The best game ever

The most popular game in Sierra Leone besides soccer is definitely this game. If you think about it, children do not really have toys here. They are pretty inventive though. I see young children playing this game everywhere, whether I am in the city or up country. The children use some round object, usually a tire, but sometimes a piece of metal, and they use their hand or a stick to hit the tire and keep it rolling upright. The children run along with it as it rolls faster and faster. The object of the game is to keep the tire upright and not let it fall over. I have seen kids running so fast with tires that they plow over whoever is in their way just to keep the tire up!

UPDATES!!!

This week Mike and I attended the ECOWAS Nutrition Forum. It is a nutriton forum held to share and learn from all the West African countries. There were about 13 countries represented. Different topics were discussed dealing with the causes of malnutrition. We learned that many underlying issues that may not have anything to do directly with food are causing food insecurity in Sierra Leone. A major problem is the roads. Because of the poor condition of the roads, produce spoils before it can be transported throughout the country. So even though Sierra Leone harvests enough food to sustain itself, it is not even close to providing food security to the people throughout the country. The conference as a whole was very interesting. It is beneficial to bring many different countries together in order to learn from eachother and unite in finding the best way to provide nutrition for countries that have such high rates of malnutrition and other hunger related problems.


Today Mike and I went hiking with a hiking group in Freetown. Every Saturday morning they hike in a different area of Freetown or in the outskirts of Freetown. Today we hiked along Whale River. Despite the rain during the entire hike, we discovered another beautiful area of Sierra Leone.

We found out Friday that we are going to be able to pick up our NGO application on Tuesday! This is huge, because it is the last step in the process to become an officially registered NGO in the country!! To say the least, we are pumped!!

We will be going up country to Taiama to operate the nutrition clinic on Friday.
We are opening nutrition clinic next Saturday. It is a village about 12 miles away from Taiama called Taninihun. This is a village that the Taiama local healthcare workers discovered as having an extremely high rate of malnutrition among children under five. We ask for your prayers as we work with the Taiama healthcare workers in expanding the program.

New Creation, Starting Now

I know the last few posts have been somewhat different from the way we usually blog, but I think it is extremely important to express why we, as fortunate representatives of the Body of Christ, are here in Sierra Leone doing what we are doing. The following paragraphs have been taken from N.T. Wright’s book, Simply Christian:

Despite what many people think, within the Christian family and outside it, the point of Christianity isn’t “to go to heaven when you die.” The New Testament picks up from the old the theme that God intends, in the end, to put the whole creation to rights. Earth and heaven were made to overlap with one another, not fitfully, mysteriously, and partially as they do at the moment, but completely, gloriously, and utterly. “The earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.” That’s the promise that resonates throughout the Bible story, from Isaiah (and behind him, by implication, from Genesis itself) all the way through to Paul’s greatest visionary moments and the final chapters of the book of Revelation. The great drama will end, not with “saved souls” being snatched up into heaven, away from the wicked earth and the mortal bodies which have dragged them down into sin, but with the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth, so that “the dwelling of God is with humans” (Revelation 21:3).
A little over a hundred years ago, an American pastor in upstate New York celebrated in a great hymn both the beauty of creation and the presence of the creator God within it. His name was Malthie Babcock, and his hymn “This Is My Father’s World” points beyond the present beauty of creation, through the mess and tragedy which it has been infected, to the ultimate resolution. There are different versions of the relevant stanza, but this one is the clearest:

“This is my Father’s world; O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world; the battle is not done;
Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied,
And earth and heaven be one.”

