I recently had an experience in Liberia in September that was perhaps inevitable for a missionary who often goes to countries and meets his host for the first time. In this case, I had met my host on several occasions, twice in Africa and once in the USA. I was partnering with him to bring our training to Monrovia and he was arranging the conference and recruiting pastors and church leaders to attend. Everything was normal as far as coordinating a mission trip of this kind, which I have done for over 10 years now. I had also sent my host $800 to help with the conference costs.
When I arrrived in Monrovia, I was dropped off at my hotel and was told he would be back to pick me up for lunch and visit the city. When he did not return as planned I became worried that an accident had befallen him. However, after 2 days of no contact I realized that I had been scammed. He had abandoned me at my hotel, took the money, turned off his cell phone, and disappeared. I don’t think I have ever felt so alone & discouraged, to be in a foreign country with no one to help me that I knew. The money was not important to me. I was more concerned about coming all this way from Atlanta to Liberia and not having the opportunity to train church leaders and do what God has called me to do.
So I began to pray to the Lord for what I should do, and he reminded me that I knew another pastor in Liberia, which I had forgotten about. His name was Moses, appropriately enough. I was able to find his cell phone number and called him. His church was 5 minutes from my hotel and he came by immediately. As I began to share my story of what happened and how I really wanted to do some training in Liberia, he said I could come to his church and train his handful of leaders. I said that was great and was so excited to have the opportunity to minister there. He said he would also make some calls and see if he could get a few others to come as well. That night he called me back and said he thought that perhaps 10-15 pastors and church leaders would come for a 3 day conference. I was ecstatic!
The next morning, he picked me up at my hotel and when we got to the church, there were 35 pastors and leaders who came to be trained!! All of them came with less than 12 hours notice and several came from 4-5 hours away! I was overjoyed and also a little overcome with emotion at what God had done! God was the one who turned this tragedy into a triumph for His glory!! No matter what I plan, I know that God is in control and will arrange things according to His plans and not mine. I am reminded of Proverbs 19:21, that says, “many are the plans in a man’s heart but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” I pray that this does not happen again to me, or anyone else. But if it does, I know that God is there to bring about His Plan and His Will. To God alone be the glory!!
Here is a photo of me with Pastor Moses:
