The crowd said to Jesus: “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:

He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

            So they said to Jesus, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

-       John 6:30-35

 

 

 

How often do we get those signs we ask for?

 

How often do we scream out, “God just SHOW me you’re there.”

 

…maybe i’m only speaking for myself, but at least the urge to do so comes quite frequently…

 

 

Tuesday morning Jerome, John, Uncle Harris, and myself set out for the new Mission being built in Grand Bassa. From our compound in BlackTom Town, the new site is roughly 110 miles away….the trip however, is never shorter than 4 hours…The roads are somewhat less than stellar and are made up of more potholes and bumps than you can imagine (we also caught some air a few times haha). Let’s just say John was unable to go 3 minutes without saying “OW CHIGLAGA!”

buying some bananas on the road

The trip is long, but always so worth it. i don’t know what it is about the place, but the times i’ve been there, i’ve felt eerily at home. The land is gorgeous, and the site of the mission under construction is a lot more secluded that the one i’m staying at in BlackTom Town. You really are in the African “Bush”.

sitting in the kitchen looking out into the land the new site has

Well the trip went smoothly. We met with the people we had to meet with. We also got to just walk around and take in the beauty of it all.

 

… We embarked on the journey home, and it seemed like we were just in for our normal long, bumpy ride.  As soon as we got out of Grand Bassa County though, The clutch system on our truck died. We pulled over to the side of the road, turned off the pick-up and prayed it would magically work when we turned it back on…No such luck…

We were stuck…over 2 hours away from the compound.

haha there we are. Right on the Margibi / Grand Bassa Border...Uncle Harris is still trying to find someone to come get us.

John and i decided to take advantage of what seemed more and more like our campground for the night – checking out how the river looked for swimming Haha. We were all just hanging around the road…well Jerome and Harris were searching through their phones looking for ANYONE they knew who might have a car or know someone who had a car and could come get us…No such luck again…Jerome called Clarissa, and she called Toyota to see if they could come tow us. Clarissa called back and told us they could, but it would be 6 the next morning before they got there…haha and that was on a Liberian watch, so it was looking like noon before we’d see anyone.

 

John and i were making bets on if i could hit different trees with rocks, Harris was pacing the road, and Jerome was saying to Clarissa, “I have no idea what we can do.”…And then one of those signs we always pray for showed up.

 

i was a little further down the road than the others, and this UN car passed me - i smiled and waved – he returned the favor…and then some.  He pulled over and asked us what was going on. We told him our truck was dead and we would be here for the night. He asked us where we lived because he was heading to Monrovia (our mission just so happens to be on the way to Monrovia).

John, our guardian angel and Uncle Harris hooking up the pick-up to be towed.

So this angel, John, as he called himself, just happened to have some things to tow our car a little way. He towed our car about 5 miles to a gas station (which was coincidently called “It takes two filling station” and motto just happened to be “Never Despair”) where we could leave the car so no one would steal it or strip it for parts.

Leaving the pick-up at the "IT Takes Two" filling station..haha motto: Never Despair.

 

We hopped in the UN truck with John, and headed towards the mission. Jerome and i looked at each other and simultaneously mouthed, “He was a God-send.” The further we got along the ride though, the more coincidences came out. John had just come from right up the road from where our new site was. He just so happened to be going to Monrovia. He and Jerome started talking in Spanish and He also happened to be Nicaraguan, one of the countries that borders Honduras (our mission is under Mission Honduras Inc. and the Mission sites in Honduras have more than a few kids from Nicaragua) when there are relatively hardly any Latin American UN representatives in Liberia right now.

 

We arrived home and hugged John. We thanked him more than a few times. We tried to get him to stay and hang out for a little while but he had to get ready to catch his flight he had in the morning.

 

The rest of the night, all we could think about, was how miraculous John’s showing up was and how perfectly it played out - How if we had left Grand Bassa just a little later than we did we would have still been sitting in the truck.

 

All we could think about was how Mighty to Save our God is.

 

Today i have a prayer of thanksgiving for our Nicaraguan Angel, Johnny Mua.

i pray that we might find the courage to trust in God completely – to trust that He will never abandon us – to trust that He is always by our side – To trust that He always has us right where we need to be.

Please pray for wisdom, courage, guidance, understanding, compassion, generosity, and Love…for all of us!

 

Hope all is well!

 

 

 

Life, Love, and Peace

 

uncle matthew

“…all us stumblers who believe Love rules.

Stand up and let it shine.”

Monday started off like any other day: children laughing at the well, Malaria pills, and as always, that interesting cup of coffee with John and Jerome. We headed towards class… like normal. We got into our lines…like normal. i guess the only irregular thing at the beginning of the day was the class size. Clarissa had to go into town with Jerome for some things, so her class joined up with mine.

My first thought of this super-sized class was a little fear. Haha…  but that quickly passed and the beginning of the day ran relatively smooth. We were all still smiling, and more importantly: the kids were paying attention and not bothering one another.

The kids were being really good. But it’s hard to give that many kids all the attention they need – especially with the now enlarged age gap (6yr-olds to 12-yr-olds). I was helping the kids with the math problems we had on the board, which looked a lot more like 9-12 kids encircling my chair, all trying to simultaneously show me their copy books. i got distracted…and a little overwhelmed…

The next thing i know, one of the kids was saying that Joshua and Merci were fighting. This whole concept of fighting isn’t completely foreign in our classroom, and usually revolves around a pencil, or one of the children writing the other’s name on their sheet of paper. It’s never too intense, but it is fighting, and that’s not exactly what we want to be allowing in school.

i stood up from my chair, parted the sea of children surrounding me, and started walking to break up what i thought was a routine tussle.

i put myself in-between the two and tried to calm them down. The next thing i know, Joshua is attacking me. He is 6, and i took the rebellion as if it was just a tantrum turned sour. He was scratching, pinching and biting me - whichever one, or all three of the options were available. i didn’t take a fond liking to this new form of affection, and Joshua and i went outside. i carried the 6 yr-old kicking, screaming, and fighting halfway between the school and the house.

He was freaking out.

i didn’t want to punish the kid. i mean don’t get me wrong, i didn’t like the fact that my neck was chicken-scratched, nor was i especially fond of the new tooth imprints on my shoulder, but the kid is 6.