And earth and heaven be one: that is the note that should sound like a clear, sweet bell through all Christian living, summoning us to live in the present as people called to that future, people called to live in the present in the light of the future. The two themes—the overlap of heaven and earth and the overlap of God’s future with our present time—come together as we look at what it means for believing and baptized members of God’s people to live under the lordship of Jesus within the present world. Paul and John, Jesus himself, and pretty well all the great Christian teachers of the first two centuries stressed their belief in resurrection. “Resurrection” doesn’t mean “going to heaven when you die.” It isn’t about “life after death.” It’s about “life after life after death.” After you die, you go to be “with Christ”, but your body remains dead. Describing where and what you are in that interim period is difficult, and for the most part the New Testament writers don’t try. Call it “heaven” if you like, but don’t imagine that it’s the end of all things. What is promised after that interim period is a new bodily life within God’s new world (“life after life after death”).
Many contemporary Christians find this confusing. It was second nature to the early church and to many subsequent Christian generations. It was what they believed and taught. If we have grown up believing and teaching something else, it’s time we rubbed our eyes and read our texts again. God’s plan is not to abandon this world, the world which he said was “very good.” Rather, he intends to remake it. And when he does, he will raise all his people to new bodily life to live in it. That is the promise of the Christian gospel.
To live in it, yes; and also to rule over it. There is a mystery here which few today have even begun to ponder. Both Paul and Revelation stress that in God’s new world those who belong to the Messiah will be placed in charge. The first creation was put into care of God’s image-bearing creatures. The new creation will be put into the wise, healing stewardship of those who have been “renewed according to the image of the creator,” as Paul puts it (Colossians 3:10). In God’s new world Jesus himself will of course be the central figure. That’s why from the very beginning the church has always spoken of his “second coming,” though in terms of the overlap of heaven and earth it would be more appropriate to speak, as some early Christians also did, of the “reappearing” of Jesus. He is, at the moment, present with us, but hidden behind that invisible veil which keeps heaven and earth apart, and which we pierce in those moments, such as prayer, the sacraments, the reading of scripture, and our work with the poor, when the veil seems particularly thin. But one day the veil will be lifted; earth and heaven will be one; Jesus will be personally present, and every knee shall bow at his name; creation will be renewed; the dead will be raised; and God’s new world will at last be in place, full of new prospects and possibilities. This is what the Christian vision of salvation is all about. But if that is the road we’re going, what road must we take to get there?
Living Between Heaven and Earth
Our vision of the road from here to there, from creation to new creation—in other words, the way we are called to live in the present—will vary not according to what we conceive to be the final destination, but also according to the whole way we understand God and the world.
"Christianity, in its purest form… sees God and the world as different from one another, but not far apart. There were and are ways in which, moments at which, and events through which heaven and earth overlap and interlock. For the devout first-century Jew, the Torah wasn’t the arbitrary decree of a distant God, but the covenant charter which bound Israel to YHWH. It was the pathway along which one might discover what genuine humanness was all about. If all Israel managed to keep the Torah for a single day, declared some Jewish teachers, the Age to Come would begin. The Torah was the road into God’s future. Of course it was; because, like the Temple, it was a place where heaven and earth overlapped, where you might glimpse what it would be like when they became completely one. The same was true for Wisdom, the blueprint for creation and also the blueprint for genuine human living."
"Yes, replied the early Christians: and Temple, Torah, and Wisdom have come together in and as Jesus of Nazareth, Israel’s Messiah, God’s second self, his “Son” in that full sense. And, with that, God’s future has arrived in the present, has arrived in the person of Jesus. In arriving, it has confronted and defeated the forces of evil and opened the way for God’s new world, for heaven and earth to be joined forever. And not only heaven and earth, but also future and present, overlap and interlock. And the way that interlocking becomes real, not just imaginary, is through the powerful work of God’s Spirit."
"This is the launchpad for the specifically Christian way of life. That way of life isn’t a matter simply of getting in touch with our inner depths. It is certainly not about keeping the commands of a distant God. Rather, it is the new way of being human, the Jesus-shaped way of being human, the cross-and-resurrection way of life, the Spirit-led pathway. It is the way which anticipates, in the present, the full, rich, glad human existence which will one day be ours when God makes all things new. Christian ethics is not a matter of discovering what’s going on in the world and getting in tune with it. It isn’t a matter of doing things to earn God’s favor. It is not about trying to obey dusty rulebooks from long ago or far away. It is about practicing, in the present, the tunes we shall sing in God’s new world… "

Tunes that resonate through us when we respond to the faithfulness of Christ in faith, hope, love, justice, peace, and mercy. Where things in the world are not right, we are, as God’s true Israel, responsible to do all we can, through God’s power, to change and transform them the way our loving Father intended things to be, with anticipation and hope that God will one day, ultimately, bring all wrongs to right. This is the reason we worship, the reason we pray, the reason we do mission, the reason we live. We are the body of Christ!

With Thanksgiving and Love,

Chelsea and Mike

Christian Community and the Power of God

Communication, as many can attest to, is a crucial factor when it comes to relationships, not least in marriage. Take one's relationship with God: talking (and hearing!) from God through prayer is vital for knowing more of who God is, his character, yourself, the world, relationships, etc. I heard a wise pastor once say that you need prayer just as much as you need food. If you don't eat, you will grow sick and malnourished, leading to death, and if you don't pray, there is no relationship with the God who was gracious enough to create you and love you.

