December 2012
1 post
April 2012
1 post
Well, now EVERYBODY will know.
Just found out that China Central Television is aware of West Africa Crossroads and the Saclepea Community Computer Center. Which, I think, is a very GOOD thing. Check out their video at
http://www.ittybittyurl.com/d6v
AND, as if that weren’t enough, the SCCC / Engineers Without Borders - Ga Tech / WACC 2012 Saclepea Economic Empowerment Competition is underway. Check out the Saclepea...
November 2011
1 post
May 2011
1 post
March 2011
3 posts
“From everyone who has been given much, much shall be required.”
– Jesus of Nazareth
February 2011
12 posts
I think this qualifies as good news!
Still lots of work to do, but making progress on faster internet. Here are a few recent emails from Liberia.
_______________________________________________________
From: Paul Whesseh
To: Steve Skinner
Cc: Honorable Representative Evans Koah; Peter Wonokay
Sent: Mon, February 7, 2011 11:25:20 AM
Subject: Re: Greetings from Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Dear Steve,
We finally discussed the...
“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”, Liberia-style. ...
This is ‘Jerusalem’ [3e]. All these...
WatchThis was the scene at the United Liberia Inland Church of Saclepea youth choir practice led by Asst. Director Amenjor Senegah. By Yah Yenta Crusa [3b]. If you think Mark Green and Rick Bazemore are energetic, catch a load of Mr. Senegah. The style of directing seems to omit the normal ‘4 beats in a measure’ rule, but the group is amazingly tight in their harmonies and timing. There...
A Capella song of worship, By Yah Yenta [3a]
Well, this is “God Thank You” [3f] by...
Now the work begins
Okay, we made it home. As far as seventeen hour flights go, this one was pretty easy. VERY hard to post the last few days due to torrential rains, loss of internet, and leaving all the computers in Saclepea as we made our way home. Quick update:
We stand a pretty good chance of getting a free VSAT ($5000 US value) to improve our internet capability. (Still have to pay $400 per month.)
The...
January 2011
25 posts
Three Media Moguls
Gonna have to call this yet another amazing day. Computer center opened yesterday and grossed $2300 first day. Lots of excitement. Only open for 3 hours today, but made about $800. Amazing interest, though. A local photographer came by and was STOKED. So I showed him PhotoShop and he started jumping up and down. I MUST HAVE THIS!!!! And I showed him how to change the background on a...
And another thing . . . .
While Sandy was at the SCCC grand opening, I made my way to Inland Church in the center of town for their youth choir rehearsal. Long story, but I finally got permission to record them yesterday, so I set up a mini-recording studio and had a go at it. WOW! I’ll try to upload a snippit soon, but you are gonna love it. And I am pretty sure none of you have heard anything remotely like it in...
Saclepea has Internet...and we have another...
Saturday afternoon I was finally able to call home for the first time to talk to all of our sons & families. At Alan’s house our 6-year-old granddaughter Eve got on the line and her first words were “Does Saclepea have internet yet, Grandma?” I was stunned at her question and asked her how she knew about that and she answered very matter-of-factly: “because we’ve been praying for...
The shipment arrives!!!
For the last 10 days we have heard “the shipment will leave the port tomorrow.” Same story, every day. The big difference was yesterday’s report was true!! We got a call this morning at 6:15 to tell us the truck was here. We rode our bikes to the clinic and helped unload. Here is the amazing part: it took about 5 hours to load the container in Stone Mountain with a...
they share a lot more here
Sharing is a way of life here. A few days ago Steve’s voltage regulator quit working and it’s a vital part of our power chain. The 9-volt battery had died, and we had not brought another one. No problem, we’ll just buy another one. Nope. They don’t sell them here. Anywhere. So Chris Zeaseah said “no problem; I’ll go borrow one.” He went from house...
We're trying
That’s a common expression here in Liberia: “we’re trying.” It means anything from “it’s going OK” to “everything is sliding downhill but we’re managing to hold on.” Some days that’s how we feel. BUT although things are going in a different direction than originally planned, we see some progress.
The people of Saclepea are...
What's Good?
Grapefruit. Bananas. Pineapple. Delivered fresh to your door every morning (no kidding).
Hot donuts delivered fresh to your door every morning (not kidding about that, either).
