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Page last updated: 4/27/2009
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"Expect great things from God; attempt great things
for God"
William Carey
Missionary and Bible Translator to India
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Fuel
Costs to Rise for Ships Using American Ports and Waters
"Diesel fuel users are in for a
hit from another source as well. By fall, Congress is likely to require
that, starting by year-end 2010 or so, any cargo ship navigating U.S.
waters or calling at a U.S. port burn only ultra-low-sulfur fuel. The low
pollution fuel costs up to $1 a gallon more than what cargo ships now
use. Worse...it's the same stuff used by trucking fleets and is already
in tight supply." (from an April Kiplinger newsletter)
At STS we do everything possible to
keep the shared costs of moving your ministry goods to Liberia as
low as possible. We do not know what, if any, effect this will have
on our overall cost of shipping but will be watching closely to ensure
that you know as early as possible if this will cause
a increase in the per cubic foot shipping cost.
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Dr.
Henry Blackaby to Teach in Liberia
Henry and Tom Blackaby, Blackaby
Ministries International, have accepted a request to provide 4 days
of teaching in Liberia and Service To Servants is privileged to serve as
the U.S. steering committee chair for this event.
The request was made by Roland Martin
of Kingdom Leadership International in Liberia with the assistance of Jim
Moye of the Atlanta area. STS has had the wonderful opportunity to
assist, in very small ways, both Jim and Roland as they do Kingdom work
in Liberia.
The 4 day conference will begin
November 18 and conclude on November 21, 2009. While the actual
plans are still being developed, the initial groups that will be served
are as follows:
Top Liberian Governmental Offices
Key Liberian Business Leaders
Pastors and Key Church Leaders
Liberian Women Leaders
Youth Leaders
Also planned is a 2 day Crown
Financial Ministries conference for business leaders lead by Dr.
Mario Denton of South Africa.
Finally a 2 day retreat for key
Liberian youth will be hosted.
Continue to watch both our newsletter
and the STS website for more information. If you would like to
participate in this conference please contact me.
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Water
of Life hosts President Johnson-Sirleaf at Furman University
On April 13th Gayla and I had the
privilege of attending a banquet hosted by Water of Life. The
special guest speaker for the banquet was Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf,
president of Liberia.
She spoke of the wonderful work that
Water of Life is doing in Liberia as they provide safe drinking water
while at the same time also sharing the Living Water. President
Sirleaf also spent some time talking about the plight of young girls in
Liberia. She was open and pointed in the fact that rape is a
significant problem among the teenage girl population. Her
statistics concerning the "youngness" of Liberia (half the
population is under 14 years of age) is always interesting to me as is
the number of teenage girls who give birth by 15 years of age (very
high). This information certainly impact our thoughts on how to
best serve God in Liberia.
Here's a few facts about the lack of
clean drinking water and the work being done by Water of Life to combat
the problem:
1. 90% of all
diseases are related to unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and
poor hygiene
2. Every year there
are 4 billion cases of diarrhea as a result of unclean drinking water.
This results in 2.2 million deaths per year.
3. Every day
water-related diseases result in the death of 5,000 children under the
age of five. (Did you catch that? Every DAY.)
4. 40 billion hours
of labor are wasted each year carrying water over long distances.
5. Last year WOL
provided clean drinking water to over 20,000 children.
6. In the past 4
years Water of Life has installed or refurbished over 400 wells in
Liberia improving the lives of over 300,000 people.
Perhaps you would like to know more
about this great ministry and even support them financially. Here's
their information:
Water of Life
P.O. Box 24151
Greenville, SC 29616
Information: info@givefreshwater.org
Website: www.givefreshwater.org
Banquet Theme, blog, videos: www.globalpebbleproject.org
Videos: www.youtube.com/givefreshwater
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Liberia
Threatened by ‘Huge Hordes’ of Caterpillars
Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Liberia faces a food and health crisis after “huge hordes”
of caterpillars ravaged the north of the country, eating vegetation and
destroying crops, the United Nations said.
Tens of millions of black, hairy caterpillars are
eating all crops in their path and may spread to neighboring countries
including Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest cocoa grower, the UN’s Food
and Agriculture Organization said.
“They seem to be eating everything: cocoa, cash crops,
leaves and food,” Christopher Matthews, a spokesman for the agency in
Rome, said by telephone today. “There are already reports of it spreading
into Guinea, so it’s on the move and spreading quickly.” See the full story at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=africa&sid=a19JQawHUz7Y
Service
To Servants is asking you to pray that God will spare Liberia additional
crop damage as Liberians have a difficult time finding enough to eat
without this devastating pestilence.
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Casey Scheberl of VisionTrust
 It
never ceases to amaze us as to how many people are working in Liberia and
where they are working from. A few
weeks ago Chuck Clark was contacted by Michelle Willard, staff writer for
the Murfreesboro Post newspaper, asking to do an interview about Service
To Servants. Even though Michelle
is in Murfreesboro, she heard about us through a blog entry by some
missionary folks we had shipped a car for in Oregon. Casey, in turn, read about us in the Murfreesboro
Post article and she works for VisionTrust, an international
organization that reaches out to thousands of orphaned and neglected
children in 9 countries around the world.
