.Real.Greg.Lee.

I’m so frustrated that I can’t get enough internet speed to upload pictures.  It is true of a lot of things around here, but without pictures (or video) the church service is impossible to describe.  Here is my best (but still pretty lame) attempt…

The Setting – The Monrovia United Christian Church worships outside with a modest roof held up by some branches and bamboo poles.  In the background is a church building that is under construction.

The Weather – It is the rainy season here.  That means it rains every day, but the amounts vary greatly.  Today it poured during the time people were traveling to church and during the Sunday School hour.  I would expect this to have a HUGE negative effect on attendance, but it didn’t.  Almost every seat under the roof was full.

The Transportation – The reason I thought rain would affect attendance is that out of 230 people, only 3 families came in cars of their own.  Many walked and many took taxis (some of which are motorcycles).  transportation remains one of the biggest dilemmas for Liberians.

Gordon and David – These guys shined today.  David taught Sunday School…while the rain was POURING down on the roof (sheets of aluminum).  It was so loud, he basically had to stop once.  Gordon introduced communion very well in the worship service.  Both of them were connecting with leader after leader after leader during the fellowship lunch following the services.

The Services – If you have never experienced an African Choir…you should come to Liberia!  I can’t describe the passion, energy, and praise they bring to a service.  The service was over an hour long before I started to preach and I took the full 40 minutes they offered me! 7 people came forward at the end of the service to make new spiritual commitments, including one who was giving his life to Christ and going to be baptized.

Two churches in one morning – The service lasted longer than I expected and we had arranged to be on the phone with the 3 services at the St. John campus (5 hour time difference).  The service literally ended at 1:25pm our time and my phone rang to take the call at 8:25am in the first service at St. John!  It was great to speak to both churches and give Suncrest an update.

Pray for us…tomorrow we have another long drive – 5-6 hours each way up to Ganta, which borders Guinea.  it is our last major visit with a new group and then we will be using Tuesday to tie up some loose ends.  On Wednesday we head for home.

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I’m having miserable internet experience here, but was able to upload 3 pictures out of about 15 I have tried.  These are…

(1) the road conditions for our drives on Wednesday and Thursday

(2) Gordon and David with the leadership team that came from the Buchanan Christian Church today.  They had a very inspiring plan for combining church planting with agricultural economic development

(3) Gordon and David with some of the teens that were in the choir at our welcome service in Wayzohn the other day.

You should be able to click on the pictures to see them larger.

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The physical trip that I wrote about to Wayzohn was interesting and draining, but we had 5 hours with the people of that village that was among the most inspiring of all my experiences in Liberia.

When we arrived just before 11:00am on a Wednesday morning their small church building was absolutely packed with people singing and celebrating our arrival.  I was the recipient of this on my first trip here and it is extremely humbling and moving.  The celebrations take a lot of time and resources from people that don’t have much so we actually told them not to do one for us on this trip.  Still, I’m especially glad that Gordon and David got to experience one.  The people are so genuinely full of joy and inspired by our visit.  And the children just light up when they see a white man…and especially when we pull out our cameras to take their pictures.

The service was brief, but I got to pass on greetings to this remote church from Suncrest and after hearing their choir and congregation do some powerful music in their native Bassa dialect, we closed the service by singing “When we all get to heaven” in English.  I sand that song 1000 times growing up, but David and Gordon agreed…there is nothing like singing it with people from the other side of the world.  And imagining the difference a church like ours could make in a place like this that we will not realize until “we all get to heaven.”  Indescribable.

Then, we went to lunch with a dozen leaders from their church.  This was the most impressive group of Liberians I’ve interacted with.  The group is full of vision for their own church and beyond.  You know you have a special group of people when you learn they planted their church during the war…and have see it grow from 11 people to over 100…all in a church building that is smaller than one of our classrooms.

There is more…but I’ll tell some of the individual stories later.  (And post pictures…just can’t get enough bandwidth to get it done here.)

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Gordon Driving on African Highway

Note: I’ve been trying to upload more pictures, but the connection is too slow.  Will post more as soon as I can.

When I’m totally candid, I have a genuine appreciation for the plight of the people in Liberia…and every now and then my American way gets ahead of itself.  My arrogance leaks into my thinking and I start assume they should be able to solve their problems “just like we do.”

And don’t get me wrong, I am most impressed with some innovative leaders here who are committed to moving their country from being a receiver of compassion to a self-sustaining nation re-built from a devastating war.  But yesterday was a reminder.  We took a trip from Monrovia to Wayzohn.  It was a powerful day spiritually, but let me just paint a picture of physical conditions and circumstances.

We were told before we went that we would have to rent a vehicle for $150 (US Dollars) to go out of town.  Truth is…we were frustrated and wondering if we were Americans being taken advantage of.  In a country where many things are much cheaper than the US and only the wealthiest could afford this, we couldn’t believe we were going to pay that much more for a rental here than in the US (and this was not a nice vehicle!).

