Jody & Roger Will have heard God’s call in Lost Springs (Kansas) to go and be His instruments of peace in an African country. They shared the nudge with their church community at First Baptist Church in Herington (Kansas), attended Hear The Call retreat in July 2017, completed the Short-Term Application forms and continued to discern. They had multiple email conversations with IM Home Office staff (Africa, Liberia, Short-Term Mission desks), and God opened the path for them to serve at Ricks Institute in Liberia. Jody & Roger have life and professional experience in agriculture, livestock production, crop, alternative grazing and sustainable farming. Jody & Roger wanted to serve, but most importantly had a strong desire to be stretched out of their comfort zone of rural Kansas for kingdom building. God did just that. Jody and Roger have been at Ricks Institute (http://www.ricksonline.org) in Virginia (Liberia) since January 6th, sharing of their skills and talents in the agricultural department, under the leadership of Mr. Job Carpenter, who also teaches Biology.

This first international mission trip for the Wills to an African country has brought smiles, laughter, fellowship at the water pump, nightly conversations with neighbors, and more commonalities than they expected. The biggest adjustment has been the more relaxed concept of time, aka “Liberian Time.”

Jody was amazed to find that “my new brothers in Christ have the same passion as we do for caring for the land and animals. We all put in long hours to get the work done. We work side by side.” Every morning, everyone comes together at the farm for devotions in the middle of the cassava field. These daily sacred moments are led by the field supervisor, Armand, who is a graduate of Ricks. He has a goal to become an agronomist, when he has saved enough money for college. Roger has been humbled by what the staff accomplishes by hand with limited tools and no heavy farm equipment. In Roger’s words “true dedication and trust in God has brought humility to my heart and spirit.”

Our new short-term servants are God’s instruments of peace, hope and love at a Christian school that was founded in 1887. Ricks welcomes volunteers to share of their skills and talents in health care, nursing,teaching, academic tutoring, agriculture, economic development and ministry of presence. We thank Rev. Dr. Olu Menjay, Principal, for the invitation. Feel free to contact the Short-Term Mission team at volunteers@internationalministries.org for more information.