When I was 9-10 years old, I lived in Liberia with my family. My father was a civil engineer in charge of building a harbor along the coast, and a railroad from the harbor to the iron ore fields about 200 miles inland.

This was quite an experience on a number of different levels. It shaped my life. I always wondered about the “haves” and the “have not’s” in the world. Why did “we” have so much….and “everyone else” in Liberia has so little?

Forty years passed: College, marriage, kids and building a business. In May of 2009, Chris Clark, founder of Children of the Nations addressed my church congregation about their missions in Africa. They currently have four successful orphanages/children’s villages in Sierra Leone, Malawi, Uganda and the Dominican Republic. He mentioned that he grew up in Liberia, the child of missionaries. This was a remarkable coincidence.

We have since developed a good relationship, and in October, 2009 he asked me to join him on a faith journey to Sierra Leone and to Liberia to start a new mission…to save children. I eagerly said “Yes.”