Then here’s how our day went…We left home at 5:30 in the morning.  We went about 60 miles on a very decent road that took about 90 minutes. I thought we were in great shape…just another 50 miles or so to go.  And that last 50 miles took over 3 ½ hours.  It was a dirt road.  And it was rainy season.  And for those 3 ½ hours we shook and bounced and started and stopped and turned and twisted.  David, Gordon and I will never complain about potholes in NWI again!

We passed multiple vehicles that were stuck or broken down.  I’m sure we wore out all the shocks in that vehicle on the way there…because the trip home last night was even more miserable and one hour longer!  $150 was a steal!!  You would have had to pay me $1500 to let you take one of my vehicles for that 220 mile round trip.

It is just a good reminder for me that I in my second visit to the country I’m still totally naïve about the struggle Liberians face.  Liberian leaders told our team that was here in the winter that transportation was one of their major challenges.  I never had come close to understanding that.  Or many other things.

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I am going to have to post out of order here. I have two blog posts typed on my computer about incredible experiences from yesterday, but could not get to an internet connection to post them. So I am typing this one on my blackberry – yes it is working here – and will post the others tomorrow hopefully.

Today we took our first real trip into the deep interior of the country or ‘the bush’ as many call it. We visited 1 church that was so far off the main path, you could have left me there and I am confident I would have never got home! Still, there are so many people that live in so many villages back there. It was unbelievable. The church we visited was impressive – even if I couldn’t imagine americans sitting on benches made of 2 bamboo logs tied together for worship. I will post pictures later.

Most impressive, though was driving an hour into the interior where we saw no other vehicles – none – on our way in. When we got there, we walked across a log bridge (not a bridge made of logs, but a single log) and walked up to a very inspiring farm. A church planting group here is working on ways to both reach more people and also assist with medical care and economic development.

They have just opened their medical clinic where the nearest hospital is 2 hours away. And yes, they had to hand carry all the building materials across the log to build it!

Most impressive, though, was the rubber tree farm they are putting in. It would be impossible to describe the hearts of these people and the hard work of these people. They need our help, but they don’t want to be dependent on our help long-term. So, they are developing a stable economic model for giving people jobs and planting new churches by investing in Liberia’s major resource and export. The rubber trees they have planted over the last 4 years will begin producing sap in 3 more years and will provide economic stability for 25-30 years in the future.

I could write about this for a long time, but I will leave it at that for know. It is becoming easier to see how Suncrest’s Jesus Mission investment could serve to plant churches and genuinely help people’s wellbeing for many many years to come.

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I only have a minute here at the most basic place on earth I could imagine having internet service, so here are my first impressions on my first day back in Liberia…

1.  The people…still love them.  They are warm, gracious, hospitable, and smile easily…despite the conditions they find themselves in.

2.  The Buegar’s…we are staying in their home and their friendship with Suncrest and me goes back 15 years.  If any place in liberia could feel like home, it is in their house.

3.  The Showers…I’ll look forward to warm water again when we get home next Thursday.

4.  The City…You can see signs of improvement and lots of construction, but still struck by the lack of infrastructure and the number of people everywhere along the streets.

5.  The travel to Liberia…Very smooth with just one simple connection in Belgium.  Much better than the three-legged trips from before.

6.  The travel in Liberia…Not so smooth.  The non-paved roads (which are almost everywhere) are brutal.  The rainy season washes many things out.  Have only been within Monrovia today, but tomorrow we head out beyond Buchanan to Wayzon.  Ready for new experiences there.

7.  The rainy season…Danny had told us the climate has been changing and the rain is not as oppressive.  So far he is right…It’s rained a bit this afternoon, but overall the weather has been very good — 80’s and sunny/overcast.

8.  Short Notice…I just got asked to preach on Sunday here and then also in a chapel service next Tuesday at a local seminary.  David was asked to teach Sunday School on Sunday and Gordon is up for introducing communion in the worship service.  I have to admit it is kind of funny because I’ve been trying to get Gordon to intro communion at Suncrest for years and he always tells me no.  He couldn’t say no here!

Thanks for all of you who are praying.  David, Gordon, and I appreciate it.  Keep praying for us.

Posted in Suncrest

I’m sitting in the Brussels Airport waiting for our connecting flight to Liberia with David Vineyard and Gordon Barker.  Lots of Anticipation.

If you were in our services this morning at Suncrest you heard me reiterate a core value of ours.  Suncrest exists in large part to help start other new churches.  We call it being a “church planting church”.  And not only do we want to start other churches…we want to plant churches that will also be church planting churches.  A mouthful?  Sure…but it is the only way to realize a MOVEMENT.

So in Liberia, we are going to sit down with a lot of people who can be key to making this goal happen in this beautiful, but struggling country.  We will sit down with pastors interested in starting new churches, but it goes beyond that.  There are a lot of resources that might ultimately serve the purpose…from seminaries to organizations that deal with leadership development and those that understand economic development.

