This past March I traveled with Dave Petersen to Ganta Liberia in West Africa.
The purpose of our trip was to check the ongoing Deaf school building project. We wanted to encourage the students, teachers, and pastors so faithfully involved in this project.
To date, both the girls and the boy’s dorms have been completed and a temporary classroom is almost finished in hopes to beginning utilizing the property for the deaf. While the main school is being constructed, the temporary classroom will be used and then re-purposed as a vocational training area after the school is constructed.
The goal has always been to house deaf students from far away villages around the country of Liberia, and even into Guinea and Ivory Coast. By allowing the students to live at the school, they can be taken care of and educated where they otherwise wouldn’t be. We will be able to create a safe and loving place where they can communicate and be loved. Many for the first time can feel a part of a community.
This urgency was driven home to me this past trip. A 14-year-old girl named Baby Cole, from several miles away, close to the Ivorian border was dropped off because her family heard there was a deaf school. She can’t read, write, or communicate. After the first 14 years of her life, she was in the beginning stages of learning sign language. Luckily she has a distant relative who was willing to house her in Ganta so she could attend school. So many others don’t have that opportunity. So many others aren’t valued enough to be sent to school or even cared for. Please pray for Baby Cole.
One of our questions to the leaders, while we were there, was, “when can the students start moving in”?
The answer was unanimous: “When we can feed them.”
Evidently in Liberia, where resources are incredibly thin, parents don’t value deaf kids (or any kid with a disability) enough to send them to school. We were told, that their parents simply wouldn’t pay to feed them if they are sent there. For these families, school fees would be out of the question for deaf kids.
Our knee-jerk reaction was to provide the funds. We would feed them!
After prayer and very wise counsel from those who have been involved with missions much longer than I have. I was urged to find another way.
They unanimously answered. “they need to be self-sufficient.”
What’s next?
A push for self-sufficiency. David Bennet, director of Silent Word Ministries International (SWMI), has begun the process of implementing farming, fruit trees, fish ponds, and a piggery where pork can be raised to eat and sell. Beyond the Bricks is actively involved with this aspect of the project. Currently, we are funding a security fence to safeguard the farm and fishponds from would-be thieves.
There is an American missionary in Ganta who serves at the University teaching “Farming God’s way.” We have solicited his guidance and assistance.
I can’t tell you enough how incredibly valuable it is to have the wisdom and experience of these people!
There is so much to do and so many pieces yet to be put together, but God has already begun doing it. So much has already been done with the help of so many people and organizations. It has been a true blessing to work alongside those involved. What a blessing to be a part of this Kingdom-sized endeavor!
Our Mission is the great commission.
We are actively building the Church. Praying earnestly that many deaf people will learn about the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
School Building & Dormitory
Imagine living in silence. Because you can’t hear, you don’t speak. You are unable to communicate at all. Then imagine you have lived your whole life in a place that has no resources or anyone to help—no one to teach you sign language or how to read or write. You’re cast aside, uneducated, and alone. On a previous trip to Liberia, we visited a school that had begun a deaf ministry. There is only one other in the whole country, and it was in the capital city several hours away. On that visit, I witnessed the smiling faces of many Liberian deaf children, many of whom had begun to communicate, and all had finally found a place where they belonged–a place they could be loved for who they are.
The first time it was God’s Word…this time a place to dwell
UPDATE: The dorms were begun in November of 2019. The Covid pandemic has slowed progress but as of January 20, 2021, both the boys’ and girls’ dorms of the Deaf School in Ganta, have been erected and the roofs on both have been completed. I will be traveling to Liberia at the end of February, to assist Dave Petersen who is already there. We will also have a small group of carpenters from Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas who will be building bunk beds for the dorms and other furniture. We will be working alongside the local church and deaf students who have been working so hard, and are so excited to have a place to live while attending school. There is still so much to do and we hope to get most of it done while we are there this spring. We hope to finish both dorms by the end of April. Please consider giving to this project, most of the costs are yet to come as we start the finished work and get the dorms ready for the students to live in.