First African Dress

My new African Dress and my friend Hannah who made it for me! I love wearing it!

Christmas in Liberia

Christmas time is beautiful in Liberia. It has been my first green, hot, beach, sand, and sun Christmas and one I will never forget.

After a very busy beginning of December going from clinic to clinic in the rural bush villages of Nimba County doing clinical teaching with staff members, aiding in the accreditation preparation by the Ministry of Health, and bringing medical supplies to the clinics, I went to Monrovia to visit the Waines and spend the holiday with their family! It has been so special to be with them and the many people have made me feel somewhat like I am home. I feel like one of their children and Audry has a way to make one feel so welcomed.

I spent the vacation surfing and swimming at least one time every day. Christmas Eve I went on two swims and I also went on a long walk along the beach looking for shells to make into a necklace with Rebecca Waines. I find the ocean to be a place that is so peaceful and where I can just walk and talk to God so freely. I am in awe with His creation, His power!

On the 23rd we had many people over to the Waines and we had a Christmas Celebration. We first played games on the beach such as three legged race combined with dress up which was quite a sight to see. Three legged race to the pile of two sets of clothing, one for a lady and one for a man, and after you and your partner are fully dressed a three legged race back, tag your next team mates and they can go! The sand made it all the more fun! We also had a trust race with blindfolds and then we played a water game in the ocean where your team tires to fill their bucket with water before the other team but the bucket yo have to use has many wholes in it so you get pretty wet!

Christmas Day Santa Claus, aka Dave, came to the house, dressed in his African Santa outfit. He didn’t eat the cookies, drink the milk we left him, or respond to the note we wrote but he did hide our hobo sacks (stockings) around the house and I was one of the last people to find mine. We spent Christmas swimming, singing, playing the guitar, eating, and relaxing around the house

It was a special time and I thank God for Liberia, his creation, and the people here. Due to the lack of snow, lights, trees, Christmas Carrols on the radio or in the homes this season I was able to truly focus on the birth of Jesus Christ because that is the true reason to celebrate the season!

Prayer Warriors

My Prayer Warriors

Life has been great yet busy and after passing the three month mark I feel so much at home here and can’t even imagine leaving. I have made some great Liberian friends and have been able to do some exploring with them around Liberia.

Thank you for your prayers for the people that God has placed in my life!! I can testify to the way He orchestrates my daily! It is awesome.

My Big prayer request is that I was asked to be a speaker at a Church Youth Conference from December 26th to December 31st!! Please pray that I will be able to speak what the Lord wants me to share and that I may encourage the young people of Liberia to live for the Lord! I believe the Lord will start a revival among the youth and I am praying for BIG things and just am praying that God would empty me of myself and that I may be filled with HIM!!! Just pray for wisdom, for clear speaking so that all can understand me when I am speaking, and for the Holy Spirit to shower down on Liberia. We will be in Kakata, which is a smaller city in Liberia!

Praise the Lord, Peterson’s tumor is getting smaller on his neck!! He now is developing huge sores on his bottom from staying in one position for long periods of time but I am giving him and his family dressing materials for his sores and some medicine for his infection and I will be buying him some pillows so that his sores do not get bigger.

Elijah is really seeking after the Lord and to me that is so exciting. Freedman is another boy that I have been able to give a Bible to and have some great conversations talking about trusting in the Lord through hard times!

I met a woman two months ago who I ran into again yesterday. Her name is Josephine so please pray for her because she is sick and no one knows what is wrong. She is my age and has never born any children so I feel like I can relate to her very well.

My sister’s volleyball team in Alaska sponsored 16 children, placing their names on the back of their jerseys over their own names during the State Volleyball Tournament!! It was such an awesome idea so please pray for each of the children they sponsored that I may be able to use the money to share the love of Jesus with them!!

My church in Alaska is also raised some money for some of the local churches here to help buy musical instruments!! It is so exciting!

God continues to challenge me every day. We were driving down the dirt road into the bush the other day and I was keenly aware to all the small trodden paths that divert from the main road. As I was looking down the trails as we passed as far as I could see with the thick brush all around I happened to see three children playing in a field, kicking around a makeshift ball, two small children with one older child. The older child was dragging his right leg behind him as he tried to race the small children to the “ball.” In that instant I became overwhelmed of all the many stories of the children, parents, and families that lived down each of these walking trails. The tears, the fears, the work, pain, and Joy that I cannot even see as I drive down the main dirt road. I immediately felt the Lord say to me, “Sarah, this is how BIG my LOVE is. I know each one of these children, adults, families, and I know each tear that is shed, each fear that is felt, and each ounce of Joy that is portrayed. I am that BIG!! There is no limit to my knowledge, no end to my Love, no boundary for my Joy, and no obstacle for my grace!”

