The Passing of a Friend

Deacon Reeves has died.

We are currently still in Mali, and have been away from internet access for five days. Upon returning to Bamako, we received an email from Pastor Sam Reeves that his father, our next door neighbor, our oldest and dearest friend in Liberia, died from complications related to his diabetes on Tuesday, August 29. His funeral will be next week Saturday.

Deacon Reeves had been quite sick for several months, and even though he was receiving good medical care, the diabetes was very aggressive and because of his small frame he experienced wild fluctuations in blood sugar levels. He continually battled serious infections, another diabetes-related complication. Apparently the infections spread to internal organs, causing his death. Although in a good deal of pain these past few weeks, he remained dignified, polite and warm.

Our lives here will not be the same without him, but we trust we will see him again.

The Reeds in Mali: Getting a Lay of the Land

Ok, thirty-six hours after leaving our house, we arrive in Bamako, Mali. Our main purpose for being here is to attend a week of meetings with the CRWRC West Africa Ministry Team. Renita and I are both working as volunteers with the CRWRC Service link program, thanks to the support of so many of you. Because we both need to be here, and because flights are infrequent out of Monrovia, we get to bring along Hannah and Noah and we will be here almost two weeks. So there will be some vacation-like days here.

We arrived Friday the 25th of august-- the meetings begin Monday the 28th. So our hosts, the Crickmores and the Bosches, decided to take us on a day trip to some of the sites a few miles out of Bamako. It was a day we will not forget. Here are just a few images.

Our Saturday trip begins. The road was good, and the views got better with every mile.

The rainy season creates temporary waterfalls along the sandstone cliffs. The rest of the year, this is brown and dry.

Heading into the bush. Here, negotiating around young gent with a cart and donkey.

Peace n' love from Yers Trooly, somewhere in Mali.

Very beautiful a natural sandstone bridge. Nice to look and take pict... Wha?? We are climbing that?!?

Just one of the inspiring formations in the area.

Time for some upward treading.

Under the natural bridge. We made it-- or so we thought. We have a bit more climbing to do. There is a slightly better view...

Mali from the top of the natural bridge. This is the easy side of His promise of "abundant life." We'll take it.

The group back on the road again...

...to another hidden treasure-- a crystal rainy season pool...

...complete with waterfall...

...which the Reeds grokked. The lower right shot is Hannah jumping from a thirty feet cliff into the pool. Later, even Noah made the plunge.

Our daughter. Her approach to life.

I Thought We Wuz Supposed to Be in Bamako

No such luck. The Reed family trip to Mali has been delayed just a tad. Due to bad night time weather, the pilot decided to pass over us on his way to Dakar Senegal, where we were supposed to catch a connecting flight to Bamako, Mali. So we waited a few hours at the airport, and then Air Senegal put us up in a downtown Monrovia airport at about 1:00am this morning. Its a bit surreal hotelling it in our home town, but it helps us feel like this "working vacation" has sorta begun. We hope to try again tonight (Thursday) and hopefully will get to Mali Friday morning at 10:00am. Looking forward to sharing Mali with you.

The Reeds passing time with a lil' Uno moment in our Monrovia hotel.

Great Souls

Sometimes I don’t think Liberians have any idea how strong they are. For over twenty five years, they have watched their homeland fall apart around them. Almost every Liberian over ten years old has lived through and remembers displacement, fear, violent and terrible things happening, horror, disruption, poverty, sickness, and hopelessness. Liberians are used to adapting, surviving, and making the most out of a bad situation. Yet so many—like the 25 in this workshop I’m leading--are actively working to build communities of compassion and justice.

The workshop participants are men and women of various ages from a variety of organizations. They want to improve their social work and counseling skills. Every work day for eight weeks they have been meeting in a classroom from 8:00am to 3:30pm. After the eight weeks, they will work on site with humanitarian organizations putting their learning into practice. The workshop I am leading is a two week section called “basic counseling skills." It’s the equivalent of a semester long upper level undergraduate course crammed into sixty hours over ten days. I’m having a great time with these truly world class heroes. There is much we are learning together—they about Western people-helping, me about West African people-helping. There is much laughter seasoned with a bit of hard brain work and a lot of practical activities. You ought to have been there when we discussed gender roles in Liberia. They could hear us in the next building with the air conditioning on.

Everyday I am awed by their resilience and strength. Everyday I feel humbled to serve them, and I never drift far from the awareness of the price so many have paid on their journey to our classroom.