Dimitri’s view on THINK and Day 4

(Check out servicetoservants.com for pictures and other commentary)

Storms last night, again, and I personally loved them, the rain give me quality sleep. I must say the rainy season here is much more pleasant than the dry season. The day began today with the usual oatmeal based breakfast with pineapple on the side. Today was the first of two days we are spending at THINK. THINK is a safe house for physically and sexually abused children, and they also take in a few mentally disabled kids out of compassion (there is not a place established for special needs here). Given the confidentiality and secrecy of this safe house (in that most of the girls there are runaways form horrible situations at home and their family is dangerous for them) we had to get there without knowing exactly where it was. Our driver had a number of a lady instructing him where to drive. He drove and parked on the side of the road, a bit of fear came over us for a quick second coming to realize we are immobile white people in the middle of a fairly busy road with Liberians staring at us from every direction wondering why we were simply parked there. We waited for a good while, so long I had to go to the bathroom, so I asked my driver where a good spot would be, he simply pointed at a wall next to the road we were parked on. I paused for a second and debated, but I couldn’t hold it. So, right then and there, with what felt like half of the Liberian population staring at me, I relieved myself. It’s the Liberian way; I felt like I connected with the people in a deeper way, I doubt they have ever seen a white man relate to them like that. They team could not help but laugh and laugh (and take a picture), this eased our tensions of where we were.

Not too much longer our driver got a call and was instructed to drive to another location and park, so we went up some bumpy back roads through a few puddles (actually mini ponds) of water from the storm the night before and parked at another intersection. We waited for a little while and a lady finally approached our car and introduced herself as the one from the safe house. She asked us to exit our cars and follow her. So she took us down a few roads and turns on foot and we finally arrived. At this point my mind was turning on a certain boy: I was able to visit THINK on last years Liberia trip, and a boy named Prince had stolen my heart, I could only think on if he was still there, or if it was even the same group of girls (because it was a different location and 17 months later). When we walked in, a stampede of girls began running towards us and yelling “YORI YORI!” (which was the name they ascribed to me last year). I was overwhelmed at the love of the greeting. I spent 3 days with these girls a year and a half ago, and they remembered just about everything about our previous team, and what we did together. “Where is Jesse? Annie? Brent? Jeremiah? Danielle?” They remembered every name of our previous team. I went on to explain we had a new team this year, and introduced them to Rachel, Kristen, Chris, Taylor, and finally Brad. We all had a good laugh when we got to Brad, because the girls responded, “Oh! A Black American!”

We spent the day trying our best to love on them. Started off singing songs with them, these things just happen, we didn’t even have to transition into an official “time of singing” we just started singing together. We dispersed among them and spent time with them, and we had a time of small group discussion where we simply each took a few of them and had conversation. For me this was the most marking moment of my day, because what simply a statistic is usually, what is usually solely a fact, or a compassion idea or benevolence became a relational reality. I was able to talk to three girls, ages 10, 11, and 22 who told me their completely heartbreaking stories of how they got to where they are and shared their desire to go to school, but they can’t because education costs money here. As they told me one thing after another my heart broke more and more, and their situation seemed more and more hopeless. In that moment I did my best to encourage them, I prayed over them, and they had a completely fresh countenance after the prayer. But within myself God was doing his own work, my faith was and is being tested today, I have to confess it’s hard to believe that in persistent prayer He will take these girls out of these situations. According to scripture, with faith the size of a mustard seed I can move mountains through Him, so why would He not be able to move girls out of devastating situations? On paper it sounds great, but in my heart of hearts, there’s not the mustard seed of faith, but seeds of doubt that simply think these girls will always be in these situations. It’s causing a necessary tension.

It turned out Prince (the boy I wanted to see from last year) had been relocated, but a lot of the disabled kids from last year were still there. “Jr” was one of the boys, and Chris spent essentially all day with him. Jr cannot walk, or at least not to the knowledge of the caretakers there. Dave and Chris spent a lot of time with Jr holding him up as he moved his legs and attempted a walk. There was much progress here as there also was last year, even more so. It seemed as if he simply needs interaction and practice, instead he has been laying in the same trampoline type device since we left a year and a half ago; truth is, the ladies that take care of these girls, and do their best to go overboard to help the disabled kids have so much on their plates and are so overworked they can only do enough to sustain the disabled ones rather than progress them.

Chris taught a Bible lesson today on the creation and the Ten Commandments, and it was really cool watching him teach the kids. We colored with the kids, played kick ball with them, and by far the most entertaining part of the day was the grand finale before we left: the caretakers of the compound were generous enough to turn their electricity generator on for us and the kids and us all gathered in their living room and blasted the most modern hit song in Africa on their TV. The song was called “Pressure” and we had a giant dance party all together, one song quickly turned into about 5 songs. We all partook with the kids (Even Dave Bearchell!), we completely let loose and I would have to say aside from the intimate discussions we had with them, this was the moment we connected most with them. They love to dance, and I gotta admit we do too. We completely “acted a fool” and it was not embarrassing at all, we were so happy. Jr even danced with Chris above him holding his hands, it’s not a far stretch to say that it’s a miracle to see Jr dancing.

So as our time ended our driver arrived at our pick up spot and we said our goodbyes and walked back to our driver to head back to the compound here. God willing we will return tomorrow for the second and last day at Think.

Our debrief and prayer time tonight was beautiful, we are bonding so well as a team, and I personally must say I’m so grateful for the people on this trip with me. I’m secretly hoping for more thunderstorms to put me to sleep tonight. Mom, I love you, stop worrying, I’m fine :) 