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