Liberia 2021.

Mission Journals from Tim, Tommy & Hunter’s trip to Liberia in Nov/Dec of 2021.
Entries are chronological, beginning a the bottom of the page.

December 3rd, 2021

Well, this is it - our last day in Liberia. We all knew it would fly by quickly, but we weren’t expecting it to go by this quickly! Moses met us at the hotel at 7:30 am to have a discussion with us about ‘next steps.’ He wanted hear our impressions about him, the church, the conference, and what we could foresee our future involvement with Liberia.

We explained that the decision wouldn’t ultimately be ours, but we would return home with a positive report about what we heard, saw, and experienced. We have been encouraged by the commitment to biblical teaching, the emphasis on evangelism and discipleship, the priority to train new leaders, and their initiatives to plant new churches. We explained to Moses that we have global mission partners all over the world, but not all of those partnerships involve the provision of any financial support from us. For some, we simply pray for our them and maintain an awareness of their activities and needs. For others, we provide financial support for special projects, or as specific needs arise. He seemed to understand this and we were able to pray with him for God’s clear guidance for us.

We arrived at the the church building by around 10:00 am, in time for our last time of truly stirring worship with our new friends. Afterwards, they conducted a farewell ceremony for us, and gave us gifts (carvings, shirts, and a map of Liberia) and encouraging words of gratitude for coming to visit, and also for what we shared. It was a sweet time with this community and we will definitely miss them.

Afterwards, we met with all the leaders from all the churches represented (there are currently six Harvest Liberia churches - Paynesville, Krakatoa, Zbehzohn, Highway, Gianda, and Nyannah). We’d been reading from Ezekiel 34 earlier this morning, and the prophets warning against shepherds who had neglected their roles to care for the sheep. Instead, they’d been fattening themselves instead of feeding the flock. We encouraged them to ensure that this never happened. We looked at John 10 and the description of Jesus as the Good Shepherd and other examples in the New Testament of how a shepherd is to care for the flock. It was an encouraging time to affirm the work that the leaders were already doing, but to also remind them that as shepherds, our vigilant, attentive, even protective watch can never waiver.

We then said our final good-byes, and headed back to hotel to clean up, pack, and check out. Ralph drove us to meet Moses at a nearby restaurant for lunch (Tasty Resto) and we dined on chicken and rice, pasta, and even some Mediterranean food (quite the diverse menu!). Then we drove to visit Moses’ home, about 45 minutes from the church.

His lives in a quiet neighborhood and he bought his home and property (about two acres) several years ago. The newest Harvest Liberia church plant (called Highway Harvest) meets in his yard early on Sunday mornings. They’ve not yet decided what they’ll do for a meeting place when the church grows in he future. His home is quite large, by Liberian standards, but it still needs a lot of work. They only have electricity daily from 6:00 pm until 6:00 am. That means that they don’t really have reliable refrigeration, so whatever perishable items they purchase need to be eaten within a day or it will spoil. He welcomes traveling pastors to stay in his home, and four of his five children still live at home, too.

From there, we drove to the Monrovia International Airport, said our final good-byes to Ralph and Moses, then began the process of boarding our flight for Brussels, which became more of an ordeal than we could have ever imagined. Because of the timing of our flights, Hunter was required to take an additional COVID test in order to enter the US, but he wasn’t permitted to board the flight to Brussels until he’d taken the test and received a confirmed negative COVID test result. He’d pre-ordered an approved self-test from United Airlines that he had with him, but when he tried to take it, his phone didn’t have the bandwidth to allow it. Unfortunately, Tommy’s phone had some water damage and couldn’t be charged, so he tried to use my phone, but there still wasn’t sufficient power to have a video call with the proctor who verified Hunter’s test. So I went to the Brussels Airline employee who had explained what Hunter would need to do, and asked her if she had any ideas for us.

As you can see, matters began to get very complicated very quickly, and we so Tommy and I just started praying over the whole situation while Hunter was trying to figure out what to do. Time with running out and if God didn’t provide a miracle, Hunter wouldn’t be able to board our flight, and Tommy and I would have to decide if we should stay behind, split up, or some other option.

I went back to the Brussels Airline employee (Anita) to ask for help, and she explained that the WiFi in the airport wasn’t strong enough to use for the video call to the COVID test proctor, and we would need to ask someone with local cell service for their assistance. So I asked her if she would help us - and she said she would! First of all, it was miraculous that no one was in line to talk to her. It was an international flight and her line should have been full, but everyone were in other lines and Anita was all alone.

