2025 Trip to Liberia Travel Log – Day 1
After a good night's sleep, we had breakfast at the hotel with a Rotary contact that helped me with the Hearing Grant "Ear & Hearing Care (EHC) for Liberia" that I am working on. It is one of those "its a small world" instances - he lives a 3 minute walk from the hotel. We expected a relaxing Saturday at The Light of the World, catching up with Pastor Sylvester and working on details for the coming week. However, when we drove into the school yard some of the school band and dancers greeted us. I think that is one of Larry's trombones and possibly my Uncle Richard's trumpet in the picture. Those horns are still making music! Thanks to all that donated instruments to make the music program and the band possible!
The school continues to grow, and is now around 400 students. Pastor Sylvester is considering 2 school sessions each day so that the school has the capability to provide quality education to as many children as possible.
Pastor Sylvester led us on a tour of the new facilities. Meanwhile, the students came up to the assembly hall and continued to play music, sing and dance for another hour - completely unsupervised … on a Saturday!
The high school has been completed since we were last here. There are 26 seniors this year! The graduates will be moving on to the next phase of their lives, utilizing the education and skills that Light of the World Academy has provided for them. Without these skills they would be limited in terms of the opportunities available to improve their lives, and their ability to work toward a better Liberia. The school motto is "Quality Education is Light" and this is so obvious when we see the kids at this school so excited about being a part of the Light of the World community.
A surprise! The student recording studio. A very interesting addition to a school. Audio, and the radio are alive and well in Liberia. There is a LOT of interest in this capability. Even more interesting, it is named The Gary Medin Recording studio. All the years Gary was at Incarnation, he had a knack for the techie stuff. Pastor Sylvester and Gary met during Pastor Sylvester's visit to Minnesota almost 10 years ago when Gary was serving as Senior Pastor. Thanks to Gary for all he has done and continues to do!
Next we saw the beautiful sanctuary that was completed since our visit 2 years ago.
The top picture is taken while standing behind the pulpit looking out on the congregation. The bottom picture is taken from the balcony toward the pulpit.
About 300 people attend the service each week. We are looking forward to attending tomorrow's services…which might run almost 3 hours! Now that's doin' church!
The Liberian people feel so blessed and their love for God intertwines with everything they do in life.
Our final stop was the newly opened community Medical Clinic. You might have guessed, the name is: The Light of the World Medical Clinic.
Three nurses staff the clinic and they have a doctor on call who can be at the clinic very quickly when needed. (also shown in the photo are Pastor Sylvester (in green shirt), his wife, Younger (on the right), and the medical records technician. He's the guy that looks like he might be a patient. No comment on they guy in blue with a mask that photobombed our picture.) In addition to taking care of the day to day needs of the community, they also provide pre-natal care for expectant mothers in a separate room dedicated to maternity. The nurses are very excited to have for the first baby born at the clinic in the next few months. They are VERY proud of the clinic and what it means to bring much needed health care to the community.
It is amazing to us to see all that Pastor Sylvester and his team have accomplished since our visit 2 years ago. We look forward to the church service on Sunday, and especially to spending time with the students and the joyful people of Liberia.