All of these will be critical to sustainability, which is probably the KEY issue in starting new churches here. Liberia actually has a number of very small churches that are essentially funded by partners in the USA.  We are not opposed to helping out as needed over the long-term, but we are most excited because most of the people we are talking to have a visions for this country taking responsibility for it’s own churches…and people’s sustainability.  They want to see Liberia move into the next phase of development moving off the absolute dependence on foreign aid.

So it is an exciting time to be a part of things.  I can’t wait to set foot in the country again.  I’m kind of giddy and still bracing myself for it all a the same time.  And I can’t wait for David and Gordon to experience it.

Posted in Suncrest

After our services this morning, three of us from Suncrest will head for O’Hare Airport and make another step in investing in the nation of Liberia, Africa.

This time, I’ll have 2 people from our 6 person “Jesus Mission: Liberia” team with me.

David Vineyard is our key staff member in the area of missions and has really done much of the work in making connections and pulling this trip together. He is also a board member for one of our partner ministries:  Impact Liberia.

Gordon Barker is one of our elders and one of the best minds I have ever met, especially when it comes to planning, project management and finding the best solutions to dilemmas.  We have never expected starting new churches in a war-torn country halfway around the world to be smooth sailing, so it will be great to have him along!

Considering all the potential challenges, we are amazed at how many quality people and organizations we have been able to line up to meet with while we are there.  We hope to come back with some very firm proposals about how to invest in this country to help the most people over the long term and plant effective churches.

Pray for us.  We are going during the rainy season so we know the heat and humidity will be oppressive, along with some real challenges when traveling outside of the capital city (Monrovia).  Past Large Groups that have gone had pre-arranged private vans for transportation and had sent all their food over in advance.  We will…let’s just say…get to experience Liberia in a more authentic way!  🙂

I’ll try to update as I can, but I actually don’t being able to blog much (still no reliable internet) so much of it will be through my twitter/facebook.

Posted in Suncrest

So, yesterday I turned 36.  It’s a good number. And it was a pretty typical birthday for me — which just means it was really busy.

If you are on Facebook, you probably know what happens on your birthday.  Since my job is about as public as you can get, I have a lot of Facebook friends…and lots of them stopped in with birthday greetings and some words kinder than I deserve.  Here’s some of what made it so fun…

-I knew I was in for it when I got off my 2 hour flight from Manchester to Chicago, turned my phone back on and had 41 Facebook notifications.

-LOTS of Suncrest people…I’m more and more grateful every day to get to serve with such an incredible community of people.

-College/High School friends.  Even a Grade School friend or two.

-Cub fans.  Almost all of them had some comment about the game vs. the Cardinals…glad someone got to enjoy it!

-3 people who have the same birthday as me!

-Two “Kristin Hankins”.  One is my cousin, the other attends Suncrest.  My only identical named friends on Facebook.

-People responsible for major (positive) shifts in my life.  You know who you are.

-Prob my favorite…Old Suncrest Friends who have since moved to other parts of the country, but made a great impact on me and our church while they were here: Mike/Laura Moseng, Tony Marchetti, Rhonda Reed Chapman, Nikki/Robert Hanley, John Wasem, Dan Thompson, Mike Ward, Josh/Missy (Lucas) Essman.

Until next year…

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So I saw the picture above today on Facebook and it got me kind of thinking.  The Picture?  Jack and Abby are staying with grandparents this week and this is Jack spraying off the driveway in front of my in-law’s house.

I guess whenever you think about your kids, you get a little reflective and this made me think about two interesting dynamics in this life.

Family/Generations

I have one brother that lives over 2 hours away, but other than that all of our family is  5 hours away or more.  So we try to be intentional about Jack and Abby getting to interact with them.  This week, the kids will spend some time at both sets of grandparents and we love it when the grandparents make the trip to our house.  Jack and Abby still have 4 great-grandparents living back in our hometowns also who they visit on every trip.  On top of that, time with cousins/aunts/uncles and more.  Jenny and I had such great experiences with our extended families growing up, we don’t want the distance to eliminate this.

Small Town/Suburban

We love living in the Chicago Suburbs.  Being close to the Best City in the World means we take our kids to first-class Museums, incredible parks, fun on lake Michigan’s beaches, world-class zoos.  The city has hospitals and universities that are among the best in the world.  We live 10 minutes from almost anything you want to buy or any place you would want to eat. We have great schools and the options for kids from the arts to sports to hanging out with great neighbors make suburban living a good fit for us.

Still, I look at this picture and can’t help but have some nostalgia for the small town.  Not only did I not have a stoplight in my hometown, but our school district had 8 small towns feed it and NONE of them had a stoplight.  Life there wasn’t perfect, but it was really good.  People work hard and help each other out.  You can pack your calendar full where-ever you live, so I’m not sure the pace was actually slower, but I do know the stress levels were usually lower.  More simple.  Usually more focused on what is truly important.  And it was safe in a “you don’t even have to think about it” sort of way.

I’m grateful my kids are experiencing all of it.

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