“all around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don’t tiptoe.”

For the last couple of weeks Jerome and John have been joking with me a lot about how short my time was getting here…how soon i’ll be back in my "comforts"…

For a while i would just cordially smile and laugh a little and say ‘i don’t want to think about it’…but the last couple days – i’ve kinda had to…

i didn’t want to deal with the thought of leaving my new family. It’s hard to know how they live every day and to simultaneously know what i’m about to head back in to.
i didn’t want to deal with my fears of letting the world of materialism and self-importance numb down the beauty of simplicity and community God has shown me here.

Teddy giving Clarence a razorblade haircut

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.
- 1 John 4:7-10


The kids keep telling me they’re going to lay in front of the pickup so we can’t leave the compound…Momma, Marta and Ya keep telling me their going to miss their son…Monsignor Tikpor simply said “Go-come ya”.

Monsignor seems to always put me to ease. He always has some advice that really comforts me or at least helps put my doubts to rest. He’s helped me to realize that this adventure is not ending…it truly is merely beginning.
During his homily on Sunday that’s what he told the children. “I know we want to cry thinking this is Matthew’s last Sunday with us, but don’t. God has a purpose in his leaving. God is merely preparing him to better serve his kingdom – getting him ready to better serve his people. We will see him again.”

With a few words and a smile from Monsignor, my perception turned yet again. My fears of falling into my old routine in the states and anxiety of leaving those i loved turned… it turned straight into gratitude and eagerness.

All i could think about was how great our God truly is…How He led me to this place. How He put this love in my life. How he didn’t just bless me with new friends but enlarged my family from 7 to 138…i can’t even fathom what it would be like had i not come to Liberia.

you know - just sharing a mango

helping Ya serve lunch

This part of my adventure has been one of learning, of laughing, and a lot of loving. It has taught me that to live simply and in community is the most enjoyable way i can live my life. It’s taught me not only to look beyond the gray skies, but take comfort in knowing God is always right alongside me through them. It’s finally given me conformation in my vocation: to be a lover of Jesus and his people.

“Following Jesus is simple, but not easy. Love until it hurts, and then love more.”
- Momma T


i don’t know if i’d say i’ve come away from this experience with a “plan-of-action” for my life and where it's going other than to have no plan. Jesus has wrecked all the “plans” i’ve made anyway…yea…it’s definitely time to let go and let God.
i can’t give you a five-year-plan…or even tell you what i’ll be doing a week from now - only God knows, and that’s the way its gonna stay.


We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brother. Whoever does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.
- 1 John 3:14-18


“Love is a harsh and dreadful thing to ask of us, but it is the only answer.”
-Robert Ellsberg,ed., Dorothy Day: Selected Writings (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,1992),339.


All i know is now that as i’ve seen more of the 3rd world, and felt what love truly is…all i want to do is work for His people - my people - my brothers, my sisters. i know that i want my life to sing of the Glory of God. i want it to sing of love, my shortcomings, and his grace. i want to be a hand reaching for our brothers and sisters who were born into the 3rd world when we lucked into the 1st. i want to find and bring to light those things that won’t be gone as quickly as a pay check. i want to devote my life to trying to better understand The Way, The Truth, and The Life, as Jesus taught.

“Jesus never says to the poor, ‘Come find the church,’ but he says to those of us in the church, ‘Go into the world and find the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned,’ Jesus in his disguises.”
- Tony Campolo


i will stumble, and oh, will i fall… but from now on i want to stumble and fall running full steam. i want to bust on my face, just to get back up with a smile and start running again. i no longer want to just fall into what everyone else does…but i want to run the blind-folded race that God has set it store for me.


“Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. But the one who has love, courage, and wisdom moves the world.”
- Ammon Hennacy (Catholic activist, 1893-1970)


The past three and a half months have been more than life changing. The people and my experiences have instilled in me a sense of being indescribably alive. It's taught me that stepping outside of your comfort zone - struggling a little - brings such a pleasure and reward in a knowledge and reality of what is truly important or petty; many "sacrifices" end up not being sacrifices at all - just enjoyable lack of complication…its taught me that we all fall, but you’ll never know if you can make the leap or not if you don’t find the courage to jump. So my challenge is this…Jump. Find something. Anything. Whatever and wherever your heart pulls you…but give love a chance….let love live. Get dirty. Go past your boundaries. Be uncomfortable. Be vulnerable. Be real. Be yourself. wake up alive.

Thank all of you for your support and prayers on my trip to Liberia; it would not have been the same without them… But know this is only the beginning. i don’t know where or what God has in store for me next…but i can promise it will just be another turn on this Great Adventure.



“We can do not great things, only small things with great love. It is not how much you do but how much love you put into doing it.”
- Momma T

“Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be.
I dare you to move. I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move like today never happened.
Maybe redemption is stories to tell
maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here.
I dare you to move.”

“Dare You to Move” -Switchfoot

i pray for courage, for wisdom, for love…patience, generosity, understanding, joy, hope, and peace…for all of us!



Life, Love and Peace

Slonti