Secondly, I’ve never heard of an airline employee letting a customer borrow their phone for personal use. And on top of that, she let Hunter use her counter space to administer his test in front of the proctor on the video call! All of the sudden, the clouds of uncertainty were lifting, God was miraculously providing, and we were overwhelmed with His sovereign and loving care.

Hunter received his negative test results and Anita cleared him for the flight - thank God! Before we left her to clear all the other required stations, we gave a her a gift and asked how we could pray for her. She immediately opened up and shared vulnerably about her marriage and we all prayed for her husband’s heart to be transformed and for God to comfort and protect her. Then, we cleared some the other health, immigration, and security stations before arriving at our gate and boarding our flight.

The three of us were so overcome with gratitude for God’s loving kindness to us. We’d arrived three hours before our planes departure, and after all we’d been through, we had about fifteen minutes to spare before boarding the flight - all we needed! Thank you for praying for us! We know that none of you knew specifically what we went through, but your prayers for God’s care and provision were answered dramatically and specifically!

We got on board our flight to Brussels, arrived in Belgium, and from here, we’ll leave for Newark, NJ in just a few hours. But we wanted to update you on all that’s been happening these past few hours. We’re so humbled by the goodness of God and the faithfulness of our brothers and sisters to pray for us!

Please pray for Anita and her marriage - that God would protect her and miraculously heal her marriage and transform the heart of her husband.

Pray for us as we return - that we’ll share a helpful report about what we’ve seen, heard, learned, and experienced. Then, we’ll be able to make wise choices about next steps with Moses and Harvest Liberia.

Pray that the three of us will be able to smoothly transition back into our lives in service and ministry. We’ve had a full week and our minds and our hearts are reeling with so many thoughts and ideas. Help us to process all this information in a way that will be helpful and beneficial.

We love and appreciate each of you! Thanks for the prayerful support you’ve all provided.

God is GOOD!

Jesus REIGNS!

We are BLESSED!

Your brothers and co-laborers in Christ,

Hunter, Tim, and Tommy

Philippians 1:3

December 2nd, 2021

Sadly, today was our last full day in Liberia. After our morning routine and breakfast, one of the men from the church (Abraham) picked us up from the hotel, driving a Liberian tri-cyle (also called a keke), which is like a motorized rickshaw. We’d been wanting to ride in one since we arrived here and he offered to take us for a spin - and what a ride it was! It’s amazing how those vehicles can weave in and out of traffic! They’re ideal for that kind of driving and Abraham was an expert (he’s actually the president of the Monrovian Tri-cycle Driver’s Association).

We arrived at the church in time to join everyone in worship, which always includes lots of loud singing and dancing. It really is an exciting experience to worship with our Liberian brothers and sisters in their church. I (Tim) spoke during the morning assembly from Luke 9 when Jesus addressed three different types of excuses for not following him. It was an exhortation for all of us to be aware of the obstacles that can prevent us from our devotion to service and surrender. The leaders and attendees at the conference seemed very encouraged and we were able to speak with many of the people there after the service.

After the combined meeting, we broke up into groups for discussion. I led the men’s group discussion, and Tommy & Hunter led the young adults & youth (these groups are often combined). The men’s group had a fantastic conversation about the role of men in church leadership and family, and the importance of encouraging, and not suppressing, opportunities for wives and children to learn, lead, and thrive.

Tommy & Hunter spoke to a huge group (over fifty young people). They shared from 1 John 2 and discussed the importance of being in, but separate from the world. This led to a great discussion about the practical ways that darkness can become an influence in the life of a young believer. They addressed issues including alcohol, social media, and relationships. We spoke with the leaders of this group afterward and they affirmed that these were definitely prevalent issues of concern and were grateful for our interaction with the group.

Afterwards, Ralph drove us back to the hotel for a break and we spent some time discussing what a future partnership with Moses and Harvest Liberia could look like. We won’t ultimately make the decision about how we might move forward, but our observations and insights will be considered and helpful.

The three of us have seen the many authentic needs here. There’s a lot of poverty, and pollution, sanitation, housing, and clean water are definitely big issues. Fortunately, starvation isn’t prevalent, but children especially, aren’t eating consistently and nutritiously. One of the hopes of the school is to begin a feeding program for their children and they are open to ideas about how this could be implemented.

