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Hope for Liberia
02/28/2007
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If you’re a regular visitor to my website, you may have noticed that I haven’t been posting a lot here lately. The main reason has been that I’ve been focused on preparing for a mission trip to Liberia. My wife is in the medical field and she has always wanted to go and help people in the lesser developed areas of the world. When our church told us about their plans to put together a medical team to Liberia, we prayerfully considered it and then felt led to go.
I never would have chosen to go on something like this on my own. First of all, I’m not a medical person. Secondly, my passion is more for directly spreading the Gospel rather than providing humanitarian aid. And thirdly, I have always felt that there are plenty of people right here who need to hear the Gospel.
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However, I felt that God wanted me to go on this trip for several different reasons. One was that it gave me a chance to just serve…to serve both the medical team and those whom we were going to help in whatever fashion was needed. It also gave me a chance to serve my wife and help her fulfill a lifelong passion. It was the least I could do after all that she’s done in support of me and my dreams.
But neither of these reasons would have sufficed if the Gospel was not going to be preached. Christianity today often substitutes meeting physical needs for bearing the affront of the Gospel and I had no intention of furthering that misguided agenda. Ministering to the body without ministering to the soul is missing the point.
In the case of this particular mission trip, the local church would be preaching the Gospel while we ministered to their physical needs…at least to the extent that we were able. There is so much need there that you could go with a 100 doctors for a month and still not make a dent in it. Liberia has been torn apart by years of civil war and their infrastructure (medical, water, telephone, power, etc.) is almost nonexistent. They have made great strides in the past two years but they still have far to go.
The plan was to go with a team of 21 (consisting of two doctors, a physician’s assistant, a family nurse practitioner, a dozen or so nurses, a cameraman, and a few non-medicals like myself) to Monrovia, Liberia for a ten day trip. This was the second medical mission there (the previous one being in 2005) and some of those on this trip were veterans from the prior one. We worked in conjunction with a local church called the International Bible Church whose Pastor (Benjamin Tomah) is one of the missionaries our church supports. We would setup a clinic with a pharmacy at their church for two days and then move it to Gaza where they were building a new church and go for three more days. The actual travel there and back took two days and over 8000 miles each way.
The way the process worked out is that people would go through triage where their personal information, symptoms, and background would be collected on a 3 x 5 card. They would then be sent to one of four practitioners who would diagnose their condition and write their treatment and prescription on the card. The card would then go to the pharmacy where the prescription would be filled. If they had a vision issue, they might be sent to the vision clinic we set up where they could receive a custom made pair of prescription eyeglasses on the spot. The patient would then receive their prescription and be instructed how to take it. The local church members would then invite them to be prayed for and share the Gospel with them. Each part of the Body of Christ had a part to play and by God’s grace it allowed us to address both their physical and spiritual needs.
I think everyone on the team was both blessed and wounded by the experience. Blessed by seeing God work in our brothers and sisters there and by their incredible hospitality and generosity of Spirit…blessed by seeing God provide us with the endurance to go beyond what we were able...blessed by hearing the report of the people saved each day. But it was physically and emotionally draining. The heat was intense (being right at the equator) but we were fortunate enough to have a hotel that was air-conditioned to go to at night. And you can’t see that much overwhelming suffering and realize your inability to do anything about most of it without it taking a toll on you. The suffering children were especially difficult. And several of our team members became sick with some virus at one point or another (including myself). But as Paul says in Romans 8:18, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Our minor inconveniences allowed us to see over 1400 patients (with many more receiving medications), give out 200 sets of eyeglasses, and add 815 souls to the Kingdom of God! What a small price to pay for such a great harvest!
None of this would have been possible without the people who supported us both financially and in prayer. I knew that God would provide the money for us to go if it was His will for us to go. But I assumed that His provision would take the form of people donating what they could for our trip and then our covering the rest of the amount. But God went beyond all that we could ask or think and provided the cost of our entire trip through others! And it was the prayers of those supporting us which allowed Satan to be cast down and the souls of the lost to see their need for salvation.
I have much more to say concerning the trip but it’s too much for a short article. In hopes of encouraging others to go, I have posted a free booklet entitled "Hope for Liberia" which includes my personal journal from my time there. I hope that you will download it and that God uses it in your life. I have also posted a rather sizeable Flash presentation (converted from a PowerPoint presentation) with a soundtrack which conveys without words my feelings from the trip. Since it is such a large file (almost 22 MB), the timing is a little off the first time it plays. However, it should be better the second time you play it. You can also view photos from the trip.
I never thought I would do something like this. Perhaps you feel the same way. Have the courage and the faith to be willing to step outside of your limitations and see if perhaps God wants to use you in ways you’ve never imagined. Don’t go just to have a neat "spiritual" experience or to put another notch on your belt. And don’t limit your thinking to just mission trips. Maybe God wants you to tell that person behind the counter about Jesus…or to help that homeless person and introduce them to the only Real Hope…or to take a stand in your church…or to stand on that street corner and preach the Gospel. God isn’t looking for people of extraordinary talent and ability…just people who are willing. So stop closing the door to God with your stubborn preconceptions and listen for His “small still voice.” If it lines up with the sound doctrine of God’s Word, then take courage…step out…and see where God might take you.
Hope for Liberia booklet (4.5 MB)
Flash presentation with soundtrack (22 MB)
Photos
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