It’s Easier to Build Children Than to Repair Men

I’m looking through orange colored glasses in Liberia today. I have hope. I have hope because of the children.

Things are changing politically here. Earlier this week, Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, gave his final testimony at The Haig in his trial where he was charged with crimes against humanity. He ran the country of Liberia like a crime boss more than a political leader. He not only committed brutal atrocities against all kinds of people, but he also ruined the country in the process with economic upheavals and wars. He is getting his just reward.

Now the country has a good leader, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. She is an astute leader, and she is a good example in leading the way with honesty and justice. Johnson-Sirleaf has changed the country from a place of war to a place of peace. Economic revival is beginning to be seen in most parts of the country. And her vision of a new Liberia full of peace and prosperity is being caught in the hearts of the people.

Maybe the biggest downfall of the war and the subsequent collapse of Liberia was the shutting down of schools. It is so hard to recover as a country when children are being neglected and uneducated.

Last night I met with ten children (or maybe I should say young adults) who had been sponsored by Christian Relief Fund donors at the beginning of the war and the start of the Ford-Madden Christian Academy, our school that emerged when most others were falling apart. They all thanked me for the support that they had received from CRF. And they told me that they were extremely blessed. Not only had they gone to elementary and secondary schools because of CRF, they had also been sponsored by Christian Relief Fund to go to college. And they explained to me that they had been given the opportunity to go to Cuttington University, the Harvard of Liberia. They gave some speeches about how they hoped to be the new generation who would totally change Liberia.

This morning I opened the main Liberian newspaper. And as I looked at the newspaper, I saw a picture of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. There was the President who was taking the country into the future. And do you know who was standing directly to her left? It was Togar Tarpeh. Then I glanced to the right of her. Do you know who was there? Moses Zolue. The article said that these were the young men who were being mentored in a special program by the President in order to become future leaders of Liberia. Oh, and who are Togar and Moses? They are two of the young men who met with me last night at the CRF school to thank me for their education. Indeed, they have already been chosen to change Liberia. I’m wearing orange colored glasses today.

Who would have thought that 14 years ago when a few people started sending $25 a month to some displaced, war-torn children in one of the most unstable places in Africa that they would be paving the way for a school that will probably become the best school in Liberia and is already producing the future leaders of this emerging country?

As it says on the door that leads into the compound that is the Ford-Madden Christian Academy in Monrovia–”It’s easier to build children than to repair men.”