Timor Leste good news

This is Janu and Zelia.  They are good friends we made in Timor Leste.  They were both volunteers that helped with the English classes.  Janu was the president of a company that implemented some of our humanitarian projects. Like most couples in the country they were living together without marriage because of the expense and difficulty of the customary bride price. On July 27th, 2019 they were able to get married. All marriages were required to be performed in the Catholic Church. We were chosen as their godparents.

The next day they were baptized. The church was not organized then in the country. It consisted of just a handful of members that met together under the authority of the mission president who was located in Jakarta Indonesia almost 2000 miles away. During the COVID years the small group of mostly new members of the church was left almost entirely on their own, receiving leadership and guidance from the mission president over the Internet.

This little group all remained active participating members of the church with Janu acting in the leadership role.  After the country opened up again a few members of the church from the United States, moved into the country and joined the group. Just a couple weeks ago there was enough of them that they were made a branch. Janu is now the elders quorum president.
 

On January 24 of this year Janu and Zelia had their marriage sealed for time and all eternity in one of the Philippine temples.  Happy and sacred day.

The church in most areas of Liberia is organized into branches presided over by the mission president.  Almost all of the membership are new first generation members. To help this new leadership direct the church the mission holds leadership training meetings. This is a group of the primary presidents. Cheryl had responsibility to demonstrate how to teach new songs to the children.

The church has the largest wheelchair distribution program in the country.  Wheelchair distribution consists of getting the wheelchairs into the country, assessing the needs of the wheelchair recipient and assembling and modifying the wheelchair for the beneficiary.

This is a group of  needs assessors that are being trained by a volunteer physical therapist from the University of Utah. In the adjoining room was a group of wheelchair assemblers who were being trained by a volunteer bicycle shop owner, also from Utah. These assessors and assemblers are located throughout the country so that they can meet the wheelchair needs in the remote areas.

Due to the growth of the wheelchair humanitarian program all of this training is now going to be handled from the Africa West area located in Accra Ghana instead of out of Church headquarters. All of these volunteers who have come from America will be replaced with Africans.

 

For humanitarian work Cheryl and I report to a church employee in Ghana by the name of Ezra. He was  in Liberia this week in conjunction with the wheelchair training. Part of his time here was spent with us visiting some of the projects we have implemented. At Wein Town Public School we had to create a drainage system to get water away from the buildings.  It was planned to have the water just exit the property and flow into a small wash area of the community .  

Each rainy season the community wash floods making it difficult for the children to get to school and for the community to pass through the area. The contractor, at his own expense, has created a drainage ditch that he will line with cement and hollow concrete blocks and then cover with a concrete walkway so that pedestrians and motorcycles can pass over during the rainy season. We have been fortunate to find good quality contractors who end up always doing extra on our projects. They take pride in doing a little bit extra to help their country.