.Real.Greg.Lee.

I’m really short on time here in Kenya airport, so I’ll post some more pictures here and then write more later.  These capture some more of the poverty and struggles…pictures of a police station, gas station, and hospital..and a billboard that was far too common along the main roads.  Again, I’m not picking from the worst here at all…these pictures are representative of life for all in Liberia. 

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I have a lot to write about Liberia experiences in coming posts. I’ll go ahead and put one picture with this one that captures some of the poverty…of a couple houses by the church. I’m not picking from the worst here at all…these pictures are representative of life for all in Liberia. Sunday was incredible as we shared the day with their church family, but in this post I’d love for you to capture one of the challenges…

I underestimated a lot of things about life here. One that actually is very significant for us was communication capabilities. Having traveled a bit, I’m used to finding internet access wherever I go. Actually, I kind of pride myself on it. And, apparently scripture is true…”God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.” 🙂

From the time we landed on Monday afternoon until the time I finally got to an internet café on Saturday afternoon, I was constantly trying. Nothing was working. When I did finally get to the internet café, I got ½ of a video uploaded to Suncrest and it locked up (not my computer…the café’s internet connection). The best I could do was post a few pictures on the blog. Sure, it stinks for my trip, because I wanted to stay in touch the whole time. I was pretty confident we could pull off a live internet video feed at both campuses Sunday morning. Not even close. I don’t think there is an internet signal into the entire country that could support that!

So, here is the real challenge. How do we have a relationship with our church planters there? We want to send more teams in the future. We want to plan and strategize with them. We want to pray for them and know them. But it really can’t be done online – not only was the internet café slow and unreliable, I was there 2 hours and it cost me the same as the average daily wage for Liberians. It costs $35 for a 10 minute call. You can’t mail them a letter because Liberia has no postal service. The only way to send things is FedEx or DHL, and (of course) that is slow and pricey. In-person visits? The plane ticket cost over $2000 and outside of our trip only 2 other times in the last 20 years have Americans actually made the trip to visit their ministry in Liberia (and one of those was an “advance team” last year to prep for this trip).

I don’t have answers, but this much I know…I can relate to Danny’s frustration in trying to share about their ministry and I’m looking for answers…

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Here is a little more and with the slow connection, it may be all I can make work for today.  I’ve tried to include some pictures of with people from Harvest Christian Fellowship so those folks can see some of their friends also.

On Day 2, we worked on the same projects, but as word got out in Monrovia that we were here everything intensified.  The medical clinic had people lined up at 4am (we start when we get there after fighting morning traffic…always after 9am).  One of the nurses told me the sickness was much more significant today.  I’ve now had the heartbreaking experience a couple of times of having people beg me to get their child in to see the doctor, but having to turn them away because there simply is not enough time to see everyone.

We had a huge day at VBS also with nearly 400 children.  It’s chaos…in a good way.  Jenny and I had 80 Liberian kids in our small group with 2 Liberian helpers.  Nearly impossible to teach since we are under a makeshift open sided tent with the 300 other kids.  And, among things that would never happen in the USA, we are within 25 feet of the construction site for the church building.  Seriously, they are bending re-bar, welding rebar and mixing concrete (by hand) within that distance!

Main thought from Day 2:  I got to talk with Danny about the fruitfulness of their ministry and the potential for more.  Their vision is huge and they long for workers and, of course, resources.

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It is Saturday evening and I’m online for the first time here in Liberia. Speeds are slow, so I’m limited on what I can upload. I’ve been blogging in Word so I can cut and paste it.  I’ll paste a couple here, but may not be able to upload the pictures I wanted.

We’ve been here in Monrovia for a little more than 24 hours now.  When we arrived at the airport, we unloaded our 52 large suitcases and 26 carry-on bags and loaded all of it with 5 other adults into 4 vehicles.  It was absolutely packed with Jenny sitting on my lap during the 45 minute drive into Monrovia.  The scene…discouraging.  It’s been a while since I have seen how the 3^rd world people live in person.  This is unquestionably the worst I’ve ever seen. And like Denise commented, “I thought we would eventually drive out of the worst part…but it was all the worst part.”

The camp we are staying at is very nice by Liberian Standards and low by American standards.  It’s really fine as long as you don’t mind some bugs, heat/humidity, and no hot water.  After we arrived, showered and had a light meal, we were taken to the Monrovia United Christian Church, one of a few key churches in Liberia that work to start other churches.  It would be impossible for me to describe the welcome they gave us.  From the time we turned off the main road, they surrounded our vehicles singing and cheering our arrival.  We walked in and were – almost to an uncomfortable degree – their guests of honor.  It was 8pm and most of them had been there all day waiting for our arrival.