In addition, the Harvest Liberia Christian Academy (the school associated with Harvest Liberia Church) is very overcrowded, and extra space would definitely be a welcome relief to the teachers and the students. They have limited space to work with, so they would either need to expand into an open they’ve purchased next to their property, or construct an additional level on top of the existing level.

Finally, transportation for Moses himself is a challenge. He has a (very) used, four door sedan, with over 300,000 miles on it (that actually might be kilometers - we didn’t verify that). Moses told us that the car is mechanically unreliable and incapable of transporting him to visit the other churches and pastors he oversees in country. He told us a replacement car would cost approximately $8000.

So clearly, there are many ways that Moses and the ministry could use financial support. We’ll continue to observe, ask questions, evaluate, and bring all of these findings back to the VBC Mission Team, Finance Team, elders, and our church family for prayerful consideration and input.

We ate dinner and prepared to return to the conference for the evening session. Unfortunately, the President was en route to his residence, so the highway was shut down for a period of time, and in addition, the car the was rented to transport us had some mechanical troubles. So we were delayed in arriving to the service - until Moses arrived in his family car to pick us up.

We arrived at the worship service just as the music began and the auditorium was filled with an even more heightened level of excitement to worship than we’d experienced before. Everyone was singing loudly, and dancing, and they even led me, Tommy, and Hunter toward the front of the auditorium to dance with everyone in the aisles. Even though this is not the way we ordinarily worship God back at VBC, we always sensed that the worship in this church was directed to the Lord and a genuine expression of their adoration for Him.

At some point during each session, an offering has been collected, and even this was provided in a celebratory manner. Music would play, the leaders and/or the choir would sing, and the people would form lines and dance their ways up to the offering box at the front of the auditorium, exalting and praising God as they gave. Again, this was unique to us, but conducted in an orderly, worshipful, yet exuberant manner.

The evening speaker, Pastor David (Roosevelt) shared an excellent message from Acts 2, people responded in worship and praise, and we finished the service by around 9:00 pm. By the time we got back to our hotel, it was about 10:00 and after we discussed the evening and prayed, we went to bed.

Tomorrow will be our last day, and it will be full. As our time here comes to a close, please remember to pray for the following:

⁃ Meaningful opportunities to encourage Moses and those in the church community as we spend our final hours with them
⁃ Maximum potential for the conference to build up the churches and individuals involved
⁃ Opportunities to share with others we meet in our travels, both through the church, at the hotel, and everywhere else

Your brothers and co-laborers in Christ,

Hunter, Tommy, & Tim
Matthew 28:19-20

December 1st, 2021

Today we began our day quite early. Ralph and Moses picked us up at 6am to take our COVID tests. In order to leave Liberia, and to return to the US, we needed to get swabbed again. The testing site was a huge house on the coast that had been converted into a government building. We had left early to avoid the morning traffic, be the first in line to receive the test, and arrive at Harvest Paynesville in time for the morning teaching session.

Moses was very helpful and communicated the urgency with which we needed to take our test. One of the proctors helped coach us through the whole process, including filling out forms, which windows to go to when, and where to wait. We were very grateful for his help! There was a lot of sitting and waiting for things to happen, which gave us ample time to chat with Moses. We talked about denominations, future dreams to expand the church’s influence and ministry, and some of the challenges he faces. Moses has a great team of young leaders he’s developing and he’s excited for them to share in the responsibility of leadership. It was encouraging to see a measured approach in his responses, where the goal is always to make much of Christ.

Despite the extra downtime at the testing site, we ended up having enough time to eat breakfast before returning to the meeting. At breakfast, we talked with Moses about some of the challenges of living and serving God in California. We shared about divisions over politics, the minor exodus from California in the last year, and more. We also talked sports and found out that Ralph is an Arsenal fan and Moses is a Liverpool fan (these are English soccer teams)!

The breakfast portions were generous and we all enjoyed our omelettes. As the server came to take our plates and bring the check, Moses engaged her and asked her about church. He then invited her to join them at Harvest Paynesville this Sunday! We loved seeing his boldness in seeking to share the Gospel. The server (Miriam) said she’d be interested. Prayerfully, Moses will be able to tell us she joined them this upcoming week.