You guessed it, one of those countries is Liberia. Casey lives about 10 miles up the road and
attends church with Chuck although they have never met.
Casey
and her husband, Eric, served for 2 years in the Dominican Republic with
VisionTrust prior to moving to the Nashville area where she opened a
regional presence for the charity.
It was a pleasure to learn more about the work of VisionTrust (www.visiontrust.org) and to see how
we might work together to increase the effectiveness of God’s work in
Liberia.
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The team returned from Liberia today (1/9/09)
after several delays. It was an
excellent trip and the 12Stone team were wonderful to serve with.
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Team of 14 heads for Liberia
Rodney
& Elizabeth Edwards leave today (Tuesday, 12/23) for Liberia to be
followed by the 12 member 12Stone mission team on the 27th. You will want to follow this trip
daily. There is a full schedule of
ministry planned and you can follow the
trip here.
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12 Stone Church, Lawrenceville, GA
hosts Liberia Awareness Event
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The
Water’s Edge collegiate ministry of 12 Stone Church hosted a Liberia
Awareness Event Tuesday night, November 18th with over 100
people in attendance.
16
members of this group will be travelling to Liberia at the end of
December for a 2 week trip to establish themselves as servants to
various Liberian ministries. In
addition, they will be personally installing 5 generators at various
clinics, orphanages and schools in the greater Monrovia area.
In
attendance were U.S. and Liberian citizens including 2 grandsons of
former President Tolbert.
STS will
be providing the logistical support for this team and was privileged to
have 4 board members in attendance.
We
appreciate the partnership we have with 12 Stone Church in expanding
God’s Kingdom throughout Liberia.
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Back from Liberia
John
and Rodney are back from Liberia (finally). The final days of the journal are now
posted so please take a final look. Thanks for following along in the
journal. Better still, get
involved and make a difference.
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John Farness and Rodney Edwards leave
for Liberia (Sunday Oct. 26)
John
Farness (Pastor Kit manager) and Rodney Edwards are on their way to
Liberia. They are scheduled to
return on November 10th.
They already have a full schedule and you can
follow the daily postings of their trip here.
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We are back
from Liberia
The
trip was a good one for multiple reasons.
I’ve updated the daily journals through Friday (the rest is just
the flight back). Carl was able to
come home with us. I still need to
load pictures for the last 2 – 3 days but the journals are there for you
to read. Thanks for taking this
trip with us.
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Update on
Liberia Trip
Due to internet problems this is the first update
since we left Brussels on Sunday, July 28th.
I’ve updated the website pages regarding the trip
which you can see by clicking here. The trip over was good, the trip to the
Children’s Village was tough (13.5 hours). But the visit with Shadrach Saywon and
the other Children’s Village staff was excellent. It’s hard to express the joy that came
from watching the first 6 12th graders being honored
yesterday. My challenge to the
community was that one day a president of Liberia would have graduated
from this school.
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7 in Route
to Liberia for the First 12th Grade Graduation of Willie N.
Wylie Children’s Village.
Started with a common effort by Shadrach Saywon and
Carl Hadley, the Children’s Village has grown by a grade per year until
the first 12th grade class will graduation this year.
You can follow this trip using the Trips to Liberia:
Current link at left or by clicking here.
Please note that, unlike prior trips, there will be
no updates from 7/30 – 8/4 due to being in an area with no cell or
internet access.
Our approximate schedule
while in Liberia is as follows:
Arrive Monday, July 28 at
7:20 pm
Travel to Sinoe County
Wednesday, July 30
Revival services Thursday,
July 31 – August 2
High School graduation
Sunday, August 3
Travel to Monrovia Monday,
August 4
Depart for Atlanta,
Friday, August 8
Arrive home Saturday,
August 9
While we are in Monrovia
you can reach me on my Liberia cell phone by dialing
011-231-665-2187. You can also reach Robert Cuppah at any time (he
is not going to Sinoe County) by dialing 011-231-655-3223.
While
we are in Sinoe County you can reach us by Satellite phone by dialing
008821621805769. You will likely have to provide some sort of
payment information such as a credit card in order to make this call.
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New Vehicle
Shipping Pricing Guide has been
added to the container shipping area.
Use the Container
Shipping Information link on this page to read the updated
information.
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FIRST
PASTOR’S BIBLE STUDY TOOK KIT DISTRIBUTION
On Sunday, June 29, 2008, the first Pastor’s Bible
Study Tool Kit distribution was held in Harbel, Firestone, 37 miles
outside of Monrovia , Liberia , West Africa . The one hour short program
was held at the campus of the Trinity Bible College , starting at 4:00
P.M. Liberian time.
