Praying for Missionaries

Les and Jane Zerbe
In the Heart of Alaska for the Hearts of Alaskans
356 Louise Lane, Fairbanks, Alaska 99709
907-479-3779 zerbe@alaska.net

February 2011
Greetings in Christ,
We are presently in North Carolina with my dad, age 88, who recently had successful surgery for colon cancer. We’ve been using a few months for a min-furlough to visit some of our supporting churches and leave to drive back to Fairbanks at the end of this month. The 41-year-old Dodge pickup with a camper has done very well on the trip so far. We have two sleeping bags rated for -25 degrees and a propane heater. We take showers at truck stops or when we visit friends. I remind Jane that there are lady truckers who use the showers too, so all is well, but we’ll be glad to be back in Alaska soon.
You may remember that we were missionaries in Liberia, West Africa, before the civil war broke out there and have been in Alaska since 1980. Just recently I was contacted by some of my African friends who had escaped the war and became refugees in the USA. Some have been here thirty years, and some around eleven years. Just two weeks ago, I met one of the men with whom I grew up in Liberia, Moses Kpah, who stayed with his congregation all through the war in the capitol city Monrovia—a main war zone.
During one two week period in which the war raged around his small church, more than 300 people huddled to escape the bullets flying from warring factions on both sides of their building. The small building was so packed with people trying to sleep on a cold concrete floor that when one made a trip to the single bathroom available, he would of necessity walk on top of live bodies to get there. Running quickly to the church for shelter, the people had brought no food. To put something in their stomachs, they would eat the leaves from a flowering hedge (hibiscus) growing around the church, but several starved. The dead bodies out the back door at night into a drainage ditch. No food, no spare clothes, diapers, no income from any source, yet these Christian remain faithful.

Later the UN peace keepers—soldiers-- having no charcoal to burn to cook their food, discovered the church pews and cut apart all the pews for firewood. The faithful at Redemption Baptist Church had to bring their own stools every time they came to church, balanced on their heads. Thank the Lord for the folks at Marshall Baptist Church who have given the funds to buy the lumber and pay a carpenter for new pews. Pastor Moses immediately sent his staff a money gram to get the construction started.
On top of that twice a month Pastor Moses Kpah walks a day and a half, about 45 miles, to a satellite church in a remote village where cars cannot go. That’s 180 miles a month in the hot sun. Folks at several churches have given so that when he arrives back in Liberia, Pastor Moses can purchase a motorbike to ride to minister in that remote church and on his visitation rounds.
On top of the blessing of seeing Moses and assisting him, I received a call from another Liberian in the USA, Kendrick Brown, my former head deacon at Grace Baptist Church in Yekepa, Liberia, whose whole membership became refugees in Ivory Coast, Ghana, and elsewhere after we left the country. At least seven men are currently pastoring in Liberia who came out of Grace Baptist Church where Jane and I served for one term. This makes my entire life of missionary work worthwhile because the church has so multiplied itself.
Now Kedrick Brown, will be ordained to the gospel ministry Feb. 27th in New Jersey. We plan to be there and then drive back to Alaska, where I will continue to serve and to support my African brothers in Christ. They are true soldiers of the cross!
How many of us would walk 180 miles a month to preach the gospel at a remote church? How many of us would go to church if we had to bring our own chairs? About 98% of the membership is unemployed and living a subsistence lifestyle off their small farms and gardens. When I asked Pastor Moses if the church members were able to pay him a salary, he replied that his family brings farm produce and rice down to the coast from time to time. Without this help from his family who live in the interior he and his family could not survive.
The preachers who came out of Grace Baptist Yekepa also have great needs. I have confirmed that they are sound preachers of the Gospel. During this time of emergency in Liberia, should any of you want to donate $10 or $25 monthly or a onetime gift, please send it to CMC. Include a note stating it is for the “refugee pastors’ account” and send us your email address so they can thank you. I will send it on to these pastors.
• Pastor Moses Kpah
• Pastor Morris Bordor –Now the pastor of GBC Yekepa, his house recently burned down. He sustained first degree burns, lost a young child in the fire. This family lost everything!
• Pastor Thomas Yeeson
• Pastor Kpewoaon
• Pastor Edmond Jacobs
• Pastor Aloysius Kpadeh
• Pastor Albert Dweh
The war in Liberia is over, but the country was set back two hundred years, as infrastructure was destroyed, roads not maintained, and businesses fled. No electric utility exists in the city. The country is starting over to seek development and aid. These pastors have not asked me for anything. I am asking for them. Please call me if you have any questions on my cell phone, 907-332-8807.
Thank you for your faithful support financially and prayerfully over the years.

Faithfully yours,
Les Paul Zerbe
Les Paul Zerbe
www.FarNorthFlyingChaplain.com