It is a rare occasion to see an African child in cloths and if they are wearing cloths they are filled with wholes, zippers do not work, or the material has been cut to allow the piece of fabric to still fit the child. I was reading this morning in 2 Corinthians about how as believers in Jesus Christ we are awaiting the day to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. I was thinking what a day that will be when we are clothed with the beauty of Christ, worshiping Him.

Well, it has been interesting to be celebrating the season in such a different climate! Warm weather, no snow, hot sun, no Christmas music playing, no lights, wreaths, or Christmas trees. I read the other day in a devotional book I have about a family who moved overseas to share the love of Jesus with others and as the mother went through her first Christmas in a different land she missed all the material decorations and had wished she would have brought her Christmas decorations with her. One morning it hit her how often material decorations, familiar songs, and common activities associated with Christmas can capture our attention and take it off the true meaning of Christmas and that is Jesus Christ! My attitude has changed as well and I am daily reminded that all I desire to do is celebrate the true meaning of the season and that is the birth of Jesus Christ! What a humble King we serve!!

I thank the Lord for your fellowship in the gospel! I daily desire to Shine for Jesus so that others may see Jesus through my actions and smile, to die daily to myself that I may walk in the strength of the Lord and not my own strength, and to be the aroma of Christ sharing His love and Joy with those whom I meet.

The clinic work is going well! I have been able to continue to do much clinical teaching with the staff on Emergency triage of patients that come into the clinic, universal precaution, assessment skills, implement organizational and structural protocols, and do preventative health teaching with nutrition and malaria. I love working with the clinic staff at each clinic and meet the people in the villages that they serve. Please pray that every day when I am at the Clinic I may pray with each patient that I see and that they may know and feel and see the POWER of God and the way that He alone can heal!!!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Sorry this email is coming so late but I wanted to tell everyone Happy Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!! My Thanksgiving was unlike any Thanksgiving celebration I had ever had before but it was a day of thanksgiving all the same! I was the only American around, and to eat I had rice and peanut-butter soup! Interesting but good (it is one of my favorite Liberian dishes because it doesn’t have a lot of oil in it!)! On Saturday however, a few of my American friends got together and with the absence of turkey we had a beef stew and I made real mashed potatoes, squash, and a cucumber salad! I also bought watermelon for dessert! It was a large feast with great friends who I live near in the TB compound. I continued a family tradition of passing out corn kernels to everyone with each one representing something that you are thankful for then going around the circle placing your popcorn kernels inside a small dish as you say the things you are thankful to the Lord for! It made me feel like I was home!

Life has been great yet busy and after passing the three month mark I feel so much at home here and can’t even imagine leaving. I have made some great Liberian friends and have been able to do some exploring with them around Liberia.

Recent Adventures:
I encountered my first Rhinoceros Beetle this evening as I was coming home from working in the clinics all day deep in the bush! I screamed as it flew at me, but after I was told that they are harmless I watched it and, no joke, it looks exactly like the blue beetle from A Bugs Life. I just laughed to myself. They are huge and look just like a rhinoceros.

I tried my first Liberian Sweet Pear today! It looks slightly like a Mango in shape, size, and color both on the inside and the outside, but has a pine tree smell. The light orange flesh of the fruit is sweet yet bitter but the CRAZY thing about this fruit is the seed on the inside. In the middle of the fruit is a seed that has sharp spines protruding from it! The spines are sharper than any thorn or thistle bush I have ever seen. The thorns extend fairly far off the seed so after pealing the piece of fruit trying to cut pieces of it is difficult because of the thorns. I am thinking that if I eat these Sweet Pears enough I will one day miss them. It will definitely be an acquired enjoyment because of the work that goes into eating one piece!

There is a little lizard crawling on the mosquito net hanging on my bed! I guess I will have some company tonight!

I saw a Liberian FIRST the other day when I slept in the bush. I got up in the morning and went to sit outside the hut. This young girl passed me going to get water, she was holding onto a string with something on the end as she walked. At first it looked like it could be a stone on the end, as she was swinging the string out and then moving from the end as it came back to her. With closer observation I came to realize that the thing that was at the other end of her string was ALIVE and yes, it was a Cockroach!!! My first pet cockroach ever seen! This young girl had caught a cockroach and then had placed it on a string and was watching as the bug as it would fly back towards her as she tossed it away from her body in the air.

The market has been so enjoyable! I recently found watermelon and pineapple! It is so good and so fresh! I saw people selling bags and bags of snails! Bags and bags of snails!! I was offered my first snail soup and after much careful thought I decided to have a small nibble but then leave most on my plate for the hungry child that would come and eat my plate after me. Chewy.