After breakfast, it was back to the church for the morning session. There was more lively dancing, music, and call and response. It is a blessing to see the energy the Harvest community bring with them to praise the Lord! Today began the teaching and learning about serving the Lord with eagerness. Tim shared and brought the Word! He exhorted all present to make Jesus the item of FIRST importance in our lives. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul states that Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is the matter of first importance. We can have many important events, people, and things in our lives, but none should be the first, except for Jesus. After the service, we had lunch with the attendees and made many new friends. People were eager to share with us and us with them. We also exchanged contact information with many of our new friends in the hopes of continuing our fellowship once we have left. Each day, we note to each other how welcoming and kind everyone is! Today was no exception.

After the lunch time, we went back to the hotel for a short break and returned to Harvest for the evening session. Ralph drove us back to the hotel and we asked him to drop us off at the main road so we could walk the last quarter mile to the hotel on our own. The school by the hotel had just been let out, and there were children in school uniforms everywhere! Some of them gave us skeptical looks, some didn’t seem to pay attention, and others waved at us three white strangers. It was one of our first experiences just “out and about” as we have been spending a lot of time focused on our mission of sharing with those of Harvest Liberia.

Ralph came to pick us up at about 6pm for the second session of the day. We enjoyed more singing and dancing, this time with a full choir! They sing beautifully. Tommy gave a prayer of invocation to start off the service, and then Moses came up and brought a powerful Word. We learned of Jesus’ seven “I am” statements in John’s gospel. The focus, however, was on Jesus’ statement that “I am the light of the world (John 8:12).” Moses encouraged us to live in the light, reminding us that the only way to see, is when there is light. AND the only light with which we can truly see is that of Jesus’. If you want to serve the Lord with eagerness, you must be able to clearly see where you are going.

After the evening session, we chatted with a few more new friends, including a man named Abraham. Abraham oversees the union of the motorcyclists and keke (tri-cycle drivers). A keke is a three-wheeled little transport vehicle with a hard shell top and open doors - sometimes called a rickshaw. Tomorrow morning, Abraham is going to pick us up in one and take us for a ride on the way to the meeting.

Ralph returned us to our hotel around 9pm. We had a late dinner and reflected on another long but meaningful day of our trip. We are so grateful to have this opportunity to visit Harvest Liberia and continue to seek out what God is doing here. Please continue to pray that God would move powerfully during this conference, pray that we would see clear ways to partner with Harvest Liberia, and for favorable Covid circumstances including test results and travel requirements. Friday is fast approaching. We cannot believe that our time here is over halfway through. Until tomorrow, Tim, Hunter, and Tommy.

Here’s how you can pray:

Pray for the leaders Moses is developing:
⁃ Solomon
⁃ Roosevelt
⁃ Edward
⁃ Isaac
⁃ Abraham
⁃ Lawrence
⁃ Ralph
⁃ And all the other leaders…

Pray for the leaders at Gbezhon Harvest Liberia campus:
⁃ Dixon
⁃ Abraham
⁃ Sonny Boy
⁃ And all the others…

Pray for our messages on Thursday to the young adults, the men, and the entire gathering of attendees at the conference.

We love you all and thank God for the support you give and the bond we share in Christ.

