I've posted several times about Wordsower. A friend and former co-worker, Kim Smith, has been working in Liberia for over a decade, working hard to help the people there and to spread the word of Christ. His emails and the Wordsower ministry reports are always interesting.
I asked Kim for permission to share some of what he wrote last week, briefly about his travels in Liberia and into Monrovia, a city where the Ebolia epidemic is having a devastating effect.
In any case here's Kim in his own words:
I
just returned from 16 days off our main base in Zwedru. The first stop
was in Gbarnga where we have established a new base, and then I went onto
Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, to pick up supplies. The trip from Zwedru to
Monrovia, about 300 miles, is not easy! Because of the Ebola crisis the
army has put up a checkpoint at a bridge that crosses a major river. Only
humanitarian organizations and transport trucks with commodities are allowed to
pass through. Very few organizations are traveling out of our county into
Monrovia, the Ebola capital of the world. Our Lord allowed me to a find a
free ride with an international organization going to Monrovia. The road
is very bad! Several times we were stuck and had to use 4 wheel drive and
a wench to pull us through the mud holes.
Gbarnga is an Ebola hotspot. Many are infected and have died
in this city. I stayed a week there and helped, DK, our base leader to
strengthen our new base. I then traveled to Monrovia to get
supplies. While there our Lord found us 4,200 Bibles. Truly, we
were only able to get them through His miraculous provision! He also
allowed us to get 70 cases of paper enough to print 350,000 pages of Bible
training material. Again, the hand of our Lord was on us. I was
able to pick up a tub of essential press supplies that were brought by plane
through another missionary coming to Liberia.
Doctors Without Borders has established a huge Ebola camp in
Monrovia. They have many big tents for patients. I was allowed to
enter. I am sure it was because I was a white man, there are very few in
this country. It was unreal! It was like I had walked onto a
futuristic movie set. Almost everyone was covered head-to- toe in
anti-virus suits. I was not allowed to take pictures. The camp was
overfilled. I was told patients were lying on the floors because all the
beds were full. While I was there I saw 3 ambulances waiting in line, for
over an hour, to enter. When I left they were still waiting.
One day, while in Monrovia, I was walking and a bus made an
unscheduled stop to pick me up. When I entered the driver said, “No
charge”, and emptied the front seat for me. He said that God had told him
to pick me up and give me a free ride. We talked and exchanged
numbers. Later I met him at the church he had started. He has a
small independent church and has started several other churches in the past.
He wants more training and training material so he can continue planting
churches. Praise God that is what we do. Again, our Lord has united
us with another that has a similar calling; the calling of seeing a church in
every village of Liberia so that every Liberian can walk small and find a
church.
The trip back was also the working of God. Another
international organization that has been contracted by the USA to build Ebola
camps gave me a lift to Zwedru, free. It took us two days to travel 300
miles. Bad road!
Donations (100% goes to the people and ministry) can be sent to:
Wordsower International
16960 Sidney Plattsville Rd.
Sidney, Ohio 45356
or through the Wordsower Liberia website above.
