Our Liberian Brothers . . .

The first time we listened to this group of young men sing, the kids had only been home for about 2 or 3 months. Then about 2 years later I called to see when they were going to be back in the area and soon got enlisted to book their tour through the Northwest portion of Oregon. In doing so I would have to find them housing which is not a problem but we had enough room that I figured why not just have them stay with us??!!?? Well, my husband does not like to have a lot of extra people and he had never met these guys so about 2 weeks prior to their arrival I went to him and said, "Oh yeah, by the way, we have 12 people coming in 2 weeks to stay with us for 2 weeks and then another week in December." The look on his face was utter shock! Ok. I should not probably have made these arrangements without his consent, but I KNEW he would say no and I KNEW that if he met this group of amazing young men he would fall just as much in love with them as I did!! I was right!!! We had an amazing time of fellowship with this group. We made a dorm room out of the largest of the bedrooms in our house by putting 3 sets of bunkbeds in it and then borrowed another bed for Joe and Barb (the directors) and had my mom and dad pull their 5th wheel out for another 3 beds and we were set. These guys come from the country next door to Sierra Leone called Liberia. They were in civil war longer than Sierra Leone was and these men all have a remarkable testimony as to what God did to save them! They are incredible. Not to mention that 5 of the 7 guys that sing are blind!! To my amazement they never ran into anything and even ironed their clothes and did their own laundry. I determined after getting to know them that WE were the ones that were handicapped, NOT them!!! They loved to sit out under our covered porch. One day I peeked out to see what was going on and Josiah was teaching them to shoot his b.b. gun!! I almost lost it!! BLIND GUYS SHOOTING A GUN!!! Come one!! But, they were having a blast and were being very safe, besides, how much damage can a b.b gun actually do??!!? I guess it was just the thought of it more than anything! So we had an amazing month as they stayed with us two different times for 2 weeks at a time. This is truely a time the entire family, my folks, my mother-in-law, and the kids will never forget!! There are so many stories to tell, just beware if you ever ask the kids about it that you have time for all the funny stories they have to tell you! : )