Anyways, Chelsea and I have definitely learned so much from each other while we have been in Sierra Leone. We have had a greater dependence upon each other as it can be stressful at times. As Chelsea has said before, we understand why Jesus sent out the disciples in pairs of two, rather than alone, because having someone else with you, experiencing the same things with one another, helps tremendously when having to cope with certain things, and also takes a lot of pressure off of you when 300 Sierra Leoneans are staring at you when walking down the street! When things go bad, or not the way you expected them to (which is usually ALWAYS), it is much more manageable to deal with.

One of the most amazing things that I have discovered in the past year is how one’s beliefs about God, the world, and everything in it, can change and transform with time. God has definitely showed me my ignorance in the past, as even though I acted out of love, I handled situations without knowledge or wisdom. Take for instance, when I would take people through the Ten Commandments and convince them that they were guilty of sin and deserved punishment; then to offer them the solution through the cross of Christ. To simply treat the climatic action of God through Christ as a remedy for one’s personal sins, is to miss the point of that action of God altogether, and fall guilty of cheap grace. Instead, God’s action was for the redemption of the whole cosmos, and one’s personal sin should be seen in that light. Through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, lies the promise of total restoration for creation. Therefore, as God’s family, we are called to serve justice (putting things to right), in anticipation of God’s final act of new creation, when he transforms the whole world. In the past, my whole portrayal and conception of God was somewhat focused simply on personal salvation rather than communal salvation. Now although we all are with sin, I now see that that way of sharing your faith to be inaccurate with anything in Scripture. Instead, it portrays God as a distant deity way up in the sky that has a bunch of arbitrary laws, and if you break them, then you will be punished. I think that is why many people have rejected Christianity in the Western world. A lot of Western Christians see God in that way because that is how the justice system is ran in North American society, and many other places of the world. Now I'm not saying that God rather looks past sin, and says "everything is okay with you, go on now and live the way you please." Instead, he offers restoration and redemption for those who believe and trust him so that we can truly live as he intended, namely, as true human beings. Human beings who understand what life is all about (i.e. Love, relationships, justice, beauty, etc.), and how everyday is a challenge to overcome the evilness within us, and trust God with everything. Now I know evilness seems to be such a violent word because you only see or hear it when people or the news are labeling murderers, rapists, child molesters, and the like. However, the Bible is clear that evil runs through the middle of all of us, and we are capable of good or bad. It is what defines those who desire to be self-sufficient, and run their lives the way they see fit, rather than living as Jesus is Lord. So, God offers forgiveness, and then challenges us as his people, to live by that forgiveness. Where the world is in pain, we are called to serve justice and peace in the name of Christ, by trusting God that he will work through us to transform any situation, no matter what the difficulty. And with that comes a promise, that no matter what we may go through, we can always have the hope that God loves us, and that he has placed us "in the right" on the basis of faith in Christ; granted that, any church that takes this seriously will be on the way to the only victory that matters: the victory of the cross of the Messiah, lived out in community and under the eyes of the watching world. And if we work as the single family of God, those of the watching world will be eager to join as they witness the loving light of Christ. To me, who wouldn’t want to join a community whose purpose is to offer itself in loving service to others? All for each and each for all.

“Love must be as ferocious as evil.” ~Mother Teresa
This quote is a good reminder to the body of Christ, that no matter what evil we are faced with, personally or communally, we must rely on the Holy Spirit for the power and strength to act in love.

Blessings to all,

Mike

It's been a long time...

Some of you are probably wondering why we haven't blogged in about a month... Well, our blog has been in Arabic! We can't decipher the words in order to make a new post. Anyway, we figured it out.

Project Peanut Butter update-
We are still in the NGO registration process. It is long and tedious but that is part of it, and we are making headway! We have a factory! The machinery for it is being tested in New York, so it will probably not get to Freetown until the end of September. Currently we have been working on potential partners in being supplied with and implementing the RUTF (ready-to-use therapeutic food) into their child survival programs, therapeutic feeding centers,etc. This past weekend Chelsea and I had a chance to go up country to Bo. Bo is roughly 130 miles southeast of the capital Freetown. It was a long trip, taking up to six hours! We like to describe the highway as half paved, half crater :) Anyways, we were able to meet with the Medical Coordinator of MSF (Medical Sans Frontier), more commonally known as Doctors Without Borders, and discuss with him our interest in supplying them with a large mass of RUTF. He was very excited to here that we are starting a factory in Freetown and expressed interest in purchasing from PPB.

