12Stone Liberia Blog: The last day of seminars

We woke-up this morning and before we got in our vehicles to head to REAP we had one last meeting to make sure we were on the same page for out last seminar. After getting to the seminar we had some extra time to and Danielle and I headed to the local village to see some of our friends there and spend time with the kids. My new friend Janet showed me around and showed me her and her brothers house. While being at REAP for the past 2 weeks we have been able to really get to know the cooks and the locals who hang-out around the area. They are such beautiful genuine and hospitable people who we are going to miss dearly.

We began the seminar for the day with Miatta going over the diamond life and giving her personal touch by relating it to her personal experiences. Most of the seminar was focused around going over the business plan the attendees created together the day prior. They spent time yesterday individually creating business proposals of what project they think would be beneficial for the community and feasible to create as a team. We went through all of the proposals and the majority decided on a water well plan. So then today we went into more details of how that plan could be feasible. We also spent time going over what the attendees liked about the seminar, what they felt like we could improve upon and any questions they still wanted answered. It was great to hear all of the positive input, many people wanted to know when we will be back and wished the seminars we even longer.

After we finished for the day we had a special surprise that Pastor Tolbert presented. They thanked us for the seminar and presented us with some wonderful gifts made of wood, they gave us a thinking man sculpture a Palava Hut sculpture, and two letter openers. What a wonderful group of people we were blessed to spend time with. We built many strong relationships together and learned so much from each other and all of the speakers at our seminars. The presentation and lunch together was a great ending to the seminars. Afterwords the core team of the Liberian Leadership council met to discuss what this project will look like after we leave and how it will continue to grow.

We headed back to the compound and got some needed rest and then said bye to Miatta. She is staying in Liberia for another week to spend time with her family. We already miss her a lot, we are so thankful she has been to be apart of our team.

We had our last Liberian dinner together of my favorite rice and had a special treat of orange soda and coke! Of course we had our yummy pineapple with dinner, I'm really going to miss all of the fresh delicious fruit we've had available on our trip. Especially the Liberian plums (what we call mango's).

We had one last meeting for the day and discussed our seminars. Dave looked back on an email Tony had sent a couple months prior that laid-out the goals of our trip and as he read it, it was awesome to realize we have done what we have set-out to do. This is just the beginning of a wonderful journey here in Liberia. I can't wait to see what will continue to develop from it.

Tomorrow we are flying back to Atlanta at 5:55 p.m. (Liberian time) 1:55 p.m. (Atlanta time). Please pray for a smooth safe trip back over the pond. Before we leave we are stopping by THINK which is an organization we have worked with on previous trips that takes in sexually abused children. We are going to hang-out with the children for a little while before we leave. Well it's past my bedtime. Next time you hear from us we'll be back in America! Thank you all for your support and prayers, we can't wait to tell you more about how God's favor has shone through so evidently and all of the experiences we have been blessed with.

God Bless,

Amy