God leads Kennett couple to Africa

Editor's note: This is the second installment of a three-part series regarding a Kennett couple's ongoing efforts to educate African students and spread Christian love at Liberia. The first installment appeared in Tuesday's edition and the final installment publishes Saturday in the Delta Dunklin Democrat.

KENNETT, Mo. - A city couple took their Christian love to Africa, where they watched God's hands at work.

Chancellor and Melissa Wayne's fourth trip to Liberia, Africa, was dedicated to graduating a number of students from high school studies.

And a few pleasant surprises blessed them both.

One young graduate, a 23-year-old man named Joshua asked to continue his education in the construction trades.

“I made sure,” Chancellor Wayne said. “I asked Joshua, 'This is what you want, correct?

“'Or do you want to look at another program?'” Wayne continued. “He said, 'No Mr. Chance. I want to build. I want to build Mr. Chance.' Five years ago he came to live at Calvary from the interior of Liberia. So he'd had some schooling. But he's been able to go all the way through high school, into trade school and we've watched God's hands open every door for him.”

Most folks might think of wild animals and grass huts when considering Africa.

Not so at Calvary's compound, Wayne said.

“At Calvary, there are not a whole lot of animals,” he said. “It's a traditional school building, like anyplace else.

“It's a U shaped building,” he explained. “It starts with Pre-K on one side and goes all the way around to 12th grade.”

And it accommodates “anywhere from 150 to 200 kids” that show up for school every day, Wayne noted.

“They have a requirement that you have to buy a uniform,” he said. “Because if the government comes in on test day and you aren't wearing your uniform your test doesn't count. So you have to have a uniform to take your tests.”

It's an undertaking most people never dream of.

But for the Wayne's, the opportunities to serve are blessings.

“We feel really good about it,” Chancellor Wayne said. “You read your Bible and you understand.

“But when you see God's hands working and everything, you're always in awe,” he added. “When you see the doors open up, and when you walk through them, it's a blessing.”

Joshua required transportation to and from the trade school, so logistics became an issue.

And God provided answers to those questions, too, Wayne explained.

“Over there, they use motorbikes all over the place,” Wayne said. “They use them for taxis and general transportation.

“We'd had some people donate some money for our trip and we knew we were going to use it for a couple of different things,” he continued. “So it's like, 'Hey! Let's go buy a brand new motorbike!'”

Other challenges were just around the corner.

God stepped up again, Wayne noted.

“Right now, Joshua is not competent in riding that motorcycle,” he said. “It's a big 125cc motorbike, but that's what they use over there.

“Once he does get competent, to go from Buchanan out to Calvary, it's usually $300 Liberian,” he explained. “The exchange rate this time was 180:1. Add it up, it's a couple of bucks every day. So $600 Liberian round trip. We thought, 'We can pay somebody to do this. Or, we can just buy a motorbike and once Joshua is competent to take passengers, because he knows he's going to be riding it for a couple of months before he could take passengers, then he can start taking fares.”

With those doors opened, Wayne explained a few conditions that were attached to the bike purchase. “He knows, and he agreed, that the fare money comes back to Calvary to put gas in the motorbike's tank, tires on it, shocks and everything else.

“And then of course, he's transitioning from a boy to a man,” Wayne added. “So for his time at Calvary, he now needs to contribute.”

And that could be monetarily, or work, he said.

“All the kids while they're there at Calvary work,” Wayne emphasized. “But as you're going into adulthood, it's time to put some skin in the game.

“He was just in awe of everything,” Wayne added. “Watching God's hands open up all the doors. It was just amazing to sit there and watch.”

And the blessings continue flowing for everyone.

“So, we got him all set up and he's in the second week of school right now,” Wayne said. “He's doing really well.

Once or twice a week we hear from him, through usually Facebook messenger,” he continued. “It's one of the easier ways to get ahold of him. So some of the money that Joshua makes will help pay for his cell phone and his minutes. So it all just opened up. It's a 12-month program. And when he's done with that he'll be a licensed contractor.”

And it was all made possible by several people in the area, Wayne emphasized.

“The whole thing, his housing and everything, whether it's Ely Baptist Church, First Senath or First Decatur or Risco, churches and people all over have contributed to make something like this happen,” he said. “This is our third year, and this is our fourth trip.