So i plopped him down in the road. “Joshua, it’s ok. Calm down. i love you dude. Calm down.” i kept trying to relax him and ease a little of the screaming but nothing worked. It seemed as if the more I tried to give him a hug or tell him i wasn’t mad or i loved him – the louder he screamed and the more he fought.

So i tried giving him a little space for a minute. i sat him down, and walked away ten feet or so and sat down myself.

The screaming continued, but now it was becoming a slight bit fainter.

i thought the storm had started to die down, so after a couple of minutes i walked back over to him. “Joshua, it’s ok. i love you. Don’t worry. Everything’s ok.” i was trying to carefully coax him to calm down – scratching his back…speaking easy…

“Ok. Josh – it’s ok, i understand you’re upset, and that’s ok. i love you – i’m not mad - i don’t want to punish you. I don’t want to take you to Uncle Harris (the boy’s house father and acting disciplinarian). If you calm down, we can just go back to class.”

i made an attempt to pick him up and the screaming and fighting became worse than it was at the beginning. i put him back down, and told him i was going to count to 10 and then i wanted him to make a choice on what he wanted to do. If he told me he wanted to go back to class, we would go, but i wanted him to calm down enough to tell me.

Well i probably took 25 seconds counting…and there was no sign of the screaming ceasing. “Joshua, just tell me you want to go back and we can – but you have to calm down. What’s it going to be?” i waited, but there was no response – just continual screaming. “ok, i guess we’re going to Harris.” i picked him up, and the worst part of the fight was underway. He was flailing biting and scratching worse than before. He was biting me so hard, the gums above his teeth were bleeding. Marta and Ya came running from around the corner screaming. They were yelling at me to beat him. They watched me talk to him on the road, and they told me they didn’t know why i just didn’t punish him from the start. Ya grabbed him from me and started yelling at him for attacking me when i was trying to help him.

i was just standing there, stuck to that spot on the road, and I started to get the chills.

i suddenly was overtaken by guilt – “that’s what i do to God.” – was now the thought that had captured the entirety of my spectrum.

How often do i mess up or get into trouble, but in my independence, resist (kicking, screaming, and biting trying to get out of the mess on my own) the God who’s always right there to help. How often to i get into a bind, start scrambling, and force a throw only to end in an interception instead of just taking the sac. i know for me, its hard to admit when i’m wrong. It’s hard to admit i need help. It’s a hit to my pride for me to not be able to do it on my own - or admit when i’m struggling or need help. God just wants to help us, but we fight him off. He just wants to love us - to help us when we aren’t able to get it completely right.

 

The Lord will give you the bread you need

And the water for which you thirst.

No longer will your Teacher hide himself,

But with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,

While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears:

“This is the way; walk in it.”

when you would turn to the right or to the left.

                                    - Isaiah 30: 20-21

 

 

“Jesus tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Bob, why are you resisting me?’ I said, ‘I’m not resisting you!’ He said, ‘You gonna follow me?’ I said, ‘I’ve never thought about that before!’ He said, ‘When you’re not following me, you’re resisting me.’ ”

-       Bob Dylan

 

God is love - Love in its total and complete fulfillment. He loves us so much that he gives us free will – the will to do whatever we want. He gives us that choice, “Hey I’m here if you want me, but if you want your space you can have that too, just know I’m always here.” But how often do we actually submit to that Love that He gives us? How often do we take the chance that His way might be better than ours…how often do we remain unloved? i was thinking of all the times i’ve fought God and rejected his help. Kicking, screaming, biting….Hammering the nails into His hands that He spread out of love for us. But when we try to fix everything ourselves… When we rely on our own notions…When we don’t expand into the possibilities that maybe we don’t have the full spectrum of right and wrong, good or bad (we only have our own - in whichever incomplete and environmentally-triggered version we may have) … we are incapable of making the best decisions or judgments. We become incapable of reaching our potential if we are incapable of seeing our limitations on knowledge of “what is” or “is not”…

“Most birds are created to fly; for them, being grounded is a limitation within their ability to fly. Living unloved is a limitation; it is as if our wings were clipped, as if we were grounded – as if we lost our ability to fly.”

-       The Shack

“An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His Children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.”

-       A. W. Tozer

 

“Openness to Christ, who as the Redeemer of the world fully ‘reveals man to himself,’ can only be achieved through an ever more mature reference to the Father and his love. Although God ‘dwells in unapproachable light,’ he speaks to man by means of the whole of the universe: ‘Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.’ This indirect and imperfect knowledge, achieved by the intellect seeking God by means of creatures through the visible world, falls short of ‘vision of the Father.’…This ‘making known’ reveals God in the most profound mystery of his bein, one and three, surrounded by ‘unapproachable light.’ Nevertheless, through this ‘making known’ by Christ we know God above all in his relationship of love for man: in his ‘philanthropy.’ It is precisely here that ‘his invisible nature’ becomes in a special way ‘visible,’ incomparably more visible than through all the other ‘things that have been made’: it becomes visible in Christ and through Christ, through his actions and his words, and finally through his death on the cross and his resurrection.

            In this way, in Christ and through Christ, God also becomes especially visible in his mercy; that is to say, there is emphasized that attribute of the divinity which the Old Testament, using various concepts and terms, already defined as ‘mercy’. Christ congers on the whole of the Old Testament tradition about God’s mercy a definitive meaning. Not only does he speak of it and explain it by the use of comparisons and parables, but above all he himself makes it incarnate and personifies it. He himself, in a certain sense, is mercy. To the person who sees it in him – and finds it in him – God becomes ‘visible’ in a particular way as the father ‘who is rich in mercy.’”

-       Pope John Paul II

 

Its crazy – i can be standing in the middle of Liberia, midday i might add, and get the chills…

Through the incident with Joshua, i learned a lot about my lack of faith. i learned a lot about how hard it is for me to let go and let God. i learned a lot about my stumbling self, and how i need to let go of my independence and keep looking to him to help me find my way home.