Hunter, Tommy, & Tim

November 30th, 2021

This morning we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel again. Moses arrived and ate with us as well, eager to bring us back to Paynesville Harvest Christian Academy so we could speak a few words to the children there. On the way, being driven by the faithful Ralph, we soaked in the sights of greater Monrovia. From the jars of gasoline being sold on the side of the road, to the ubiquitous motorcycles and TriCycles, to the women carrying all sorts of things by balancing them on their heads, we had plenty to take in.
When we arrived at the school, we went right to sharing with the children. Classroom by classroom the three of us took turns giving a brief message about the gospel, visiting each grade from the pre-schoolers to the seniors. In many of the rooms there was just enough space to walk in front of the class, and to squeeze your way down each row. They typically had as many desks and students as could physically fit.
We then had a surprise interview with reporters from the national newspaper and a local radio station. They focused their questions on our purpose for visiting Liberia, the details of our partnership with Moses and his ministry, and our perspective of their people and country so far.
After that, there was a chapel service which brought together the entire student body, all the teachers, and other administrative staff. The chapel was filled to absolute max capacity, and many of the children carried in their classroom desks for a place to sit down. The worship was highly spirited and upbeat with singing and dancing, and a high level of engagement between the worship team and the rest of the congregation. They switched off who was leading the songs many times, and used varied styles of music.
Eventually, we were given an introduction and it came time for us to speak. Hunter went first, sharing about the challenging shifts in responsibility of decision making which occur as we mature from childhood into adulthood, and how being well-anchored to Christ through the the Word, prayer, the Church gives us all we need to navigate life the way God intended. Then, Tommy gave an explanation of Matthew 7:7, describing Jesus’ teaching about asking, seeking, and knocking as being an important part of our relationship to the Lord, and how each of those action words calls for its own distinct approach which we can apply to our walk with God. Tim closed us out strong with a finale in which he gave interactive demonstrations teaching about salt and light from Matthew 5:13-16.
Post-service, gatherings of children flocked about the courtyard and in the chapel. We rejoiced in the opportunity to interact with them, and they with us. Many of them, especially the youngest, were quite happy just to stand near us or hold our hands. Tim ingeniously brought a source of infinite entertainment with him: a 6-sided die! Actually, he brought several dice. He showed Tommy and Hunter a sleight of hand trick and we got to work amusing the multitude.
We got an afternoon break at the hotel for lunch, then we returned in the evening for the conference Kick-Off! We experienced more of the high-energy African style worship, and some very encouraging preaching from Moses and the other pastoral leaders as well. There were many cheerful 'AMEN!'s, as the call-and-response style preaching was well-employed. Again, we were introduced as honored guests and received much more recognition and adoration than we deserve. By the time we headed back to the hotel we had experienced a very full day of fellowship to reflect on and thank the Lord for.


⁃ haring in each classroom (pre-k through 12th grade)
⁃ Speaking in the school chapel (450 students!)
⁃ Classrooms for upperclassmen were 20’ x 20’ and some had 30+ students
⁃ Humidity was pretty high
⁃ Got to pray over all the teachers in the chapel service
⁃ Moses was very encouraged
⁃ Pastor who left $120 to take care of all the widows in Liberia
⁃ Students dancing and singing during the chapel service
⁃ Interview with local radio and newspaper reporters
⁃ Interesting questions - an opportunity to make it clear the aim of our partnership with Moses. That of a partnership focused on sharing the gospel and strengthening believers. We dont have a particular agenda for Liberia or Harvest.
⁃ Also asked about personal life details and things to share, testimony etc

We all stayed up until about 2:00 am last night and slept solidly through the night, which is helpful for adjusting to the new time zone (eight hours ahead of PST). We ate breakfast with other guests in our hotel, and then Moses and Ralph picked us up at 10:00 am. Moses wanted to give us a tour of Monrovia and since it’s a national holiday (the birthday of a former President), the traffic would be much lighter than ordinary and much easier to get around.

Our first stop was Harvest Christian Academy and Church, where Moses pastors. Their facilities are in the middle of a neighborhood and cover a couple of acres of land. They have classrooms for preschool aged children through seniors in high school, as well as resource rooms for books and computers. There’s an auditorium that’s used for chapel services for the school and worship services for the church.

We met several of the school staff members including Solomon Reeves who is the secretary for the church and school, oversees the computer classes, and is one of the young leaders Moses is developing as a future teaching pastor.

They’ve also installed a water pump on the campus property that they allow the community to use for their water source. It’s been a great way to minister to their neighbors and they’d like to install water pumps in other sites as well, as an outreach tool. We told him how Jonathan Adeboye is doing this for villages in Nigeria and many people have heard the gospel and followed Christ through this ministry there. Moses and Jonathan have already been in touch and hopefully, they’ll be able to work with one another in considering how this type of ministry could be implemented in Liberia.

We spoke with Moses and asked if there were other individuals or groups who are partnered with him or provide financial assistance for Harvest Liberia. He said there have been groups and churches who have helped out over the years, but their greatest support was Harvest Bible Church in Chicago, led by James MacDonald. Unfortunately, HBC has undergone some significant changes since James MacDonald was terminated as the pastor and so they no longer provide any financial support for the ongoing work here in Liberia.

After our tour of the school and church, we drove to downtown Monrovia. We saw the Capitol building, the President’s home, the US Embassy, and many other government headquarter facilities. Many of these buildings are relatively new because the country was nearly destroyed by the horrific civil that endured for about 14 years. Finally, peace has now outlasted war in Liberia, but for those 14 years, between 1989 and 2003, the brutal civil war ravaged the nation and led to the deaths of close to 250,000 people. Countless women were raped and mutilated; warlords recruited child soldiers to fuel the conflict; tens of thousands of people were displaced and fled the country. According to Moses, the full impact of the war, its callousness, and its collateral effect have continued to remain a defining marker of this West African state. It was sobering to listen to him speak of the atrocities of the war, and to realize how relatively recently this all occurred.