Chelsea and I also had the privelege of going to Taiama and working with the Taiama Health Centre where we implemented the child malnutrition program. This is where Chelsea was until April, so it was interesting to see how the program had done on its own from mid-April to mid-August. The healthcare workers had done a sufficient job in keeping up with the enrolled patients, as well as enrolling new ones. To my surprise, some of the children that had been in the program for 12 weeks were still not thriving off of the supplement as they should be. Many of the children that Chelsea remembered improving drastically when she left, had, for some reason, failed to graduate from the program, with many having fevers or coughs. There could be many reasons why each child is not improving, the most sensible reason being that it is hungry season. Many families have nearly run out of produce and are waiting for harvest season. Until then, they are desperately trying to provide 1 or 2 meals a day for themselves and their children.

Some good news (if you can call it that) is that we have located another village outside of Taiama, that has a substantial number of malnourished children, where we can provide aid through the RUTF. Be praying for the mothers and their children of this village (for strength, healing, and restoration), as we will be going there on September 6th, to implement the program.

I have posted some pictures that were taken outside the Njala community, where Chelsea and I stayed. We were able to go exploring in the African bush, baby! Even met up with some village people who graciously gave us gifts of bananas and cumcumbers.

On our way home, we had to pick up our friend Ahmed who was doing some tech work in a village outside Taiama. When we got there, an older woman popped in with Ahmed, who was looking for a ride to Freetown, with her two roosters! One which was a gift to us. How ironic, because Chelsea and I have despised roosters since we arrived in Sierra Leone not least because they wake you at the crack of dawn and never shut up. It was kind, but once she left, we gave it to our other friend who came with us, Ali. He told us he was going to have a good Sunday dinner. You never know what to expect...

Where has the week gone?!

Wow! I can't believe it is already Friday! Mike and I have been hiking the streets of Freetown all week. We have been doing lots of searching...searching for an apartment, a vehicle, and factory. With all the traffic, random rainfalls, and craziness of the city, it seems to take so long to get anything done here. At different times during the week our patience has definitely been tried. Mike was talking to a guy we meet here named Dane. Dane had been in Sierra Leone for a while by himself. He was explaining how he can see why in the Bible, the disciples were sent out two by two. They were sent together, not alone. Being together has helped Mike and me this week. When my patience was running thin, Mike stepped in to remind me of who I am here to represent, Christ! At the same time, I was there for Mike when he needed a reminder. It is awesome to be able to encourage and motivate one another when things get tough.

So we accomplished some things! We are in a new apartment in a great location. It is in a safer, residential area of West Freetown right off a main road, so we can get out and about quickly. We also found a factory site. It is on the main road our apartment is off of, just a little over a mile away. We still have lots to work out concerning this site, but there are lots of positives about the site! We also found a Toyota Lancruiser. I test drove it in the city! The driving here is crazy, so I was a little scared. Mike was riding shotgun, and I think he was freaking out (on the inside)! It is a BEAST, and will be a great vehicle for when we drive on bad roads in the villages plus it will carry all the supplement we need! Well that is all for now! Thanks for reading! Peace, chelsea

Electricity is a luxury

Good afternoon to all. Chelsea and I just got back from running errands in the downtown area. We met with our friend Ahmed Turay and "Bob Dole" (he found the need to tell everyone that he was emphatically against Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election vs. Clinton, and as a result, he acquired this nickname from his friends; I don't think anyone knows his real name). We found out from the meeting that we still have no prospects concerning a vehicle, but hopefully Monday we will advance our progress as we are meeting with a dealer who is good friends with "Bob Dole" and Ahmed. We are also closing in on an apartment. This is good because we have to move out of our present apartment by the end of this month.

Speaking of our apartment…

Two days ago Chelsea and I did not have electricity for up to 36 hours. It really wasn't too bad, as we busted out our head lamps and played cards and scrabble all night. It was a little crazy eating dinner though in the dark with our lamps; that was a new experience. This picture is of us in the bed playing cards (it looks light but only because of the flash of the camera). When the electricity did come on yesterday evening it made Chelsea and I very excited. We were able to have the ceiling fans blasting to keep cool, eat dinner in the light, and charge up our computer for internet access and to watch "Home Alone." We both have a renewed appreciation for electricity, as we have realized that it is in fact a luxury to have.

Blessings,
Mike