Gbarnga Mission | Liberia – West Africa

It’s a big day in the Lutheran Church today celebrating 500 years since Martin Luther shook things up – one of the big changes being to put scripture into the language of the people and let them read it for themselves instead of priests being the sole interpreters. Today I had the pleasure of helping put it “into the hands of the people” of Liberia by presenting sixty Good News Bibles to the members of the Deanville preaching point. Sumo, who is both school principal and “unordained pastor” of the preaching point, approached me many months ago with his desire to have each of his members learn to read at least one scripture verse from their own Bible by the end of the year. After mentioning this to my father in law, Bill kicked into action offering to give this gift to Deanville and coordinate procurement from American Bible Society (ABS), an organization in which his father, Ade Meyer, was very involved. The long trek from ABS to Providence to Monrovia to Deanville started around April and finally concluded this morning – 6 months later – when I hauled the boxes into this mud block church for the offering. As I presented the Bibles to Sumo and explained they were from Bill and Marie Meyer, I couldn’t help but think of Grandpa Meyer. I’m sure I would have had to sit on the couch after service and tell him every detail as he asked questions and listened intently with his head slightly tilted up, eyes closed in concentration (a trait Kathy has recently acquired).

There was a great round of applause and many thank you’s. Before being distributed, a small inscription label will be placed inside each cover. Therefore , a church elder recorded the names of all members present today so they would be the first to receive these Bibles.

After service, I retreated to the truck so I could get home for a late lunch and catch up on tile work I didn’t get to do on Saturday. The generator chugged along all day as I cut and fit the perimeter tiles and the amorphous ones around the toilet and sink. All is now ready for mortaring in place tomorrow. I moved on to installing clothes rod brackets in each bedroom closet and hooks in bedroom doors. Tomorrow a young man, Aaron, will be painting room numbers on the doors as well. We’re getting closer to being rentable…maybe we’ll be the first AirBnB in Gbarnga!