Hard to believe that the

time has gone so fast and

we only have 1 month be-

fore we leave for Africa!

What seemed like an unre-

alistic dream of Ian’s in

August, has become a huge

project involving amazing

generosity of 100s of peo-

ple around the world. So

far we know that Ian, Lara,

along with Ian’s best friend,

Sam, and his mom, Judy

will be going to Liberia.

Shane’s friend, Toure, who

has been Shane’s friend at

GM since college, has a

son (Caleb) who is think-

ing about joining us. 3 peo-

ple from our church here

in Shanghai are also con-

sidering going with us, but

have not committed yet.

We hope they can join

us—many hands make

work light, and many bags

make it possible to bring

the many donations we

have gotten! Chris Mar-

shall, the original person

Ian contacted from Kids

Around the World will

meet us there to make

sure we properly build the

playground.

Sam and Judy just got back

last night from Christmas

Holiday, so we will start

meeting a few times a

week for planning and

praying. We’re excited

about going, but still a bit

uncertain at what lies be-

fore us. None of the 4 of

us have been to Africa be-

fore. We have a great op-

portunity to meet many

high level officials and we

are not sure where that

will lead. We hope to be a

good influence on Liberia’s

future.

Sam and Ian before

their 5th grade trip

What We Are Focusing on in the Next Month Feb. 5- Leave for Liberia Feb. 6 to 9- Build playground

Feb. 10- Playground

dedication ceremony

Other days in Liberia- Viewing a session of their

Senate, speaking at

schools, hospitals, and an orphanage, going to visit

the churches pastored by Senator Jah’s husband and

Gerald’s Father, boys getting to play a game of

soccer with local kids.

Feb. 15- Leave Liberia

Feb. 17 -Return to Shanghai

1 Month Countdown to Liberia

Needs to still be filled

We would welcome anyone

who would like to join us!

A way to ship all of the

generous donations we

have received (books,

clothes, mosquito nets,

etc.)

We still need about

$25,000 USD to cover

the costs of shipping and

the 98,000 meals we will

be have shipped and will

distribute.

The

Playground

will be in

Kakata,

Magabi

County.

Dates to

Remember

September - Sam convinced his

mom Judy that they should join

us on the trip. He was willing to

come with us even without his

mom! Judy is an amazing musi-

cian and it will be so great to

have another trusted adult with

me! Ian and Sam together make

a great team!

October - We headed to Nepal

to meet our friend and Ian’s for-

mer Principal, Gretchen Schlie.

Ian got to present his project to

a small group one night at her

apartment and then at the

school she works at. We had a

layover in Thailand on the way

back. We met a lady at our Ko-

rean friend, CJ’s home. She had

just moved to Bangkok 4 days

before. When CJ told his other

guests about Ian’s project, this

lady said she gotten an email

about Ian a few days before she

left the US. I found this unlikely,

since she came from Pennsylva-

nia, in a town we don’t know

anyone. However, when we re-

turned home, we got word that

we had 2 donors from her town

- we don’t know either of them!

Gerald, our friend from Liberia

that has inspired this project,

told us his son

was very sick and

in the hospital

due to malaria.

We are so thank-

ful he recovered

from this! It

made it clear we need be on ma-

laria meds when we go! I used to

tutor Gerald’s son, Willie via E-

mail. He recently graduated from

High School and I want to get to

meet him in person!

Ian also got an invitation to

speak about the project at

PingHe, which is a local school

behind his. He spoke to the 6th

and 9th graders in the bi-lingual

program. We also found out

that the President of Liberia

(Ellen Johnson Sirleaf) will be

attending the dedication of the

playground, which she requested

be on Feb. 10th, so our dates

changed to Feb 5-17. Ian also has

been requested to visit her office

as soon as we land in Liberia.

October 31st, 2012 the shipment

left the US bound for Monrovia,

Liberia!

November – The original plan

for the container was to pack

and ship in the begin-

ning of November, but

they wanted to make

sure it would arrive in

time, so they bor-

rowed food that was

already packed for a

project in Haiti, but not being

shipped until later. The packing

party for our food to replace

that food was held at Fenton

High School, in Bensenville, Illi-

nois, and Ian’s Grandma Esther

and her friend drove down from

Wisconsin to help package the

98,000 meals that fit into the

container.

What Has Happened Since the First E-mail?

