Jld&Ua ^(vuMveun

Buchanan, Liberia, West Africa

February, 1974
Dear Christian friends.

Greetings and a belated Happy New Year from St. Louis, the North Pole of the Midwest, where unusual cold and the worst snowstorms in forty years have a Ilowed us to catch up on all the winter wemissed in three years. When we left Liberia, the children were looking forward toChristmas at Grandpa's in Pennsylvania and playing
in the snow. As it turned out, we were snowbound in St, Louis for Christmas.

We enjoyed our Christmas here

and had friendsin for Christmasdinner.

After the roads cleared, we drove to

Kentucky to visit Wayne's family.

While there, we visited the Rush Branch

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Christian Church, Wayne's homechurch, and the Watscn's Chape IChrislian Church

in Casey County, where a good number

gathered to see our pictures of Liberia .

Beverly was Beverly was baptized baptized jusljust before before we we left left Liberia Uberia . .

Ron Ayers has been avisitorin our hcwTie twice in the past few weeks.

has spent three years in Liberia .

He helped get the work started and taught three full years, longer than any of the missionaries yet involved. He is presently attending Lincoln Christian Seminary. Hisinterest in Liberia came through the influence of Gerald Gibson, CampusMinister at the University of Illinois, and ByronTarr,a Liberian who was studying at the university. If it is the Lord's will, Ron will return to Liberia after getting more
education.

Gerald Gibson has been instrunental in recruiting workers for Liberia from the

beginning. Two weeks ago I went to Urbana, Illinois, to visit Brother Gibson and talk with several prospective recruits for Liberia. Among them was Harrison Rose

who had hoped to go to Liberia this yeor to take Ron's place. Some personal responsibiliHes have interfered and he will not be able to go until next year. 1also met Doug Rader from Crescent City, Illinois. Doug wants to go to Liberia as soon as possible. He is in the process of raising funds and getting his visa. We are praying
that this can be done soon enough for him to be in Liberia by the time school begins

in Morch. Doug has a junior college degree and has spent three years at Lincoln
Christian College.

Some Liberian friends gave us a farewell dinner [usf workers we put On the field . We could before we left. easily double the number of%students we teach if we had the teachers. The Liberian churches are increasing their demands on our time and talents. This will continue as we gain the respect andconfidence of the national Christians. In the future, our best Bible college students will come from these churches, so it is important that we cultivate this growing relationship.
There is another importantmatterof prayer to share with you. Since RonAyers came home, the Shawsarealone in the work, except for two Peace Corps Volunteers. Mrs. Shaw (Anna) has been having health problems and is undera doctor's care. There is always some danger to health In the tropics. The Shaws plan to stay until

July, but Anna particularly needs our prayers for her good health.
December Is graduation time for Liberian schools. This past December 1st the first full class wasgraduated from our high school. There were seventeen, the largest graduating class of the three high schools now operating in Grand Bassa County, In order to graduate, all students must pass a high school national examination. Our senior valedictorian, Joseph Bunyan, made the highest score on the exam of all the students in Bassa County. As yet there are no college students eligible to graduate. The first opportunity will be next year at the end of our fourth year of operation.

The LiberianpeopleconHnueto showtheir good faithand interest intheschool. Work began recently on a second building to provide classrooms for the school. The first building was not large enough to provide the classrooms we needed because there were more students than even the Liberians planned for. For three years we have met in the SundaySchool rooms of the World-WideMissionChurch. These new rooms will allow us to move to the permanent campus. Both of these buildings have been financed by the Liberian Christians.
Most missions require many years to reach this stage of cooperation with the national Christians. Some never do. We must respond to this cooperation by doing our part. The Liberian churches have never asked us to do for them when they can do for themselves. They continue to beg for teachers to help train their own people to do for themselves. Liberia isone of the most open and "ripe" mission fields in the

world today, yet the response of our people has been disappointing, especially in
matter of sending recruits.