 

“Well sometimes I miss a step

I stumble here and there

Well im finding my way home

If im lost then ill admit

Sometimes I plain forget,

But im finding my way home

And you can try and stand in my way

Say what you gonna say

But im finding my way home”

-       Citizen Cope, “My Way Home”

 

i pray that WE may all continue to grow in faith. Faith is not a noun; faith is a verb. It is neither political nor social; Independent nor religion. It is a living, breathing, dialoguing relationship with God in Three persons. From this ongoing conversation, corresponding actions and submissive love are instinctively spurred from the realization of truths and importance.

Pray for understanding, patience, forgiveness, hope, joy, self-control, generosity, compassion, wisdom and love…for all of us!

 

Life, Love and Peace

uncle matthew

“Do not worry about your career. Concern yourself with your vocation, and that is to be lovers of Jesus.”

- Mother Teresa

the war on learning haha

Stern as death is Love, relentless as the nether world is devotion; its flames are a blazing fire. Deep waters cannot quench love, nor floods sweep it away.

- Song of Songs 8: 6b-7a

You know that common confusion that people go through when trying to figure out “what to do with their lives”?

Well it hit me really hard.

i don’t think a day went by that the thought escaped my mind. It was as if the pressure was going to make me explode. i wanted to do something meaningful, and i felt i had to do something that would make me “successful” - something that would allow me to have that house in the suburbs with the three kids and potential vacation house. i thought that success was derived from the money you made, the job you had, the car you drove, whether you were smart or athletic or technically savy…

i mean why not? That’s what i saw (or i thought i saw around me). When people told me that someone was successful, those were the characteristics that seemed to be coupled with the compliment…But there was something about that that just didn’t click with me.

“Well its Bitter-sweet symphony, this life.

Trying to make ends meet

You’re a slave to the money then you die

I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down

You know the one that takes you to the places where all the things begin”

- “Bitter-Sweet Sypmphony” The Verve

It was something that i can merely compare to hopelessness. It seemed as if that were the road i decided to take that my life would revolve around making money. My job would end up becoming my life. i’m not saying that that is wrong, or that anyone who has those things or that type of job is wrong or misled or searching in the wrong places – but for me, personally, it didn’t sound appealing as to the life i wanted to live. i was starting to want to drift away from the money and put my life into something i thought could be of more value in the end. That’s when everything i was thinking started scaring me.

“You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too…(he paused because of the awkward silence)… But I guess that’s why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.”

- Rich Mullins, Speech at Wheaton College

i knew i wanted to live a life that was meaningful in different ways. i knew i didn’t want to be a slave to my talents - to a job – to just making a check …but that was scary – because in this world, that’s what seems realistic. It seems silly or foolish or immature just to do what you love. It seems like you’re abandoning your “responsibilities” – like you’re just running away from everything.

So i was scared. i was nervous. i felt lonely. i was starting to get more into this Jesus thing. i was starting to be able to relate to, and understand what He meant when He said it would be harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven – and that was definitely far from a comforting realization. i like my SUV. i like my nice clothes. i liked being the high school quarterback or the homecoming king. i liked the thought of going to college and one day hoping to work with my dad in his Executive Recruiting firm. The more i was trying to get into my faith, the more i read more about Jesus – the more He seemed to be wrecking that life i had, or was heading towards.

The more i read, the more i prayed, the more i felt that those sort of “successes” didn’t really hold any value when it came down to my true happiness.

“The doors of normalcy and conformity are dead. The time has come to give up on the doors and find a window to climb through. It’s a little more dangerous and may get you into some trouble, but it is a heck of a lot more fun. And the people who have changed the world have always been the risk-takers who climb through windows while the rest of the world just walks in and out of the doors.”

- Shane Claiborne, Graduation speech at Eastern University, “Crawl through the Window”

So when i had a conversation with my dad over this past Christmas break about what i wanted to do, and what i needed to do to accomplish that – he helped me to see my window. i decided i was going to forget about college for a while…i decided i really felt that my passion was working with and for people who were oppressed and marginalized – so if that’s what i wanted to do with my life, i needed to learn about it and check it out…just like if i was going to get that degree to go into business with my pops. Ha, the only difference seemed to be i was going to get this “degree” or experience working at a mission in war-stricken Liberia instead of UGA.

And i was scared because going through that window led to a jump from “reality” or “normalcy” and comfort.

So i’m starting to make my way out of that window. i made the climb up to the window, i got on that plane that led me to this place. This place that is teaching me what truly is meaningful. It’s teaching me the priceless ness of a contagious smile you can’t fake. It’s teaching me how to be grateful for everything instead of bitter for what i lack. It’s been a harsh reality of the truth that someone who makes $1.50 for a 14 hour day laboring in the African heat can be, and in most cases is, happier and more fulfilled that those making 6 figures a year in the states working the 9 – 5.

It’s teaching me a new definition to the word success. No longer does making money or having those material things come anywhere close to what success means to me anymore. To me – in my heart, my success will be the impact i can have – what i can do for others. i want to be the arm reaching to those around the world who need it. i want to bring light to the importance of things that we, as Americans, take for granted... i no longer want to sit waiting for this world to change, nor do i want to try and predict what will have to happen for it to change…i want to be part of the change – because the change has to start in each and every one of us. The change works from the inside out.

Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy to find grace for timely help.

- Hebrews 4:14-16

So now i’ve found my window – and i’ve made the climb up, and I’m looking down at the jump. And honestly, i’m a little scared. i’m not scared about the jump – i want nothing more than to run a mission like this one or start my own 501c3 (Non-profit or NGO) - but i’m scared about when i go back home. Because i still do miss all the stuff and it will be just sitting there waiting for me when i return.

i want to make the jump; i’m going to make the jump. And in many ways, just the change of thought is a jump in itself - but its time to put the rubber to the road. Its time to live in this new found truth and avoid folding to the pressure of conforming back into the numbing normalcy we love to play it safe in. It’s time to look silly to some, foolish to most, and hopefully childlike to all.

zinnah caught in the act

“Bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism…This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all.”

- Martin Luther King Jr. “A Time to Break the Silence”

Pray for understanding, peace, patience, generosity, forgiveness, joy, compassion, wisdom, and LOVE… for all of us!

