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.

Random Pics and Stuff

Introducing....... The Vice President of Liberia!

Remember Luke's "scratch"?  Well, truth be told, that scratch required 39 stitches.

A mangrove swamp behind our guest house.  Cool roots

Seriously, the traffic was running about 55 mph.  I would've waited for the next taxi.

This is how they brace multi-story buildings prior to pouring concrete for the next level.

Chillin' on the porch.  I'm not sure how Loren was feeling in this pic, but during part of our trip he was suffering with an STD (Sour Tummy Disorder).

Just sweet.

Time from the plant to our stomachs = < 10 minutes.  Pineapple is proof of God's love for us.

Cal's future African wife (I'll let him explain).

And last, but not least... A chimp on a motorcycle!

Not All Fun and Games...

 WARNING!  THIS BLOG POST MAY SIGNIFICANTLY HINDER THE FUNDRAISING EFFORTS OF FUTURE TEAMS.  REGARDLESS, IN THE INTEREST OF FULL DISCLOSURE AND COMPELLING CONSCIENCE, THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION MUST BE MADE PUBLIC.

The images speak for themselves...

(Note the guilt and remorse on their faces.)

Shot from the front porch of our guest house.

Panorama ala Beach from Eric Buller on Vimeo.

Day 8 - Our Final Day

On Sunday, we visited a church in Bensonville.  It is located a few miles down the road from the church in Guinness Town that we visited the previous week.  This particular church building is fairly new and was completed in partnership with Samaritan's Purse.

It was again so cool to worship with our Liberian brothers and sisters in Christ.  The prayer time was moving. Following the pastor's call to prayer, everyone in the church simultaneously lifted their personal praises and petitions to our God.  To human ears, it was a garble of voices, but to God, it was the individual and valuable expressions of his children.  The prayer was sorrowful, joyful, pleading and expectant, all at the same time.

The praise was as God intended; from the heart and within the worshiper's cultural context.  It was moving, to say the least.

Church in Bensonville from Eric Buller on Vimeo.

Following the service, we presented some gifts for the community to the church leadership.

Four of us in our Liberian garb.

As we prepared to leave, Kolegar stopped by to wish us safe travels and Evan dropped off a few final carvings. We loaded all of our crates and luggage on top of the Land Cruiser and amazingly, everything was still there when we arrived at the airport.