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Since the Clicks, our forwarding

agents, have moved to Linn, Missouri,

I w e feel that we need someone here in

the St. Louis area to help keep the ' people of this area infomied about
Liberia . We haveasked FredandWanita

Douglas to serve ai information Agents

The Liberian man who boughf our bed carries if away about Liberia and the progress of the
on his head past our car and our neighbor's house. WOrk which they Can pass along to interested congregations and individuals in this area. Fred is an elder in the Halls Ferry congregation and has been close to us and our work all along.

Westill have a fewdatesopen for speaking and reporting. We would be happy

to come to your church.

We do deeply appreciate your prayers and support. God has been good, and
we give thanks to Him because of you.

Missionaries: Wayne Meece Family Forwarding Agents: M/M Patrick G . Click

P.O. Box 437

FINANCIAL REPORT

September to December, 1973

Anonymous
Alverda Christian Church
15 .00 50 .00

Linn, Missouri 65051

HALLS FERRY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Anonymous
Central Christian Church Christview Christian Church Colchester Christian Church

12105 Old Halls Ferry Road

Florissant, Missouri 63033

1500 .00 5 .00 150 .00 75 .00

55 .45
15 .00 50 .00

First Christian Church (Florissant) First Christian Church (Havre De Grace)

First Christian Church (Ferguson) First Christian Church (Ijovington, N .M.) First Christian Church (Carnegie) First Christian Church (Gillespie) Harvey's Point Christian Church Halls Ferry Christian Church
Jeromesville Church of Christ

250 .00 100 .07

236 .26 100 .00

Ladies' Group, Johnston City, III.

Modesto Christian Church

Memorial Christian Church North Tacoma Christian Church Oklahoma Church of Christ Pontoon Beach Church of Christ

Palmyra Christian Church

Pine Flats Christian Church

Sailor Springs Christian Church

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South Fork Christian Church

Western Buckeye Christian Camp

1896 .90 5 .35 40 .00 350 .00 40 .00 80 .00 35 .00 200 .00 65 .98 50 .00 164 .10 20 .00 323 J2

$5,872 .83
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jUde^ ^(mUtieu/v
Buchanan, Liberia, West Africa
July, 1974

Meeces, Clicks (forwarding agents), Douglases (information agents)

Dear Christian Friends,

By the time you receive this we will be on our way to Liberia for our second term of missionary work. We are to depart from St. Louis about noon on July 8. We change planes at New York and will arrive in Liberia Tuesday morning, July
9 about 9:40 a .m. At this writing, we are in the middle of that hectic time of

packing, shuffling and rearranging that must always come before any r'.cvs. We
are all anxious to get back to our work and friends in Liberia. This year home has

been good for us, especially the children who have enjoyed their school work. They all three have done well in school here this year and have been ahead of
their class in some subjects. Timothy was on the honor roll for the first time in his school experience. This qualified him to free tickets to see the St. Louis Cardi nals qs a "Straight-A" student. A lot of progress has been made in the work in Liberia during our absence . A new building is now nearing completion and should be ready for occupancy by
our arrival. This will enable us to move to the campus for the first time. We have

been using the classrooms ofa church during the first three years of our work in Li
beria. These new buildings were built by the Liberian Christians and represent

their part of the work of Liberia Christian College. With more room we cGi> now

accept more students and better serve the community and our Lord. School is still in progress in Liberia; in fact we will bereturning to teach thesecond semester and will get involved in this immediately. Wayne is not sure yet what his classes will
be. That will be a surprise when he arrives.
There has been a hint that the President of Liberia will come to Buchanan to

dedicate the new buildings for us. This is all very much uncertain yet, but if he does come, it will be a great honor for the school and create much useful and good publicity for Liberia Christian College.
We have set two goals for this term in Liberia . First, we want to upgrade the

high school program to the point that Wayne and the missionaries will not be so tied
down and can devote much more time to the college program . The high school is

necessary to provide quality students for the college program, but does take a lot
of time. With more and better Liberian teachers in this program, we can devote our

time and energy to the college . At present, the college is operatingat a much re
duced level. Our second concern is to devote more time to the churches. There is a le

gitimate "Restoration Movement" among some of the Liberian national Christians. They are anxious to return to the simple truths of the Bible and forsake the opinions
and customs that man has added to the church. Our weekends and summer vaca

tions will be free to do this. There will be conventions, conferences, training sessions, camps and other programs that we will be able to get involved in as tea
chers and advisors.