Life, Love, and Peace

uncle matthew

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.
- 1 John 4:7-12




“Its times like these you learn to live again
Its times like these you give and give again
Its times like these you learn to love again
Its times like these, time, and time again”
- “Times Like These” The Foo Fighters




There are mornings like Saturday when i wake up and am completely “vexed” – frustrated, confused, and angry with some situations and issues that are going on here that i don’t need to, nor am i going to talk about but will simply say they are not being handled in the right way…and i need to give my feelings up to God, and know that He has His reasons and He is in control. After all, i should just be thankful that He is there to be with me through them…haha… or that i am able to feel at all…So Thank God:)



So yea…everyone has those days like i had on Saturday morning…
But then there are also those days that are so beautifully wonderful that problems seem to fade somewhere in-between myth and nonexistence.



Sunday, April 12…yesterday…Easter…was probably one of the best days of my life…definitely the best Easter.
i honestly can’t explain it, but can only say that everything was beautiful.
First of all…haha… i don’t know how, but i managed to sleep in until 8:15.
i first woke up at 5:45 and thought I’d drift off for another couple minutes and then - almost as if under anesthesia - i awoke up from a heavy slumber, panicked (because i thought i’d be late for Easter Mass) and honestly confused as to how i managed to sleep that long.
Anyways, i guess the sleep did me some good or i was just in an attitude close to ecstasy simply because of gift of life…either way i was set for the day in a joyous mood i could neither fake nor alter.



This Easter, there were no chocolate rabbits. There were no flamboyant Polo’s or sun dresses. There were no Easter eggs stuffed with little candies (honestly i have to admit my mind wandered to jellybeans for a moment)…
…There was, however, Love, comraderie, joy, and celebration…
This Easter, i was fortunate enough to be apart of the baptism of 50 of our children and our wonderful cook, Marta.

The kids walking in for Easter Mass/getting baptized

Now i’ve been to all sorts of services in the states…beautiful services, dull services, reverent services, joyous services, celebratory services, long services, and short services (haha i just sounded like Dr. Suess)… But none compare to the one i attended this Easter.



The celebration was composed of spontaneous, unrestrained joy and a reverence of the truest meaning. The voices of the children were chilling as usual - gloriously triumphant with Christ’s victory over the grave. Their faces were joyous with the new burst of life from the children so eager to take the next step in their spiritual journey. As i stood there, all i could do was smile and thank God for the opportunity to witness such an event…
It was a bonfire of Love.



"Brothers and Sisters: Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
- 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8




“Bartender please
Fill my glass for me
With the wine you gave Jesus that set him free after 3 days in the ground.
I’m on bended knee, I pray. Bartender please
When I was young I never thought about it
And now I can’t get it out of my mind
I’m on bended knee – Father please”
- “Bartender” The Dave Matthew’s Band



So a little less than half of our kids were baptized, and Jerome, Clarissa, John and I became the proud Godparents of all of them

Two proud Godfathers with Zinnah Sackie as he's getting baptized

John and Clarissa during the ceremony

Teddy, myself, and one of my favorite new Godsons - Sam Sumo


After Mass we went back for our Easter dinner. It was plain, yet unforgettable. The friendship and spirit in that room will stay with me for a long time – we truly felt that we were not alone. It was an Easter to be cherished.

We weren’t celebrating our Easter with the normalcy of our families back at home. We didn’t have a ham or sweet potatoes or a table of deserts – no fine wines or cider.
We had bottled water, chicken breasts (a real treat), and rice with a wonderful cup of instant Nescafe Coffee coupled with conversation for desert. This was probably one of the most enjoyable meals i will ever have.

We sat around the table, and all of us were more than overjoyed for what we had. We were all just so happy to be a part of this place – to share this experience – to witness the love that is here.
As my grandmother would say… “if only the table could talk”, my would it have a story to tell.
Whatever you would think of as a “normal Easter” – we did not have it. We had something better. This Easter there was no need to look in my closest for my brightest shirt. There was no need to give up chocolate for lent so i wouldn’t feel bad stuffing my face Easter morning. There was no need to preheat the oven for the ham (probably because we don’t have an oven).
But we had much more than what we needed. We had people we love. We had happiness. We had a celebration of our Savior dying for our sins and then conquering the grave. We had a celebration of the children being baptized. We had a testimony to love.

Brothers and Sisters: Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.

"For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. For a dead person has been absolved from sin. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God. Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus."
- Romans 6:3-11

God is Good – All the time. All the time – God is good.
Feelings are temporary. And it seems that i’m always having to remind myself that.
Feelings of sadness, anger, frustration, happiness and joy.
Feelings change with the wind, but God is fixed. God is Good, All the time.
He is our true north, from which all other latitudes and longitudes are determined

Sometimes i get down…for all different kinds of reasons…
And i can mope, or stay down, or sulk…but the only thing that ever gets me out of my funk is giving it up to God…And knowing that He is always with me. He is always good, and He always has me right where i need to be - learning the lesson i need to be learning. But i need those little reminders like Saturday and then Sunday - i need to remember to not be distracted or tormented by my feelings. i need to remember that my feelings are like a small piece of grass blowing in the wind – so quickly will they pass. i need to remember that maybe today i’m angry, tomorrow i might be sad, the next day i might be fearful and afterwards rejoiceful – but none of that matters if i can remember and hold on to the thought that God is with me. i know that the monologue of my frustration or depression gets me no where, and the only way for this blind man to move is to open up into dialogue, shut my own yapper and listen for a little bit to whatever God has is say… i just have to be still and know that He is God…and He leads me where i need to be.

"A great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks, bu the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Next came a blazing fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. But after the fire came a gentle whisper and thus the Lord spoke. "
- 1 Kings 19:11-13

…We hear those whispers in the people and places we least expect it…
I want to be a part of the new world that’s whispering. I want to be an instrument of peace in the choir that sings softly the songs of love, compassion and generosity with their lives.
I want to be a part of the movement that teaches how to survive blindness. That invokes the spirit to wrestle with its issues - To challenge, to question – to seek the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Musu right after she was baptized...hah you can tell a kid took the picture because of the finger in the way


"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, To announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn; To place on those who mourn in Zion a diadem instead of ashes, To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning, a glorious mantle instead of listless spirit. They will be called oaks of justice, plated by the Lord to show his glory. "
- Isaiah 61:1-3

I’m trying not to think of the kids telling me I’m not allowed to leave on May 20th, or the fact that Momma (the girl’s house mother) told me how much she’s going to miss me last night…haha i’m trying to listen to myself and not let these feelings get too deep…

i’m going to miss the feelings, emotions and truths these children and people give off…there is something special about them…something real…something you can’t fake. But i’m going to be glad i got to experience them at all, and that i still have 37 more days:)

Thank you for all of you who support and pray for us! You really do make an impact. i hope all of you are doing well as always, and know that you are all in my prayers. Pray for peace, for understanding, patience, compassion, generosity and Love…for all of us!

