Five Ordinary Guys
I love the team I just took to Liberia in June 2018. Five ordinary guys: a warehouse manager, a saw blade sharpener, a cabinet maker, a software developer and a financial planner. Our career choices are important to us, our employers and our families, but they certainly do not fit what many people picture when they think of a mission team. Three of the team members did not even have passports when we started planning this trip.
At our first meeting in February I asked the team, “What do you want to do in Liberia?” Looking at our various qualifications, we thought we had very few skills that would translate to Liberia. But what we did have was five guys who said “Yes” to Jesus when He planted the thought of going on a mission trip in our minds.
The strangest plan developed- we decided to teach hygiene and first aid. Not exactly my first choice. I have very little desire to deal with blood and guts and all that stuff. I married a nurse; that’s Lu’s job. No one on the team was really qualified to teach classes in first aid, and personally, my hand washing skills were not the best (I am a guy, after all). But in Liberia, medical professionals are scarce, and children do not usually grow up learning about these things. Knowing them can save lives.
So naturally, we turned to YouTube and Google to help solve our training deficiencies. We met with a nurse who had been to Liberia many times, another nurse we know, and a Pierce County medic who had spent time in Africa, to help with our training. We copied articles from books and downloaded information from the internet. We watched YouTube videos. We learned and practiced together how to bandage various types of wounds, how to support a broken arm, how to do the Heimlich maneuver on adults and babies, and the proper way to wash hands.
We were rock stars in Liberia! We taught adults and the older kids how to save the life of someone who was choking on something stuck in their throat. We brought in a doll and demonstrated the maneuver so everyone could learn how to help save a baby’s life. We talked about hand washing, coughing into your elbow and covering your sneezes. We answered lots of questions about choking, germs, coughing and bleeding. The question I challenged my team with was, “How many lives do you think we will help save by teaching these things?”
What can five ordinary guys do? We made an impact in our own lives, in the lives of our teammates and in the lives of the people God placed in front of us in the classrooms. All we did was say yes to Jesus when He asked us to go.
What is holding you back from going on a mission trip? I hear many reasons: “It’s expensive; I’m going to be away from family and friends; I will not have social media at my fingertips; I will eat unfamiliar food.” All true, but you will also be serving a living God and helping people that only you can help.
We asked Alex, a former sponsored student from our Monrovia school, why he is so engaged in doing things for his community now that he’s an adult. His answer blew me away. He said he volunteers a lot because he saw Americans come to Liberia, taking time away from their families and spending their money to come and volunteer at the AGC school he attended. Every team has left this legacy of caring and volunteering.
We have many mission opportunities planned for 2018 and 2019. Now is the time to say yes and start planning your mission trip. Email me at doug@servethechildren.com to discuss the best fit for you and check out ourmission page on our website.
India – 2018 – November 23rd to December 8 – if you want to go, contact me immediately
Liberia – June 2019
Zambia – July 2019
India – August 2019 and November 2019
Dr. Doug Collier
President of the Board
Note from our Liberia Mission Team
Our Liberia Mission Team left on June 12th and they are having a great time teaching first aid, hygiene and leadership classes and playing with kids. They return on June 28th. Please keep them in your prayers and check out our Serve the Children Group on Facebook to stay connected with us and the team as they post updates about the trip and their experiences. Here are some thoughts from the team on their trip so far.
You would think that after going to Liberia 16 times since 1997, I would be used to the heat, humidity, wind, rain, epic storms at night, the unfamiliar smells and food, bucket showers, the joy of finding a flushing toilet, etc., but no. Every trip is like a new experience and I enjoy every one of them.
It’s all about the kids and the people. They are so appreciative of us being here. They treat us like royalty even though they have so little and we have so much at home. But we all have the same purpose; to give hope and a future to the future leaders of Liberia.
In Liberia, about twice as many males as females over age 15 can read and write. Today in one of the two classes I taught on leadership, I challenged the girls with the idea that they have the potential to be the next female president of Liberia, but to be successful in what they do, they need to use their minds, have a heart of passion for their country, and a strong relationship with Jesus.
-Doug
I am blown away by how loving and accepting the kids are of us. They just want to play and interact with us. They are very curious and they love to touch our skin. One kid even tried to rub off my tattoos. I have really enjoyed being in the 
classrooms, asking the kids questions and reading to the kindergarten kids, and teaching first aid and hygiene.
