Back in Ghana ...

July in Ghana ...instead of in Colorado?  What were we thinking???

Well, we arrived here in Ghana and there’s a pretty good reason. This July marks the inaugural summer medical internship program for our Sub-Saharan Africa region. Karen and I join five medical and nursing students (check out the attachment) for a chance to see God work in partnership with local communities in Ghana. How cool that our son Brandon, who just finished his first year of medical school, is joining the team too! Our students, from the U.K. and the U.S., will be serving and seeing patients while learning alongside HCJB Global doctors, nurses and Ghanaian medical professionals. It should be an amazing July – despite the heat!

By the way, after a year in Ecuador our son Bryan is serving as a new media intern here at our office in Colorado Springs this summer, before heading off to Grad school at John Brown University in August. So both our boys will be in graduate school this fall.

A friend said recently that not much moss grows under the Cole’s feet, and I suppose that’s true. Thanks for joining us on the journey, through your love and prayers.

Curt & Karen

The leaders of HCJB Global have been meeting in Colorado Springs for the past couple of days.  These are my colleagues, fellow servants and friends!

Ivorian Refugees in Liberia

Learning together in Liberia - Karen's thoughts

The red dust billowed around us as we bumped along the dirt road to a small town in Northern Liberia. The signs of years of civil war were still evident as we passed through towns and villages. I saw burned buildings, broken bridges and people worn and weary, often with eyes haunted by the ravages of war. Finally, 6 hours after leaving Monrovia, weary professors and wives arrived on the ABC University campus, just as the sun was setting over the Nimba mountains of Yekepa. It was breathtaking!


Our call for the next 5 weeks was to engage in the lives of 80 university students. Curt taught a New and Emerging Media course, along with Joseph Kebbie, our African media trainer. Together they shared the joys and struggles of teaching a university level course for the first time.

I had the opportunity to teach a 4 hour Saturday course on Learning Differences in Children. Students with learning issues are often forgotten and left behind in the African school systems. I also had the joy of teaching an in-service to 48 teachers from around the Yekepa region. How rich to see teachers wanting to know how to make a difference in their student’s lives.

Tutoring students became a daily opportunity. So many of them had missed 3 or 4 years of schooling, lost during the war. Some students shared their horror stories ...needing to process the memories that haunted their dreams. Others wanted to forget and look to the future.

The ABC University campus destroyed during the war is now rebuilt. As we walked the roads around the campus, we were often greeted with, “Thank God I’m alive.”

Good-bye was hard. We miss the chapel choir with their rich voices and dancing. We miss Liberia, a country beginning to heal with the touch of the Master’s hand. Above all, we miss the determination and smiles of the Liberian students.

Liberian Musings

So this is what I am wondering this morning, as I sit looking out the window at the green hills of Liberia:


- How does dust get so red?

- Was that really a cricket chirping non-stop at 2 AM this morning?

- Why do roosters crow at 3, 4, 5 AND 6 in the morning?

- How in the world can I actually need a blanket here in West Africa?

- Why am I blessed with so much, when so many have so little?

- Why did so many people have to suffer and die here in Liberia during 14 terrible years of war?

Thoughts both silly and deep fill my mind this morning. We have been here now for about two weeks at ABC University in Yekepa, Liberia and God is showing us many things. We are trying to listen and hear what He is teaching us. Even though we hadn’t spent much time in Liberia before, it is West Africa, and there are common cultural threads that unite people here. With our roots right next door in Ivory Coast, we feel at home.

We have heard stories from the war. Many of the students were refugees for years in Ivory Coast, Guinea or Ghana. Some of them lost fathers or brothers, and a few even lost children. It is heartbreaking, and some of them are still haunted by what they have seen. But they are trying hard to focus on today, to focus on being a part of change and hope in this amazing, beautiful country.
In the midst of learning ourselves, we are teaching. I have 21 students in the new and emerging media communications class, and it’s hard to believe it is almost halfway done. Some of these younger guys are passionate about using new media, even with Liberia’s very limited resources and IT infrastructure. But even better is to see how God is using them to bring reconciliation and change to Liberia. Karen is busy teaching a course on children with special needs and learning problems to the education students. She had 38 students yesterday in that class!

Along with teaching, we are also helping consult and plan on a new radio station for the university. HCJB Global plans to do the installation here during the summer.

So these are exciting days and real cup-fillers for Karen and me. Thank you for your prayers as we continue to serve here until the middle of February. After that, we’ll head back over to Accra, Ghana for a couple of weeks, to be with our regional office staff.

Ah yes …what about that blanket at night? The first few nights we were here, we actually needed a blanket! I have never needed one before in West Africa, so that was a first. Since this is dry season with occasional rains, the nights are cool and pleasant, although our Liberians are complaining of the cold.
Curt (for Karen too)