There’s no electricity in the house, so when the sun comes up, EVERYBODY goes outside. No need for Facebook. Just sit on the front porch in the morning and you might speak with half the people you know as they...
Why can't these Africans just use 'retired'...
Why did we buy brand new netbooks to use in Africa?
Good question. The computer room at the high school already had a dozen Dell computers with huge monitors. But all of them were covered up and had not been used in many months. Why? The teacher told us only their smaller generator was working, so they could not turn them on. The computers were built in 2002 and still had fairly good software,...
A TRIP TO SEE 'SIS T' IN SACLEPEA, LIBERIA...
BIKE TRIP - We visited Sis T this morning just to say hello. As we rode up, we noticed that she has a new nursery with four little angels sleeping outside on blankets under the warm African sun. Four babies. Four orphans. Just since September. Say a prayer of thanks today for ‘Sis T’ Dainsee of Saclepea. She took them all in when their mothers died in childbirth.
Keith Gantee was...
Africa Night Scene – 11 Jan 2011
by Steve
It’s about 8:30 in the evening. Sandy and I leave yet another meeting and start to make our way home. But I’ve forgotten my flashlight and we have to walk our two bikes through the deeply rutted streets with just her little light. It’s still hot, and the dust is so thick in the air that the moon is just a dim orange glow. Pitch black would not be an inappropriate...
Go Fish
Monday night, 9:30 PM. In the midst of a busy day yesterday I took a few minutes to teach our friend Lee how to play Go Fish. Several boys were watching and when we finished our game they all wanted to play. For the next hour we had one boisterous game after another, with a few life lessons thrown in (for example, “Jesus Christ is to be worshiped; please do not use His name in that way”).
We...
How to draw a crowd in Africa
OK, we have flyovers and spotlights in the USA when you need to draw a crowd, but how do you do it on a hot day over here? We heard commotion outside our house twice today. Giants and Bicycles, of course.
By the way,things are going pretty well. We’re meeting with all the people we need to see. Still can’t get our shipment out of port in Monrovia, but we will keep trying and...
Saclepea
We’re here among old friends and having a great reunion. The mission house we’re staying in is nice and roomy. Haven’t used the generator so far, so we’re just living the Liberian way. It’s 9PM and dark. People are still congregating in the yard outside but we’re tired so we’re settled in for the night. Steve and I got each other Kindles for...
Goodbye, Monrovia
(Sandy) We’re leaving the bustling city of Monrovia in an hour or so for Ganta (Barlea’s home) then on to Saclepea, our home for the next 4 weeks. Not everything has gone according to plan (OUR plan, at least) so maybe God has bigger and better things in mind. We did have a wonderful dinner last night with an American family (with 5 little towhead children) and it was a nice break...
HEY LOOK WE'RE IN LIBERIA
From Steve: We’d been worried that a carry on bag with 8 new netbook computers would draw some scrutiny from TSA, but we zoomed through security on New Years Day at Atlanta Airport. At the boarding gate the agents announced constantly that the flight was COMPLETELY full and no seat changes could be made. But we got lucky (or blessed) and had a center seat open between us for the entire...
December 2010
2 posts
Here's the plan:
Thanks for your interest in our trip! We’ll arrive in Monrovia, Liberia on Sunday at 2:30 PM local time (9:30 AM EST). When we get there, Barlea will be there to meet us and we’ll spend 3 nights in Monrovia at the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary compound. We have several appointments set up for Monday & Tuesday, including getting the modem for the internet cafe and all of the...
Three days and counting...
As we’re checking things off our ToDo list (112 items left) and saying goodbye to grandchildren, we’d appreciate your prayers, especially for wisdom and guidance. This is God’s mission and we’re only bit players. We’re trying to use our last 3 days wisely and be sure we don’t forget anything. Our plane leaves Saturday afternoon about 7:30 PM. We’re...
October 2010
1 post
July 2010
1 post
1 tag
March 2010
44 posts
Now what?
Good question. We spent over 9 weeks in Liberia assessing the situation in Saclepea to learn how God might use us there. We made a lot of friends (and possibly a few adversaries), learned a lot, taught a bit, and contributed to several short term projects. But now the real work begins. How do we remain engaged in Liberia?
Here is the list of projects in which we are currently involved:
...
