EQUIP Leadership Conference, Pleebo, Liberia

Our trip to Liberia was without a doubt the most challenging but also the most exciting and rewarding of all my trips. Click Here for more info on Liberia. Our purpose was for Pastor Gary Serago, Pastor James Nyemah,  and myself to hold a John Maxwell’s EQUIP Leadership Conference for 500 pastors from churches all over Liberia. The count came in at close to 700. The conference was held in Pleebo, Liberia. Pastor James arranged everything from the Liberian side and delivered more than we were expecting. Pastor James estimates that we could have as many as 2000 if we had the facilities. One thing I was impressed with was that the Liberian Pastors paid to attend. This did not pay for the total cost of the conference but it is a step in the right direction. We started packing planning to get five people packed into a four person vehicle, but it meant that we would have to hold our luggage on our laps for 28 hours. There are no hospitals or rescue operations on this road. If one of us gets sick it means more than 28 hours. Thank God there was another vehicle available for hire. That relieved the luggage on our laps but we still had the 28 hour trip to look forward to after just making a 26 hour trip to get here. When you are faced with this kind of challenge you really have to believe in the “Law of Victory”. Plus, we are going to teach leadership principles to hundreds, so how could we as leaders accept anything less than success. We had to take on a “warrior mentality” or we would be defeated from the start. Your attitude is crucial once you find yourself in a situation like this. You can choose flight or fight.  Bring it on… The roads were absolutely terrible. I have traveled bad roads all over the world with some of the worst in India and Thailand but nothing compared to the road from Monrovia to Pleebo. There were many times I would have bet that sections of the road were impassable. We stopped only for side-of-the-road bathroom breaks and for one, four-hour sleep break for our drivers.  We slept in the car. Mosquitos were bad so the first thing on our return trip to Monrovia was to find malaria medicine, which you can’t find in the states just in case one or both of us came down with malaria. Food was another challenge. We could not eat the food or drink the water. Well, we could have but we did not want to pay the price. For eight days we ate protein bars, jerky, and nuts. I did eat some bananas. I was surprised that the diet we had worked out fine. We bought enough bottled water in Monrovia to last us, so we were good on clean water. So on Friday Day 3, we arrived in Pleebo, a bit beat up but we made it. Gary had some neck problems about twelve hours into the trip but 600 mg of ibuprofen seemed to manage the pain. It’s interesting how you adjust to your situation however we both felt like we had just completed some kind of reality show contest.                                                            THIS WAS THE GOOD PART     I NAMED THIS BRIDGE, "FAITH" PLEEBO,LIBERIA   Upon arriving we immediately made our way directly to the conference hall where hundreds of pastors were waiting for us. One thing you have to realize is that African worship services can go on for hours so even though we were 3 hours late they simply used that time for worship. The mayor of Pleebo greeted us and after a warm reception we made our way to the guesthouse for a quick shower. Our guesthouse had no running water and no electric except at night when they fired up the generator. You took bucket showers by dumping a bucket of kind of brown but cold water over your head while you stood in a sort of bathtub thing. Oh, and there were no towels but we were able to come up with a hand towel that we used all week. We had about 30 minutes before it was time for the first of six sessions. By this time a sudden burst of energy kicked in and we were ready to go.   TOWN HALL, OUR CONFERENCE CENTER   As we walked into the conference center you would have thought that Elvis had just entered the building. The first session went well. Africans like to participate with the speaker. The audience participation is something I need to work on but Gary is very good at interacting with the audience in fact, he is a natural. After the session we had a worship service and met with a few pastors before heading to the guesthouse for sleep. There was no problem going to sleep. On Saturday Day 4, we started after breakfast at about 9:00am. Of course breakfast for the two Americans consisted of, some jerky,  a hand full of nuts, a protein bar and some water. I finished up Session 2 and Gary delivered Session 3.

