(midnight)
I can’t believe we are already in our second week of the trip! Today was a great Lord’s Day. This morning was uneventful prior to the services. We arrived for Sunday School at 10am, though in typical Liberian fashion, we didn’t begin until 15 or 20 after the hour. I taught the adult Sunday School from Ephesians 2:1-10 and the people seemed to hang on every word – what an encouraging answer to prayer!
The morning service included a song service that was almost all hymns, 4 public “intercessory” prayers with everyone praying out loud at once (chaotic to say the least) and a public testimony by sister Yassah’s son who was saved out of the Jehovah’s Witness cult last year at our services. Dr. Allison preached on “Christ, our Head” from Colossians 2, and the people seemed to respond very well.
Our van was supposedly fixed but being cleaned, so the little yellow spud got us home. We thought the van was going to bring the church leaders to eat with us, so we held off lunch. In the meantime, the other guest here, Kelly, a Nigerian civil engineer, introduced Paulcy, George, and me to a German friend who stopped by. A humanitarian aid worker doing accounting for a women’s rights organization, the woman was excited to be greeted “auf Deutsch.” My Deutsch lasted about 3 pitiful sentences and we reverted to English. After casual introductory conversation, Paulcy asked her if she attended church. She reluctantly named some “Rose and Cross” belief and Paulcy pressed her for details. Her explanation of that faith’s “everyone is heading toward God” dogma led him into one of the most clear, logical presentations of the Gospel from start to finish I’ve ever heard in my experience of personal evangelism. For at least 1 ½ hours we (mostly Paulcy) discussed the Gospel in contrast to her beliefs. Paulcy didn’t pull any punches in inviting her to faith in Christ right there and she finally rejected it, though she had listened and sincerely admitted many of our points from Scripture. She is clearly blind and needs God to do a regenerating work in her heart.
Around 4pm, our Liberian men finally arrived with two vans and we headed back into the sweltering heat to go to the service.
Since the church usually has no evening service, the evening service was lightly attended, but those who came paid close attention Dr. Allison’s convicting message on the necessity of communion with Christ from the narrative of Mary and Martha in Luke.
By this time, it had occurred to met that we had been repeating the same 7 or 8 hymns at all services. After the service, I asked Kowah who could read music. “No one can,” was his matter-of-fact reply. So the only way they could learn the hymns (and they really wanted to!) is to hear and to memorize the tunes. So, I am going to try to teach them at least 3 or 4 more by the time we leave.
Also after the service, Dr. Allison was able to counsel with a single mother who had been at all the services. They conversed for about ½ an hour and when he emerged, he announced that she had received Christ – Hallelujah!
We returned to the EGH with several men and had a great dinner of BBQ chicken, spaghetti, and red sauce followed by citrus cakes. George accidentally drank some local water, so we hope to see him in the morning. After the men left, having decided on a newer, better van charter, our group stayed up and told funny stories about topics ranging from FPC presbytery meetings to bungee jumping. Tomorrow’s going to be a long, hard day so I am off to get some rest – g’night!