During
the program, a total of 25 senior pastors from 25 different churches were
the first beneficiaries. The enthusiastic pastors expressed their
profound and heart-felt thanks, gratitude and appreciation to both Living
Water Community Church of Vancouver and Service To servants-USA for
bringing them these wonderful resources. They promised to faithfully use
the books for preparing themselves and equipping their respective
congregations.
Rev. Cuppah (see more pictures
here)
A special thanks to John Farness of Living Water Community
Church, Richard Morris of STS-US and Robert Cuppah of STS-Liberia for
bringing this very important project into existence.
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God
uses the military trucks even before they reach Liberia
We’ve secured several military dump, tractor and 2.5 ton
trucks for use in Liberia. Part of
our plan is to sell most of the 2.5 ton cargo trucks in order to pay the
shipping of the dump and tractor trucks to Liberia (cost of shipping one
is approximately $10,000). So
while we were waiting a neighbor asked if he might borrow a couple to
have for his small son’s birthday party.
They had a military themed party and allowed the children to play
in the trucks. Here’s the good
part, they didn’t bring gifts for the birthday boy, instead they brought
gifts for soldiers in Iraq. After
the party they were able to send over a number of items to U.S. service
men and women in Iraq. So even
though we have only sent one of the trucks to Liberia, they are still
finding use while we wait for funding.
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Crown
– Liberia holds conference in Buchanan
Our
own Robert Cuppah lead a team of Crown – Liberia facilitators as they
provided a 2 day financial training conference for 190 pastors in
Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.
Rev. Cuppah asks that
you please keep them in your prayers as they prepare to conduct two
seminars per month for the next three months—June, July, and August.
These events will take them to some distant places inside Liberia.
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Dr.
Rick Sacra visits STS office
You just never know who will show up here at the
office. Today one of the Clark
Iron and Metal employees came to my office to say that someone was down
stairs with some items for Liberia.
When I walked down it was Dr. Sacra, medical doctor at the ELWA
Hospital in Liberia. He is
visiting friends in Bristol, TN (or VA depending on which street you are
on) and brought over a van load of medical items for the hospital.
Dr. Rick Sacra with
a ultrasound machine bound for Liberia.
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May
2008 Container on its way. Track
it here.
With the quality help of AFC Express, we are able to track
the containers through the shipping lines. Below is a link and the container
number you will need to do this.
Website Link is http://www.delmas.com/UK/html/accueil/cadre.htm Container # is INBU4864005
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Two Generators Given for Liberia
Stacey Bellflower and Lon Von Kohn with 1 of
the 2 new generators Lon is graciously donating for ministry use in
Liberia
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May
Shipping Container full and leaving today
The May container is
completely full with over 750 packages/items. It will go to the
rail yard today to be placed on a rail car. From there it will go
to Savannah to be placed on a ship. The ship will sail to Rotterdam
where the container will be transferred to a smaller ship headed for
Monrovia. Please be in prayer for a smooth journey and that every
single item on board will bring Glory to God.
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Leadership
Training for our Liberian Board of Directors
Included in the shipping container leaving tomorrow
(Thursday) are leadership training items for our Liberian Board of
Directors, helping to keep our commitment to their ongoing development as
servants in God’s Kingdom. Each of
our 13 directors will receive “Execution: The Discipline of Getting
Things Done” and a 2 gb USB Flash Drive containing over 60 teachings from
12 Stone Church of Lawrenceville, GA.
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Pastor’s
Kits
Early on in our travels to Liberia it became evident that
most pastors did not have even the most basic of libraries, many only a
Bible. So John Farness and Living
Water Church (www.livingwatercc.org)
of Vancouver, WA, asked to head up an effort to provide Liberian pastors
with a set of “must have” study helps.
You will see below what a typical kit looks like. If you would like to sponsor a kit for
a pastor the cost is approximately $150 delivered to Liberia. You can contact Service To Servants at info@servicetoservants.com.
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Robert
Cuppah, Thelma Brownell Cato & Sam Reeves on the newly purchased,
from Mrs. Cato, Congo Town property
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Fire
on Their Feet – The story of the SIM Missionaries of Liberia’s heroic
service to the people they loved during the overthrow of President Samuel
K. Doe by Charles Taylor. This online
story provides an inside look at what missionary life can be during rough
times but also shows the extreme love that causes those called by God to
sacrifice for those they are called to serve.
Approximately 150 pages in length, click
here to begin a journey into the horror of ethnic rivalry and the
beauty of God’s love.
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Service
To Servants has a home in Liberia!
Dear friends, after a year of searching God has allowed,
through the kindness of Thelma Cato, for us to have a physical presence
in the Monrovia area. Today,
Thursday, May 1, 2008 the final legal paperwork was processed and we took
possession of a one acre lot in Congo Town immediately across the street
from the Atlantic Ocean.
We want to stop and first of all thank God for answering
our prayers for a permanent home in the Monrovia area. We asked for three major blessings from
God this past year. 1) A permanent home, 2) a Liberian board of directors
and 3) to get our business ventures started. As of today God has answered the first
two of our “asks” and we believe He is preparing to answer the third one
during the next few months.
