Few people know this, but Dad started one of Africa's very first Short-term missions programs called VACANGELIZE - Vacation and Evangelization. Dad needed help training pastors in rural parts of Liberia so he developed the VACANGELIZE program to get couples and families to Africa for the summer - part pastor-training and teaching, part family holiday. Some of our family's long-time relationships (Boersmas and Yelvertons) began at this remote stretch of beach, where no car had ever been, accessible only by plane, BAFFU BAY.
The Baffu Bay house was completely looted and destroyed during the war.
Baffu Bay beach. Very secluded and private. The waves are rough and big but we had the whole beach to ourselves.
The Indian Almond tree where Paul's father sat and planned for African Bible Colleges, Inc. There are several of these trees in front if the house offering shade.
Someone has built another house next to ours on the beach. They were very welcoming. It's the custom in this area to
welcome guests with cassava and coconut as a refreshment. They say the cassava in this area is the best because it grows on the sand.
Paul and Bess standing in the doorway to Paul and Palmers room at the Baffu Bay house.
All that remains of the stripped house is moms pink tile in her bathroom shower.
Paul's father put seashells in the cement door frame to help the concrete because no stones were available on the secluded coast.
The road next to the house back towards the mission of Tournata. All the houses are gone now. All that remains of this mission is an overgrown airstrip, a hospital (it looks renovated) and an old abandoned church building.
This was the church at Tournata. It was once the largest church building in Liberia. We were told it is abandoned and no longer in use.
Thanks Chinchen for the memories.
ReplyDeleteI lived at Tournata from 56 to 58 when I was a kid
ReplyDeleteMy father, Rev. Walter Knowles, began to build that now abandoned church in Tournata. When we had to leave in l966 (for the last time) only the walls were done and people met in the sanctuary anyway. Everything else in Tournata was razed during the civil war. I lived in Tournata from 1958 to 1962 then again in 1965-1966. Mary Knowles Villaume
ReplyDeleteI returned to Liberia in 2007 but only to Monrovia area. At the time, I believe, there were no roads from Monrovia to Baffu Bay, Tournata. We had to get in by water or air. We did have a laterite landing strip that had various aircraft land. The largest was a DC3. The newest was a Lear. There were various small planes as well as a few helicopters during a visit by the US Navy ships Donner and Suffolk Co.
ReplyDeletemy earlier years there were fascinating. My younger brother and I enjoyed what we considered a Swiss Family Robinson type existence. I returned for the last time at 18 between high school and college. It was heartbreaking to leave.
ReplyDelete