First News of Gbanga School of Theology: Our Luggage Has Arrived!

Hello everyone.

This is Doug. I have just a few minutes at a computer at a nearby Methodist High School to the Gbanga School of Theology.  I escorted Peggi Billman, our lead communicator and blog updater so that means I can miss a bit of the afternoon session to let you know how I am doing.

We have completed the Lord Teach Us to Pray Seminar and are half way through "Worship in Spirit and Truth." These have been very heart warming sessions and I have mainly been an intercessor for the team. There have been multiple request to "be my friend" from pastors, theology students, and security guards. People mainly want to know an American. I have particularly enjoyed talking with the three Liberian DSs who have brought their pastors to these events. Some have walked 15 hours go get here and are pastors who mostly do it for free as LPs. So where are we?

We are 116 miles inland (north) of Monrovia (which is on the coast) in the county of Bong and the city of Gbonga (you don't pronounce the G). It took 6 hours to drive here due to troubles with our extra car we hired and the poor condition of the paved road into central Liberia. We are up in the hills and it is cooler here. Today is humid but only in the mid 80's. Most days have been in the low 90's. It doesn't get to cool at night but it is bearable.

Most of our team is staying in a guest house but Jonathan Dow and I are blessed to be staying off by ourselves in a guest room at the back of the Library. No one has running water due to the well being damaged during the civil war. (We need to send them our old equipment from Grays Chapel's disabled well.) But the staff fills a barell for us each day to have water to wash and flush the toilets.

The seminars are now being translated into two of three tribal languages that are present in the room since English is just the language from their early days in school. (There are 16 languages in this country the size of OH.)  Every exercise we do is participated in but I feel that they aren't sure if they have the freedom to participate since there is a lot of hierarchy at these sessions between laity, ordained, LLP, male, female and different tribal languages. Pray for this that we might see a release of God's presence in our time here.

On Sunday I will preach at a church very near to the school of theology: Kuoo Henry UMC just behind this high school. So please keep me in your prayers as the DS, Rev. Benedict Green brings me there to share the message.

On the practical side of things: my luggage arrived today. We had a miracle that let us even be here on Monday, but it cost us our luggage in Frankfort, Germany.  Our flight left Chicago two and a half hours late which meant our layover of the same time span was gone in Germany. The plane only made up a half hour on the flight over on Sunday night. Two men met us at the exit to the 747 and rushed us through customs and to our plane that waited on the runway for 25 minutes extra. This let us just make it to Brussells for the only flight into Liberia till Wednesday.

You see we were the only passengers to get this kind of treatment from the airline and I am not sure now if they weren't angels sent to guide us. They had said we would probably have to wait two hours for the next flight Brussells if we didn't make it. Flights only come to Liberia every two or three days. Fortunately I've had 3 days of clothes on my carry on with all my material, just enough to get to this morning. God is good.

I miss everyone but feel your prayers. We are being well cared for and have a church full of "friends" who are constantly looking out for us.  The cooks are spoiling us with very healthy fruit (banana, mango, plantains, sor-sor, and avacodo all from campus trees), rice, chicken, and fish.  We haven't walked off the hill into town, but I hope to have someone escort me around it on Saturday of Sunday. They are planning a special worship celebration on Saturday night for us and there is music on Sunday afternoon also. Beautiful people, music and voices.

Trusting in God,
Doug