If you are a regular reader of our blog, you know that a team will be traveling to Liberia next week to lay the foundation of House of Hope and Dignity, a maternity waiting home. We are partnering with volunteers from NGO Office Manager Matthew Walters’ church, First Baptist Church Oldest Congo Town.
Typically, the blog before a trip includes an introduction to the team members. I find it inspirational to hear what causes a person to invest time and money in a trip to Liberia. This time, however, you will meet most of the team after the trip. All except Susie.
This is Susie’s third trip to Liberia. I met her last year at the airport in Newark, when we served together on a team. I’m looking forward to serving with her again, and I am pleased to introduce her to you in her own words.
Typically, the blog before a trip includes an introduction to the team members. I find it inspirational to hear what causes a person to invest time and money in a trip to Liberia. This time, however, you will meet most of the team after the trip. All except Susie.
This is Susie’s third trip to Liberia. I met her last year at the airport in Newark, when we served together on a team. I’m looking forward to serving with her again, and I am pleased to introduce her to you in her own words.
Meet Susie:
I love doing missions, loving on people and helping others. I also love meeting new people and seeing and experiencing different places and things.
I feel we’ve been able to help some of the lovely ladies in Liberia with their personal needs. Being female myself, I identify with the importance of these needs.
After becoming involved with Dignity:Liberia, it occurred to me that my own mother was a victim of fistula at the age of 16. Like many of the young ladies in Liberia, she was living at home with her parents after she got married, and my father was drafted into the military. She became pregnant, and attempted birth at home like her mother and many others did in those years. The doctor was called, and present, but delivery of my 9 ½ lb. sister was so difficult that it left my mother with a fistula. Thank the Lord she was later able to have surgery, to be repaired.
I am a retired corrections officer; I spent 24 years with the Missouri Department of Corrections. I just celebrated my 75th birthday in southern Louisiana, doing Disaster Relief with the Southern Baptist Association. I enjoy physical activity, and the Chainsaw and Flood Recovery Teams in particular, in Disaster Relief.
During the past 12 years I’ve been on a Project Hope mission team to Managua, Nicaragua. Besides donating to help them afford many ministries, I especially enjoy physically helping construct the little houses in the villages we build.
Helping to build the medical facility in Liberia, like the houses in Nicaragua, would be so rewarding, knowing I have had such an impact on these peoples’ lives for years to come.
I’m anxious to see what part of the building activities I can actually physically do. Then stand back and see the accomplishments.
I love doing missions, loving on people and helping others. I also love meeting new people and seeing and experiencing different places and things.
I feel we’ve been able to help some of the lovely ladies in Liberia with their personal needs. Being female myself, I identify with the importance of these needs.
After becoming involved with Dignity:Liberia, it occurred to me that my own mother was a victim of fistula at the age of 16. Like many of the young ladies in Liberia, she was living at home with her parents after she got married, and my father was drafted into the military. She became pregnant, and attempted birth at home like her mother and many others did in those years. The doctor was called, and present, but delivery of my 9 ½ lb. sister was so difficult that it left my mother with a fistula. Thank the Lord she was later able to have surgery, to be repaired.
I am a retired corrections officer; I spent 24 years with the Missouri Department of Corrections. I just celebrated my 75th birthday in southern Louisiana, doing Disaster Relief with the Southern Baptist Association. I enjoy physical activity, and the Chainsaw and Flood Recovery Teams in particular, in Disaster Relief.
During the past 12 years I’ve been on a Project Hope mission team to Managua, Nicaragua. Besides donating to help them afford many ministries, I especially enjoy physically helping construct the little houses in the villages we build.
Helping to build the medical facility in Liberia, like the houses in Nicaragua, would be so rewarding, knowing I have had such an impact on these peoples’ lives for years to come.
I’m anxious to see what part of the building activities I can actually physically do. Then stand back and see the accomplishments.
Kathy Beth Stavinoha
Kathy Beth lives and works in Austin, TX. She graduated from high school in Monrovia, Liberia in 1977.
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