Compassion Corps' Trip Blog

In the USA

bmcmillen — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 08:57:53 +0000

The Liberia team has just landed at JFK airport. One more flight to Philly will get them home around 9:45 am. Thanks for praying! Welcome back team!

Liberia Team Heading Home

bmcmillen — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 20:40:25 +0000

The team of 5 (Jan, Emily, Jacqui, Mark and Skip) are on their way home tonight. They have landed in Ghana and then have an 11 hour flight to JFK getting them in around 5 am tomorrow. Then a quick flight from JFK will bring them to Philly around 9:45 tomorrow morning. Pray for a good flight, the ability to sleep and little turbulence.

Kim and Beth arrived back on Saturday and Gail continues on in Liberia for another 2 weeks.

The team finished up teacher training on Friday and Saturday in Monrovia at Haweh Academy where they had about 60 teachers attend. They enjoyed Sunday services at Lighthouse Baptist Church and then worked to get themselves packed up. Jan and Jacqui got to meet with the Minister of Education and had a very good meeting there and Jan was able to visit at Healthline Clinic and give them some vitamins and meds that we had brought over for their use there.

All in all, it sounds like they had a very good trip. Pray them now safely home.

On another note, our Wheels for Wells Mid Atlantic Bike Tour took off today. We have 8 riders who are riding to bring awareness to the water crisis in Africa. Their funds will go to water projects that our partners are involved with. Check out what’s happening on the ride on Facebook. Friend either Compassion Corps or Wheels for Wells for updates.

Back to Monrovia

bmcmillen — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 18:53:34 +0000

We spent the night at Martha’s orphanage and played with the children in the morning after a delicious breakfast of homemade donuts. It poured rain all morning and we drove back to Monrovia in the pouring rain as well.
We were very glad to arrive at our guesthouse that is a short walk from the beach. We settled in, got cleaned up, and are sitting at an Indian restaurant eating a late lunch\early dinner.
Everyone is doing well and seem happy. We will visit the Exclusive grocery store after dinner which is a fun little side trip to get our breakfast foods and then settle in for the night.
Tomorrow is more leadership and teacher training at Haweh Academy and Kim and I (Beth) head to the airport for the trip home.
Pray for safety and protection in travel and effective work for the rest of our time here!

Leaving Ganta

bmcmillen — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:41:36 +0000

We are on the bumpy road traveling to White Plains. It will be a 6 hour drive at least.
We signed our memorandum$ of understanding for our water preject and said our goodbyes to our Ganta friends.
Thanks for your care and comments!

Happy 4th of July, Everyone!!!

bmcmillen — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 13:11:51 +0000

Closing our time in Ganta

bmcmillen — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 22:57:40 +0000

It is noon here in Ganta and the 3rd day of training is coming to an end. We will close with presentation of certificates and will be done here in Ganta for another year.
Other things are happening as well. Jan and Jacqui are off on a “field trip”of sorts to see a rubber plant in a nearby town. We are working as well on a memorandum of understanding for the well project which we are trying to solidify before our scheduled departure tomorrow morning. Pray that these things can and will fall into place.
A cheer just arose from one of the classrooms…a thank you to our teachers.
It is actually now 9:30 when I am sending this finally. The day got very busy and has continued into the night here. We had the chance to visit a favorite orphanage of ours in the afternoon, have dinner with our friends from Trumpet and are back at our guesthouse visiting, packing, and negotiating our well prices. Everyone is tired but seems happy. We all have our Liberian names and feel very blessed to be a small part of this community!

Monday Training Done

bmcmillen — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:38:20 +0000

We are back at our guesthouse and have just finished lunch. Etta, our hostess has taken such good care of us.
Training went really well…only about 40 teachers came but they were enthusiastic learners and participants. While that was going on some of us got pictures of the children for our child sponsorship program and others were able to get some good research done. So all in all it has been a busy and productive day.
Tonight we will go to Arthur and Deborah’s home for dinner and then prepare for tomorrow’s lessons.
Thanks for praying for us! We are doing well!

Sunday Services

bmcmillen — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 17:33:15 +0000

It is Sunday and we are Trumpet Baptist Church for services. Right now Skip and Mark are working with the men, Jan and Jacqui are with the women and Gail and Emily are working with the young women while Kim observes the workings of the childrens program. Then we will attend the service before returning to the guesthouse to continue preparing for teacher training.
The well drillers also showed up this morning to talk about a well that will benefit the school and surrounding community.
Continue to keep us in your prayers for health and stamina and unity!

bmcmillen — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 15:33:21 +0000

Saturday Morning

bmcmillen — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 12:32:14 +0000

We are patiently (and impatiently) waiting for our drivers to show up as we have a full and busy day ahead.

Yesterday was spent in Bahn. Jacqui and Kim did a wonderful job in their leadership training and Jan was able to complete her surveys that will allow us to do some important research that we pray will help our partners in big ways.

Today Jacqui and Kim will do the training again at Trumpet School in Ganta. At the same time we will have lots of kids here to play games.

We are enjoying our guesthouse…very simple but we have lights and a fan for the warm nights so we are able to sleep.

We were reunited with Skip and Mark so we are a whole team again.