Life, Love, and Peace
uncle matthew

We are clay in the potter’s hands

God’s mercy holds us, and we are his own.

At all moments we are right where we need to be.

Sometimes that timing will be of harmony, happiness, or joy…

But there will also be times where we feel like we are swimming upstream,

There will be times of suffering, times that are not so pleasant.

 

But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

            So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since, then, we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we too believe and therefore speak, knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us with you in his presence. Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.

-       2 Corinthians 4:7-15

 

 

Take nothing for granted – for that is the gravest of temptations - the lack of gratitude for what we have and the perplexity of desires for what we do not.  It’s what led Eve to eat of the tree when she had multitudes of luscious and desirable fruits in the garden. The garden was full of things Eve could have, but she focused on the one fruit she could not have instead of being thankful for the many good fruits she had freely available.

 

So i’ve surpassed my halfway point of my stay here in BlackTom Town (been here for 56 days– 44 left), and yea, it will be good to see my friends and family again…but i’m really going to miss this place…there’s something about it that’s unexplainably comforting and filing…a different kind of life, a different kind of love than i’ve ever felt.

 

i’m going to miss the children.

 

being silly...drawing water for bath

i’m going to miss walking the corridors and hearing that voice of song in the prayer room that goes past the marrow and bites at your soul…

… “The children love to sing, but then their voices slowly fade away – People always take a step away from what is true, that’s why i like you around.”…

The voices don’t fade here. The song in the hearts of these children is an eerily beautiful, breathtaking harmony that has a timeless sensation. It flows with passion. The song is chilling, and is something i’d compare to what i imagine might be playing at the gates of heaven.

 

 

i’m going to miss working in the field.

 

i’m going to miss the lessons i learn walking through Redlight.

 

i’m going to miss listening to the wisdom of our priest, Monsignor Tikpor. If the story of life was for some reason based on the Lion King, Monsignor Tikpor would definitely be Rafiki. He is 82 years old and full of life. He has to be; after all, his audience is a bunch of children. He always has a wonderfully comparative way to get his point across, which usually involves hand movements and dramatic voicing. Haha. I absolutely love the man.

 

…i’ve still got plenty of time here so lets get off what i’m going to miss…haha…

 

This Sunday, Palm Sunday, when Monsignor Tikpor was reading the gospel – i heard something i had never caught before and it struck me. During the gospel (a reading about Jesus’ passion) Jesus said something to Peter, the man he would later tell he’d become the rock on which His church would be built….

Palm Sunday Mass

“Simon! Simon! Be careful…for Satan will try to get you to sift the weeds from the wheat.”

 

At first i just thought it was interesting i’d never heard anything like that before…

 

…Then i started thinking about what got Jesus arrested. i started thinking about the cause of wars. i started thinking about the reasoning behind the actions of those who caused this country detrimental poverty and oppression. i started thinking about the desires behind a lot of hate…

 

…Attempts to conform everything to what, in our own perspectives, is right or correct…

 

We want everyone to think like us, to act like us, to see it OUR way. It’s our way or the high way right?

 

He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered. ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.”

-       Matthew 13: 24-30

 

 

 

Hitler was trying to make a world of Aryans (“the perfect race”)...we all know the death and destruction that followed…

The Jews arrested and crucified Jesus for blaspheming their laws.

Gangs kill other Gangs because they aren’t their own.

The KKK, the white race, not wholly – but as a whole, throughout the entirety of the civil rights movements, showed more hate, violence, and intolerance than should have ever been thought.

The war in Iraq is killing ridiculous amounts of innocent Iraqi families…over what?

 - (this is coming from someone, who until a couple months ago – until actually seeing the effects of war on people, was completely pro “the war on terror” or whatever our efforts in Middle East are going by these days… and i still have friends that are in Baghdad fighting this moment)

 

The majority of our conflicts come from the correcting of what in our own perspective is wrong, or whatever is not in accordance with what we feel is correct…  Now what i’d heard came to make sense… Maybe Jesus was giving us a little insight?  “Hey the devil is a sneaky S. O. B. – he might try to trick you against what I’m teaching by trying to get you to weed the garden (take out what YOU feel are the weeds)” 

 

 

“When questions of decision, reason, or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.”

-       Noam Chomsky

 

 

It’s natural to want to weed our garden.  We want to make it pretty.  We want to make it perfect.  The issue is this garden isn’t just ours, It belongs to everyone – and everyone has a different point of view, a new perspective, a different understanding. So we might feel like we are the wheat, and want to clean up “our” garden, when actually to everyone else we are the weeds…

 

We are all weeds and we are all wheat.  We all give off good and bad to others.  But hopefully, by coexisting and not attempting to “sift” through each other we can gain from one another – learn new perspectives, gain more understanding – instead of trying to eliminate one another.

 

The Man was just elaborating on what He lived…Love one Another, do not hate one another…

Maybe, just maybe, He was saying “Hey listen, you don’t get everything, nor do you have the capacity to do so with the little wisdom of the universe you have. So just love one another, tolerate those who aren’t exactly like you… and if they are really weeds, I’ll toss them in the fire when the time comes – but that is my job, not yours…All you need is love”

just some of the family ... :)

“I warned you

what could happen if you should decide to live your life from the 9 to 5

and I mourned you

for that detail that is left unsaid is a reminder of the time you bled

 

return to days when you knew

you still felt alive

reveal the way you felt when you could look inside

 

they sold you

everything you need to fix you up

and you feel good now but you can’t wake up

they found a way to reassure you (that everything would be ok)

reach out today, now I implore you to remember who you are

 

return to days when you knew

you still felt alive

reveal the way you felt when you could look inside

 

so you felt it, but you don’t know

why you can’t explain at all

why you felt it

‘cause you don’t know, no you don’t know

 

Break the walls between building atrophy

Causing all your problems to recede

Break the walls between…

Causing all your pain…

 

You’ll never learn…

 

return to days when you knew

you still felt alive

reveal the way you felt when you could look inside

 

Take back the beat in your heart (break the walls between building atrophy)

Why fight, when you could be bought(causing all your problems to recede)

Take back the beat in your heart (break the walls between – causing all your pain)

Why fight when you can be bought”

 

                                    - “Atrophy” The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

 

 

 

So today i pray we can look past our differences. i pray we find hope in the purpose of Christ’s coming to save ALL of us – not just the Aryans, or the Sons of Aaron, or The Crips or the Bloods, or the white supremacists, or the Americans –  ALL. i hope we can learn to accept, to tolerate…to learn from our mistakes and stop the repeating of history.

