The Website of Miah and Michelle Collins

We are back from our international escapades. Michelle returned from Spain on Saturday and I got back from Liberia on Tuesday. I was very close to being stuck in Liberia until Thursday, so we were very grateful to be together just in time to celebrate our 3 year wedding anniversary on Wednesday. This article is a summary of what I was up to there. The next blog, called “From Addis to Monrovia,” is some of my writing during the trip so it has more stories and moments.

Michelle’s parents were in Spain for a NASA conference, and they flew Michelle out to spend time with them while I was in Liberia. She had such a great time with them, and we are so thankful for how well it all worked out so that she was able to see them this year. Michelle traveled NASA style, staying in lovely hotels along the coast of Spain and France, and I traveled J-Life style, sleeping in a school classroom with 10 other guys. She says that her trip was amazing, but I think we all know that my trip was way better.

Seriously though, I think God used both of the trips in really cool ways.

Michelle and I are helping to get J-Life established in Liberia with a local guy, Trokon, who I’ve mentioned on this blog before. The trip I took is the 1st of 4 that we will do over the next 6 months or so. Here is a little update on what’s happening in Liberia:

When I landed at the Robertsfield International Airport, I thought we had made a wrong turn somewhere. The landscape looked like Vietnam: flat, green, hot, forests, palm trees. I almost expected to see some US Marines walking out of the bush with green face paint and branches attached to their fatigues. It’s now been 7 years since Liberia’s civil war ended, and although things are peaceful now, there is still a strong UN Peacekeeping presence in Monrovia, the capital city.

It doesn’t take long to figure out that 10 years of war has had a crippling impact on this already underdeveloped nation. There is no electricity grid in the country.  High ranking officials, businesses and even the airport have to make do by running generators if they want to use a computer or charge their cell phones.  Other basic infrastructures like plumbing systems are also non-existent.

But the war’s greatest legacy has to be in the education arena. Illiterate and semi-literate young adults experienced constant disruption in their schooling for many years, and today there are many adult high schools that run night classes to help people catch up. One of the guys on our training started primary school at the age of 18. He graduated just 7 years later and is now in his second year at seminary. Even today there are not nearly enough schools or qualified teachers to deal with the growing population, and many churches and ministries have opened private schools to cater for the children in their communities who would not otherwise have the chance to go to school.

It was at one of these schools where Trokon and I conducted the first J-Life training in Liberia. Some of the highlights:
• Seeing how well Trokon has carried the values of J-Life into the Liberian context. He is a great teacher as well, which allowed me to hand over to him quite a lot of the teaching responsibility.
• Trying to work all of our material into a totally new context was such a fun challenge. Despite the mosquitoes and the heat, I slept well every night!
• Teaching people who place such value on education. I would find them studying the material in the evenings and discussing it with one another.
• The location of our training was beautiful. We were about a 5 minute walk from the beach. With the lack of any modern distractions, I spent some good time in the water. I even met a South African on the beach who had an extra board for me to go out for a surf with him. He grew up about 10 minutes from me, and graduated from high school the same year as me from one of our rival high schools (Kearsney College).  He is working as the financial administrator for a nearby hotel.

There were also some challenges along the way.
• Most of the trainees only started arriving on Tuesday when we were scheduled to start on Monday. Trokon was pretty unhappy about that, but once we got rolling, it was ok.
• Travel in Africa is rough. I was delayed for about 20 hours in Addis Ababa on my way there. Then on my way back, I got to the airport in Monrovia and they told me my flight was canceled. So I was delayed another 24 hours and had to be rerouted through Ghana. For a little while, I thought I was going to be stuck in Monrovia from Sunday until Thursday, and would have missed being with Michelle for our anniversary! Thankfully, I got home in time.
• Although the people there have a great passion for young people, there is almost no youth ministry happening in Liberia, so we are really starting from the very beginning. I am confident that Trokon, along with some of the other guys we have identified as potential partners in the ministry, will be able to start a movement of disciplemaking among the youth of Liberia.

The students now have 6 weeks to try to implement what they have learned before I head back there with Michelle to do 2 more weeks of training with the same group. I will be really glad to have Michelle with me there next time. With her doing some of the training, I will have more time to work with guys one-on-one.

I really feel like this is some of the most impactful work we have done in 3 years of J-Life and I can’t wait to get back there again! At the same time, our colleague, Bhuti Kheswa, is working through the same process in Zanzibar. That is the first predominately Muslim country for J-Life to work in.

We are so excited to be part of raising up young leaders who will do things differently than in the past because they follow Jesus. We appreciate your prayer and support.
Also, we are still looking for some sponsors to help finish the funding of this project, so if you would like to be part of it, please get hold of us!

Cheers
Miah