Liberia is recovering, slowly but steadily. The democracy is stable and the people are resilient. Liberians listen and watch the USA closely. They have close ties with America and respect for our government (the US helped establish Liberia after slavery was abolished so that freed slaves could return to Africa). English is by far the most dominant language (although among the sixteen tribes that live here, there are many tribal languages). And even though more than 90% of the population claim to be Christians, the thrust of Islam is constantly gaining momentum here, primarily due to inter-marriages between Liberian women and Islamic men.

The more we learn, the more complexities are revealed here. But Moses and leaders like him have devoted their lives to the proclamation and preservation of the gospel. We are so privileged to stand beside him this week to support him in his agenda of leading his nation to trust Jesus more fully by proclaiming the gospel more effectively.

We finished our tour by visiting the campus for a ministry called ELWA (Eternal Love Winning Africa). It’s a Christ-centered ministry that owns about one hundred acres and has a variety of ministries - a hospital, schools, classrooms & conference rooms, auditoriums, and even guest house facilities (if we ever return, this might be an ideal place to house a team from our church). It’s right on the ocean and it’s quite picturesque.

We drove back to the hotel and made plans for Moses and Ralph to pick us up in the morning, where we’ll be speaking at the school. We ate some lunch then decided to go for a walk on the beach, and what an adventure that turned out to be!

Because it’s a national holiday, the beaches were filled with lots of young Liberians. The beach in front of our hotel is a private beach, guarded by security, so we decide to walk past our beach to where all the locals were hanging out. As soon as we did, we were rushed by a group of young Liberian men who asked us to go swimming with them. We’d been watching them from a distance and up until then, they’d been somewhat timid about going out too far in the water. We all looked at each other and told them, “Yeah! Let’s go!” And so handed our flip flops, sunglasses, and T-shirts to some of the their friends onshore, and we all jumped in the sea. We swam with them out in the ocean probably further in the water than they’d ever ventured before in their lives! It was as if they just wanted us to help them be brave. So we ducked under giant waves with them, and caught other waves, and laughed, and enjoyed an amazing time with our new friends.

When it was time for us to leave, they gave us all of our personal items back, took lots of pics with us, and kept thanking us for leaving the beach in front of our hotel and coming to swim with them. Another young guy who must have been watching us stopped us later and thanked us for the same thing. He couldn’t stop repeating how much it meant to him that we spent time with them.

We kept walking on the beach, so glad that the Lord had provided such a unique opportunity to connect with local people. The ocean and beaches are beautiful here, the weather was ideal (around 84 degrees), and we were glad to enjoy the afternoon relaxing, reading, and resting after traveling so long yesterday.

We ate dinner at the hotel (pasta, chicken kabobs, and pepper fish stew) then came back to our room to study and prepare to speak to the classes and the chapel service at Harvest Christian Academy tomorrow.

Pray for the healing of Liberia as the nation continues to recover in the aftermath of the civil war. Pray that we will have a meaningful time to teach the children, encourage the teachers, and serve alongside Moses in any other ministry opportunities we’re given.

Your brothers and servants in Christ,

Hunter, Tommy, and Tim

Ephesians 6:19

November 27-28th, 2021

Today we began our journey to Monrovia, Liberia, in Western Africa, to meet and serve alongside our co-laborer in the gospel, Moses Whiegar. Moses is a Liberian brother in Christ and he serves as the lead pastor of Harvest Liberia in the capital city of Monrovia. The church will be hosting a conference this week, focusing on the theme, “Serving the Lord with Eagerness” and Tommy Sidebottom, Hunter Barsell, and I have been invited to teach.

The preparation for this trip has been quite extensive. Traveling internationally during the pandemic requires lots of additional preparation, procedures, and paperwork - and were all literally waiting for the final details of this mission to fall into place up until the night before we left! We still weren’t sure what we’d actually encounter once we arrived at the airport, but God’s provision throughout this entire process has been steady and faithful. So when we left our homes to drive to SFO, we all had a sense of peaceful anticipation about whatever we might face.