This trip has really opened my eyes to how imaginative these kids are. They do not have cell phones to stare at. They play soccer with a plastic bottle and are very satisfied that they have a plastic bottle to play with. They find ways to entertain themselves and they are smart. They pick up on stuff so quickly and they understand it. For me, to be here in Liberia with them means a lot because something that I may teach them will stick with them for a long time. I am grateful for my experience.
-Shaun
Our time in Liberia has been amazing and eye opening. Hearing their stories and building relationships with Christians that live in such an unforgiving environment and have so little yet are so willing to do anything to make us comfortable has been very humbling.
The kids in the school are incredible. Education means so much to them. Some of the kids walk long distances to come here every day, and others will go all day without eating just to be in school. What blows me away is they choose to do this in pursuit of a better future. How many kids in the US are so self-motivated at seven years old?
Overall, this trip has made me so grateful for the family and life that God has blessed me with. I will be sharing the stories of the beautiful people I feel blessed to have met here for a long time.
-Ricky
Today, June 18th, was exciting because the kids were really into learning about the first aid and hygiene concepts we were teaching. The 9th grade class asked lots of questions on bleeding and bandaging wounds. I feel blessed and humbled to be around such loving and caring people. Their faith is second to none. We talk a lot about faith in the US, but they live in faith every day. I have learned a lot being around these wonderful people. I plan and hope to come back many more times.
-Rondell
What hits me about this trip? In this part of the world, free, quality education is tough to come by. Serve the Children provides that. I love the opportunity to be in this environment with these people, both American and Liberian. And I’m always impressed with how little I really know when I come to spend time with children in developing countries.
On this trip, lots of water has been consumed, food has been enjoyed, many kids have been high-fived, hugged, and celebrated. The guys and I have had many interesting, enjoyable conversations between power outages, bathroom breaks, car rides, spider hunts, you name it. I think we have been successful in loving children practically by engaging them in and out of the classroom and by spending time with them and staff throughout the day.
Mission trips have changed my life radically. I’m amazed how much I can prepare for a trip like this but still feel overwhelmed with the cultural and language barriers between us and our hosts. This is my third trip to Liberia, chump-change compared to Mr. Collier’s 17 tours to the country. With all my travels with STC, I’ve seen lives transformed for the gospel, both American and in-country, I’ve seen friendships blossom, I’ve seen the word of God preached in the most practical way possible, I’ve seen the benefit of this sort of trip and I’m better because of it.
-John K
The Impact of Child Sponsorship
By: Heidi Otis
In 2005 I had the privilege of participating in a mission trip with Serve the Children to Liberia. Once there I fell in love with the people, especially the children at our All God’s Children Schools. They were so grateful and thankful to have the chance for an education in a country that was trying desperately to recover from a horrendous civil war. These children had known nothing about a peaceful world, yet they were filled with the joy of the Lord. While I was there, I met a young teenager named Obediah and began sponsoring him. He was a serious boy, and I was impressed by his hard-working attitude. He helped us unload heavy boxes of books to create the first school library at our school in Sinkor. He also laughed loudly every time I screamed at a mouse!
After returning home I could not stop thinking about the people I had met, so the next summer I went again. This time we were doing a creative writing workshop and we were each helping individual students. Alex began talking with me about the troubles his family had during the war. His father was a police officer and was sent far away to work. This left his unemployed mother to raise her six boys alone in a place where resources were scarce. My husband is a police officer so we had a lot of discussions about Liberian law and education. I began sponsoring him also.
Through Serve the Children our family was able to provide an education for these two boys through Junior High and on into High School, where they both graduated. Both Obediah and Alex have gone on to college and have received their bachelor’s degrees. Now they are young men working for non-profits that are making improvements in their country. Obediah has been volunteering with an organization raising money for wells and filters for clean water. Alex has been traveling around to villages in the bush, many of which are days away from Monrovia. There he takes water samples and brings them back for testing in a lab, to see what bacteria or diseases are in the water. Alex writes up reports on the results and locations of the areas that need clean water. These reports are then sent on to non-governmental organizations so they can prioritize well development in these rural villages.
