WOW! more books!

More boxes of books at the library. Need help with cataloging the books.

The kids' library. We need help with an IT person for our computers. Contact us at centerpointinternational.tw@gmail.com

More books arrived at the library in Monrovia-thanks for your partnership and contribution.

Joe with boxes of books at CPI library in Monrovia

Shelving Books at CPI library in Monrovia

Abby, Leechelle, Annette, and TJ hanging out with the kids at ABC's orphanage in Monrovia. Helping to create a reading culture after 15 years of war.

The Gabriel Tucker Bridge connecting the city to the FreePort. The bridge also over the historical Providence Island where the Freed slaves first landed when they arrived in Monrovia from America.

Pretty view of the library

Alfred cataloging the books

The computers are in!

Entrance to the library

putting up the computers at the library

One of the first students at CPI library; researching managment

Wow! a library? Sharon with the kids at CPI library on Camp Johnson Road, Monrovia

Viewing West Point from the top of the Ducor Hotel in Monrovia. What is the population of West Point?

The Center, the healing place for forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration.....Simply-Giving people a place to grow.

(William B. Yeast, 1865-1939)

The 2nd Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The Blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

Finding Peace and Calm in the Market place of ideas.

We saw hope and a future in their faces! Help us make it a reality

View from the Ducor Hotel

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries :: Just Thinking Radio Program

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries :: Just Thinking Radio Program

Beth and Abby marking the chairs in the library

After we put the chairs in the library--another look!

The Kids' library

Those who made it possible. Thank you and God bless you all.

The Wankollie's girls at their sister's graduation

The Weedor family at CPI's library

Biblical Truth-transcultural as it is has an indispensable message for ethics, modern politico-economic concerns, and all the idolatries of our polytheistic society. "it proclaims the gospel to a generation that is intellectually uncapped, morally unzippered, and volitionally uncurbed." Carl Henry.

The Lord has sent us to minister among a wounded and bleeding cultures of Liberia. Only Biblical ethics boldly confronts and clearly addresses the abyss of immorality engulfing post war Liberia; it speaks to the greed of men and women for money, to lust, sex slaves, FGM, crimes, murder, injustice, tribalism, to the myth of blessed me theology, and witchcraft. We hope this library will be a center that will lovely engaged all of modern life in Liberia and its perverted sense of what "good," is. I hope and pray that our evangelistic courage in God dare not be broken by the weight of these problems or the betrayal by so call friends (Phil 1:12-18)

My brothers and Sisters, let us fight the good fight of faith in God and of sharing the kerygma or apostolic core message gives us, no less than the early Christians, the best perspective for sharing God's word on the edges of eternity. And that message is: Christ's incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, personal return to this earth (yes Christ is coming again), in judgment of humanity and to establish his glorious kingdom. (2 Tim 3:1-17)

Ref:

1. Selling Jesus, by Doug Webster

2. The God Who is There, by Schaeffer

3. The Christian Mindset in a Secular Society, by Carl Henry

4. No Place for Truth or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? by David Wells

Eddie quizzing the ABC's kids about their future.

Together at last, Maggie W. and Eddie Tokpah; it is a long story:-)

Eddie Tokpah, one of the leaders of CPI, celebrating with his samkpah drum. Eddie was on the team with me to Liberia. He was born and raised in Liberia. Ran from the war like every Liberian; went to Ghana, Kenya, back to Liberia, and then Kenya where he married his beautiful wife Lisa. They moved back to Liberia where Eddie and Lisa worked for Samaritan Purse before moving to Colorado. Yes, he's my right hand man! They are both on the leadership of CPI. Eddie is has a passion for the people of Liberia. Pray for him and his wife.

Beth and Maggie B, shelving books at CPI library on Camp Johnson Road.

We can only "Imagine."

Yes, the Library is taking shape in Monrovia! Thanks for your prayer support and giving

Singing with the kids at ABC Academy

Beth with Pastor and Mrs Jallah at the future of the Bomi Evangelical church in Bomi Hills

Lorraine, left, Sharon in sunglasses, and Pam. Lorraine was the cheif Librarian on the team, yet we made her ride trunk of the car; or she was humble enough to take the back seat.