 

"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves everyone blind and toothless."

                                    - a saying from Ghandi and MLK

 

i hope all is well for everyone as always! Thank you so much for all the prayers and the support. They mean so much and we definitely feel them. Pray for patience, understanding, hope, generosity, tolerance, joy and Love...for all of us!

Life, Love, and Peace

uncle matthew

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

-Arundhati Roy (Indian activist and author)

“I learned from the lepers that leprosy is a disease of numbness. The contagion numbs the skin, and the nerves can no longer feel as the body wastes away. In fact, the way it was detected was by rubbing a feather across the skin, and if the person could not feel it, they were diagnosed with the illness. To treat it, we would dig out or dissect the scarred tissue until the person could feel again. As I left Calcutta, it occurred to me that I was returning to a land of lepers, a land of people who had forgotten how to feel, to laugh, to cry, a land haunted by numbness.”

- Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, but we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“We are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside…but one day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved.”

- Martin Luther King Jr., “A Time to Break Silence”(April 4,1967)

“The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away.”

“evil can be opposed without being mirrored…oppressors can be resisted without being emulated…enemies can be neutralized without being destroyed.”

- Ibid., 111

Every day i wake up and it feels like this is my home. It’s an eerie feeling that i’ve been here so much longer than nearly two months…

It’s like for a brief moment, i lose sight of where i came from or what it was like there…

But when i’m able to reminisce on my previous point of view, i’m able to remember how when i saw those infomercials on fighting poverty or watch scenes from movies like “Slumdog Millionaire”, seeing that type of poverty put me in disbelief. It was like those people were so far out of my reality that they failed to truly exist or register. “People don’t actually use or go into that dirty of water, do they? There’s no way that people really survive off one set of clothes…There’s no way that that type of poverty can exist in the same world…”

Since i’ve been here…my eyes have witnessed what didn’t register in my head.

i guess I had to see to believe.

i’ve seen those rivers like in “Slumdog Millionaire”, and people don’t just use them to wash clothes or bathe in them…they drink from them too…even if someone just peed 10 feet away.

Walking through Redlight, you see the tin shantytowns – those 5x7 worn-in-tin “shelters”. And they are no longer just something for Will Smith to roll over in his hummer like in “Bad Boys 2”, but have become a place where i get the opportunity to see the face of Jesus in the little boy who lives there - with red dirt covering the single holy-worn out donated t-shirt he owns, sweaty and smelly…but smiling hear to hear.

“In the poor we meet Jesus in his most distressing disguises.”

- Mother Teresa

In Redlight, you can find that type of poverty that had me in disbelief. It opens your mind… this poverty is not just here – it’s everywhere

in the midst of Redlight

When i first arrived, i was shocked at the differences between the world i had just left and the one i had just arrived in. i couldn’t believe what these kids lived with – what i thought was so little - what seemed to me, with what i had, to be less than nothing.

But now i understand why they’re always happy – what they are so grateful for…

The longer i’m here, the more i feel like our compound is a 5-star resort for schoolboys rather than a mission for the poor, oppressed, and war-strucken children of Liberia. To the people from the country, these boys are spoiled rotten.

They have 3 meals a day (which are not always cassava – what most of the country subsists on).

They have a “bed” (a mattress that’s dusty and thinner than your thickest sweatshirt), when most sleep on the ground or on a pallet of palm branches.

They get an education.

They have easy access to not just one but two wells instead of depending on the “not-so-clean” rivers or bodies of water.

The longer i work in the fields, the more i feel as though i’m just passing time in a tropical paradise rather than laboring in the African heat.

The more i see the rest of the country, the more grateful i am for pulling from a well instead of wishing for running water.

Taking a break in the cassava feilds

haha looks like Clarence wants to be superman...digging a whole in the "garden"


drawing water from the well at dusk...and always smiling:)

The more time i spend with these kids, the more i understand the delicacy of eating bugs.

YUM. haha Charlie

When i first got here i couldn’t grasp why these kids were so happy and grateful for what appeared to me as NOTHING…but now i get it…to them – they have EVERYTHING.

“jump in the mucky mud

get your hands filthy love

give it up love…everyday

all you need is

all you want is

all you need is love

all you need is

what you want is

all you need is love”

- “Everyday” Dave Matthew’s Band

“Whenever people talk about injustice, usually there is a cloud of guilt looming over them. Joy and celebration don’t usually mark progressive social justice circles, or conservative Christian circles, for that matter. But the Jesus movement is a revolution that dances. Celebration is at the very core of our kingdom, and hopefully that celebration will make its way into the darkest corners of our world – the ghettos and refugee camps, and the palaces and prisons. May the whispers of hope reach the ears of hope-hungry people in the shadows of our world.”

- Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution

“what’s so wrong with being happy?

Kudos to those who see through sickness.

She woke in the morning, She knew that her life had passed her by,

and she called out a warning,

‘Don’t ever let life pass you by.’

I suggest we learn to love ourselves before its made illegal

When will we learn? When will we change?

Just in time to see it all come down.”

- “Warning” Incubus

i pray that you all might have the faith that i lacked...That you may believe the truth of the poverty in our world...They are here and as real as you and me. i pray that you understand that they share the same feelings, desires, emotions, pains and yearnings as you. But by some "chance" or divine providence, they were born into the 3rd world when we were born into the 1st. Nothing will ever change unless people who are able do something about it. So i pray we may find the Courage, Wisdom, and Faith to be all that we can be, and help a world that is in definite need of it - whether through prayer, time, or talents - giving yourself is a beautiful thing.

i hope everyone is doing well as always! Pray for patience, understanding, joy, compassion, mercy, generosity and love...for all of us!