Serve the Children has provided thousands of poor and underserved children with opportunities for an education. Now those children are adults working to improve their beautiful country. Sponsoring these boys has been such a rewarding and inspiring experience for me as well. You too can be a part of providing a future for a child in Liberia.
Flourish, Planting Seeds of Life
Do you know what the term “flourish” means? Personally, I do not use this word often. But it has a very powerful meaning if you look it up. It means to “grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly favorable environment.” Some similar words are “grow, thrive, prosper, do well and develop.”
We chose this word as our theme for our October 20, 2018 auction, “Flourish, Planting Seeds of Life” because it perfectly illustrates what Serve the Children does.
We help children grow in a very healthy environment, surrounded by people who care about them. We offer education opportunities to children who do not have free educational choices like we do here in the United States. Our facilities offer a safe environment to allow children to flourish as our staff gives them hope by providing an education that will improve their lives. They are growing into educated adults even though many of their parents cannot read or write. They are thriving.
Look at some of our examples of providing a healthy environment to grow in:
- In Liberia and India, we teach English, Math, Social Studies, History, Science and other subjects to provide the children with a well-rounded education.
- In Zambia, we offer a quality early education program in English, giving students a head start in school readiness.
- In 2017, we started teaching computer skills to our children in India and in September 2018, we will start teaching computer skills to the children at our Sinkor school in Liberia.
- This summer, in Liberia, we will provide vocational training to some of our older kids, teaching them how to make furniture to provide them with a career option.
- We are starting our fourth tailoring (sewing) class in Mumbai, teaching women who live in a local slum how to sew so they can have a better future and provide for their families. Many of them currently support themselves by collecting rags from the dump to sell. While the moms are learning a new trade, their children are in our school learning how to read and write.
- In Zambia, we address the problem of high child malnutrition rates through our daily feeding program at the school. By developing a local business to raise chickens and sell the eggs, we are also changing the local economy by providing jobs and training other egg farmers while bringing desperately needed food security to the community.
- In all three countries, we provide medical help to children who are sick and have no access to medical care or cannot afford it. This allows the children to develop and have a healthy future.
We are providing hope and a future to children and families in a healthy environment and they are flourishing. Why? Because you care enough to pray for them, donate, or sponsor a child for $25 per month. Your giving makes flourishing possible.
On June 12, 2018, five of us leave for
Liberia for two weeks. John, Rondell, Ricky, Shaun and I will be teaching first aid to our staff and older students. We will also be setting up 40 laptop computers so the teachers can start learning how to use them over the summer and teach their kids how to use them starting in the fall. We will spend a lot of time playing and hanging out with our staff and kids at both schools. Flourish; we will be helping our staff and kids grow and develop in a healthy environment.
Do you want to come to India with me in November for 2 weeks and see how our children are flourishing? The team leaves the day after Thanksgiving (Friday, November 23rd) and returns two weeks later. We will spend some time in Mumbai supporting our staff and students there and the rest of the time at our school in Lasina. The cost will be about $2,500. This includes travel, meals and housing. This trip will rock your life. Come andflourish with us, and see our staff and kids flourish.
– Dr. Doug Collier
Liberia Computer Project
Hi, I’m John and I wanted to share a little about what the team and I will be doing this year in Liberia. We will be bringing in laptops to help kick-start a computer lab at our Sinkor School in Monrovia.
Our flagship school is in the Sinkor (pronounced ‘sin-core’) district, smack-dab on the beach, just outside the downtown district of Liberia’s capital. Nestled by the beach, Sinkor is truly a beautiful area. Every day, hot, sandy ocean air blows inland, swirling throughout the halls, into classrooms to tickle toes and to cool down the sweltering concrete rooms where class is held. This constant gale brings a refreshing cool as well as a salty glaze to the campus. Looking closer, everything seems to be passing through various stages of corrosion, from the engine of the Jeep that sits patiently nearby, to the concrete walls that sag near the shore; wear and tear are a part of life. This is not an ideal place to plant a computer classroom, but this is where our students are and this is where they will learn the ropes.