Pam reading a Story to Muslim girls from the near by school.

books books and more books Eccl 12:11-13

The children's library

Lorraine, getting started at the Guesthouse- cataloging the books into the computer.

Pam, a 1st grade teacher in Colorado helping to shelf the kids' books.

Preparing the Kids' section of the library!

Lorraine (l) Sharon (sunglasses) and Pam. Lorraine was the Chief Librarian on the team. She was training Alfred, Eddie, and Tony. She did all the heavey lefting, yet we put her in the car trunk, or she was humble enough to take the back seat of comfort:-)

CPI-Giving them a Place to grow! In Zwedru, Liberia, About 300 miles from Monrovia.

Christ Plays in 10.000 Places

A Propaedeutic for faith-learning integration suggests that there is a sense by which all of life is a sacrament, providing a variety of contexts for expressing an inner reality that God is to be glorified in all things. Eugene Peterson provides a useful metaphor for working out all the details of what is involved in Christian living. Stated simply, Christ plays in 10.000 places. Peterson's metaphor is taken from a sonnet by the Christian poet and priest, Gerard Hopkins.

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;

As tumbled over rim in roundy wells

Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's

Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;

Each mortal things does one thing and the same;

Deals out that being indoors each one dwells,

Crying what I do is me: for that I came

I say more: the just man justices;

Keeps grace: the keeps all his goings graces;

Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is-

Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places.

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

To the Father through the features of men's faces.

Peterson explains that the conviction expressed in this sonnet is that Christ is behind and in all of life. He writes:

The message is that all this life, this kingfisher-drangonfly-aflame life, this trumbled stone and harp string and bell-sounding life, gets played out in us, in our limbs and eyes, in our feet and speech, in the faces of the men and women we see all day long, everyday, in the mirror and on the sidewalk, in classroom and kitchen, in workplaces and on playgrounds, in sanctuaries and commitees. . . . Which is to say that all life is, or can be worhip. Peterson is advocating a life of congruence. The Christian life is the lifelong practice of attending to the details of congruence-congruence between ends and means congruence between what we do and the way we do it. The Christian life lived, lived with this sense of congruence between who Christ is and who I am; lived at this busy, heavily trafficked North America intersection with the kingdom of God; Christ playing in my limbs and eyes.

Please try reading Peterson's book on the topic "Christ Plays in Thousand Places."

Letting the women know that they are part of God's plan of salvation and the vision of CPI. We were discussing the role of women in the church and post war Liberia. Phil 3:7-16

The Affirmation concerning our Faith-Schaeffer

1. Do you believe that God exists and that he is a personal God, and that Jesus Christ is God-remembering that we are not talking of the Word or Idea of god, but of the infinite personal God who is There?

2. Do you aknowledge that you are guilty/shame-in the presence of this God-remembering that we are not talking about guilt feeling/saving face, but true moral erosion and depravity of the human heart?

3. Do you believe that Jesus Christ died in space, and time, in history, on the cross, and that when he died his substitutional work of bearing God's punishment against sin was fully accomplished and complete?

4. On the basis of God's promises in his written communication to us, the Bible, do you (or haveyou) cast yourself on this Christ as your personal Savior not trusting in anything you yourself ever done or ever will do?

After accepting Christ there are four things we must do as new believers:

1. A regular study of the Bible, which is God's communication to us.

2. Regular prayer. Now that our guilt has been removed, there is no barrier between us and God and we are able to talk freely with him. There are two kinds of praying we shall need to practice: special times of prayer, and the the constant looking to the Lord as we go about our daily tasks.

3. Regular attendence at a local church where the Bible is believed. This does not mean every church, but one that is true to the content of the Bible, and one which does not just recite the right words, but where there is a living of the truth in community and compassion to those in the church and to those outside of it. (for an excellent read, please see Francis Schaeffer's book "The God Who is There.)"

