Liberia, March 2010

How far would you be willing to walk to attend church?  How far would you be willing to walk if your feet were covered with infected sores?

As I was packing for my trip to Liberia I felt a prompting to add some extra socks to my suitcase to give to somebody.  I’ve never in all my years of mission travel had such an idea cross my mind.  Where did it come from?  But I was traveling relatively light, so a few extra socks would be no problem.  I tossed them into my bag.

In Liberia I conducted two two-day conflict transformation training workshops.  One was held in the rural area of Bomi County along the road where the rebels advanced toward Monrovia during the civil war.  The village of Clarktown where we met had been completely destroyed during the war.  The St. Paul Baptist Church in Clarktown had its roof ripped off and all their benches burned for charcoal.  We had a great workshop including the topic of Christ helping us to nonviolently transform trauma to bring healing to ourselves and to the larger community.

I facilitated the same workshop the next two days in the capital city of Monrovia at the historic Providence Baptist Church in the city center.  The workshop went very well there, too.  During one of the breaks a man came up to talk with me.  We got into deep conversations that continued through lunch.  At some point he told me he lived in a community on the edge of Monrovia.  He had walked for two hours to come to the workshop, something he regularly did as he taught Sunday School and was part of an intercessors prayer group at Providence.  He had no money for the buses or taxis that shuttled people around the city, so he walked.  Then he took off his hard leather dress shoes.  He had no socks, and the walking in the hard shoes had rubbed awful sores across his toes.  Infection was beginning to set in.  Now I knew why I’d been prompted (by the Holy Spirit!) to pack those extra socks.

God cares for the sparrows that fall, and God showed care for this man needing socks so he could walk to church.  He wasn’t going to let raw sores deter him from attending his church to pray, to worship and to learn things to help in building peace in his country.  So God took care of him by making sure I brought some extra socks from across the ocean.  I also gave him antibiotic cream from my personal health kit, some band-aids, breakfast bars and a T-shirt with a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. as a birthday present (his birthday was the next day).

God wants to give big gifts such as peace to a long-suffering land such as Liberia.  But God also delights in giving the small gifts that show tender care to us as God’s children.  I was honored to be a gift-bearer for God to this Liberian brother.  But even as I traveled to Liberia I was keenly aware of all the gifts given by so many of you my sisters and brothers in Christ to enable this ministry.  I am supported by the financial gifts, the intercessions, the words of encouragement and the support for my family when I’m gone.  We give, we receive, and God’s grace is shared among us.

Peace,
Dan