Salt and sand are fine if you’re a student but not if you’re a computer. The computers of Liberia have an interesting, unsung story, one that boils simply down to survival. If the conditions aren’t enough to corrode away the sensitive components, the chance of damage, theft, or worse, neglect, is all too real. This is partly why you won’t see too many fancy electronics in Liberian classrooms. And while corrosion is tough, it pales in comparison to the bottom-line reason you don’t see even mundane technology throughout the halls of most Liberian schools. The country is too poor.
These kids we teach are smart. We are providing an opportunity for computer-literacy with this project. What Liberia needs is Liberians at the helm, armed with knowledge to help shape their communities. Serve the Children is empowering the next generation of professionals. This year, we will be setting up roughly 40 laptop computers at this beach-front school. We will teach typing, how to use Microsoft’s productivity suite of applications, such as Word and PowerPoint, and we will even teach some introductory HTML. The teachers will receive this training, then they will build their lesson plans to teach our students computer skills.
It’s my hope and prayer that the training we provide will help advance these students’ careers and broaden their spheres of influence, helping bring hope back to their country. Our team is aware of the challenges surrounding a project like building a computer lab from scratch. With proper care and maintenance, the laptops should last a long time. With the right safety precautions, we shouldn’t lose any machines to would-be thieves. We will set up the teachers and students for success, then pass the baton off for them to run the show. I’m confident that our friends there won’t just like the new computers; they will fall in love and excel.
Sinkor is truly a special area and I hope you get a chance to visit our students and staff there, salt and all.
– John Keay
Steve Jones, one of the founders of Serve the Children, visited our Liberia schools in July 2017. The lack of any computer skills, access to computers or computer education for our students or staff shocked him, since we in America are so used to using electronics in every facet of our lives. He returned to the United States determined to change this. He spoke to businesses and individuals and personally raised over $12,000 to start the process of acquiring 40 laptops and software to ship to our schools in Liberia. We have purchased the computers, have almost finished updating their operating systems, and can ship them to Liberia soon. Our goal is to have the laptops in Liberia before the STC mission team arrives in June so the team can help set them up and start training the teachers. By the time our students return from summer vacation in September, the teachers will be ready to start teaching them computer skills. We also plan to open up a night school for adults in the neighborhood who would like to pursue a computer education. This will increase their chance of employment and provide a better source of income for their families.
Can you help? Our goal is to raise an additional $10,000 to pay for a generator, additional tables and chairs, training costs and upgrading a room to be a computer lab. 100% of the funds raised will go to Liberia and are tax deductible. You can send us a check, call in your credit card info to our office, or use the PayPal button on our website. Please mark all donations, “Computer Project.” Thank you for your continued support.
– Dr. Doug Collier
Hope and a Future
Consider this list of some hopes that may cross your mind:
I hope my car starts today
I hope I feel better
I hope I get a raise
I hope my kids have a good day at school
Consider these statements of hope that may come across children’s minds in developing countries such as Liberia, Zambia, or India:
I hope I can go to school today
I hope my parents find work today
I hope I get to eat today
When I return to Liberia in June 2018 and India in November 2018 (want to come with me?), children and staff members will ask me about their sponsors. Many children will come up to me and show me the last letters and pictures they received from their sponsors. I love these times. Sponsorship is more than a picture on your refrigerator. It is a personal relationship with a child who needs your help.
When you sponsor a child or teacher, you give them hope, because they know someone in the world cares for them enough to help them work toward a brighter future. And because they have this hope and help, they also want to make a difference in the lives of others.
We see this in the children who have graduated from our programs. Many of them come back to help the schools in Liberia with mentoring, financial help and volunteering to help with building upkeep. I run into them around Monrovia and they are excited to tell me what they are doing and that without our schools, that they would not be where they are now.
You can sponsor a child for $25 per month or a teacher for $100 per month. A child sponsorship guarantees a spot at one of our schools and helps pay for our costs. We have very little US expenses so the majority of all funds raised go right to help those we serve.
Many Serve the Children donors give a general donation each month using PayPal or their credit card, or by sending a check. We also have over 130 people who sponsor a specific person. In what way would you like to partner with us to give children hope and a future? Every donation is appreciated!
Serve the Children exists to improve the future of children by meeting their educational, physical and emotional needs in a Biblically based environment. Thank you so much for providing hope and a future to our children and staff in Liberia, Zambia and India.
Dr. Doug Collier, CPA
Karan’s Story!