God continues to challenge me every day. We were driving down the dirt road into the bush the other day and I was keenly aware to all the small trodden paths that divert from the main road. As I was looking down the trails as we passed as far as I could see with the thick brush all around I happened to see three children playing in a field, kicking around a makeshift ball, two small children with one older child. The older child was dragging his right leg behind him as he tried to race the small children to the “ball.” In that instant I became overwhelmed of all the many stories of the children, parents, and families that lived down each of these walking trails. The tears, the fears, the work, pain, and Joy that I cannot even see as I drive down the main dirt road. I immediately felt the Lord say to me, “Sarah, this is how BIG my LOVE is. I know each one of these children, adults, families, and I know each tear that is shed, each fear that is felt, and each ounce of Joy that is portrayed. I am that BIG!! There is no limit to my knowledge, no end to my Love, no boundary for my Joy, and no obstacle for my grace!”

It is a rare occasion to see an African child in cloths and if they are wearing cloths they are filled with wholes, zippers do not work, or the material has been cut to allow the piece of fabric to still fit the child. I was reading this morning in 2 Corinthians about how as believers in Jesus Christ we are awaiting the day to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. I was thinking what a day that will be when we are clothed with the beauty of Christ, worshiping Him.

Well, it has been interesting to be celebrating the season in such a different climate! Warm weather, no snow, hot sun, no Christmas music playing, no lights, wreaths, or Christmas trees. I read the other day in a devotional book I have about a family who moved overseas to share the love of Jesus with others and as the mother went through her first Christmas in a different land she missed all the material decorations and had wished she would have brought her Christmas decorations with her. One morning it hit her how often material decorations, familiar songs, and common activities associated with Christmas can capture our attention and take it off the true meaning of Christmas and that is Jesus Christ! My attitude has changed as well and I am daily reminded that all I desire to do is celebrate the true meaning of the season and that is the birth of Jesus Christ! What a humble King we serve!!

I miss you all and love you tons and thank the Lord for your fellowship in the gospel! I daily desire to Shine for Jesus so that others may see Jesus through my actions and smile, to die daily to myself that I may walk in the strength of the Lord and not my own strength, and to be the aroma of Christ sharing His love and Joy with those whom I meet.
The clinic work is going well! I have been able to continue to do much clinical teaching with the staff on Emergency triage of patients that come into the clinic, universal precaution, assessment skills, implement organizational and structural protocols, and do preventative health teaching with nutrition and malaria. I love working with the clinic staff at each clinic and meet the people in the villages that they serve.

I read 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 this morning and read it in a new light this morning! “Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix out eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” What a great promise that no matter whatever the present circumstances one finds oneself we can fix our eyes on what is unseen not on what is seen! For what is seen is only temporary but what is unseen is eternal!

May the Lord bless you all this Holiday season and may your eyes be fixed on Jesus and the amazing and awesome birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and not on the material possessions and celebrations that often distract us.

Sarah Joy Carlson

PS. I want to testify to the goodness of the Lord and let you all know that God is providing for all my needs in unbelievable ways. I can testify to the provision of the Lord! Boxes are making it to my address in Liberia, so if you want, children are in need of school books of any kind, Sunday school materials with pictures to teach children, and black closed-toed shoes or sneakers for school (37 to 40 European sizes, girls and boys 14 to 18, larger sizes are always better because then they can grow into them if they need to). Anything you find that you think a child would love I am sure I will find a place for it.

My address again is

Equip Liberia,
Sarah Joy Carlson
PO Box 2499
14th Street Coleman Ave
Monrovia, Liberia
West Africa

#06-779-181

Prayer Partners

Today I was overwhelmed with the thought that I have so many people praying for me in America, praying for my safety, warring for me, believing for me, and praying for the strength, Joy, and Love of Jesus be poured out through my life to the people of Liberia, and I just started crying. I started thinking to myself that I am excited to be rejoicing in Heaven with you all and looking at the times when the army of the Lord was so encamped around me that the enemy just had to run away from the presence of God. I know mom and dad you haven’t been sleeping at night and just been praying for me and that means more to me than you will ever know. You are truly my prayer warriors and I am so blessed to have parents who hold me up in prayer like you both do! God is good and as mom always says, “The safest place to be is in the hands of Jesus!” and that is where I daily desire to rest! God is my Portion and my Cup! He is making my Cup overflow! He is my strength and my strong Tower! He is my song when I feel like crying, my words when I don’t know what to say, and my Wisdom when I don’t know what to do!! The JOY of the Lord is truly my strength. So with tears I want to tell you all how much I appreciate you and your prayers and ask that they would continue to come to cover me. You are all warriors and I pray that the Lord richly bless you and that you would feel His presence as you spend time before Him!! I want you to know that I am praying for you all as well and love when the Lord brings one of you to mind during the day! There are so many times that I experience something and with that one of you were here to experiences it with me so that we could laugh about it together later!