Secondly, we want to think Mrs. Thelma Brownell Cato. An African-American who married a
Liberian and lived in Liberia for 20 years. She has a love for her adopted country
and made available this property at a price we could afford to pay. She could have received more money from
others but chose to support the ministry at the expense of her own
personal gain. God was kind when
he brought Thelma into the STS family.
This property will provide a number of tools for STS to
use to reach the nation of Liberia for Christ. First it will provide a permanent
office location. Second it will
provide space for a training program.
Third, it will provide a home for visiting STS guests from the
U.S. and within Liberia. Forth it
will provide a location for one of the ice production facilities. Fifth it will provide a location for an
unloading dock with storage for the containers that are sent over
The one acre lot has two 3 bedroom block houses which are
structurally sound but which will require major renovations. Both will require new roofs, complete
interior renovation, windows, painting, etc. Yet the ability to start with
structures already in place is a true blessing. The lot is partially walled but, for security
purposes, it will be necessary to fully wall the property. See pictures of the
property here.
Hopefully Rodney Edwards, during his upcoming May 3-19
trip, will be able to supply more detailed pictures and descriptions of
the property.
So while we are VERY excited, it’s time to immediately
push the land and building into the background and ensure that Christ
remains in the foreground. We now
have one more tool to use in bringing glory to Christ’s name in Liberia.
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Rodney Edwards to visit Liberian May 3-19
Rodney will be leaving for Monrovia Saturday, May 3rd
and will return to the U.S. on May 19th.
The primary goals for the trip are to:
1. Work with Robert
Cuppah and the Liberia Board of Directors to move more of the day to day
control of the ministry, as well as the longer term planning and
“ownership” to the board. After
all, they are much more familiar with the opportunities and needs in
Liberia than those of us on the U.S. side.
2. Start up as many of
the business enterprises (2 ice production facilities, generator sales
and trucking) as possible.
3. Meet with key
governmental leaders to determine the opportunities to establish
construction equipment, truck transportation and road building businesses
through promotional opportunities with companies and investors within the
United States in partnership with Liberians.
A link is provided at the upper left of this page to track
the daily activities during the trip and to allow you to know how best to
pray for the goals of each day. You
can also find it here.
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Devotions of a Servant
Believe it or not, Service To Servants has
published a book! The book is titled "Devotions of a
Servant" and includes the first year's devotions written by board
member Richard Morris and include the encouragements and prayers of Beccy
Lanier along with over 100 photographs of Liberia, primarily by Gayla
Edwards.
 Richard and Beccy have
recently completed the first year of weekly devotions primarily designed
to encourage and educate our friends serving God in Liberia.
If you would like to order a copy of this
200+ page book please connect through the following link and place your
order. You will be charged only what the book publisher charges
plus shipping. There is no profit to Service To Servants or anyone
else involved. We believe that it will serve as a great coffee
table book and as an inspiration to those who read from it.
View
and order the book here
This book would
make a great gift and a great Liberia conversation starter.
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Next
Shipping Container date has been set!
The cut-off for receiving items into the
STS docks for the next shipment is May 30, 2008. The shipping information is as follows”
Goods received by STS until: May 30,2008
Container to Nashville Rail Yard June 4, 2008
Arrival at Savannah port June 6, 2008
Leaves onboard ship June 9, 2008
Arrival in Le Havre, France June 21, 2008
Arrival in Monrovia, Liberia July 13, 2008
(These dates are only ESTIMATES so
don’t send any ice cream on this one)
We have the ability to receive and
store your goods so send them as early as possible. The container is loaded on a first come
first served basis. We have not
run out of room on a container yet but we do come close at times.
Make sure you read all the instructions
and use our shipping labels. Drop
shipments are fine but there are special instructions for those.
See all the instructions here.
Thanks for caring about Liberia.
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Container Shipping Instructions have been Updated
For all who have shipped or may be shipping
with us in the future, please review the revised container shipping
documentation found on the Container
Shipping Information link on the left of this page.
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First Truck Leaves for Liberia
The first of several 2.5 ton all wheel
drive trucks left for the Port of Jacksonville on December 28th.
If the truck clears through customs, the truck will sail on
01/08/08. Please pray that the truck will be cleared through the
port without delay. After the truck is cleared for export we will
pray for each step of journey – safe ocean travel – arriving and clearing
the Monrovia port – service to God’s Kingdom in Liberia – God’s
Glorification.
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Section Added with Quality Maps of Liberia
It can be hard to
find good detailed maps of Liberia.
So as we find good maps we will make
them known here. You can also get
to this section under the Resources area in the menu links about.
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Section Added to Make Known Personnel Needs
In keeping with our logistics service (moving
goods, people and funds into Liberia and information out) we are opening an
area on the website where we will list the personnel needs of ministries
serving in Liberia. There will be
short-, medium- and long-term positions listed. Some will provide some funding while
others will require the volunteer to provide for his/her complete needs.
Please make this information available to those in
your church and Christian community.
God is moving in many people’s hearts and a position on this list
may be just what He has prepared you or your friends to do.