Meet Karan, a boy from our Emmanuel Daycare Center who is 14 years old and lives with his father, mother, two younger brothers & one younger sister. His father is a rag picker who walks from house to house collecting garbage, sorting plastic and metal items to sell to the recycling plant. His mother stays home due to illness. Karan works to support his family so is unable to attend school. He is the bread winner of his family at age 14 because he is left with no other options; even though child labor is illegal in India. The family lives in a small tarpaulin covered hut without flooring, a bathroom or toilet.
Karan very regularly attends our Daycare Center in the morning but can only stay for an hour to study before he has to leave for work. He has a desire to learn to read and write but due to circumstances he has been unable. The small amount he earns ensures that there is food for his family and they do not starve like most others. This family cannot afford to put children in school or provide clothing or shoes. These kids wear old clothes donated by our friends from local Churches. Karan (he is on the left in the picture) is just one of the children that received the gift of socks and a new pair of shoes because of your giving. The new shoes have such a significant impact on these children who have nothing and work so hard. They are filled with joy and can travel safely. There are so many children like this and Karan is just one of them. Our Emmanuel Daycare Center is a safe caring place for these precious children to be loved and supported even if it is only for an hour. Karan has been given hope and knows he is loved.
Happy New Year!
Serve the Children has so many things to be thankful for as 2017 closes and 2018 begins. Your donations, prayers, and volunteer support achieved many things in 2017. I love the fact that during the busy Christmas season, many of you participated in Giving Tuesday where we raised over $4,000 to purchase shoes and socks for children from the slums of Mumbai. As you can see in the picture above the kids were overjoyed about their new shoes. Your generosity at year end just blew me away!
Check out some of our goals for 2018. Maybe you would like to donate to one of these projects. Any amount is appreciated and helps make a difference in the lives of children and their parents in Liberia, India and Zambia. Perhaps you would consider sponsoring a child for only $25 per month – giving them hope and a future in 2018.
2018 Goals:
- Have 70 people attend our Second Annual Chocolate on Mission event on January 14th at 6.30pm – see below for details.
- Convert the 3rd Floor at our Sinkor school to a computer lab – $13,000 has been raised for this project
- Complete construction of 3 more classrooms at our 15 Gate school for a junior high program – $12,000 project; most of these funds have been raised by the PTA, staff and teachers in Liberia but we still need about $5,000 to complete the project
- Establish a school furniture production site at our Sinkor school and train students to construct furniture as a career path and build desks, chairs and tables for our school and other schools
- Construct a small building in the slum area of Mumbai for about $40,000 to provide basic education to children and teach their parents a trade
- Purchase 10 sewing machines for $1,500 for teaching women how to sew as a career in Mumbai
- Expand our education program in Zambia to the 1st grade
- Increase our sponsorship program with more children from Liberia, India and Zambia
- Raise $100,000 at our Fall Auction on October 20, 2018 – mark this date on your calendar!
Thank for you for all your continued support. We are looking forward to a successful 2018, giving hope and a future to children in Liberia, India and Zambia because of all of you!
Making A Difference Around The World
The byproduct of war is the death of dreams for those who are considered collateral damage. Children are often the targets of such hopelessness. Serve the Children has sent a few volunteers into countries where war is a way of life. Most recently, we have sent volunteers into (unnamed), a country where children have been exposed to terrible things; crucifixions, gang rape, assault, threats of harm, and death. They have witnessed the rape and death of their parents and loved ones. They have been forced from their homes under cover of darkness.
Our volunteers are working with these children in a refugee zone to reduce the impact of profound catastrophic trauma by providing counseling and by developing comfort rooms. These rooms are in schools and will allow children to stay as close to their ‘normal’ schedule as possible while securing a physical environment that supports their little bodies’ needs for protection and care. The rooms will have equipment that includes small child size bunk beds, headphones to block out threatening noises, weighted vests, manual dexterity tools to reduce anxiety and therapy tools to help children communicate …when there are no words to describe their horror.
These measures are designed to help each child process their memories, supporting them when their anxiety is overwhelming, and to assist them in creating a place in their heart for their dreams to grow.
Each comfort room costs approximately $2,500 to fully furnish. If you would like to help provide comfort rooms, please note “Comfort Rooms” on your donation.