Life, Love and Peace

uncle matthew

We are all spirits on a journey. We are all in the chapter of existence known as human. Human is a chapter of learning - A chapter of listening - A chapter of trial and error, lots and lots of error. But there is hope. Our God is a loving, forgiving and merciful God. But we must not disobey his will… we must live for him. Striving everyday to continuously better our journey. Will we take part in the journey? Will we start RUNNING towards the arms of a father more wise, more compassionate, more loving and merciful than anyone will ever begin to fathom? ...

But that being said, our God is serious. He wants his people for himself – he doesn’t want to share us with the false Gods (Money, Power, Materialism). Will we accept him? Will we strive to rise to the challenge? Will we follow his lead on the road of life? Or will we ignore God’s calling – falling deeper and deeper into the sinkholes of this world: stress, fear, anger, lust, greed, jealously, selfishness, hate, etc. until we are lost in complacency -and instead of rising, either float into nothingness, or live backwards. To LIVE backwards is exactly how it is spelled backwards, E-V-I-L, EVIL. We are human in nature, and that nature is one of mistakes, sin – and plenty of it. So will we let our father teach us? Will we pay attention to the signs in this classroom of life? Will we follow the road, the journey he’s laid out for each and every one of us? We all have different paths – will we follow the one he’s laid out for us?

- entry from my notes… 12:00 am 9/8/2008

But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.

- Wisdom 3:1-3

WE are all fools – all far away from what is real or of real importance

That verse is how i feel about this trip…

To a lot of people i know, coming to Africa was foolish. “What can you do there anyway? Why now? What will you do with your life? Why won’t you be like everyone and just go to class, stay in college, and get your degree – make some money – get ready for life?What are you gonna do there that you couldn’t do here?”…

The honest answer is i felt like “sobering” up… haha…i was tired of living in college…i felt that instead of swimming or sinking, i was floating…

i felt like sobering up to life. i wanted that waking up, that realization, that revelation of what was real in this life. i was, am, and will continue to be a fool, but i hope in my foolishness i can try to get closer to reality. Now i know “it could have been just as easy to do that in our own back yard”, and i agree to a certain extent…but i thought that if i stayed at home i’d miss out on getting the real and true view. (“don’t stay home” 311)

“Life in one big road with lots of signs. So when you’re riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake up and live.”

- Bob Marley

i was learning things from my friends, from the people i met, and the situations i was living in…and i don’t regret a single one of them, i’m thankful for them – especially my friends, after all we’re always right where we need to be, and those things got me to today…

i was learning what i wanted to be, and what i didn’t want to be…but something was missing - i was still only taking that inside view - i hadn’t taken that look from the outside in… and that is why i had to make my pilgrimage to the “motherland”. i needed to step out of my own skin of convenience, and take a look at the life i was living from the otherside - the side of the majority of the world - the view of those outside of the convenience most don’t ever get the pleasure of being numbed by. And as i’m continuing on the adventure i embarked on, i’m learning more and more of my desire to take a stand, to no longer live in that convenience i was raised in, but try and dig out the scar tissue left by the leprosy on my soul, the numbness from reality brought about by blindness to what is true. It will be hard, it will be a struggle – i don’t know how many times i’ll fall, but i want to give it a shot.

“Scar tissue that i wish you saw

Sarcastic mr. know-it-all

Close your eyes and i’ll kiss you ‘cause

With the birds i share….

With the birds i share this lonely view”

- “Scar Tissue” The Red Hot Chili Peppers

So this is just an idea of what a day in the life of a volunteer at Liberia Mission might be….

As 6:15 rolls around i start to stir. i usually wake up to laughing from the kids outside drawing water from the well or Jerome walking by our room asking in what should-have-been-whispered- yet-screamed manner “BOSS YOU UP?!” With a smile i roll over, tell my roommate, John good morning and say a quick “Thank you” to the big man and step out of the bed.

Immediately as i open my door, i’m greeted with usually more than 15 “ELLO - GOOD MORNING UNCLE MAC!”s (for some reason when they shorten it from matthew they call me mac? But i think i like it better like that anyways Haha). My morning is automatically started off with a smile. “Good morning! How was the night?!” is my usual response. And their’s is always the same… “Thank God. Good!”…

By this time i’ve gotten to the end of the corridor and am turning into the kitchen to share an always-interesting morning coffee with John and Jerome. After a second cup, i leave the twosome and get my nourishment for the day. i go and grab my daily book and post shop on the front steps to read the daily readings and a meditation while watching the sunrise…always a wonderfully peaceful way to start off the day.

Around 7:30 you can hear the school bell ring from the campus down the road. All the boys come running out of the dining hall from their breakfast (cassava) in their uniforms and take off towards campus…usually chasing one another haha…

They join up with all the other students and line up in front of the school for the morning assembly. During the assembly they sing songs of praise, hear the gospel and a little word from Benjamin (who doesn’t attend the school), and then announcements and what not from Mr. Glee, the school principal.

Somewhere in between Ben’s reading and the announcements i usually try to sneak around from behind the students and to the side of the school as to not distract them from what they should be hearing…This 100% of the time never works…I am always noticed by at least fifteen 5-12 year olds who find it much more amusing to make funny faces at me rather than pay attention (this sometimes ends with one of the teachers chasing them with a stick – seriously)…

So i get to my corner on the school and wait…

Mr. Glee finishes his announcements and then the gates are released…

My class, K-2, sprints at full speed towards me to see who will be the line-leader for the day, almost always Marcus wins this foot race – followed either by Rufus or Merci. We usually start the day of with their favorite game… “SIMON SAYS HANDS ON SHOULDERS….SIMON SAYS MARCH! LLLEEFFFFTT. LEEFFFTTT. LLLEEFFTTT– RIGHT – LEFT.” i would be lying if i said we looked orderly, and it would be an even further stretch from the truth if I were to say we made a decent line, but hey, it gets us to the classroom (which we are blessed to have in the back of the church).