“We took two trips this year, because my wife, being a teacher it's hard for her to get a week off, unless we go in the summertime,” Wayne noted. “But summertime is rainy season over there. So rainy season, you may have 10 or 12 days of rain. Every day. There are really two seasons there. Wet and dry. It's always the same temperature, 70 degrees when you wake up and 95 to 100 in the afternoon. So we tried going on Spring Break. But that was right about a month into rainy season. Bugs were pretty bad. Now, we were six or seven months into dry season and the bugs were still there, but not as bad. So we wanted to try for Thanksgiving break. That worked out pretty well for us, and we didn't want to put a year-and-a-half in between two trips. So that's why we took two trips this year, and we're thinking now, 'When will our next trip happen? Will it be next Thanksgiving? Possibly. We'll just have to see where God leads us. That was just a whirlwind of things that went on.”

And that activity, that cyclone of blessings continued, Wayne insisted.

“Another thing that happened was Aaron and his wife Tina, houseparents there, they have two little kids,” he said. “And many people at church have heard me tell the story of the little girl who was following her mom to the well and I offered her a cookie.

“Her dad, Aaron, said 'Offer her a biscuit,' “ Wayne added. “So, I offered her a biscuit and her hand went out immediately. I asked, 'Tita, would you like a biscuit?' And her hand came out and she was very leery. Finally, her dad says, 'You're the first white man she's ever seen.' So I offered her a cheese cracker and she took it. And any time she saw me with one, I'd say 'Hey! You want a biscuit?' and she'd come over and get one. Eventually, she'd sit on my lap and all.”

More, surprises, even more blessings, were in store for the Waynes and for the Calvary community.

“So, Aaron and his wife Tina had a traditional African wedding,” Wayne explained. “The families exchanged gifts and all that.

“But Aaron and Tina said, 'Look. We're Christian. We want a church, Christian wedding under God.' So I asked, 'What are they asking?' and was told they were asking for a blessing.”

So who does the blessing?

“I was told I could if I wanted,” Wayne said. He's smiling as he recalls the joy.

“Well, I'll whole heartedly give them my blessing,” he grinned. “Because I like Aaron.

“The kids here respond to him really well and Tina does good work with them. Yes! I'll give them my blessing 100 percent, especially for a church wedding.”

When is the wedding. Normally, plenty of planning is required weeks or months ahead.

“Well, let's do it tomorrow,” he laughed. “Meaning Wednesday.

“And so we asked Tina if her family could come,” he added. “And and she said yes, that her family lived at Buchanan.”

That begged a shopping trip.

“So they knew where a wedding dress shop was in town,” Wayne explained. “The next morning we got up, went into town and got a wedding dress and everything else for half-cents on the dollar. I mean, it was cheap to get everything. And the church was already decorated from the graduation. So my wife decorated, we moved the podium forward and everything just fell into place. So we had a wedding on Wednesday night.”

That was a full week, to be sure.

And the next day came with even more opportunities for the Kennett couple.

“On Thursday we went into town and went into Monrovia,” Wayne noted. “Because the kids wearing uniforms, they needed uniform shoes.

“And the uniform shoes are black,” he continued. “So we were able to find some in Monrovia, at a place where we could buy in bulk. We were able to buy two bundles of Nike shoes. About 70 pairs of black Nike shoes that the kids are to wear just for school.”

And that's not all.

“A lot of them wear slides that were old and worn out,” Wayne said. “So we were able to buy those in bulk as well.

“The First Baptist Church of Senath, their group knew all the kids' sizes,” he explained. “They're sending over some shoes from there. So before the end of the year, the kids will have two brand new pairs of shoes.”

Approximately 35 kids live on Calvary's campus, and more come to the school from neighboring villages.

“Some of them will walk five or six miles just to go to school,” Wayne said. “A couple there, JoEl and Jemima have started doing a van ministry where they go and they pick up the teachers and bring them back. If you have on a green Calvary uniform, they're going to stop and pick you up. So we got a picture the other day of 35 students an six teachers who were packed inside a 15 passenger Ford van. So our next big project, we gotta get them another van. Because that van has 260,000 very rough miles on it.”