In Liberia, restoration is still a movement, not a position. The Christians

are still seeking new knowledge of God. In the beginning of our work they said, "If we are doing anything wrong, show us the scripture and we will stop; if we are
not doing something we should be, show us the scripture and we will begin to doit." In a recent letter from Liberia, this promise was seen fulfilled. It had been the
custom among some of the churches to require new converts to wait several weeks

or even months for baptism and to take "baptismal classes." The simple facts of the Acts conversions had been brought to light on several occasions until a change took place. One of the Liberian Christian leaders, Abba Kamga, describes the event. "When your teaching of the solid truth of the Bible was confimied by the firing messages of Bro. Gerald Gibson, (Gibson wasvisiting Liberia again)a greatchange took place. We reached a decision that in accordance with the Bible, and not the teachings of man's opinions or cultures, any person who accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as his personaIsaviour should be baptized even in the same hour if possible." Brother Karnga continued his letter with this request, "We need your prayers sothat the will of the Lord may be done as we have more changes to make for the glory of the Lord." For these and other reasons we are encouraged in our efforts to help these national churches to see "the way of the Lord more prefectly." We are happy that the Douglases will join the Clicks to help infomi the churches of the work. The Clicks are our forwarding agents and all gifts should be sent to them at Box437, Linn, Mo. 65051. The Douglases will be ourinfoimation agents and will be kept informed of the latest developments from Liberia. They live at 503-A Douglas Road, Florissant, Mo. 63034. Both the Clicks and the Douglases will be available for speaking dates on a limited basis. Letters are such an encouragement to us, and we do beg to hear from all of our supporters. All letters should be sent air mail to the following address: Wayne Meece
Liberia Christian College
Lamco-Buchanan Robertsfield

Liberia, West Africa

All packages that might need to pass through customs should be sent to:
Liberia Christian College
P.O. Box 39 Lower Buchanan

Liberia, West Africa

Missionaries: Wayne Meece Family Forwarding Agents: M/M Patrick G . Click

P.O. Box 437

Your continuing prayers are an ever

important part of our work. Please con

Linn, Missouri 65051

HALLS FERRY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

12105 Old Halls Ferry Rood

Florissant, Missouri 63033

tinue to pray. Travel expense back to Liberia Is much higher than we expected; gifts designated for that purpose would be helpful at this time. We look forward to giving you the
first news from Liberia within another month

Until then, God bless you.

The Meeces
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jUd&Ua ^(vdUian
Buchanan, Liberia, West Afripa
September, 1974
Dear Christian Friends,

Exactly one month ago today we arrived back in Liberia . Our return to the country and the work has been a good experience for the Meeces. We found everything in

good order and the work progressing nicely. The Shaws had already left before we
arrived, and in their absence, Doug Rader had been in charge. Doug is the latest addition to the staff here and is fitting into the program very well. He is a native of

Crescent City, Illinois, near Chicago. He has attended LincolnChristianCollege for three years and plans to finish his education after his year of service here.
Weare livirg in the same house as before, mainly because we will be near the school,
the market and stores in town, and the Lamco school where the children will attend.

Also we are back among all our old friends and th^children's playmates. From talk

ing with the principal of the Lamco International School, it lool^ like we will have
no problems getting the children back in school there. This was a matter of some
concern for us because we were outsiders and there might not be room for them . We
thank the Lord for this small but important gift.

We spent much of this first month getting ready for our work and getting settled in our house again. Wayne has been busy building furniture again. He has made bunk beds for the boys and a single bed for Beverly. Greta and the children, with some help from Wayne and Doug Rader, have painted three rooms and a hall to brighten up the
house a little. We will do some more painting a little later. We don't want to have all our new things at once and have nothing to enjoy later. We will be very com fortable when our shipment of things arrives from the States in about another month .

Inflation has surely had its effect on the Liberian economy in the year that we were

away. Many prices have gone up 40% to 50%. When we left, rice was selling for about $10.00 per 100 pounds, now it is $25.00 for the same kind of rice. This has been very hard for the poor people who use rice as their staple food. There has been one good effect. Many of the people who had left the famis to come to the city to

wait for jobs have had to return to the famns and raise their own rice again. Fairn income was so poor that a man could afford to wait in employment lines for six months of the year if he could just get a little work and a small wage. As a result, hundreds of men had left the rural villages and were filling employment lines., living off rela
tives and hoping to get a job. Now their relatives cannot afford to feed them, and

they must return to the farms to raise food. The surplus they now can sell in the mar kets for a more reasonable price.

The prices on imported foods, cannedgoods, cloth, vehicles, etc., has gone up also.
The mattress for the children's beds now cost $45.00 for the same article that cost

$25.00 last year. The price of food has risen at about the same rate. As a result,
we are eating more native food this time. Meat is particularly hard to get; eggs are almost non-existent and $1.40 per dozen when you can get them. Even the fresh fish

that we loved so much the first term are hard to get now. The fishing boat is no longer running. Gasprices ($.85 per gallon) and government regulations have put him out of

business. We can get a few fish from the small canoes, but they are high and not very
regular.

I am particularly satisfied with the growth of the junior and senior high schools.
Enrollment has grown every year, and we now have over 130 students. Our Liberian

teachers in the lower grades are doing well. Two of them graduated from our high
school last year, and two others are attending the college.

The college program isnotmaking good progress. The only holdback is lack ofqualified teachers. Wayne and Doug Rader alone are not able to offer enough classes in Bible, and the Peace Corps volunteers cannot carry all the load in the secular subjects. Wayne is having to teach English to the college as well as the high school. If the college is ever to prosper, we must have more teachers. College enrollment in 1973
reached a high of twenty-one. This semester we will be fortunate to have fifteen

students. We lay this problem before you, our partners, in prayer and support. Let us pray together that God will open the door for someone to come to help us.

We are also enjoying a continuing and happy relationship with the churches. These people are hungry to.know the word of God and continually ask us to come to help them . Wayne has been invited topreach somewhere every Sunday so far and has been asked several Sundays ahead. Greta has already started a Sunday School class for
young people on Sunday afternoons and has had twelve to fifteen each time. This

class will grow to twenty or thirty within a few weeks. Wayne has been invited to
the training conference for ministers, elders, and deacons in the Bible Faith Christian

Church August 17 and 18. We will give you a reporton this later, but weexpect good
things to come from it,

The prices of European and Japanese made cars have almost doubled in the past four years. The French Peugot like we bought in 1970 for about $2,600 now costs over

$5,000. So Wayne has been doing some car shopping. He first found a Fiat 500, second hand, which he bought for $350. It is very small, and the Liberians all laugh at us running around in it. The kids named it "Marpo" after the little boy in Liberian first grade readers (theequivalent of Dick of Dick and Jane stories). After a fewdays the name got changed to "Mopar" (more power) and the reason was obvious. Its greatest virtue is economy. Wayne had considered a motorbike to get to school and leave Greta the car. "Mopar" is cheaper, safer, and has a roof to keep off the rain. In the meantime we have bought a new Fiat 125p for a family car. It is to be delivered
to us next week. After that we will have to decide the fate of "Mopar." The Liberians all say we must sell it because it is too small. Wayne likes it and enjoys playing
mechanic with it.