These are the men who made it possible for a modern library in the capital city of Monrovia. We're grateful to them, their wives, and kids for letting them be part of this vision of rebuilding the lives of the people of Liberia through:

1. Spiritual Awaking

2. Health

3. Ethics

4. Education

5. Poverty.

We will be leaving for Liberia again in June through July to shelf the books and make the library usabale for the people of Liberia. Thanks for praying and giving financially. Tony for CPIF.

Praying for the church in Zwedru, Liberia; with the leadership of the church.

Our vision is to reach these children with the love of God in a society that is hurting. Pray as we plan another trip to Liberia to shelf the library with books. Pray for our team of 12 hard working young people who will be doing the heavy lefting for four weeks. Need funds for air tickets, food, transportation, and hotel bills. We covet your prayers and your giving.

Send funds to-Bear Valley Church

1001 W Jewell Ave.

Lakewood, CO. 80232

Please write in the Memo-Team-Liberia

Truth as an Absolute in Post War Liberia!

We're back from Liberia, and everyone is home with their family. I am deeply grateful to the men, their wives and kids for allowing their husbands to braved the west African heat, culture and people in order to give them a place to grow spiritually and physically.

Since my arrival I've been going over the writings of Francis Schaeffer, especially his book, "The God who is There," to glean some of the cultural issues he faced in Europe after the war. In the God Who is There Schaeffer tackled how to communicate the gospel to a culture/people who no longer believe in the concept of Truth as an absolute or what Schaeffer called, "as an antithesis, "they took it for granted that if anything was true, the opposite was false." In morality, if one thing was right, its opposite was wrong. This little formula, "A is A" and if you have A, it is not non-A," is the first move in classical logic. If you understand the extent to which this no longer holds sway, you will understand our present situation. Absolutes imply antithesis; Schaeffer.

As a people and culture, that CenterPoint has disappeared from our concsciences, and we now live in a culture without a reference point. We can walk in the market place of ideas and purchase our truth as we know or express it (Isa. 59:14-15).

The idea/vision of CenterPoint is to anchor the church in the Word of God and its truth, thereby practicing the ministry of the presence among believers in Post War Liberia. "If the church is a communion of saints, that communion can exist nowhere else but in the congregation of sinners who experience God's graciousness in word, sacrament, and the special gift of being enableed to live for each other. God becomes more tangible because Christ exists in this community in word, in truth, in love, in forgiveness, in reconciliation, and in mutual love of all the members. The Christian community in turn, becomes real, when the human, graced by God, is enhanced in promise, demand love, and service (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in A Testament of Freedom).

That love was expressed when brothers and sisters from the west gave us funds, to travelled to Liberia in order to make CenterPoint in reality in the lives and culture of the People. These men were not just driving nails in woods, but were also confronting the Liberians with their faith and truth of the gospel of Christ daily as we learned with them.

Truth has become a moving target in this bleeding culture after 15 plus years of war and carnage. Hearts, and minds are difficult to penetrate with the truth of the gospels, where people don't trust one another or outsiders. The shift has been tremendous for post war Liberia as young men and women have been forced by circumstance to grow up faster than the natural process demands. They've seen more evil, carnage, brutality, sexual violence againstt them, than any generation before them. We have to speak the truth to them, in love.

It is my generation of Christians more than any other who need to heed these words of Martin Luther, the Reformer:

"If I confess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."

Tony

Ref:

Truth and Love, the Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer

A Testament to Freedom, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The God Who is There, Francis Schaeffer

Modern Art and the Death of a Culture, H. R. Rookaamer

West African Christianty: The Religious Impact, Lamin Sanneh

The Cost of Discipleship, dietrich Bonhoeffer,

Fresh Paint!

Tony sent the photos of fresh paint in the library.  It is so cool to witness the transformation.  He added this note:


"I am in tears this morning as I watched the center takes shape right before our own eyes. Thanks for praying and giving-thanks for allowing your husband to come to Liberia..."


Please keep Cal and Tony in your prayers as they enter their final week in Liberia.