Kenya: Out of Africa!

Visiting East Africa was a dream come try. Ever since I'd seen the movie "Out of Africa" I've always wanted to see this beautiful land. In March Matt and I were asked to go attend the SIM Global Leadership Gathering in Kenya. We were truely blessed by the beauty and freshness we experienced during our 10 days there.

We stayed at a beautiful Resort: Brakenhurst Conference Center in Limuru. It was an old British Country Club located on a Tea Plantation.

Yes, I said TEA... it was my dream come true. They served huge Containers of Tea all day long...and it was served with cream and sugar!!! We enjoyed going for walks up among the tea plants. I never knew it grew like this

We even visited Rift Valley Academy on the edge of the Great Rift Valley about 45 minutes from where our conference was. We were very impressed with the school and the ministries of the Kijabe Hospital and Dental Clinic there.

It was a joy to meet up with long-time friend and former teammate from Multunomah Basketball days. Miriam (Miller) Rich and her family have lived and served in Kijabe with AIM since we graduated from college many years ago.

Matt and I got to go on a real safari, and took the day to travel to Lake Nakuru Game Park. The animals were amazing, and I had sensory overload after that experience!!!! God's creation in the raw was something I will never forget... enjoy!

My "wildlife biologist" husband had the time of his life, and was able to spots most of the animals even before our guide. I can only imagine what heaven is going to be like.

See Beyond Your World

It wasn’t until the taxi was sliding sideways that I actually started to doubt my decision to leave the training trip early. We had gone north for 3 weeks of pastor training conferences. We had our plan! Then, less than 24 hours into our first conference, I noticed that I couldn’t flex my left foot. In fact, I had lost almost all strength and feeling in the foot. By Tuesday evening I was lightheaded and disoriented. We continued teaching and training but by Saturday it became clear that I should return to Monrovia to see a doctor because we were way out in the sticks with no way to get help. Sunday morning I was in a taxi with 2 other friends and we were winging our way toward Monrovia in a cloud of red dust!! I could see that, while I had my plans, God wanted me to see beyond my little world. (Of course when we went airborne and started sliding on two wheels I thought I was about to leave my little world!) God is good, and we arrived safely in Monrovia that afternoon, the same color as our dust covered taxi. Within an hour I saw the doctor and learned that I had a temporary palsy. I still walk like a duck, but the doc says I should be back to normal in less than a month.

We need your prayers! Will you pray for us? That was only one example of God rearranging our plans to get us to see beyond our world. Brenda came to Liberia to work with teachers and to improve schools. God wants her to look way beyond that! God has made it clear that He wants Brenda to be a blessing to SIM (and all the people SIM blesses here) by making her the SIM Liberia personnel director. I can’t even count all the people who have told me what a huge blessing Brenda has been to them. She arranges housing, coordinates short-termers, teams, does orientation training, organizes meals and transportation for newcomers, prepares annual and end of term evaluations, plus keeps communication between SIM Liberia and all the sending offices around the world. She had her plan for her time here – but God wanted her to look beyond and do His bidding.

Have I told you how much we need your prayers? Will you pray for us? I came to Liberia to work with pastors. I love Jesus’ Bride – the Church. My title was the Church relations coordinator between SIM and the SIM related churches known as the Evangelical Church Union of Liberia (ECUL). My plan was to help SIM be a better partner with ECUL in the strengthening and nurturing of local churches and the nationwide ECUL denomination. But God wants me to look beyond my horizons! One month ago, SIM asked me to consider stepping in as the SIM Liberia country director when our current director, Les Unruh, returns to the states. God wants me to look beyond my world. So in June, I have agreed to become the acting director for SIM Liberia. I’ll still be very involved with ECUL, just in a new role.

I think I may have mentioned earlier that we desperately need you to pray for us. My world is too small and as a result my vision and my prayers are often too small. Our prayer is very simply that God would be glorified throughout the entire nation of Liberia as His Church here is strengthened and built up. We are learning to let God decide how He will use us in the accomplishment of that task. In future letters we will share in more detail what our new jobs entail. For now, please pray that as we see beyond our world we would walk by faith and not by sight.

Standing on His promise that He will build His Church,
Matt (for Brenda too)

Serving with SIM USA – PO Box 7900 – Charlotte, NC – 28241 http://www.sim.org/
Matt & Brenda Carr – SIM Liberia – PO Box 5968 – Monrovia – Liberia matt.carr@sim.org brenda.carr@sim.org

Saturday Options

One never knows the activites ahead when it comes to a Saturday. Some are planned, like giving hair cuts to those ladies in need. Yes, I love to cut hair, and bless others with a nice hair cut....unfortuneatly I have not found anyone who can cut my hair. Begging Matt to cut my hair, is an act of love he would rather not perform.



Other activities are not planned... as I was going about trying to get my regular chores done, like doing my laundry for the week, the spinner stopped working. (Washing machine is only 1 month old). Matt said he'd look at it after he finished washing my pile of dishes and pots left over from the night before. Well, that led to him fixing the water faucet on the kitchen sink which is now broken...(only 2 months old). He had to chip away the tiles and break cement into the wall to get to the pipes he needed to work on. When snap; the water faucet snapped off. It is now after lunch and Matt is still trying to find parts to fix the faucet. Two trips to the "hardware" store and still no elbow piece that he needs. So he's inventing something. "Nothing is easy", is a saying I hear him say over and over again under his breath.

