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A LEADLiberia Christmas Update

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Dear Partners and Co-laborers:

Although we are far away from each other in miles, we are close in heart and able to share Merry Christmas greetings. We wish to acknowledge each of you our valued partners and eternal friends how much we love and appreciate you.

Family

It has been a year of changes and challenges for all of our family. One of those changes has been to be early grandparents to three wonderful grandchildren ( Lurenda, Peniel and Sheniel). They have changed our world pretty much.

Our three children Brenda, Temmon and Necia have continued to handle their challenges pretty well. Brenda is presently entering her junior year studying for a nursing degree at Cuttington University in Suakoko, Bong County. Temmon is an IT student at Starz College in Monrovia. Necia is entering high school and trying to fight her way back to the top after several struggles as a teenager. Continue to join us in keeping them before the throne of Grace.

This year Nancy’s health has been and is still a challenge but God has been gracious in stabilizing her heart condition due to constant high blood pressure (hypertension). We trust the Lord for medical attention beyond our local doctor’s help in the coming year.

One of our challenges in this year has been traveling and serving without vehicle. We lost our truck and Jeep early in the year. Our farm travels took a toll on the truck without four wheels and our Mitsubishi Jeep’s engine got damaged. We have had to rely on public transport a lot more than we ever imagined. It has been tougher for Nancy and the children. Pray along that God provides a reliable vehicle for the family. We also praise God for the provision a brand new double cabin land cruiser for ministry. We are still processing the duty-free document before shipment is done. Pray that it speeds up before the Christmas break kicks in.

Ministry

One of our challenges has been reengaging our constituents after the Ebola crisis in Liberia. We did a conference in February for over 60 participants from 12 churches in the Todee area. In July we visited Nimba to reconnect our largest training operations covering over 100 churches in Karnplay, Garplay, Gblorlay and Bahn areas. We will begin training in those areas in August, September and November. In November this year we were privileged to have IBC Missions Pastor and Director of Global Partnerships (Brent and Lauren) visit Liberia. During their trip we visited two of our training networks to interact with Pastors in Larkeyta where we have 18 churches and Todee with 8 churches. Brent and Lauren also visit Seedfarms, a sustainable 125 acre retreat farm of Lead/Liberia.

SEED Farms

In January we cultivated 20 acres of land for rice field. The harvest was plentiful. We have estimated 50 x100 5000 lbs of rice seed. We also began our animal husbandry programs with a bull, goats, ducks and piglets. On the overall the farm is gradually coming alive. Our farm house is partially finished and we do hope we can get the house finished by February.

The farm also received a big boost when we received a 75hp John Deere Tractor. One of major challenge has been the delay in the shipment of our implements. Pray along for the arrival of the implements.

As we approach the threshold of another year we covet your prayers as we endeavor to make the farm functional and productive. Our goal for the next three years is to make the farm fruitful and productive.

As we gather with our families and friends this Christmas, we count our many blessings. May the gifts of joy, peace, and love be yours now and into the New Year!

Until He comes!

Kokeh and Nancy

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Ebola & SEED Farms Update

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Dear Partners in Missions:

It is always a joy to send you updates from the frontier in Liberia. Thanks for remembering to pray and hold the rope while we serve, especially during the Ebola outbreak in our country. We are counted among the living, because of the fervent prayers of each of you. We are extremely grateful to God for your ministry of service to many around the world you have never seen and yet you love and support.

Family

Our family is doing fairly well in Liberia. A lot of challenges, yet we count ourselves privilege to be called to serve at such a time. My wife of 25 years have be have some real difficult time with her health. It is recently she has improved tremendously. She has begun to do minor exercises and keep watching her diet closely. Continue to pray for her health to keep improving as each day comes.

Our kids are all doing well. We have a 23 years old daughter who is second year in college and a 22 year old son who is also freshman in college. Our last daughter, Necia is now 18 and in high school. Continue to pray her as she struggles. I am doing okay for now. My health is good for my age, but I am often overwhelmed with a lot of ministry demands and responsibilities that comes with so much stress. However, I count myself blessed to be called by God to serve at such a time and the humility to rely on His grace to wait patiently, which is not always an easy virtue, for
his time and intervention.

SEED Farms

The farm is doing well. I visited the farm on Saturday to see the the progress of things. We have started to harvest the rice we planted. There is a lot to do with harvesting the rice over the coming weeks. It is a manual process which takes a lot of man hours to achieve. We are trying to build the storage at the same time for the rice. Early this year the Lord provided a new tractor for the SEED Farms project. We have been awaiting the remaining implements (front bucket and wagon) for our farm tractor. Hopefully with the arrival of the farm implements we will have huge advantage in cultivating large areas with less amount of man power needed.

Continue to pray for other implements like plow and graders, stump ripper and other relevant attachments. With those we can work on our roads and land at the same time.

Ministry

We did not do very much in terms of training due to the Ebola crisis however, a lot of time was spent visiting villages, town and some of our pastors to create awareness and distribute sanitary materials. We conducted a pastoral training in February. Just this past month we did a follow-up visit into the interior to reestablish contact with pastors in Karnplay, Garplay, Gbehyi and Beo Yoola. Our training in the past years yielded much results, therefore we agreed to reengage and upgrade our training (lower and advance levels).

I am so grateful for your support to our family and ministry. I have not seen too many people who believe in empowering others, but you have chosen that path. I am loving it because I know one day we can help thousands of families sustainable and strong to help rebuild a whole nation from ruins to riches. That is my hope and dream to build a model farm that would serve as a launching pad for such an initiative.

What to Pray for:

Nancy's health, Support for our kids in college, God's provision to repair family car, Ministry expansion(material resources and funding for training), Farm development (completion of farm house, committed workers, additional implements for tractor, safe drinking water well for farm,etc.

Rich blessings!

Kokeh

LEADLiberia Ministry Update — August, 2015

Ministry is going well. With Ebola situation much improved, we are beginning to plan meetings. This August we will have two major meetings with Pastors in two counties. Pray for the Lord's provision to do the first conference with pastors and church leaders from 18 churches.

Many of the participants will come from towns and villages that require walking 2- 4 hours to be at the conference. August 28-30 I will travel 250 miles for a meeting with leaders from 3 regions (Garplay, Karnplay and Beo). We had earlier work with over 50 churches in this area, training leaders for over 8 years. Most of those we trained are now pastors of local congregations. Prior to our mobile training, some of them were mere church members. Four of those pastors went on to Bible College and are now back home to serve. Pray for wisdom as we meet to strategically plan for future training that will help us to do more by doing less.

Our sustainable farm effort is definitely yielding results. We planted rice on nearly 15 acres. After the harvest of the rice we will begin to plant plantain and banana on the site. We have few animals of the site but they have not been doing very well. We do need expert help at this point. The farm is a very great prospect.

Please continue to pray for:

  • Tractor implements to arrive (wagon, bucket, plow).

  • A road worthy vehicle (4 wheel drive).

  • A Ministry Training Director.

  • Back to back meetings this month and vehicle for the long trip

Rich Blessings,

Kokeh

 

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