I just wanted to send a specific prayer letter to you and give you a better idea of what is going on in my heart and soul. What I feel God is doing in my life here in Liberia. It is so much and truly difficult to put into words but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that God is growing my love and need of Him daily and guiding my passions into alignment with His. I desire to daily give everything I have to Jesus and desire to actively love him with all my heart soul and mind. Like Paul said, I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection.

I cannot hide that fact that Liberia is a hard place to be. There is so much need everywhere and I am tired of people always seeing me as the rich white girl who has never worked a day in her life and never had a want or need that wasn’t met. As I am thinking about it, I really have never been in need like people here in Liberia. I have never lived a day not knowing if I would have enough money to eat. I have never lived a day not knowing if I would be able to go to school because mom and dad couldn’t afford it. People in Liberia live that everyday. They are a people who live in survival mode. Even 5 years after the war they are survival people. It is normal for an individual to go days without eating and I have found out that during the war they used to go weeks without putting any rice in their mouth. Even oranges or other fruit that is here they sell it more than eat it because if they eat it they do not make any money off it.

I just need prayer in wisdom how to respond to the cry of the poor. I want to see people with the eyes of Jesus. I want to be able to truly disciple young women and build friendships. It is just hard when people want you to give them money, and money is something I do not have a lot of but yet, I don’t want to be so attached to the small money that I have that I do not use it to bless those God brings in my life. It is just a minute-by-minute struggle.

I was in the bush all week, Monday through Saturday, and Liberia again amazed me. I met a women who came running into the clinic holding her son, probably about 7 year old, out to me pulling down his pants to reveal a extremely swollen and enlarged scrotum. She didn’t speak a language!!!!! She just made gestures and grunts from her throat. This lady didn’t speak a language!!! I thought it was crazy that I was seeing a woman who lived in this day of age who did not even know a language. The people at the clinic saw this as normal. She left her son in my room and ran out of the clinic grunting and making hand motions and people said she was going back to the farm but no one really knew what was going on. I was in shock and now just laugh about it!! The boy was scared to be in the room with me but I called some of the clinic staff in the room so that when this happened again to this small boy they would know how to reduce the ingroinal hernia this young boy suffered. This is often common among children and usually the child will outgrow the condition but you have to learn how to reduce it and what to do when it happens and I knew it would be impossible to try to explain anything to the mother!!

I had a 25 year old women carried in to the clinic in a wheelbarrow with about 15 other women pushing her and yelling. They carried her into the clinic and put her on the bed. She had taken some “country medicine” two days prior to try to aboard her baby. She had said she was only two months along but it turned out she was four months and was suffering from an incomplete abortion. We did not have any D & C tools in the clinic to perform any type of procedure or exam so I placed two IV’s in her and we gave her some Pitocin to see if we could increase her contractions for her body to expel her baby two young to live. The medicine was not enough so we referred her to the hospital, which is extremely hard for any patient to get to the hospital because of the expense in transportation as well as the hospital fee. Many people have to make the decision they will just have to die in the bush because they cannot make it to the hospital. It was crazy to think that those were the decisions the people in Liberia make!

The bush was good but hard. I have never felt so welcomed in a foreign community as I did in the towns of Bunadin and Duo. The town chief, elders, pastors, youth, and other community members came to welcome us with singing and dancing and a totally of three chicken throughout the day! It was so special! It was the first time in Liberia that I have had three meals a day! It was so good! We were able to go to two markets and I bought a pumpkin to bring home and eat at some point. We got a lot of work done at the clinics and it was neat to see what an effect these clinics have on the people of the town. Each morning at 8 am they have a song and then a devotion and then a health talk for the patients. It was so powerful! I was able to give the devotions some morning and it is powerful to see the faith of the people in these communities. I also learned more about the evil that is so threaded into the lives of the people of Liberia and how the Devil has used fear to hold people in such bondage. The very freedom that Christ suffered for on the cross for us has been suppressed. As I have been reading the Old Testament, many of the struggles that the people of Israel continued to fall into and Moses continued had to seek the forgiveness of the Lord for the Israelites is what the Liberian people fall into. Sexual sins, which is increased because of one-room homes where parents have sex in the same room that their children sleep and soon the children have sex in the same room the parents, are having sex in. Children are becoming pregnant and forced to grow up so quickly. Men with multiple wives and mistresses, fear and jealousy that women deal with quietly because they do not want to be beaten. Drunkenness. Playing with evil spirits such as people who can call the dead back and have them raise and walk around, unable to speak but can follow commands. “Country medicines,” potions that are used to prevent from all kids of evil. Rituals done to women and children that are supposed to prevent from any demonic powers. Women circumcision. Death. Malnutrition among children.