You can access this
page here, through a link on the left side of this page or through
the “Resources” section of the website shown in the menu bar above.
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5 Board Members Currently in Liberia
We are home and the travel journal is finally up-to-date. Please complete your review of it as
much was done over the past few days.
Thanks for your time and your prayers.
On Saturday, Nov. 3rd, Beccy
Lanier, Matt Elsberry, David Bearchell and Rodney & Gayla Edwards
left for Monrovia on a 14 day trip.
See the trip goals and follow the daily happenings (plus see
pictures) here.
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Atlanta Dinner Meeting with Liberian Workers
On October 22 four board members hosted
a dinner at MaryMacs restaurant in the heart of Atlanta for Thelma Cato,
Issac Wheiger and Jessy & Calandra Togba-doya. Thelma, and African-American, was
married to a Liberian and lived in Liberia for 20 years until his death. She is working to help us locate
property of an office and residence.
Issac is the head of the Wesleyan Church in Liberia and assisted
in the first Crown conference there.
Jessy is a Liberian and together with his African-American wife,
serve God as missionaries in Liberia.
Here’s a picture of everyone at the afternoon meeting and meal.
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November Container Shipment Drawing Near
The
next container to leave for Liberia will leave our docks at Murfreesboro,
Tennessee on November 15th.
All materials should be received no later than the 12th.
Please
see our shipping
page where specific information is available and contact us at shipping@servicetoservants.com.
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Living Water Community Church Sponsors Pastors’ Kits
On
Wednesday, November 3rd we were notified that Living Water
Community Church of Vancouver, Washington had committed to provide
Pastor’s Resource Kits to pastors in Liberia who would not otherwise be
able to secure quality Christian reference books. These Pastor’s Kits will provide 8 time
proven, quality reference books which will provide Liberian pastors with
the tools to better equip their congregations for worship and
service. Each kit will cost
approximately $100. An initial
investment of $1,000 has been made with a monthly $300 additional
commitment.
Included
Materials:
A. The MacArthur Study Bible
B. Strong’s Exhaustive NASB Concordance
C. Nave’s Topical Bible
D. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and
New Testament Words
E. The Moody Bible Atlas or Holman Bible
Atlas
F. Knowing Scripture by RC Sproul
G. Mathew Henry’s Concise Commentary
H. Developing the Leader Within
You by John Maxwell
Thanks
to Elder John Farness and to the members of Living Water Community Church
for their wonderful gift of knowledge.
If you or your church would like to join with Living Water in
providing these reference libraries to Liberian Pastors please contact
John Farness at farness@livingwatercc.org.
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5 Board Members Travel to Monrovia Beginning Nov. 3
Beccy
Lanier, David Bearchell, Matt Elsberry and Rodney & Gayla Edwards
will travel to Monrovia, Liberia beginning November 3 and will return on
November 15th.
The
primary goals for this trip are to finalize the STS Liberia board of
directors, plan the coming year’s efforts with Robert Cuppah and the new
board, assist with 3 days of Crown training courses, prepare for the
startup of 4 new business efforts and continue to develop the
relationships that God provides to us through His favor.
You
will be able to follow the trip on a daily basis through the website using
the link in the upper left of this page.
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STS Continues to Assist R.E.A.P Help Children
Restoration
of Educational Advancement Programs (REAP) is a Liberian organization
working to provide children and young people with the opportunity to
receive the educational benefits necessary for the disadvantaged youth to
achieve their full potential as they mature spiritually, emotionally and
physically.
STS
Chief Operating Officer Robert Cuppah is working with key REAP staff
members to ensure that government property made available for an Indigent
Children’s Village is legally transferred to REAP’s control.
David
Bearchell, Jr. is also developing the website for REAP and has secured
the domain www.reap-liberia.com
and should have initial pages complete soon. This website should help make known the
great work that is being accomplished and provide opportunities for
others to provide support.
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AFC Worldwide Express Assists in Logistics
On September 17th David Bearchell and
Rodney Edwards were privileged to spend time with Glenn Henderson,
president of AFC Worldwide Express (www.afcexpress.com), and Warren
McArthur, vice president international sales and service, at their
Kennesaw, GA headquarters.
Glenn and Warren are actively contributing their
extensive knowledge of local and international shipping with STS as we
attempt to operate the logistical side of the ministry in the most
effective and efficient manner possible.
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Another Crown Financial Ministries Conference
On Friday, August 31, the First Crown Pastors’
Seminar was held in Kakata City, Margibi County, Liberia. A total of 90
persons participated in the one day seminar. It was organized by Crown
Financial Ministries-Liberia in collaboration with the Full Gospel
Ministerial Fellowship of Kakata. It was such a wonderful time as many
testified that this was the most balanced and thought provoking teaching
they have heard. Little did they know that God has financial principles
for His own people. The training started at about 10:15 A.M. and ended at
about 5:30 P.M. The team from Crown-Liberia was made up of three
facilitators and two assistants.
