First Week

Hello from the other side

We made it to our new home in Monrovia, Liberia!  It's hard to believe it's only been one week!  Since landing in Liberia on Friday, August 10th, we have been busy, busy, busy.  All of us are in good health and spirits.  I (Jaime) just want to provide a few highlights from our first week:

#1 Amazing People:
God has blessed us with many family members and friends that have embraced us with love here in Liberia.  They have worked tirelessly on our house getting it ready for us.  As you may know, Thomas and I have mentored/discipled many young adults over the years.   We are continuing this practice here with the five young adults living with us.   Ruth is 21 and does almost all of the cooking and shopping.  She is always positive and has an amazing servant's heart. Joe (age 21) and Sando (age 17) have been staying at our house and watching over it since Thomas left last November.  They work hard carrying water, providing security, helping Ruth with the cooking, and other manual labor tasks.  Konah (age 23) and Santos (age 19) also help with security and tasks around the house.  All of them have helped the kids adjust to life here by playing games with them and introducing them to Liberian English and other aspects of Liberian culture.  Each one of these young adults have been through incredible struggles and adversities.  They have dreams and aspirations, too.  We are praying that God will use our family to impact their lives and continually point them to Jesus.   

#2 Our Home:
It is very difficult to describe how blessed we are to have a home in Liberia.  It has been a life long dream come true for Thomas.  We have two working bathrooms (without running water for now), a functional kitchen with a gas stove and a refrigerator, beds, a small generator, and most importantly internet access when the network is working. Despite being quite livable, there are still many things that need to be complete.  The work on the water system continues--we are close to having a sanitized well.  For our daily household needs (not for drinking), we are currently collecting rain water and getting water from an unclean well.   We strain it and dump it all into a barrel and sanitize it by adding chlorine bleach.  We buy bottled water for drinking and brushing our teeth.  Water is plentiful but clean water is hard to find.  Hopefully, the work will be done either today or tomorrow (weather permitting).

Prayer Requests:
1) Our container is here and at the port in Monrovia.  Please pray that we can get it out quickly and without having to pay additional penalties/fees.  
2) I'm continually amazed at how expensive it is to live here.  Gas is US$5.40/gallon.  A box of Honey Nut Cheerios costs US$9.50!  We are trusting in God to provide for our needs.

I will try to do updates weekly.  The best way to contact us is through Facebook messenger.