Warm welcome to Liberia and some new pictures

We are settling in the guest house for a brief while and enjoying the neighboring orphans from Acres of Hope. The children are making friends and helping with the orphans and some of the storytime joys. It’s like instantly having even more brothers and sisters.
We are doing well, adjusting to the weather - about 85 and 60% humidity, a little cooler in the evening early morning – the humidity is supposed to crank up to about 95% within the next month.

I am hiding the ID of the orphans in the below pictures for privacy purposes but they have the most amazing smiles and joy in their hearts.





We had a wonderful rest in the Lord today, mentally, spiritually and physically. We were able to hit the beautiful beaches of Liberia for a while and – Wow!!!!!
What a wonderful and refreshing time to relish in the magnificent and powerful creation and design of God. It was good to share ourselves with the local Liberians and I had the chance to show a few young local boys how to get into the deeper waist high water to body surf (they are terrified of the potential for death by drowning because they lack some very basic wave wading skills – hope my childhood years in the South Bay beaches of L.A. pay off). The waves made for an incredible playscape for the children and we enjoyed lunching under the tiki style huts on the sand. After that we went to the lagoon on the other side of the shore where fresh water is setting on a bed of sand washed over from the high tides. It’s like a three foot deep freshwater pool with beach sand – neat.

Here are a few pictures of our new surroundings – the “mall” and other local stores. There is a wonderful grocery store but most everything else from buckets to flip-flops are found at the street vendors, or in their portable kiosks (wheel barrows). Traffic is quite challenging as the main route to the city is under construction but we make due with what we have to work with. We are very encouraged at the business and improvements that are slowly but surely coming – God willing.

We had a chance to share again the joy of our salvation tonight, this time with a neat little dvd called God’s Story. It is a program that is being used to reach the world with the story of God’s plan of salvation from His word. Our family has been enjoying this dvd for over a year now and if you get a chance pick it up.
This is the link for more gods-story(dot)org

We are patiently awaiting the soon arriving containers carrying the donations for Acres of Hope orphanage and the missionary housing items among many other family items.
Pray that the logistics go well with the containers, please. You cannot believe what you have to go through to get the items and containers into your possession. Pray for us in that regard.

May God Almighty enhance your walk with him through his enduring word.

Peace to you all.

We've Made it to Liberia

Hello friends, we have made it to Liberia and are well and very excited about our new home. We are temporarily in the guest house of Acres Of Hope and look forward to setting up permanent abode closer to the orphanage. There are 13 orphans here at the special needs orphan housing and our kids are taking to them with great joy. The girls are already learning from the nannies how to cook Liberian and the boys are creating toys from the growth of wood and other scraps of building material for their adventures with the orphan boys.

It was a short lived trial for us and shock as well in seeing the tremendous differences in culture and everyday way of life. We are so blessed in America and are now really seeing what most of the world sees in how the daily markets and lives work for so many countries in the world like in Mexico, India,, China, Bosnia, Russia, Liberia and many many others.

What a feeling of joy we had as we prayed about and trusted not in the things and worries and concerns of man but in the promises of God and blessings from him. Our spirits were truly lifted by the power of God’s word and the Holy Spirit of God as the joy of our salvation was renewed and our faith refreshed.

We thank you for your prayers and support and will chat soon with pictures.

David, Claudia and children.

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A break in Europe with the Omi and Opi before Liberia

Well, thank you God Almighty for the chance to finally have a bit of a break before we get to Liberia.

What a logistical challenge in preparing for our trip to Germany to visit Claudia’s parents.

So many things needed to be packed for the visit - all the items needed for our visit while in Germany (cold weather clothing, etc, etc) and the needs for our arrival in Liberia (very warm weather clothing and essentials for at least a month – basic housing items plus local items like mosquito nets).

I have to thank God for my wonderful partner in life, my bride and love - Claudia. She has done so much in the logistics and prep for our move to Liberia. Thank you honey.

Below are some pictures of our journey to Germany and some of Opi and Omi's neck of the woods.

Enjoy

In Houston Intercontinental Airport

On the plane to Deutschland

Frankfurt Ariport

Omi und Opi greeting the kids

Claudia's hometown of Ansbach

Out to eat - Yum

Out in town for a walk

On the train to Nuremburg

The castle wall

City center

Siblings in the Hofgarten for a walk

Farewell friends - Thank you for your prayers

Before leaving we had a chance to meet with many many friends and family and we thank you for the time and well wishes. Felicia our friend was the inspiration and coordinator of our gathering at the Stadium - Thank you Felicia.

I would like to put so many more photos but hope you enjoy the few selections that were made. Thank you all again for being friends.

Friends and family

Preparing to get out of country. - November thru Dec 2, 2007

Thank you to the many individuals that assisted us on our preparation for our move to Liberia. Below are some pictures of some of the moving and farewell gatherings. We will miss all of you and cherish the many memories of our times in the USA.

We hope you enjoy the short snap shot show of some memories.

Packing - packing - & more packing

Prepping for the trip to Liberia W. Africa - including the dogs -

but first ,a visit to the in-laws in Europe (Brrrrrrr).

Prepping to load the containers - get your garages ready.

Container #1 ready to be loaded

Douglas was an incredible blessing - Thank you Doug.

Special thanks to Douglas Whiddon of Whiddon Masonry in Dripping Springs TX for the use and help with his Load-All fork lift equip.

A true God-sent angel was his assistant Patrick Dougherty who assisted with the loading of heavy equipment into both containers. He and I worked well into two nights worth of loading and tying down items in the containers. Thanks.

Patrick Dougherty assisting

My friends Patrick and Shelby, thank you for being there and Shelby, thank you for all the help in so many ways (loading, land, truck & trailer lending, meals etc, etc ). We will continue to pray for you all.

Shelby

Pat-O

Let the loading begin. Bring it on!!!!!!

I think this load is topped off.

One down - one to go.