The classroom is a war zone – and in the war, i am losing. Haha. These kids are crazy! Great kids, but crazy… First of all, i’m pretty sure 85% of them have ADHD. Secondly, you have to realize this is a different culture than in the states…

In the states, school is our job, it’s just accepted – its what you do, and everyone does it. Chores are not fun, but they’re something we have to do – work that we think is unnecessary but our parents tell us is a good thing for us…

In Liberia, WORKING is your job, even as a child– labor, pulling water, working the field, brick making, selling in the market, whatever – it’s just what you have to do. School is to them what chores are to us (especially since education is not required, and a vass majority of the country is illiterate). To them, work is just life. They will NEVER mind - i take that back - they LOVE “chores” like going to pull water so we can wet the rag to erase the chalkboard, or cleaning the room, or taking out the trash…but when it comes time to actually learning numbers or words…that is, the true “chore” for them, my whiners, complainers and mumble-ers come out. It is something we tell them will benefit them, but they have no desire in doing it. This factor usually accumulates some behavior issues, but we can get into that later…

..We have a much-needed recess break for 45 min, which is almost always spent laying down or trying to get more caffeine into my system. Haha..

After recess, i’m usually pretty burnt out from the war on learning, so that is usually when we have story time or arts and crafts…Yesterday we read the Jungle Book and i had the “Bare Necessities” song stuck in my head ALL day.

The school day comes to an end at 12:15, and everyday i walk out with a greater and greater appreciation for elementary school teachers…

After school, there is a break and lunch. Lunch starts at 1, and then at 2 we head into the field. In the field we tend the crops, which are a huge supply of the food we eat. We water, harvest, make lines, plant, weed, dig water holes, “hook”, and always sing in the field. Do you remember that song from SpaceJam? You know that “I believe I can fly..” song? Haha well that is one of the kids’ favorite, along with every Bob Marley and Akon song you can think of…

We leave the field at 5 sweating and smiling, and a lot of the kids leave laughing at me and saying that they have become like me because of the white complexion they’ve obtained due to jumping in the clay-filled waterholes they’ve just dug in the bush.

After work comes play. Soccer is played every day on the “field” behind the house for an hour. Now when i say field, think of an unleveled gravel parking lot with about only ¼ of the gravel…that is our field…and most of the kids play with either one shoe (sandal) or barefoot (one day i tried to play barefoot with them and my feet were sore for a week). i get the joy of playing with these kids, and let me tell you, they are unbelievable. For some reason i always get picked to play, but i really don’t know why because i’m honestly probably the worst on the field…i think it’s either because i’m the biggest or just plain sympathy…i’m leaning towards sympathy. A quick thank you to Mr. Chip for all the soccer balls, we are using them! The bush (thorns from the bush) has eaten 7 of soccer balls since I’ve been here and we are currently on number 8 (Daniel we’re using your ball! Thanks man!).

After soccer everyone takes their bucket bath that i’ve described because we don’t have running water and then goes back to the dining hall to get in line for dinner.

Our wonderful cooks, Marta and YA serve dinner around 6:30 and then the boys have time to eat and head to prayer…Prayer is a beautiful 30 minutes of singing, drums, dancing, a liturgy reading, and a little talk…my favorite part of the dayJ

After prayer we have study hall in the dining room until 9…then most of the kids start heading towards bed, getting much needed rest in order to be up at 5 to start their chores and do it all over again…

“(God’s) love for us led Christ to Gethsemane and to Calvary. Sin did it, our sin and the sins of the world. Sin still does it…God is not being loved and honored as he should by the race he has elevated to the sublime dignity of adopted sons. There is a gap, and God is looking for someone to stand in the gap before him on behalf of this race and beg that he may not destroy it… We do all that we can do just to make God forget the ingratitude of man in return for his boundless love and to make him remember his mercies. He hangs before us on the cross crying out, “I thirst.” It is to quench the thirst of this divine Lord that Missionaries of Charity do all that seems madness to the world. We are truly blessed in having a little share in the following of the cross.

See the compassion of Christ toward Judas, the man who received so much love, and yet betrayed his own Master, the Master who kept the sacred silence and would not betray him to his companions. Jesus could have easily spoken in public and told the hidden intentions and deeds of Judas to the others, but he did not do so. He rather showed mercy and charity; instead of condemning him, he called him a friend. If Judas had only looked into the eyes of Jesus as Peter did, today Judas would have been the friend of God’s mercy. Jesus always had compassion”

- Momma T … Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1997)

More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection and (the) sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead

- Philippians 3:8-11

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.

- John 12:26

“The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.”

- St. Basil

Did you know that there is more money being spent on boob jobs and Viagra than alzheimer’s…shows what we find important - Haha one’s imagination can only fathom what kind or society we are setting up

There are some days where i dread going to teach class – some days where i feel like hiding from the African sun or staying in from the fields – some days when i miss the value menu at Wendy’s – but every day i learn something new about this life, about the world, about myself. Every day is different, and every day brings something new, a new lesson, something good. I learn something new from my kids and their culture. I learn something new from the village across the road. I learn something new from working in the fields. I learn something new from walking the crowded and worn down streets of Redlight and Monrovia. It’s a different world here.

So yea i am foolish - i left my ac. i left my family, my friends, my girlfriend. i left the cold water from the fridge and started pulling it from a well - i left a hot shower for a bucket and a bowl. i’m foolish to go to a place where i’ve developed ricing sores. i’m foolish to leave a couch to go plow cassava in the African heat. i’m foolish to leave the comforts of fitting in, to being the minority, and to be judged (and rightfully so) when i walk through the crowded markets of Redlight or Monrovia. My life was much easier back home, and yes i am definitely foolish to leave it. i may be a fool, i may be silly, i may not make sense, but i am in peace, and i am more happy and fulfilled than i have ever been before.

No words, or pictures or stories will ever begin to give due justice to the experiences i’m having while i’m here – the lives i’m witnessing – the culture these people are showing me – the love and peace i’m feeling

Like always, i hope all of you are well! i hope the road of life has got you right where you need to be, and i pray that we all have the patience, and understanding to be thankful for whatever we’re going through.

Pray for patience, understanding, mercy, compassion, joy, generosity, love and peace… for all of us!

Life, Love and Peace

uncle matthew