We launched into the mission work on what I will Call Day 1.  It was Tuesday in Liberia and our first full day.  I started in the morning on the construction project, spent some time working in the medical clinic, and then worked the VBS in the afternoon.

Main thought from Day 1:  I knew the country would be in terrible condition.  Still, it’s worse than I could have imagined.  From infrastructure lacking to the dirt and the trash everywhere, to the extreme poverty…it’s overwhelming, but the joy of the people somehow remains.

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I’m sitting on the 8 hour flight from London to Nairobi Kenya typing this. I just downloaded the pictures we took during our 7 hour layover in London that followed our 8 hour flight there. It’s been great to meet the team from Harvest Christian Fellowship in Muncie. They have 22 people on this trip – about 10% of their church! And they all have such a clear desire to let God use them on this trip.

Ever wonder how an 7 hour layover works in London?

• Hour 1 – get off plane, get washed up and store extra bags

• Hour 2 – take the Piccadilly line of London’s “Tube” (their version of the “L” or subway) from Heathrow Airport into the city

• Hour 3 & 4 – take a “Big Bus” tour of all the big sights in London. The open-air double-decker bus is great for seeing the city. Not so great for 44 degrees and a steady drizzle! The pictures above include a common street-scape in London, some of the team on the bus with Big Ben and Parliament in the background, and one Denise Tribble took of Jenny and me in an English phone booth.

• Hour 5 – Take the Tube back to the Airport (with one minor adjustment after you realize you are on the wrong train)

• Hour 6 – Washrooms, check-in, security

• Hour 7 – boarding the plane. This plane is huge and they allowed almost an hour to board it.

If you are seeing this on my blog, it means I have internet access in the Nairobi Airport. It may be my last for a while…never know I guess. After a 3 hour layover there, it will be a 9 hour flight from Nairobi to Monrovia, Liberia. Once there, we will hit the ground running working with the Buegar’s and the church there. Decent sleep is at a premium, but we’ll make it.

We can’t wait to see Danny and Bea and serve the church there with all of our heart.

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Our mission at Suncrest is to be UBGTCL (used by God to change lives).  Period.  I’m hoping it happens through this Africa trip, but I was reminded in an email yesterday that it is happening all the time in NW Indiana.  Here’s what John Morin wrote me after connecting at Suncrest in the fall and going through our starting point process here in 2009:

“We are finishing up Starting point and will be in a group next week.  I purchased my first bible last Friday!  I got one for Maria too.  God is directing me through your teachings and the amazing people at Suncrest.  I know this is a process and I feel his presence.  I’m doing everything better with a sense of confidence I haven’t felt in 15 years. I needed this and I thank you.”

That’s why I love you Suncrest…all you “amazing people” living the mission.  For more stories, click here.

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I might post once more tomorrow before we head out on our trip…and I hope to post during the trip, but it all depends on Internet access along the way.  Having Jenny with me will be the best.  Leaving the kids for 12 days will be the hardest  (cause they are cute, aren’t they?).

I thought the right thing to do today was to give you the big-picture story of this trip.  Settle in.

I met Danny Buegar when I was in College 15 years ago.  He was an international student in the grad school/seminary, but I knew him as a custodian.  It was his work assignment on campus and he carried it out (like everything else) with excellence and humility.  I later learned his home country of Liberia, Africa was in a Civil War that was wreaking havoc on all the church planting efforts they had worked so hard on there.

Fast forward two years…I meet John Wasem, learn of Suncrest and begin serving here as youth pastor.  Little did I know, John and Danny had forged a friendship years before and Suncrest was already a big supporter of Danny’s church planting ministry.  For a number of years, Danny, Beatrice, and their family would wrestle with returning to Liberia.  They would make trips, but it wasn’t a safe place to live, especially now that Danny had an American education and American connections.  They spent some of their time at Suncrest and then made a decision that is hard for me to imagine.  When there was legitimate justification for them to stay in the comforts of the USA, they returned to their homeland at some risk to spread the gospel.

At suncrest, we give 10% of all offerings away to “missions” and “church planting”.  We choose to support a few people and project in large ways so that we can have a relationship with them and the Buegar’s are the only major relationship we have where we have never visited them, worked with them and encouraged them on “their soil”.  In the past, safety was an issue.  Today, the country has stabilized, but the logistics of such a  trip are just crazy-complicated.