We are all in good health and are enjoying ourselves. It looks like our return to <
Liberia will not be as much a shock to our bodies as the first time. It took us all

several days to get over "jet lag," but we are on a good schedule now.

Please continue to pray for us. Let us hear from you by letter soon.
Love to all.

Missionaries: Wayne Meece Family Forwarding Agents: M/M Patrick G . Click

P.O. Box 437

Linn, Missouri 65051

HALLS FERRYCHRISTIAN CHURCH

12105 Old Halls Ferry Road

Florissant, Missouri 63033
President Tolbert of Liberia and President Jawora of Gambia visit

Buchanan For the Independence Daycelebration July 26. The Meeces were invited to a luncheon with the presidents.

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Ourhouse newly paintedorange w!tha red roof, blue foundoHon and a lavender front porch. "Mopar" is yellow.

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The new classrooms on the campus are almost ready for use, but we have decided not to move until next year.

Jui^nUi ^^nUtiojn
Buchanan, Liberia, West Africa
October, ;:l 97^
Dear Friends.

We are sorry that our first two newsletters were delayed, and hope that we can keep the news coming regularly. We do appre
ciate the support of all our friends in the U.S. and want to

keep you as well informed about our work as possible.

The third month of work since our return to Liberia is now be

hind us.

Our ninth grade and twelfth grade students are get

ting ready to take the national examination. This is an im portant event for them because this test is the major factor

in determining whether they pass. We will also begin plans for the graduation programs for the twelfth grade. This will
take place the first week of December, when the Libefian school year ends.

Our college program continues to struggle mainly because we do hot have enough teachers to fill out the program. We have ten
students this year which is much smaller than our enrollment in 1972 and 73. Many of the first students were either unable

to do the work or were not serious about school and dropped

out. The students we have now are good students and are de Our other students are school teachers, business

pendable. Two young men working with us are training for 'the ministry and we hope that they will be our first Bible college
graduates.

people and various occupations. They are all taking Bible classes along with the other subjects they study. Our Bible
classes are better attended than any class we offer.
Mr. Abba Karnga, director of the Christian Education Founda

tion of Liberia and Mission Director of the World-Wide Church,

has been in the UoSo recently and has visited several of our
churches in the St. Louis and Central Illinois area. He also

spoke at St. Louis Christian College and Lincoln Christian College. Brother Karnga is as fine a Christian man as I have
met anywhere in the world. He is dedicated to the Lord and to

helping his people.

He 1s also a man of considerable ability.

Several times he has turned down political appointments that

would be a promotion to him because he wanted to be.free of politics to help with his church work and Liberia Christian
College.

While at Lincoln Christian College, he talked with Max Ward Randall and Gerald Gibson about coming to the U.S. to study.

He was given a scholarship at Lincoln for one year for him

and his wife. If transportation and living costs in the U.Sv can be accounted for, and arrangements for his family to be
cared for here can be worked out, he will come to Lincoln per

haps next year to study one year.

than that.

He is so important to the

work here that we could not do without him for much longer

We ask that you pray with us about this because we feel that
the future of the work here must rest with men like him who

are dedicated to the Lord and their own peoplereach Africa for Christ is rare indeed.

It would be

easy to find dozens of people to come study in the US^S., but

a man with such zeal to serve the Lord and do something to

These last fews weeks have brought considerable tragedy to some of our Liberian brothers. Two weeks ago we received word that little Sidney Tarr, son of Byron and Anna Tarr, was almost drowned when he fell into a swimming pool near their home in Monrovia. At this writing, the little boy^ five years old, is still in a coma and is not really expected to live. Doctors fear that brain damage is severe, and if he lives he will be a complete invalid. The child has been near death several times but has continued to amaze tbe doctors by recov ering each time. Wayne has spent two days with Byron and Anna, trying to be of soijie help and comfort. Little Sidney
is a twin. He and his boother, Stanley, were born while Byron and Anna were students at the University of Illinois in 19d9.The tragedy is deepened In that his mother was In the hospital

having just given birth to a third son when the accident

happened,

Byron Tarr was the man who provided the contact through Gerald Gibson for us to come to Liberia and open the work here.
While in the U-S he attended the Webber Street Church of