By the
grace of God, on Saturday, September 8, 2007, the Crown-Liberia team will
be in Tubmanburg, Bomi County, to also conduct their first Crown Pastors’
Seminar.
It is a
privilege for Service To Servants to partner with Crown – Liberia to
bring the biblical teachings of financial integrity to the wonderful
Christians in Liberia.
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Much is Happening
Things are hopping in our world
right now. Here’s a few that you
can be praying/praising with us about.
§ First “all STS”
container arrived and out of the port.
§ STS is actively
seeking a permanent location in Monrovia.
§ First STS ice
business can start as soon as a location is secured.*
§ Second container is
set to ship out Sept. 13th and it will be full. This will be our 2nd ice
business.* Included on the load
are 5,232 school notebooks that have been purchased so far plus other
school supplies. It’s not too late
to provide school supplies for this trip.
§ Generator sales and
service business should start by early November pending a location. STS is to serve the Generators for the
Gospel project in Liberia.*
§ Military truck is
set to ship out at the end of September.
This will be our first transportation business.* Read the following All Africa news site
article to understand the important part this can play in helping the
people of Liberia: http://allafrica.com/stories/200708210469.html
§ Five STS board
members will visit Liberia in November.
A major Crown Financial Ministries training event will occur as
part of this trip.
* When you see the word “business” we
are speaking of the Business Development goal of our ministry. These businesses are started, workers
are trained and they are eventually turned over to Liberian Christians
with the profits used to support God’s work in Liberia. It is the “self-sustaining” portion of
the mission we are called to do.
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School Supplies for Liberian Children
If you
would like to purchase and send school supplies to the children of
Liberia we suggest that now would be a great time. Several major chain stores are offering
school supplies at tremendous savings (composition books, boxes of 10
pencils, etc. for 10 cents each).
Last year
you sent over 3,000 composition books, thousands of pencils and pens,
tooth brushes, toothpaste and many other items. All of these items were distributed to
children who would not otherwise had materials to assist them in their
education.
If you
would like to purchase and ship these items to us or send funds for our
folks to purchase them locally, you can do so currently and we will get
them on the September 13th shipment if received by September
10th.
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The Container is in the Port!
Robert Cuppah emailed Wednesday (8/1) and said the agent
notified him that the container had finally arrived. It left our office in Murfreesboro, TN
on May 15th so the normal 30 – 45 day trip has turned into 75+
days due to a dock workers strike in France that prevented the container
from being moved to a different ship for its journey to Liberia. Please join us in praying that the
container will be released from port swiftly. Much work has been done in preparation
for its arrival.
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Pastor Sam Reeves,
Providence Baptist Church – Monrovia, visits STS Board
It was
indeed a privilege to host Dr. Sam Reeves, who is the chairman of the
Crown – Liberia board of directors.
Matt Elsberry, Beccy Lanier, Sam Reeves, David Bearchell and
Rodney Edwards (behind the camera) spent the entire afternoon together on
July 7th discussing the formation of the STS Liberia board of
directors. Richard Morris and
Robert Cuppah also joined by conference call.
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 An all wheel drive 2.5 ton truck is given to
Service To Servants for use in Liberia.
This will enable goods and people to be trans-ported to the
outlying areas even during the rainy season. See more information and pictures here.
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 Meet the Chief Operating Officer of Service To Servants
Liberia.
Robert Cuppah joins the Service To Servants Liberiateam as
the primary leader in Liberia.
Learn more about Robert and his family and see pictures here.
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A Quick Refresher About Service To Servants’ Mission
Service To Servants
exists to provide assistance to Christian service organizations already
working in Liberia. We seek first to create cooperation among those
serving Christ in Liberia and then to serve them in the following 4
areas:
- Education and Training – Our
initial efforts are directed at leadership and other related areas
for the pastors, business and governmental leaders of the
country. We provide a weekly devotional by Dr. Richard Morris
(a Liberian living in the U.S. that is on our board). We also
desire to provide other training in conjunction with our other areas
of service below.
- Logistics – Our goal is to move goods,
funds, people and information into and out of Liberia.
Principally this has manifested itself in promoting the
sharing of container shipments among U.S. supporters of Liberian
ministries. We also act as a clearing house of funds
designated for various Christian groups in the U.S. STS will
assist mission groups desiring to travel to Liberia.
Information on needs is made available on our website for
those already serving in Liberia.
- Accounting/Financial Integrity – We
believe that more accurate and timely reporting of financial
information by those in Liberia to their supporting organizations in
the U.S. will increase confidence and, therefore, the amount of funds
committed to Christ’s work in Liberia. We plan to have a full
accounting service there which would also serve as a training ground
for various Liberia ministries.
- Business
Development – Although the Bible has a
model for the support of local churches, there is no such model for
those para-church type organizations which do so much of the Kingdom
work in Liberia. Therefore we seek to provide capital,
training and oversight to Christian organizations and Christian
individuals to enable them to use commerce as a tool to support and
increase the spread of the Gospel in Liberia and around the world.
