The first days

For me this whole thing started back in 2005. I was serving on Mercy Ships as the Dining Room Manager. It was a great job and I got to work with some amazing people. While I was there became friends with Matt Le Page and the Pratts. They were doing construction at an orphanage that was in terrible conditions. I was there in those first days and I could not believe that anyone could live like this let alone children. The orphanage was receiving very little help for food and so I kind of took that as my mission. To feed these kids. Construction went quickly and I kept bringing food every Saturday and I just fell in love with the children there. Our time was short though nice we were about to sail to Ghana. It was a teary goodbye because I wasn’t sure I would ever see them again, But God brought me back. In June I flew home from Accra and tried to restart my life. I moved from Ohio to North Carolina with my brother and things were just never comfortable. I left NC for New York City in January to volunteer with charity:water, an organization founded by my good friend Scott Harrison. I drove the water show across the country to the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. We were there for three weeks and then returned to New York. I had a really tough time finding a job and a place to live. I feel like God was closing a lot of doors in New York but he opened the door to come and work with Orphan Relief and Rescue. I had actually turned down an offer to join ORR in November. At that point I was trying to go back to school and make the move to NYC. Never the less I called Matt and asked him if there was still a spot open to go back to Liberia. Sure enough there was. The next day I was on a train back to Ohio to do some fundraising before I left for Texas two weeks later. We spent a few weeks in Texas putting the finishing touches on our trip. We flew from Dallas to Frankfurt and only had 20 minutes to get through security and immigration before we had to be on our flight to Brussels. Of course we all got stopped at security for water bottles, computers and I got stopped for my box of business cards. German efficiency however got us through and we made it to gate as they were boarding. On to Brussels. A little more time between flights then a long flight to Freetown Sierra Leone. On the way to Monrovia the president of Liberia Her Excellency Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf came through. She shook hands with everyone did a few pictures and then went back to business class. I finally made it back to Liberia. I had loved this country and been away for about a year. I always wanted to come back but I was not sure I would. I stepped out of the plane and the first blast of hot tropical air hit me and condensated instantly on my air-conditioned skin. The smell of Liberia is unique, like hot trash and charred grass. It filled my nose. It was a bizarre comfort. I felt like I was finally home…