He still hasn't even had a chance to look at the washing machine. I don't think this is the way we had intented to spend our Saturday!

The SIM Liberia office is being remodeled. We are excited, and look forward to re-arranging our desks & filing cabinets in the office this coming week. Looks like we'll be working out of our home office for a few more days. It's hard to find stuff in this room...I wonder why?

New teammates are soon to arrive, along with Short Term teams beginning to arrive in January as well. So lots of stuff to get ready for their arrivals. Not to mention some visitors as well. Keeping it all organized and prepared is a full-time job. I love working with the Personnel stuff, it is never the same day after day. Something is always new. I plan to go to Abidjan for a week the end of January to get some more training in what a personnel coordinator does.

New things to learn and interesting challenges ahead for 2009. We covet your prayers as we head into the future and the work here in Liberia. Drawing closer and closer to Him is our prayer for this year. We love you and keep you in our prayers too. Thank you for your part in the work here, to know God and to make Him known.

Joyful in the journey,

Matt & Brenda Carr

Evangelical Church Union of Liberia (ECUL) Conference 2008

November was the National ECUL Church Convention. Matt was one of 3 guest speakers.

What a blessing it was to take communion with over 300 Church leaders and Pastors from around Liberia.

Praise and worship was in many languages. What a testimony of God's faithfulness to his people here in Liberia.

During preaching, teaching times, meals together, and just visiting between sessions was a positive time of building the leaders of the church in Liberia.

Thank you for allowing us to be here. There is a new spirit among the ECUL leaders, and they are moving forward to reaching Liberia for Christ. Will you continue to pray that God would bless His church here, and keep her from false teachings, and dependant on Him alone for their every need. We count it a privilege to serve here!

Matt & Brenda Carr

Lessons in Construction...Liberian Style

Plumbers, masons, carpenters and everyone in between have a hand at making our place a home. It has been a long road to get to this point in the house renovations. It's not to be taken lightly by any means. Without Home Depot every project gets to looking a little more scary. However, the experts are the men themselves who have learned their trades well. They know how to do plumbing...

They know how to adapt and adjust where some of us would just give up. It has been fun to have these men work on our house, and see how they "get 'er done".

The windows frames were cemented into place...

then the security bars were cut from 3/4" galvanized steel pipe. They were then put between "iron wood" as they call it here, and cemented into place. A task that takes lots of braun... and a good eye to be sure every bar is level.

Oh did I forget to mention, that first you need to chip out the space to put the bars in first? Look closer at the man working here. That's where the braun comes in. These old houses at ELWA were built to last an eternity...not really, but the origional bricks that were used were almost solid cement. And it takes a long time to chisel a hole to put the new security bars in. My hats off to the origional builders of these homes.

5 of the 9 windows were completed today as the sun was setting. I am thankful for workers who go the extra mile to help us get moved in soon.

The view from our front porch is a blessing from the Lord. We look forward to spending many more evenings watching the sun go down out here. This is one of our favorite pass times; watching people, enjoying the culture and greeting folks as they pass by. Drinking in the sights, sounds and flavors of our new home at ELWA. Thank you for sending us here, keeping us here, and praying for us here.

The Roof Goes Up!!!

Dear family & friends;





We are so happy to see the new roof go up this Saturday. It makes the house renovating project look like it's on a roll. We are excited.





The aluminum roof was ordered from the factory in town, and delivered on Friday late afternoon. The beams and all supporting wood were all in place. Counting the pieces of aluminum as it came off the truck, and measuring to be sure they were cut to correct size was important. This is probably the most expensive part of the renovation.

















Brenda got to cut the tar tape that covers the nails used in the roof. Everyone got to have a hand in putting the roof up.







Matt was one of the taller men to help keep the aluminum going up to the workmen atop the rafters.










We were all happy and very tired when the roof was finished at the end of the day. It has rained heavy 3 times, and there were no leaks!!! We rejoice at the new roof. Next will be the windows, security bars and doors, and then we'll start on the inside of the house.



PRAISE THE LORD!

Slow internet is chronic

Dear family and friends;
We have been trying every day to upload pictures of the updates on our house. It is running so slow, we get knocked off before we can even download anything. Matt's facebook has been the only place we've had success adding pictures. So until we can get faster internet, you'll might have to look on his facebook for updates.

Todate, the beams that hold the house together have been cast, and are curing. They are building a small wall, and repairing where there were cracks. We have seen alot of rain. So every room is full of 3-4 inches of water. We removed loose tiles in the bedrooms, and kitchen while they were wet, and curling up.

Tomorrow we are told that they will start putting on the main beams of the roof. The wood arrived two days ago and it has been painted with tar of some kind. It helps keep the termites and "buggabug" from eating the wood.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragment. We know that this too shall pass. It has been a learning process. We have been able to see "small, small" progress on the house.