Christmas In Liberia

The first groups of 85 farmers graduated their three day training class that taught them how to farm more effectively and how to market their crops. Even though many Liberians have been farmers for generations, they don't know how to farm well. We contracted with a group from a local university agricultural department to teach them. The 85 were divided into two training sessions and we have two more to go in the next couple weeks

 Each participant received a bag of fertilizer, a watering can, a hoe, seeds, pesticide, and a pesticide sprayer. The hope is they use their new knowledge and their new tools to raise an effective crop. They then sell the crop and use some of the proceeds to buy more supplies. We'll be able to see how effective this project was in about four months.

The last few mornings have been cool in the low to mid 70s. We went for a walk on the beach. This is about 1/2 mile from our house.

The pig was alive.

We had a senior missionary get together dinner at the mission president's house. They have them about every two months. They celebrated my belated birthday.

The church has a large project throughout Liberia where they have built  warehouses where farmers can come and store their crops. In some areas as much as 80% of the crops spoil before they go to market. The warehouse operators will either buy their crops from them or store them until they sell them.

While we were in the city of Totota doing the farmer training the mayor approached us and asked if we would consider buying them a new trash transporter. They have used this one for 17 years and now it's too far broken to fix. They use it to pick up the piles of trash throughout the city and take them to the dump. I like this project. I'll see if I can get it approved.

This is the caterer who was providing the breakfast and lunch for our farming training classes. In Liberia meals are always expected at training classes. They are Frying chicken.

The Farmer training class is about two and a half hours from our house so we stayed overnight at the elder and sister Dustin's house. They are a senior missionary couple assigned to that area. This picture gives you an example of the quality of workmanship here in the country. This is what the ceiling of the guest bedroom looks like.

This is a picture of The church we attended on our last mission in Timor Leste. When we started there were three members. It has grown well. This is remarkable because they're in a country where the gospel is not government authorized to be taught.  Anyone who wants to investigate and join the church has to request it. When we left there were 16 members.  They all still participate in the church.  There are 25 in the picture.   The original group of 9 converts are scheduled to go to the Philippines for their temple blessing next month.

Christmas is not very big in Liberia. No one has any money to buy gifts or presents so the stores do not advertise it. Very few Christmas trees. Hardly anyone has Christmas lights. Occasionally someone will say Merry Christmas.  On the other hand most of the people here at least outwardly try to focus their lives on Jesus Christ. Some of their traditions don't coincide with their beliefs but there is an attempt to live a Christian life.