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 You will notice a fresh
look to STS thanks to our new logo.
Board member Gayla Edwards designed the logo to be simple yet
reflective of the 4 primary ways we serve God’s kingdom in Liberia (noted
above). We will begin branding the
STS operations with this logo to help our supporters and those we serve
easily recognize us.
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New
container shipping information page
has been added to the website to provide information about shipping in
general and also to keep you up-to-date on the scheduled shipping dates
and needs. You can access this new
area here
or by using the Container Shipping Information link in the column at
left.
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1st
Container of 2007 on its way to Liberia. The
container should arrive in Monrovia in approximately 45 days. The container was completely full with
over 190 packages (including a large truck and 2 diesel generators)
received from over 20 individuals/organizations and going to over 17
different missionaries and ministries in Liberia. See
photos and additional information here.
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First
Shipping Container of 2007 to
leave our warehouse on May 16th
for Monrovia. Our goal is to share
with any other individual or group that would like to ship goods to
Liberia for Christian purposes.
The shared cost rate is $7 per cubic foot for goods delivered to
Murfreesboro, Tennessee. If you
have a vehicle or other large objects you can share in the costs on a
percentage of the entire container basis.
We will also ship containers to Monrovia in
mid-August and mid-November.
Contact us at shipping@servicetoservants.com.
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Eagle
Generator, a Christian owned
company, again provides Service To Servants with an “at cost” solution to
our power needs in Liberia. Learn
more about Eagle’s Generators for the
Gospel ministry for providing reduced cost power solutions to
Christian organizations in the U.S. and around the world.
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Beccy
Lanier elected as the 7th
member of the Service To Servants board of directors. Learn
more about Beccy here.
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R.E.A.P.
desires assistance to rebuild the
Indigent Children’s Home. Learn more about this
opportunity here.
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STS
Weekly Devotionals, written by our
own Richard Morris, are available under the “STS Weekly Devotionals” link
at the left or by clicking
here.
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Rodney
Edwards is on this way back to
Liberia in conjunction with God’s Kids.
Track the trip through his daily journals.
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Crown –
Liberia to hold its first Pastors’
Conference at Harbel, Firestone.
The training is scheduled for Friday and Saturday evenings,
February 23-24, 2007. Learn
more here.
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STS Board
of Directors develops budget and
action plan for 2007. The budget
will be presented to our supporters in the near future.
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Marnie
Farness to serve as editor of the
Service To Servants monthly e-newsletter.
Learn
more about Marnie here.
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STS board
of directors hold first annual
meeting in Suwannee, Florida. See pictures
and happenings here.
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David
Bearchell, Matt Elsberry, Gayla & Rodney Edwards just returned from Monrovia A write up on each
day’s activities along with related photographs is document in our daily log here. The trip is over and the final
installment was uploaded today (11/14/06). Please email
me with any questions or comments.
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Trading earthly treasures for
heavenly treasures. There are some wonderful books
available which help us see the biblical truths about investing in
eternal treasures (I hope to have one in downloadable form here
shortly). A friend’s church
recently posted a sermon that does an outstanding job in this area and it
is available to you, free of charge, by clicking here (all
5 weeks are good but week 5 on Intensity is the one I recommend).
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Crown Financial Ministries to promote
the Liberian Catalytic event in
the following ways:
- Crown
radio will put a couple spots on the air until the event
- Howard
Dayton, CEO, will mention it on the Weekly Video for field staff
across the country
- It
will be shown on the Power Point presentation during our Monday
prayer times
- Crown’s
Website will house the information under International Events
- FX’s
Website will also include the prayer request for Liberia
- Our
prayer network for FX, which is about 200, will also be sent an
email about this event
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Track Rodney
Edwards’ Trip to Monrovia Here. Rodney
Edwards will leave for Liberia Tuesday, August 8th and return
Thursday, August 24th.
You can follow his trip daily by clicking here.
HOME AT LAST. Final posting will
be made over the next couple of days.
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The formation meeting of the Pastors’ and Business/Governmental Leaders’
committees was held at the Panache Restaurant in Sinkor, Monrovia. The attendance was beyond expectations
(lack of faith?) and the participation was wonderful. J. Alphanso D. Perkins was selected as
chairman of the Business/Governmental committee and Dr. Sam Reeves was
selected chairman of the Pastors’ committee.
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His
Excellency, the Honorable Joseph N. Boakai, Vice President of the Republic of Liberia,
receives a gift of the book Spiritual Leadership by Henry and Richard
Blackaby from Rodney Edwards of Service to Servants. Vice President Boakai has warmly
welcomed the Crown Financial Ministries conference in November as “a much
needed help to the Liberian people.”
The Vice President is a strong Christian and active in his local
church. He has promised to attend
the opening ceremonies for the conference, promote its attendance within
the government and appoint a member of his staff to serve on the
Business/Governmental Committee.
Thanks to Debey Sayndee for making this meeting possible.
