Dear friends of Revive Liberia,

 It has been two months since we arrived safely

back from Liberia. What a wonderful trip! As you

know from the last newsletter there was quite a

bit to accomplish. The day after we landed my

brother Geoff and most of his team went to a

school the Wesleyan church sponsors in Monrovia. They joined us the next day in Buchanan. We

were greeted by almost 400 students from the

Jeremiah school at our Headquarters in a wonderful surprise! They had rented a flatbed truck

and hauled load after load of kids and teachers

just to say hello! April is the hottest month of the

year near the equator. It was unusually hot and

this made sleeping difficult. Karen and I went

from an air mattress to a real mattress and that

really helped us. We have plans to air condition

the two bedrooms not facing the ocean. There is

virtually no ocean breeze there like the other two

bedrooms get.

 The food was wonderful as usual. Sarah and

two of our pastors wife's do a really great job. I

was thrilled when my grandson Bobby loved

African food. The Grand Rapids team seemed to

like it too. Darrin can't get enough of it! He trained

our pastors again. I have been praying for someone like him for years. He works for months on

his lesson plans. We walked the beach land with

the Michigan team to survey the possibility of

building a youth camp there. They were very

impressed with the property. We walked along

the beach and circled back to our Headquarters.

Everyone was excited about the possibilities of

what could be done with that land. There could be

other uses based on buildings primarily designed

for a youth camp. By starting with a blank sheet

there could be facilities for conferences, wedding

venues , a retreat center etc. I had mentioned in

earlier newsletters how much youth camps

effected both Frog and I. Our guests plan on seriously looking into developing this soon. We are

so thrilled! The idea that Frog and I have just

dreamed about is one step closer to reality!

 The visiting team toured our Jeremiah school

and the Karen school while some of the rest of us

went to Fly Blue Jay. I got to see old Morris again

and we dedicated the well we had just put in. We

passed out gifts to the kids Karen had packed. It

was a great day! Upon returning back to Buchanan we slept and headed our for Monrovia. We

toured the new Teen Challenge center up country

on the way. That night we all attended a concert

put on by Kedrick, Frog's son, and his ministry

partners at our Central Church. It was really inspiring. Geoff spoke and there was lots of music. We

stayed in a local hotel and attended church

Sunday. Geoff preached, it is easy for us since

almost everyone speaks English. This was not the

case when I first came there 20 years ago. Our

American friends were presented with presents at

the end of the service. After service we headed for

the airport , that's when the fun began!

 The SUV we rented from our shipper friend Jay,

broke a serpentine belt. I barely got up on the

Roberts Field Highway when it happened. They

are in the middle of making it a four lane road and

it was chaos and really hot. Sarah flagged down a

fellow in a newer Toyota pickup. The five Americans piled in and took off. Frog followed them with

their luggage. We were stranded on the side of the

road for quite a while. Suddenly a fellow in what

looked like a 1929 Toyota pickup that had rolled

over at least 4 times came to our aid. He had

some old nylon rope that he tried to fashion a tow

strap out of. It came apart just as we tried to tow

with it. It was really hot and crazy busy. I was worried and nervous about Bobby and I just sitting

there waiting. Suddenly, out of nowhere, someone

came up with a 12' tow bar. The fellow hooked us

up to his 29 model and we entered traffic. Just

them some clown in a taxi got in between us and

our tow vehicle! Everyone was yelling at him, he

finally got around , it was stopping all the traffic on

Monrovia's busiest road. We found a business we

could leave our SUV at and waited for Frog. When

he arrived the clutch went out of our truck! Kedrick

went to the main junction and found someone to

drive us to Buchanan. Bobby got a real taste of

African life that day!

 The next week we passed out over 400 gifts at

the Jeremiah school. Bobby was a big help to

Karen that day. It was really hot in that block building. Darrin trained the pastors that week and we

gave the old folks new mattresses. We also held

some meeting with our pastors and teachers to

get information about how things were going.

 I cannot thank God enough for the progress

made in 20 years of this ministry. There have been

so many of you that have been faithful in prayers,

time and finances these past years. For this we

are most grateful. We have much more than what

the size of our organization is. The list is long. We

have a property on the fastest growing place in

Liberia, our old wood shop location on Roberts

Field Road. We have four schools, with around

600 students enrolled. We have several church

buildings and pastors homes close to them. We

own 13 acres of prime farm land in areas that are

growing fast economically. We own a health clinic

and five sawmills. The clinic, our beautiful Central

Church and eight acres of farmland were bought

with sawmill profits, not money sent from donors!

AND, we own a lovely headquarters building and

eight beautiful acres right on the Atlantic ocean.

For the small outfit we are this is all truly a miracle.

I am humbled and forever grateful to God for all

this. I heard someone say once " There's only one

thing God asks for from anyone, a willing heart. "

With that, he can do the rest.

 We are still short four teacher sponsors at $50

monthly, and a pastor at $75 monthly. Also I am

determined to get all of our pastors homes

finished this year. We have made lots of progress

but are not there yet. We need around $5000 to

complete that task. Money goes a lot further there

than here in building construction.

“He said to them,

‘Those who want to come with me

must say no to the things they want,

pick up their crosses every day, and follow me.”

Luke 9:23

 If anyone finds canvas camping chairs on a

summer closeout at around $5 or so please either

buy them or let us know where to buy them. We

will reimburse you for any purchases. We sent

several a couple of years ago and what a blessing they are! 25 fit in a 55 gallon barrel thus

making taking them to various locations and storing them really easy.

 Thanks again for all the support we have

received in the last 20 years. It has truly been a

team effort!

 God Bless,

 Phil Eckart

 President Revive Liberia

 812-325-6383

 584 Sherfield Rd.

 Spencer, IN 47460

 www.reviveliberia.org