Prayer for Charlie

In just one week, I will be in Liberia joining up with Charlie Godfrey, the American high school student already in Liberia (Charlie has been in Liberia since February). Even though there is no power or electricity at the orphanage, Charlie can use a cell phone because there is a tower located high on a mountain in the vicinity, and the signal reaches. For the past few weeks or so, we have received phone updates from Charlie about everything that is going on, and what I need to bring with me.

Yesterday Charlie phoned home with some not-so-great news. Charlie was left alone to teach the Liberian Children and some of the older students got into a fight. The youth who were fighting were around 17 years old, right around Charlie's age. I can only imagine that it shook Charlie up...there was probably not much he could do to stop it.

I will be there in just a week to join Charlie and offer him some help. I've always enjoyed working with somewhat challenging students (some of you remember our times at Sutton Park Community Day Camp*), but this will certainly be a new challenge for me.

Pray for the children at the orphanage. West Africa is a hurting land with a history of violence. Many children have been orphaned because of the 2nd civil war that occurred in Liberia (2001-2003); many children witnessed their own parents being killed before their own eyes. They have a lot of hurt and stored-up emotions. Please pray that their hearts would be softened, that the peace and forgiveness of Jesus will flow over them, and that Charlie will be equipped with everything he needs to tackle another day.

Peace,
Josh


*The Sutton Park Community Day Camp was a camp started by Shad Hicks in the lower-income community in Monroe known as Sutton Park. The camp used to last for two weeks at the church Shad was the pastor of. Unfortunately, the congregation never shared Shad's vision to reach-out to the community that surrounded their church, and so eventually Shad moved on and the church did not continue the day camp. At it's peak, however, a hundred or more youth (up to 18 years old) would come to the day camp from the surrounding area, to learn about Jesus, play some games, but mostly just to have someone adorn them with attention. Times were sometimes (always) challenging with the teens who were not used to supervision of any type, but the rewards were great!