CAFMACP & BEULAH
When we first arrived in Liberia for our first trip in April of 2013, members of the CAFMACP team were the first people waiting for us at the airport. Our relationship with Pauline Scott and Pastors David, Jorgbor, and Willie continued to grow when we (Jessica and Jesse) raised a small amount of money to return in 2014 to help CAFMACP continue their work at the Beulah Retreat and Development Center in Bomi County, Liberia. The Ebola outbreak directly following our trip in 2014 made us desperate to do whatever we could for these people that we loved like family. It was out of that desperation that we felt God leading us to start For the Lamb as a way to be an asset to CAFMACP and other indigenous organizations that truly want to make a change in their own country and reach their own people for Christ.
The Vision of Beulah came from Pastor David, the Executive Director of CAFMACP. Their vision is to build a hub in the interior where CAFMACP and partners can help to bring development to Liberia by 1.) providing Christ Centered Education to the children of the surrounding communities, 2.) attend to physical and spiritual health of the people by providing a clinic and prayer center, 3.) Build and operate a pastor training center which will teach both theology as well as vocational skills such as carpentry, farming, plumbing, etc. 4.) Provide an agricultural center where food can be raised right on the property for sustainability. We as For the Lamb want to lift CAFMACPs hands at Beulah by helping Beulah in its sustainability initiatives. We are using the Vermeer Dwell Earth block machine to help with low cost construction, and working on planning for the future agricultural projects. In the last 3 months we have agreed and signed an organizational partner contract, helped in the construction of their temporary school which is providing Christ Centered education for Kindergarten through Second Grade and have started the plans to start the brick making process for the beginning of the permanent Beulah k-12 School.
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Change Agent Network
Change Agent Network is an inspiring organization that was started out of the chaos of civil war from a Liberian Refugee named Eric Wowoh. CAN's mission is education. They are targeting the mental, physical, spiritual, and relational poverty of the country by connecting global partners who give one time high impact donations to construct the schools and then charging a daily low fee payment per child to operate the school as a locally sustainable entity. CAN has built over 20 school across Liberia and operates 4 of them as an organization. Their focus is Christ Centered, Locally Sustainable education. 4TL is partnering with CAN to help them find and implement more ways to make the schools locally sustainable as well as empower the community to do the same through agriculture, renewable energy, micro loan programs, and low cost, sustainable construction with the earth block machine. We (Jesse and Jessica) recently helped CAN by leading a team from Dallas, Texas to their school in Central Liberia called AAA. The teams goal was to set up the electrical wiring for the school that would be powered by the newly donated generator. Jesse is a licensed journeyman electrician so he was so excited to get to work with the two men to energize the school. Jesse's main job was to be the bridge between the American electricians and the local electrician on the ground. Without proper training of the locals, the system can only be fixed by flying someone from the states which is time consuming and extremely costly. Jesse is and will continue to work with the Liberians on the ground to ensure that they understand the system well and can operate and fix it on their own. Jessica was a host for the two women that came along as well. Her job was to be the cultural and language bridge between them and the Liberians as they carried out their ministry. Jessica helped the team to be more effective by helping them to understand culture and also the dos and don'ts of ministry in Liberia. We both look forward to working closely with CAN in the future.
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Jess and Jess
Jessica and I are really finding our place in Liberia. Our apartment that we rented about a week before returning to the states is slowly becoming more and more of a home. Our landlords consider us their children and always do whatever they can to help us out since we are constantly traveling places. Jessica is learning to cook all kinds of Liberian dishes and because we have limited electricity and no refrigeration, we have been forced to cook Liberian dishes and we're loving it! Potato Green soup, Cassava Leaf, Palm Butter, and the list goes on and on. Jessica is becoming a real Liberian cook! We are beginning to make a lot of friends in the community and finding ways to share Jesus through relationship. I had the opportunity to be the guest speaker at the 842 computer school graduation in our community and got a chance to speak about sacrifice, remembering where you came from, and knowing where you're going. There are several people in our community that we are helping to set up some kind of business to have an income and also have a sense of self worth and dignity. We have been extremely busy helping CAFMACP with the Beulah school project and occasionally lending a hand to CAN in some of their projects. We are so excited for the year to come and look forward to seeing 4TL become more involved in sustainable projects throughout Liberia. One huge praise point is that we have finally, after months of praying, been able to purchase our own motorbike which seems like a small thing but here in Liberia it is huge! The road that we live on is very difficult to travel via car or truck, the traffic in the city is always jammed. The motorbike has made all of those problems disappear. What used to take hours can now take a fraction of the time not to mention the savings in fuel. We have been praying for this bike for months now and just haven't had the funds to make it happen. The beginning of this month an anonymous donor give exactly what we needed. We didn't even have to ask. it was an amazing blessing and will definitely make our job a lot easier here in LIB.
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