We arrived at one house at nightfall and emptied our bag out of the car and went into our room where a Rat ran quickly out. The kids of the house all grabbed a big stick and chased it until they killed it. As I began to close my eyes I heard the cockroaches first and then I felt them, crawling quickly on my chest and to my neck and I threw one off my neck and heard it hit the wall. I turned on my headlight and grabbed my shoe hoping I wouldn’t hit it so loud that I woke other people in the house up. I killed it and lay back in bed but knew that where there is one cockroach there are many more and from my trip to the outhouse and seeing them all over the wall, I knew that this was a cockroach filled place! I ended up killing a few more during the night and then I just slept with my flashlight on because often light keeps the insects away!! They are BIG here too!!

I went to the high school graduation of Steve, the younger brother of Phillip who is a guy I work with at Equip. I witnessed again the heartache many children in Liberia have lived through. I watched as this 19-year-old boy, who had just finished high school, wept in front of the family and friends who had come to celebrate with him. He wept because his mother and father were not there to share in this joyous and exciting day of his life. He wept because he had finished high school, which Phillip leaned over to me and said, “It is not a easy thing to finish high school in Liberia.” Even through the war he was able to continue with his grade school off and on as he ran from village to village to escape the fighting. He wept as he sang a song that he wrote with the words, “I still have Joy! I still have Joy! After all the things I have been through, I still have Joy! There was a time in my life I couldn’t go on. There was a time in my life when the devil tried to hold me down. But when I got on my knees, convicted by the Lord, He said to me, ‘Son, you still have JOY.’ I still have Joy, I still have Joy. After all the things I’ve been through, I still have JOY!” I started crying as he sang the song because before he had started singing, as I had watched him weep over the fact that his parents were not able to share in this celebration with him, I felt like the one thing the Lord wanted to tell him was, “The Joy of the Lord is your Strength!” Right after I felt like the Lord gave me that prayer for him he said he wanted to sing a song and those were the words of the song he sang. Nineteen years old is fairly young for a high school graduate in Liberia. Phillip and Steve have been living in and out of orphanages since they were young and their mother died a year after childbirth from a reason no one really knew and their father found another wife who didn’t like them. Their father ended up dying early in the war and they were forced into a orphanage all through the war because their step mom did not want to care for them. They experienced running for their life from village to village in the bush during the fighting. While they lived in an orphanage a missionary came to visit them and was impressed with the boys and paid for their schooling so even during the war they were going to school when they could. The brothers were separated when Phillip, who I work with, left to university, which was during the last years of the war. During the last year they have reconnected and began to live as a family again. Phillip told me as we drove away that he never knew that side of his brother. It was a powerful afternoon for me to experience Liberian history. (So a funny side story. One of the uncles bought a goat for the graduation celebration which was a HUGE thing. Maybe close to $100 US dollars he spent on the goat and everyone was so excited to eat it. Well it was my first time eating goat in Liberia and it sounded pretty good…until they brought it out and as I looked at my soup of goat there seemed to be more goat hair then meat in my soup. I quietly passed it to a hungry child sitting next to me saying it was a little too spicy for me! Ummmmmm!)

Here are some of the people God has placed in my life that I want to introduce you to that you may be praying for!

Elijah—a 15-year-old boy in 7th grade who I have gotten to know. I helped him buy a school uniform and now I am helping him buy a pair of tennis shoes so he can participate in Gym. He LOVEs basketball! He is a good kid and I met his mom and sister today at church and his father is a leaper and no longer lives with their family because he wanted to live near the Guinea border. I am not sure about the details of that, if his father is ashamed or if Elijah still interacts much with him father but I hope to just keep sharing the Love of Jesus with Elijah. His mother is a cleaner in the Leprosy and TB compound. He wants to study nursing after high school but it is hard for kids to dream here because they just are setting themselves up for failure because it is most likely that they or their parents will not be able to afford college and it is very hard to get a scholarship or find sponsorship. I am spending one day a week tutoring him in school and we read scripture and talk about God. The funny thing is that I was praying as I was walking home from the office one day that God would bring some young women in my life to disciple and invest time with and I saw these three girls in front of me so I walked fast to catch up with them. They were coming from choir practice and just walking one girl named Louis close to her home. It ended up that I walked Louis the rest of the way home because she lived near where I was staying and we talked about singing together and her teaching me African songs and I teaching her American worship songs and she was excited because she lived really close to where I was staying. It turns out that Louis and Elijah are brother and sister! I met their mom today and the only thing I have really given to Elijah is the school uniform but his mother quietly just said she appreciated my help so much since she has no money right now. It is hard because for a student to get a small job is very difficult so it impossible for Elijah to go to school and try to make money to buy things like shoes, cloths, a backpack. I feel that the Lord brought the family into my life now so pray for them as I try to invest in their lives. I hope to be able to go to their home. Maybe make them something to eat! I just want them to feel the Love of Jesus in my life.

