Eagleman Nov 2019

We have been very busy at the Rafiki Village Liberia since our last newsletter. Here is some of the fruit that we see growing in our community: During the most recent school break, we have been having fun with the kids—watching movies, playing in the gym, going on field trips, and sending letters to the children’s sponsors.

We also just started a new widows group! Aicha and her husband fled to Ghana during the Liberian Civil War. After 20 years in Ghana, they decided to move back to their home country of Liberia. They moved into a house right next to Rafiki. She came to us as a skilled tailor and started making the children’s school uniforms and Christmas clothes. She now has a job, children in our school, and an older daughter attending our free teacher training college. We asked her if she was willing to start training women in her community and church to be a part of our Rafiki Widows Program. Rafiki partners with groups of widows and vulnerable women to buy products from them so they can support their families. At first, she had fifteen ladies and now they have forty-two as a part of the Rafiki Widows Program. Brittany was able to visit the women this week and have Bible study with them, studying the book of Philemon. Brittany loved seeing their smiling faces as they learned how to cut and sew on buttons. They said they were happy to learn because now they could sew buttons onto their own children’s clothes.

Each week, Brittany meets with the Rafiki mothers to teach on a different topic pertaining to parenting. For the past few weeks, we have been looking at teaching the children discernment. We are teaching our children to reject the culture of movies, music, and the surrounding lifestyle that goes against God’s truth and intent for our lives. The example of discernment we used was chewing your food well before swallowing. We must learn to chew and think about what we are taking in to be able to spit out the bad and swallow the good. We want to teach our children to deal with their surrounding culture of media and peer pressure, so that they are able to hold/defend God’s truth. We want to raise these children to have a faith that is rooted deeply in the foundation of God’s Word and not easily swayed or removed when they go on to university.

We also wanted to take some time to share with you all the reasons why we love working in Liberia! Liberia has dealt with extreme hardships for several decades now—civil war, Ebola, and a crumbling economy. However, the reason we do what we do is because of the beauty we see all around us despite the hardship. There is a physical beauty about the country, but there is also a beauty that is found in the hearts of the people. These people have been through so much, but they are abundantly thankful, joyful, generous, and loving. They are a people whose ears are ready to hear the truth of God’s Word. This beauty and hope that is found because of Christ only continues to grow more and more every day.

We want to thank you for your prayers and thank you for being a part of our community praying and supporting us.

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