Hunter’s dad dropped us off at SFO around 6:00 am Saturday morning, we checked in for our flight without incident, and we were enjoying breakfast in the terminal by 6:30. We were able to relax and study the key passage for the conference (Acts 2:42-47, which we’re memorizing together), then spend some time sharing thoughts on what we’ve been preparing to share.

Our flight to Monrovia had three segments - San Francisco to Newark, Newark to Brussels (Belgium), and Brussels to Monrovia. We were actually in the air about twenty hours, but with layovers at each airport, the duration of our travel time was closer to 30 hours. We landed in Monrovia about 8:30 pm, but by the time we got out of the airport, it was around 10:30 pm! We had to clear at least ten different levels of security - several passport inspections, more Covid tests, immigration, etc. When we finally got outside the terminal building our host, Moses, was waiting for us with open arms! It was the first time we’d ever met him face to face, although I’ve been writing and talking to him by phone since 2019. His driver, Ralph, picked us up, and we headed to Monrovia and our hotel for the week, about an hour’s drive away. That provided us with some quality time to hear about Liberia and Moses’ story.

Moses W. Wheigar has been a Liberian pastor for 32 years. He grew up attending worship services at the Salvation Army in Buchanan, Liberia, and in 1986 at the age of 18, he placed his trust in Jesus. He shared that one Sunday, the pastor preached from the book of Luke 19:1-10, and when he read verse 10, "For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost,” he realized that he was one of those who was lost, and he repented of his rebellion against God, put his faith in Jesus, and began following him.

He immediately started serving in ministry through the Salvation Army and attended the Salvation Army College in the Republic of Ghana, from 1991 -1993. Afterwards he attended and graduated from the Wesleyan College of Liberia, in 2007, while he continued to serve in ministry . Along the way, he met his lovely wife, Ruth, who serves alongside him in ministry, and together they parent five children.

In 1996 during the heat of the Liberian civil war he established the Servants of God Outreach Ministries, which later became "Harvest Liberia" with the mission to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). Harvest Liberia has planted several churches and is presently building four new core groups to be launched as future churches in the Liberian counties of Montserrado, Margibi, and Grand Bassa .

Currently, Moses serves as the Senior Pastor of a Harvest Liberia church in Paynesville (a suburb of Monrovia) and he also serve as the Regional Senior Pastor of Harvest Liberia for Liberia.

Harvest Liberia has also established a school in Paynesville for children from pre-school age through senior high. Some students are from local families and some are orphans. The school is committed to providing all the children with a competitive academic education, while laying a foundation of biblical teaching at the same time. They currently have an enrollment of between 300-400 students. We’ll be speaking at the school during the week.

Harvest Liberia and the school have Facebook pages if you’re interested in learning more: Church: facebook.com/paynesville harvest & School: facebook.com/paynesvillehca

We’re so excited to spend time with Moses, share with the Liberians we’ll be meeting, and see what God might have in store for future partnership between our churches.

We arrived at our hotel (RLJ Kendeja Villas) in Paynesville and got settled in for the night. We prayed with Moses, said our goodbyes until tomorrow, got cleaned up and went to bed, tired but grateful for God’s provision during these past few days of travel. So many obstacles could have easily prevented us from being here, but that didn’t happen! So God gets the glory - and we get to let everyone know how good He is!

Pray for Moses and his leadership during this conference this week. Pray for us that we will be used by the Lord to serve fully and faithfully (Acts 20:24).

Your brothers & servants in Christ,

Hunter, Tommy, & TIm

November 21st, 2021 (Sunday before the trip)

This week, three members of our VBC family are traveling to Monrovia, Liberia in West Africa. Tim Barley, Tommy Sidebottom, and Hunter Barsell will be guest teachers, along with other Liberian pastors, at a conference hosted by Harvest Liberia. Each day, they will be posting journal entries on this page.

While they're serving in Liberia, please pray for these men in the following ways:

- No obstacles to their travel, accommodations, and departure, especially with all the current complications due to COVID.

- An anointed time of ministry during the church conference. As each of them share, they ask the Holy Spirit to empower them to speak clearly, accurately, boldly, and compassionately.

- May many unsaved attendees at the conference come to place their trust in Jesus and may believers be brought to greater maturity and faith in Christ.

- May the pastors and other leaders be encouraged during their time with them, in teaching, prayer, worship, and fellowship.

- May God provide greater clarity in regard to a future partnership with their host, Moses Whiegar, and the church community he pastors.