complex that greet us daily when we come home. They probably like us because we feed them, and it also makes us happy. Animals here are definitely not treated the same as the pets we have in the US. The people here laughed hard when we told them we not only let our dog into our house but onto our bed.

The work load here is intense. It feels like we’re only able to do about 25% of what is required. Given that, we are striving to keep our focus on the missionaries, delegating where possible, and then taking care of responsibilities that only what we can do in our role as mission leaders. There are six stakes here now, with one district which we are directly over, and 15 mission branches and groups. That’s a lot! We’re doing our best to prioritize and move forward with the demands.

Despite the language being English, there are times we just can’t understand some local people and have to find someone to interpret. It is still manageable though. If they spell it, we can sometimes figure it out, but it is definitely slow going. Hopefully we’ll improve over time. Many speak Kolokwa and it does not resemble English.

I’ll finish with one of our favorite things about living in Liberia – the African women dress in style and color! No matter how poor they may be, they wear bright colors that look like they should on be on a fashion runway in New York. Whether walking down a muddy street in the rain, attending church, or riding on the back of a motorbike, the colorful patterns and styles are eye candy. It’s really fun.

Oh, and the people here are pretty amazing at how much they can balance on their heads. Also amazing to see what they can load on their cars.

Like I said earlier, you just have to experience Liberia. We’re happy to be here!