Susanna and Agnus—19 and 16 year old girls who come over on Saturday and help me do my laundry and we eat together, hang out, and have a little devotion together. Yesterday we talked about purity and I asked them what their goals were and visions for their family someday. Being in the bush and seeing the sexual practices of the people of Liberia I just wanted to discuss with these girls what their thoughts and dreams were about a family someday. I wanted to tell them about the man that God desires them to be with is one to first of all loves the Lord with all his heart and one who will want to help you raise a family that loves the Lord! It was a neat time. Pray for more good conversations!

Peterson—a 15-year-old boy who is a patient at the TB center. He has a huge tumor on the right side of his neck with swollen lymphnodes. He had a small mass on the right side of his neck for the last two years according to his father and mother who just show so much love and care for their young son, and over the last two months the mass on his neck grew very fast and they brought him to the hospital where the doctor initially diagnosed with Extra pulmonary TB. After three weeks of initial TB treatment didn’t help his symptoms or chest x-ray the doctor continued the medications but diagnosed his with Lymphoma and his prognosis is death. We just found out today and I need wisdom and grace to love the family who are all waiting to hear what we can do to make their son better. Since I met Peterson I have been praying with him and his family and asking that the Lord would remove the tumor like He has the power to do but for some reason the Lord has not and I only trust that His ways are so much higher than my ways! Just war in prayer with me for this precious boy. Today I taught him to say, “What’s Up!” when I greet him!! The tumor is getting large and is cutting off his airway. He has lost all strength in his lower extremities and is incontinent of urine showing that now he has a lot of spinal cord involvement. Lord, Heal HIM!!!

Larwuo, Patience, Olive, Lorence, Paygar, Victor—Some of my Liberian co-workers that I want to be encouraging to deepen their faith and trust in the Lord their God with ALL of their Heart, ALL of their Soul, and ALL of their Mind!

Christina—my accountability partner who I met in Liberia. Pray that she would be blessed and that she would be comforted and that he times with Jesus would be powerful! She lives in Monrovia so we don’t get to see each other often but the times we do are so fun!

I am sorry this is so long but I just wanted to share my heart with you and mainly tell you how blessed I felt today, overwhelmed with the thought that I have so many friends and family praying for me. The pastor on Sunday held up a $5 bill and asked how much it was worth. Everyone said $5. Then he split in half and asked again how much it was worth now. Everyone said $0. He then talked about how God asked us to give Him ALL our heart, soul, and mind. Not just some of it, or a part of it. If we only give God a part of what he asks for it is almost like giving Him half of a $5 bill!

I love you all and may you be challenged like I was to give the Lord All of myself!!!
Your sister in Christ,
Sarah Joy

Speaking Mano

Well, today I had Crab Soup over white rice and I watched as the two other people with whom I was sharing my bowl of food put their fork in the middle of the crab’s body, broke it in half and then put the whole piece of crab—face, claws, body, and guts—in their mouth and began to chew—crunch, crunch, crunch was all I could hear. All I could think of was, “how can that be enjoyable?” I tried to do like them by placing an entire crab leg (Wooo!) in my mouth and biting down but the crunch and the pain it gave my teeth just didn’t seem worth it! Liberian style Crab Soup! Expect the unexpected when it comes to food! I am only beginning to understand what people mean when they say that Liberians don’t waste ANY food. The bones of fish that you would usually give to your dog or cat are loved by Liberian men, women, and children more that the fish itself. I watch kids fight all the time with the scraps coming from the area around the coal pot!

I saw another first when it comes to Liberians and their food! I was watching a HUGE football game, Monrovia verses Ganta, and was cheering loud for Ganta when the man standing beside me bought fried plantanes (they taste and look like potatoe chips) and after consuming the chips he just started eating the clear plastic bag they were packaged in like it was totally normal!!!

I have been trying to learn the dialect here in Ganta, which is Mano, and I have loved it! “Ba Vo” is “Good morning.” “Um toe la de?” is “what is your name?” “Um toe la, Sarah” is how I respond meaning, “my name is Sarah.” “Coma, ipea?” is “How is the day?” “Ipea la se!” is, “The Day is Good!” It means so much to the people I pass when I try to use my Mano. They sometimes try to teach me a new word or correct my pronunciation. It is so fun!

Liberians are known for their Liberian handshake!! It is similar to a normal handshake in that you grab the other person’s right hand and you shake but as you pull away you both snap your fingers. I love it! Because handshakes are so engraved into the culture here I have made up an “American” handshake that the kids LOVE to do as I walk by their homes in the morning and evening. I have made some great friends along my path. I met one lady whose name is Hannah and she is a seamstress and is going to make me my second African gown. She has a sister named Sarah, so we said that we are family since I have a sister named Hannah as well! It has been great to get to know her. I always ask Liberians their name because many of the names are Biblical and it is a great way to talk about Jesus and the Bible and about the man or women in the Bible they are named after! It has been some great conversation starters and I am praying that God would receive all glory and continue to draw their hearts to His!

