The River Church Community

As many of you know, I was recently in Liberia.  I went with a River team to partner with AHEAD Ministries.  Three of us went: Baker, Chris, and myself.  In this bLoG I thought it worthwhile to share some of Chris’ observations and thoughts.  He is 17 and it was his first international trip—so, I figure, his insights are likely more fresh than mine.  Below are some snippets of Chris’ observations.

Chris’ thoughts on the “VBS”
“The VBS was totally overwhelming. When we arrived, there were 68 kids waiting for us, which was a bit of a letdown, because we had planned for about 225 kids. We started our different sessions, and about 30 minutes later, a large school let out class, and our ranks swelled to around 300 kids. Next day, 325 kids, next day 400, last day 450 kids. All these numbers are approximate. Even with the margin of error, that's a lot of kids!! We found out that only 250 kids or so had signed up from the church, or through the church, and the rest were children from within the community. The children were so much fun to be around, really just amazing. Smiles, laughs, love, joy, great attitudes. We felt like celebrities, all the children jostling and competing to sit next to us, grabbing our hands whenever they were available, and showing us every little thing they drew, or cut, or glued. As we were talking about it later, a very interesting idea surfaced. In our treatment of the kids, and how they treated us, we could see Jesus. The kids just wanted to be with us, to hold our hands, much like how we are called to be with Jesus, and we tried to be like Jesus, just holding their hands, and loving them, and telling them their picture was beautiful, like he does for us. Being back here, it is challenging to keep both of those mindsets a part of our daily routine.”

“Part of the appeal of the location for the VBS was the neighborhood. Aside from the church attendees, the neighborhood was almost entirely Muslim. (We asked if there are people who aren't anything when it comes to religion. The looks we got for that question were the best answer possible.) We got to be the face of Jesus to these kids who have never heard about Christ, and we got to see one of the Liberians share the Gospel with them. It was pretty powerful to see.”

Tony Traback, Pastor of Mission Mobilization