“Don’t let anyone look down on you

because you are young, but set an

example for the believers in speech, in

conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

I Timothy 4:12

This is more than just a nice gesture on Ian’s part, this playground has the

potential to change the future of his generation in Liberia - you can read

more at www.kidsafewa.com.au/playgroundimportance.htm. This article

states that playing together on the playground, kids learn to communicate,

collaborate, and empathize with others. They also learn problem solving

skills and increase imagination. Other articles state that kids who do not

have enough free play time with peers do not ever develop good negotia-

tion abilities, even as adults. Their parents endured 13 year of civil war–

Liberia needs future leaders with these skills.

November (con’t) - I happened

to ask Gerald how many kids he

expects at the dedication of the

playground. I was wondering so

we might bring some treats for

the kids. He really surprised me

when he said there was no way

to know how many would come,

but it would be over 1000! This

is not counting the adults! I

guess we won’t be packing candy

to hand out or we won’t be able

to bring any clothes! I am not

even sure that US playground

equipment is safety tested to

have 1000 kids on it at a time!

Then I remembered one of the

first pictures Kids Around the

World sent me of the first play-

ground they built in Ghana.

Since that was in rural Ghana, and

we will be building in a County Seat,

with the President of the country

coming, I guess there might really be

that many kids that come!

Ian and Sam got invited to have a

table out at a special PSO

(Parent Support Organization)

meeting. They raised over 3,000

RMB (about $500) in 2 hours

and even got to get out of class!

We also found out that the PSO

is offering 3000 RMB grants to

projects that are sponsored or

initiated by students and fit this

year’s theme of SERVE. Sam’s

teacher was the faculty sponsor

because Ian’s teacher was out of

the country when we found out

about it. They applied and found

out a few weeks later that they

were given the grant!

November was a very busy month!

December– Our church’s cam-

paign for Christmas was to “give

more and spend less”. This

meant give more of your time

and consider giving to charitable

causes instead of buying more

stuff people do not need. Along

this theme, Ian, Sam, Lara, and

Judy made Christmas cards to

sell. People could buy them and

give to someone. Inside it told a

bit about the project and said

that a donation was made in

your name to celebrate the Joy

of Christmas with kids in Liberia.

We made over $4000 USD with

the Christmas cards. This was

helped by the fact that we had

our first “Maker’s Market” which

was booths set up with local

charities and people who made

homemade goods to give to

charity, and us. That day, our

Pastor then interviewed Ian and

Sam during church and explained

how this project started and

how people could help.

“Learn to do right; seek

justice. Defend the

oppressed. Take up the

cause of the fatherless;

plead the case of the

widow.”

Isaiah 1:17

We found out our total amount

needed for the project was

more than we expected. I knew

that we had a donor covering

the costs for 1/2 the food being

shipped. However, I thought

this amount was then taken off

the total we were quoted.

However, this amount we were

quoted already took into con-

sideration this donor, which

Means we have another $11,500

USD we need to raise more than I

had thought before! If you would

like to donate to this project, you

can give online

(US tax deductible)

https://app.etapestry.com/

hosted/

KidsAroundtheWorld/

OnlineGiving.html

In “GIFT INFORMATION” section:

My gift to go towards = General,

Other Fund = Liberia

Other HUGE Gifts!

In the last few months we have had more

shots than Ian can remember the rest of

his life put together. He decided after

shot #6 that he was now an expert at

getting shots, so it doesn’t scare him any

more. For this trip we got a Typhoid

shot, the Flu vaccination, 3 shots for Ra-

bies, and Yellow fever, which we can’t

even get a visa to go to West Africa

without. In a couple of weeks we will

then have to start taking our Malaria

medications every week until 4 weeks

after we get back. We are also making a

list of medicines and other things to go in

our emergency bag we are taking with

us.

Better Safe than Sorry!

Preparations to go to Liberia

Our friends Arun and Christina and Arun’s

partner, have donated 200 repellant treated

mosquito nets for us to give in Liberia. There

is a problem though– the total weight for

these nets is 120 kg / 220 lb! We cannot

carry this with us, so we either need a lot more

people to go with so we can

each carry some of these, or

we need someone to donate

Complications of being in China– The medication I wanted to take for Malaria is not available in China. So in order

to get it, we emailed a friend of a friend who is a doctor (Thanks Lori). She then wrote the prescription, we emailed

our insurance cards, and our awesome friend, Hillary picked it up. Hillary then drove it a few hours to Joplin, MO to

the parent’s home of a friend who was going home for Christmas. She gave it to Joe, our favorite Sherpa, who then is

going to bring it to us just 5 days before we have to start taking it!

Another friend of ours, Nash, got a

soccer ball factory to donate more than

a dozen balls for us to take with us! Ian

and Eric did a great job of deflating

them all, but it is still a big box that

needs to get there!