We conducted our SOP recon trip in January 2008, visiting the communities in which we planned to work, charting out facilities and other resources.  We met with the GGC leadership, discussing what was to be expected of all involved.  We left with a plan, agreeing that we felt this was the Lord's plan.  We'll follow His lead...

January 2009, a trial of faith.  Soaring airfare prices, high demands at work, less than consistent business practices in Liberia, and a host of other issues overcome by the Lord, found a team of eight at Houston's Intercontinental Airport on the morning of January 8, 2009.  Even the flight over is tough, as there are no direct flights from Houston to the only European airline servicing Liberia -- Brussels Airline.  We had to fly Houston to Newark (4 hours with 3 hour lay-over), Newark to Brussels (7 and 3), then Brussels to Abidjan (7 and 2), then Abidjan to Monrovia (2 hour flight).  Needless to say, we were quite tired when we arrived.

We arrived at the ELWA guest house after 10PM (ELWA -- Eternal Love Winning Africa -- is the first Christian radio station in Africa, broadcasting since 1954), and work began the next day.  I mentioned the challenges of planning this trip, and part of the challenge was the days on which we could fly into and out of Monrovia.  The Lord used such scheduling complexities to give us an opportunity to reach out to the communities of Lower Johnsonville, where GGC is located.  We literally saturated the area over Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and all day on Monday.  We saw over 300 people pray to receive Christ.

We woke up Tuesday with the intent of hitting the road to the remote communities by 9AM, but alas, one of the cars we rented did not wish to go with us, the owner decided to rent it to someone else.  This delayed us several hours in our departures, making Tuesday a very short day for soul-winning.  Wednesday and Friday we restricted our movements to the mission centers of Kakata and Tubmanburg (Bomi).  The Lord brought many, many to faith in Christ in these communities, and there is still so much of these communities we did not visit.  Thursday sent us to the more remote and much smaller mission points, where we found the Lord had prepared many hearts for Himself.  House to house, along the streets, everywhere we encountered people who needed and wanted to be redeemed.  The Lord sent us to His harvest; He had prepared it, and sent us to reap it.  Two or three churches were started that week.  Almost 40 were baptized.  New believers joined us to preach the Gospel.  The body of believers at GGC all engaged themselves to the harvest.  When all was said and done, over 300 had made professions of faith (POF) in Johnsonville (site of GGC), over 270 POFs were made in the Tubmanburg mission efforts, and over 700 POFs were made in the Kakata mission areas.  We, 8 Americans and 16 Liberians, had contacted 1632 people, shared the Gospel 318 times, and saw 1303 pray to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Praise the Lord of the harvest, the Savior of our souls!

The 29th Chapter of Acts Continues,