It is hard being here. There is so much need, so much poverty. Kids and young adults who have so many dreams about what they want to do with their life but because of the lack of money they are unable to finish high school, let alone pay for college tuition. The song, “Give Them Jesus,” plays over and over in my head as I walk through the village. That is all I can give them is the Love of their Heavenly Father. It is hard to have so many people coming up to you asking for money to help them go to school, buy them a school uniform or shoes so they can attend their classes, notebooks, backpacks, help them attend computer school, or asking if I will carry their child back to America. Sometimes I have to hold back the tears as the mothers hold out their child and tell me that I can have their baby when I leave and carry them back to the states. Lord, provide for these children and shower them with your love!

I tell you it is still so funny for me to walk down the road and pass people just peeing and pooping in the open area, not even seeking privacy. Grown ups and children alike, and everyone stops in the middle of their poop to say, “Quiplu! Quiplu! Quiplu!” which means, “White woman, white women, white women!” while there are squatting and then they finish as I pass by! I have to smile and just laugh to myself! Women just walking around without a top, women nursing their baby as they are cooking or walking, Liberians bathe in every stream that is visible by the road because they can walk to the water source by the road so it is easier for them, many naked bodies as you pass by! Not only are they bathing, they are washing their dishes, washing their cloths and sometimes going to the bathroom in the same pool of water. It is quite a sight.

The orphanage that is in the same compound as Ganta Equip office functions often as a Foster Home for extremely malnourished children, which means that when the children are healthier and doing better physically they are able to go back to their parents. Often one family member, either a mother or an older sibling, will come take care of their sick brother, sister, or baby at the orphanage and then when the child is healthy they will carry them back home. It is so exciting to see a child come in so malnourished then leave healthy with their family member, but it has been hard to see some of the kids I love so much leave. Little Tiedo, Pappi, and Emmanuel have all left. I just pray that the love that I was able to pour out on them while they were at the orphanage was the love of Jesus and that they may know that their Heavenly Father loves them so much!

I have been thinking a lot about what the people in Jerusalem did when Jesus walked down the street. How did He respond to them? Did they ask Him for money? He was God so He could tell whose heart was sincere when people asked Him to help or heal them. I know that it says in scripture that wherever Jesus went crowds followed Him and I wonder if some of those people only desired to get something for themselves. I am sure the weight of the sin of the people weighed so heavy on Jesus that He longed to get away to His quiet place and just talk to His heavenly father. I pray that they Lord would give me Kingdom Eyes and give me a greater hunger daily of the need to draw deep from His well that never dries!

We are getting a lot of stuff done in the clinics. There is so much work to do but I am just praying for wisdom and energy from the Lord.

Wow! Hello Friends and Family,

So much has happened over the last week! Please check out my Blog because I have been able to post some pictures and more will be coming. The connection here is often so slow but I look forward to sharing with you some of my experiences through pictures.

I am now living on a Leprosy and Tuberculosis Compound with three wonderful catholic nuns!!! I have met and spent time with all the patients and I cannot describe to you in adequate words what my heart feels every time I am with these patients. Leprosy men, women, and children, who are often shunned by society, with crippled hands and feet and open sores on their body, come up to me smiling and asking me how my day is going! A man, who because of leprosy was unable to see well, with contracted shriveled fingers and crippled feet, grabbed my hand and started dancing and singing, “Praising the Lord!” As I watched his face a sudden wave of emotions came over me and I started crying because I felt the Love of God in such a Powerful and Sincere way! The patients in the compound have all started their treatment so they are considered in remission. They take medication for 1 year and then they are able to say they are cured. Once a patient has started the treatment there is virtually no way they can pass the disease to anyone else. Because of this, Leprosy compounds and treatment centers are closing down all around the world and patients are encouraged to live in their own communities with their families after they are given the medication. The stigmatisms, however, are still present so many patients love to have a place where they can live with others going through the same disease and be loved and not shunned from their towns and loved ones.

The TB patients in the compound are so thin, but they all have smiles on their face, and when you meet them and asked them how they are doing (“how’s the Body”) they say, “Thank the Lord. My body feels good!” There is a craft shop in the compound with hand-made crafts that these men and women make, both Leprosy and TB patients, and I was in awe as I walked inside. Brooms, woven baskets, floor mats, woven purses, stationary cards, and wooden crafts filled the room. Ex-patients now work on the compound in the lab and drug administration station as well as make prosthesis legs and special shoes to allow the patients to walk more easily. It was a powerful morning for me. I saw a baby who was 7 months old suffering from TB and severely malnourished, a 26 year old girl with an unknown diagnosis that the doctors could not find out what she was suffering from but her abdomen was enlarged and distended, I saw a 12 year old boy suffering from Leprosy, and I saw many men and women with arms and legs that no longer had fingers and toes, yet they shake your hand with excitement and love, not ashamed of their physical appearance but happy to be in the healing process!

