Paul and his family never drove to Baffu Bay because there was no road. They had to fly in on a small plane and land at Tournata (named after RG LeTourneau founder of LeTourneau College in Longview, TX). Tournata was a mission station built by LeTourneau. It was supposed to be a tent making venture mixing logging with evangelism. The mission had housing and missionaries, a school, a church, a hospital and an airfield -- all on Baffu Bay. Liberia National Airline even landed there. It was suddenly and unexplainably abandoned. The locals say that one day ships and boats pulled up and the missionaries walked on board and left. They left everything behind. It's a mystery. Paul says as a young boy his family used to stay in the houses - complete with furnishings. Evidently the missionary pilots that flew the Chinchen plane knew the missionaries that had been there. They had left before Paul's family ever arrived in 1970. They took Paul's father to see the old mission. It fascinated him.
There is a road from Sino to Tournata now making it possible for us to visit (the best dirt road we were on this whole trip). It was built by a Malasian company who has stripped the Forrest and cut it all down to plant miles of Palm tress for palm oil. It was sad to see the jungle gone but we did see the palm trees now about 2 feet high in some areas. This area once so rural may change now.
We visited this area because Paul's father had built a house on Baffu Bay for his "vacangelize" program. That is vacation plus evangelization put together.
You can see a new palm tree up close and the jungle line off in the distance. It was shocking to see so much Forrest cut down.
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