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The
Honorable Ophelia Hoff-Saytumah, Mayor of Monrovia, granted us the privilege of meeting with her this
morning at 9:45am. She was most
gracious and agreed to serve on the Business & Government Committee.
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See pictures of the shipping
container being loaded and a listing
of the goods included and the ministries who participated here.
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Official approval of our 501(c)3 tax
exempt status was received August
5th. The approval is
retroactive to our incorporation date so all amounts received since our
inception will qualify as charitable contributions for U.S. Income Tax
purposes.
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First Baptist Church, Galt, CA
acquired a sonogram machine for Liberia, Amy Davis of Old Hickory, TN
just gave a large box of syringes, Suwannee Baptist sent 10 wheel chairs,
a walker and some crutches.
Service To Servants had the privilege of assisting with the
logistics to get the items over to Liberia. Perhaps there will be children’s lives
saved because of these small efforts.
Ron Sider, author of Rich Christians in An Age of Hunger said
this:
“No
one can do everything, but everyone can do something; and together, we
can change the world.”
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Pray for the 40 pastors of the Delta Valley Baptist Association that will
receive a Liberian Ministries DVD and be challenged to lead their church
to pray for the ministry once per week for one year. The prayers of 40 California church
congregations will be a sweet fragrance to the Lord. Consider emailing the Director of
Missions to encourage their participation. www.deltavalley.org
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Carl Hadley & Dusty
Rhodes bring supplies from Florida for the container to Liberia. The generator trailer, a used
generator, a fuel storage tank and school supplies will help the children
of Liberia. See a few
pictures here.
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Greater Love Bible
Baptist Church to host Pastor Ken Hendon, Stockton California, for
a 3 day Leadership Conference in conjunction with the National Pastor’s Leadership
Conference in Liberia on August 17, 18 & 19 of this year. See the flyer here.
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“Now what
exactly is it that you do?” Since our calling is to serve those who
are serving others, it is a little difficult to quickly explain what we
do. So we’ve created a few word
pictures for you to look at and give us your opinion. Also feel free to suggest other ideas
as well. Take a look here…
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40’
Shipping Container scheduled to
ship to Monrovia in approximately 1 month. We offer a cost sharing opportunity for
any ministry or individual that wants to ship goods over in the
container. The following unit
costs are what is being shared between all participants and is based upon
a $10,000 total cost estimate for trucking, shipping, customs and
delivery. There is no charge
included for the receipt, storage or loading that we do (this is our ministry
to you).
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Measurement
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Quantity
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Cost/Unit
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Linear Feet
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1
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$ 276.93
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Square Feet
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1
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$ 38.68
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Cubic Feet
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1
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$ 7.04
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If you are interested in sending goods over please send
us an email and we will provide the necessary information. Any savings once all costs are paid
will be returned to the participants.
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Assist
those serving by donating frequent flyer miles. The cost to
fly to Liberia is approximately $2,400.
This creates a hardship on those serving as each member pays
his/her own way. If you would like
to help please contact
us to find out if you can donate your frequent flyer miles to the
ministry. It takes 80,000 frequent
flyer miles to provide one round-trip coach ticket.
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Generator
Trailer secured in cooperation
with Liberian Ministries. Tom
Robershaw, a supporter of Liberian Ministries, located and purchased a
generator trailer for use in Liberia.
Dusty Rhodes and Carl Hadley of West Florida picked up the trailer
from Eglin Air Force Base for later delivery. See a
picture here…
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First Logistic service begins. Chuck &
Melissa Clark and Rodney & Gayla Edwards spent Friday traveling from
Murfreesboro to Memphis where they picked up an Ultrasound machine
donated by Baptist College of Health
Sciences in Memphis, TN to Greater
Love Medical Clinic in Gardenersville, Liberia. The equipment was secured through the
efforts of FBC – Galt, CA. The
unit should be shipped out within 1 month.
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Crown Catalytic Event – Liberia is scheduled for November 10th & 11th
in Monrovia with the Crown – Africa office in providing the
speakers. Learn about them here…
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All Service To Servants participants and those interested are encouraged
to attend the upcoming Crown Financial Ministries’ Spontaneous Growth
seminar on September 8th & 9th in Gainesville,
Georgia (northeast of Atlanta).
The cost is very reasonable and it will help you join into the
initial effort of the leadership training for Liberia. See more information here…
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All meeting notes are available for review from the About Us main
page. Go to meeting notes
now. Also included are the
Crown Financial Ministries’ Catalytic Event preliminary budget and
timeline.
Beatrice
Gbanga, medical trainer and missionary to Liberia, with Gayla Edwards of
Service To Servants during a visit to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
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STS
personnel attended Crown Financial
Ministries’ Spontaneous Growth seminar in March. Potential for bringing financial
integrity training to Liberian pastors and business leaders is
promising. more…
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Service To Servants is a Christian service organization surrendered to
serving those who are doing God’s missionary work around the world. Our initial country of service is
Liberia, West Africa. As
additional opportunities and fellow laborers present themselves the
countries and peoples served will expand.
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“Surrendered
to serving those on the mission field”
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