3 months ago, our missions team learned of a church in Muncie that was sending a container of supplies to the Buegar’s.  We wanted to send some things along, so Dan Smith (missions team leader) and his wife Susie took some things when they visited their daughter at Ball St.  There they found out that the container was going in advance of a trip they had planned.  This incredible church that is probably half the size of Suncrest was sending 22 people to Liberia for 12 days in February!  They had 3 spots open on the trip and the Smith’s asked if we could send some people.

The next Saturday I was serving at a flooded house in Munster with other Suncrest people…Susie smith was there and said “How would you like to go to Liberia?”  In one sentence, I said I would love to and that it was probaly impossible.  My travel schedule is worse than ever and 12 more days away from Jenny and the kids would not be a wise choice.  I knew it was important for Suncrest and our misions team, so I floated the idea to Jenny and our missions leaders about her going with me.  Somewhat to my surprise, both were enthusiastic about the idea.

A couple fascinating things to me:  You’d be hard pressed to find any 12 days span in 2009 where I’m not either on the road or Jenny is working at her part time job.  This one fit in perfectly.  I’ll be back just in time for our biggest outreach season of the year.

Still there were questions…mostly centering around $$ and our children.  We were confident the $$ need could be met by people who love us and love the Buegar’s (and it has been).  Then, the same week we learned the trip could be a possibility, we found out Jenny’s sister wanted to come visit in January or February because her work was requiring employees to take their vacation in the first two months of the year (thank you, slow economy).  As it turns out, I pick up “Aunt Bethie” at the airport tonight and our kids are going to have their own 12-day-long-party with one of their favorite people in the world!

So tomorrow we leave with Denise and the 22 people from Muncie.  We have a framework for what will happen over the next 12 days and some of it is overwhelming (400 kids expected at the VBS), but the best preparation is to expect the unexpected.  And why wouldn’t we at this point?  God seems to be doing a lot of that in our lives already.

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If you know me, you know I’m a  fan of other churches.  It takes all kind of churches to reach all kinds of people.  Denominational labels don’t matter much to me.  Styles don’t either.  We are pretty clear on the kind of church God wants Suncrest to be, but we are confident his plan for us isn’t his plan for everyone.

Yesterday, I got to have breakfast with Bob Bouwer who is the pastor at Faith Church in Dyer. We only get to connect like this every few months, but we wish it was more.  God is moving in Faith church and in Suncrest in some dynamic ways.  He’s given us some similar visions (hearts for people far from God and a multi-site strategy) and also some differences in our DNA.  This much I know…Faith is doing a great work and Bob is a humble guy who I learn things form every time we are together.

Here’s my favorite part from our breakfast.  It looks like our 2 churches are going to partner on something significant this summer.  Some real creative approaches to it also…Can’t wait to fill you in on more details.

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This week our Business Management Team and Elders met on back to back nights.  It was good to have some discussions with them as we see how the new year starts and start to frame where the ministry is going.

Here are a couple big picture things we are looking at in these two meetings and how we are processing them right now.

1.  For the last 3 years we have received a major special offering in the spring.  All have been for a specific purpose and all have received over $100,000.  So…what about this year?  There is no shortage of needs that could be tackled if we did a similar offering again, but our sense right now is that this is not the right time.  And the big issue for us is that we do not want to take generosity for granted and just ask because “we can” or “it has always worked”.  It doesn’t mean there won’t be a time to do another one, but I appreciate the sensitivity of the elders and BMT to push pause on this initiative.

2.  We don’t anticipate launching another campus in 2009, but we told all of our group and ministry leaders last week that we dream about launching 2 campuses in 2010.  If we do two, one would likely be an online campus.  And that…legitimately…raises some great questions.  Our elders had already committed to reflecting on this for 3 months at the start of the year (practically, but even more so biblically).  We’ve had some robust discussion about this within the eldership, but we feel like the best questions/insight come when we invite leaders to give us their thoughts/hesitations/affirmations/fears/uncertainties.  So, today we’ll contact all those leaders asking for their help in guiding this decision

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Think about these random numbers I came across today…

2 – people who accepted Christ at the teen’s winter retreat.

3 – baptisms scheduled for our new east campus…our first 3!

4 – days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training.

15 – pounds I’ve lost in the first 5 weeks of Suncrest biggest loser — 206 to 191

38 – hours from take-off Saturday in Indy to landing Monday in Monrovia, Liberia.

39 – adults who told us on sunday they wanted to connect in a community group.

40 – “junior contributors” (MS/HS students) who wen through chuildren’s ministry training last month.

55 – days until Opening Day

96 – days until the half-marathon

112 – adults who went through children’s ministry training last month.

135 – average increase in Suncrest attendence in 2009 over 2008.

215 – days until Cardinals clinch NL central…about mid-september.

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