The material I bought in the market a few weeks ago I gave to one of the Leprosy patients to sew me an African Dress. I am so excited to wear it!!

There have been some hard things going on here as well. Please pray for me. A 9-year-old boy Richardson who arrived at the orphanage 2 months ago, severely malnourished, the size of a 1 or 2 year old, died on Friday. When he arrived his body was severely swollen from the shift of fluid due to the lack of nutrition and since he arrived at Hope Village he has been improving and the fluid in his body has shifted back into his cells causing his extra skin to peel creating open sores all over his body. With the open sores the flies swarm around him. He was not doing well on Monday morning, he was lethargic, did not have the strength to sit up, would not eat anything, had been having diarrhea all night, and was breathing with shallow respirations. We prayed hard that the Lord would heal him for a long time. I decided that they should bring him to the hospital for tube and IV feedings and re-hydration. He was doing much better on Wednesday and came home from the hospital and the most EXCITING thing was that his mother, who is a young girl who was not able to care for the child while he was growing up, came to the hospital to see him. At the hospital, when Richardson was feeling better, he told his mom that he wanted to go home with her and so she took him home. I found out yesterday that Richardson died on Friday and I have to tell you that it has been so hard for me. The Lords ways are not are ways. Please pray for healing for the family and that the restoration between the mother and her child that happened God would use for His glory in her life.

I play with the kids at Hope Orphanage every day! I have been bringing my guitar and singing children’s songs such as, Jesus Loves the Little Children, Every Move I Make I Make in You, My God is so BIG, Lord I Lift Your Name on High, and many more. They have been teaching me many songs as well! It is so fun to learn African songs and African dances! On Saturdays I have been singing while the women are washing cloths and fixing the food to distract the children. I truly feel like I have a whole bunch of children of my own!

I have been working out of Ganta this last week, focusing on the Equip Clinic in Ganta by helping assess and treat patients that come into the clinic as well as working on clinic protocols and tools to place in each clinic. I have been assessing two new RNs that Equip has hired to work in two of the clinics going through the BPH Accreditation process. I went through the baseline assessment of their clinics with each of them and I think it was helpful in giving them vision of the areas their clinics need to go to meet the Accreditation standards. It has been a joy to work with them, get to know them, and share information and knowledge with them. Today I sat and talked to them and wanted to hear their testimonies. It was a powerful afternoon. It is hard to imagine living through a war like they did and trying to continue their education at the same time running for their life when war broke out, going 3 weeks without eating, watching their friends die, caring for their siblings as often their parents split their children up and ran on alone. Boys fearing that they would be caught and forced to be soldiers, women raped and beaten.

Tuesday and Thursday is Big Belly Day at the Equip clinic. That means all the pregnant women come to get their check ups!!! It is so fun!! Women laying on all the benches, trying to sleep or get comfortable, stomachs of all different sizes, all different ages. Health talks are performed on the prevention of malaria, dehydration, and malnutrition for the mothers. I asked them if there was other information they would like to learn about and all the women said, “Gas!” So I guess I will be preparing a GAS talk for women during pregnancy!!! Hahhahah!! It has to do with their diet here so maybe I can give them some knowledge to make their pregnancies more comfortable!

I love the Women’s Soccer team I am able to play with when I have time. Ganta Women’s Sports Association started in August of this year, the first time ever that the women in Ganta have had any type of organized sports league available to them. It is so fun to be playing with them and meeting the women in Ganta. Pray that I will be able to have many great talks about the love and provision of Jesus with them.

I went to a women’s Bible Study/Pray group on Monday afternoon that was a powerful time of fellowship with women who desire to call out to Jesus that the Holy Spirit would fall on Liberia. The women have quickly welcomed me in and prayed over me. I thank the Lord for this opportunity to worship Jesus with the mighty body of Christ in Liberia.

I have been trying a lot of new foods, which has been a lot of fun!! There are these peanut/cassava/sesame seed cups that are so good. I will hopefully learn how to make them. I bought roasted cassava, which is just like a large dense baked potato, roasted corn on the cob, cucumbers, grapefruit, and oranges off the street! I cannot wait to buy a pumpkin next and make cooked pumpkin! Papaya is almost ripe so that will be fun to eat as well!

The Lord has been so faithful to meet with me and draw near to me as I have been seeking His face and His heart in the morning and throughout the day! I rely on Him for my strength! I pray that I will continue to be His fragrance, saturated with Him and Him alone, to be the Aroma of God. I daily want to leave myself at home and walk in His steps. Thanks for your prayers and support! God is so good and I am blessed to be able to be in Liberia sharing the Love of Jesus with the people here.