After lunch Gary finished Session 4 and it was time for dinner and yes, more worship service. Worship services started at 6:30 and finished  around 9:30. Off to bed and rest to get ready for Day 5 to finish the conference. Pastor James finished the last two sessions and did an outstanding job. Worship services started at 6:30 but this time it went until 11:00pm. It was long day but these people never lost their passion and energy as they sat through the training and the worship services.     Our trip back was nothing less than God intervening.  I had met Kendall Kauffeldt, Country Director for Samaritan’s Purse when we arrived. He had given me his number  in case we get into trouble.  Rest assured I hung on to it. I decided to call him to try and talk him into sending a helicopter for us as I was not looking forward to the 28 hour ride back followed by a 20+ hour flight home with layovers assuming everything went perfect. Doing this much traveling in one week made me feel a little uncomfortable, as I was not sure just how much this our bodies could take. God must have been with us because very rarely do they ever use the helicopter for transport for anything short of an emergency. It would be like calling an ambulance to take you to the airport. As I made my request    Mr. Kauffeldt said, “let me see what I can do”. The next day when I called back it was a go.  Plan A was for us to make our way to Fish Town, which was about 3 hours away. We would be extracted on Tuesday morning. I was thrilled. I thanked God. We finished our closing sessions and the mayor presented us with the key to the city and each of us received a full African dress. There is little doubt that the conference was a huge success. More than just the numbers was the excitement, appreciation, and hope that you could clearly see in the pastor’s faces. Never have I seen such faith as theirs. We left Pleebo on Tuesday morning Day 7. Plan A was to take the helicopter. But my short time in Liberia taught me to always have a Plan B and Plan C. Plan B was for the drivers to wait and make sure we actually took off. If anything happened we still had a small chance to make the drive to Monrovia in time for our flight back to the states, but it was a small chance. Plan C was to miss our flight and wait until possibly next week for another flight out.       But we were in God’s favor most likely from the prayers of family, friends, and of course, the hundreds of pastors that had recently become part of our extended family. The chopper arrived and took us back to Monrovia. From there we caught our flights, all on time or ahead of schedule and we arrived home safely on Thursday Day 9.

GARY'S NEW FRIEND I TOOK THIS SHOT EARLY IN THE MORNING ON OUR LAST DAY. IT IS A SUNRISE, NOT A SUNSET. MY PRAYER IS THAT LIBERIA IS RISING AND NOT SETTING                         THESE ARE THEIR GAS STATIONS         LOCAL CHILDREN   I SAT NEXT TO PILOT AND FILMED THIS AS WE TOOK OFF.. CHECK THIS OUT We will return in six months to continue the training. Plans will begin in January for a May return trip. Here will be the next action steps. Arrange a Skype meeting with the Liberian Country Director, Kendall Kauffeldt. Purpose: To discuss the possibility of transport round-trip two more times. Once in May and again in December 2012 to complete the Leadership Series. Arrange a meeting with the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Purpose: To discuss a country-wide strategy to bring Leadership training throughout Liberia Arrange a meeting with John Maxwell’s Equip’s Country Director to sync-up strategy and plans for the country of Liberia. Purpose to connect and leverage the key decision makers for the three strategic partners; Samaritan’s Purse, Liberia Government, and Equip. Work a schedule to complete the remaining 5 conferences in more trips using the below schedule: Day 1 – Saturday Leave Phoenix Day  2 Sunday Arrive Monrovia Day 3 Monday Chopper Pickup Night Worship Service and Pre-Registration (CCV Team not present) Day 4 – Tuesday – NOTEBOOK 2 Welcome 8:30 Session One 9:00-10:15 – Spkr 1 Session Two 10:30 – 11:45 – Spkr 2 Lunch Session Three 1:30- 2:45 – Spkr 3 Session Four 3:00 – 4:15  - Spkr 1 Dinner Session Five 6:00- 7:15 – Spkr 2 Session Six 7:30 – 8:45 -  Spkr 3 Day 5  - Wednesday  – NOTEBOOK 3 Session One 9:00-10:15 – Spkr 1 Session Two 10:30 – 11:45 – Spkr 2 Lunch Session Three 1:30- 2:45 – Spkr 3 Session Four 3:00 – 4:15  - Spkr 1 Dinner Session Five 6:00- 7:15 – Spkr 2 Session Six 7:30 – 8:45 -  Spkr 3 Day 6 –Thursday  – NOTEBOOK 4 Session One 9:00-10:15 – Spkr 1 Session Two 10:30 – 11:45 – Spkr 2 Lunch Session Three 1:30- 2:45 – Spkr 3 Session Four 3:00 – 4:15  - Spkr 1 Dinner Session Five 6:00- 7:15 – Spkr 2 Session Six 7:30 – 8:45 -  Spkr 3

In summary, I am excited to complete our work in Liberia. The people are so eager to learn and have such a gracious heart and we can learn so much from them. I look forward to returning to complete the work God started in Pleebo. We have learned how to solve many logistical problems so the next trip should go much smoother.

Comments

[Lynn Rush]

Awesome post. The pictures are amazing. That helicopter video is a little scary. LOL!!!!

Thanks for sharing this with us!

[BOB SHORT]

BRILLIANT WRITING, IT MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE ALONG FOR THE RIDE !