Cnrist and was very active in the Christian Campus Foundation with Bro. Gibson. Byron's present job is Assistant Minister of Finance and is in charge of Income Tax for all of Liberia. He continues to live an exemplary life as a Christian among

collegues who rarely see such devotion to Christ in high places Pray with us for them; ask the Lord to guide and comfort in
this time of sorrow.

Further sadness came today when we learned that one of our high school graduates from last year, George Logan, was found dead
in the Lamco harbor. He worked there as a customs inspector

and had evidently fallen'from a ship and drowned. He has been missing for three days We dismissed school today and our
students went to escort the body to the grave. ! learned

later that they helped dig the grave and build the coffin.
The children are enjoying school this year at the Lamco Inter national School, They have a heavy school schedule with classes both morning and afternoon, and Tim even goes on Satur day. Wayne's schedule is full also, beginning at 7:30 and not ending some days until 8:00 in the evening with a short break in the middle of the day. Greta is teaching Bible In junior high and has a Sunday School class In the afternoon every Sunday, We feel more settled here than we did the year we were in the States, It was an enjoyable year, but now we feel more settled and at home with a more normal family life again.
Write to us. Letters have been few and far between, and radio contact with the States is not good now.
Love to all.

1.
ered

Abba Karnga surrounded by his family and friends who gath

to welcome him home from the- U,S.

2. James being pushed by a friend In his sidewalk taxi in Liberian English is pronounced "sawa tasi".)

(which

Missionaries: Wayne Meece Family Forwarding Agents: M/M Patrick G . Click

P .O. Box 437

Unn, Missouri 65051

HALLS FERRY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

12105 Old Halls Ferry Road Florissant, Missouri 63033

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Jld&iUi
November 197^
Dear Christian Friends,

0o^efc

Buchanan, Liberia, West Africa

Greetings from Liberia where the hot, dry season is coming upon us^as the rains decrease. Bright sunny days are more common now and we notice the heat much more. The year home and the cold winter will make this dry season a lot more uncomforatble for us

Today,Nov.4, is Thanksgiving Day.in Liberia. It is a national holiday set aside to give thanks to God for the blessings of a free nation and to remember the sacrifice of the early pioneers
who first settled in Liberia. I am sure the idea came from Amer

ican, but the Liberian people have attached their own meanings to the day. It is a rather quiet holiday here. There islnot much feasting like we have in America mostly because the people just cannot afford all that ex<tif:a food. We have also noticecl that most holidays in Liberia are not of much interest to the tribal people. Christmas is the one big exceptiono All the commercialism of 'civilization' is here and is much a part of
Christmas in Liberia.

We are making preparations for graduation. Our second annual commencement exercises will take place on the 1st of December. Our high school seniors have taken the national examination, and if they all pass, we will graduate nineteen seniors this yearc There will also be one graduate from the college. George Innis, one of our original students from the college,first year, will be granted a junior college degree. We will tell you more
about Mro Innis next month, but we are proud that we have produced our first graduate.

All ninth and twelfth grade students in Liberia must pass a National examination which is given each year in late October. Our students are now anxiously awaiting the results of the test they have taken.

Plnanciel report Aug. to Nov.17 1974

Alverda Chrlatlan Church Colchester Christian Church

50.00
i5o.ee

Christview Chrlstien Church

First Christian Church(Olll08ple) First Chrlstien Church(Carnegie)

HallsPerry Christian Church
Jeronesvlle Church of Christ

ll|.0.00
308.13 13U.93
2093.U5 5.88 500.00 311.0.00 Uo.oo

Kentucky Christian Colleg e

Modesto Qiristian Church
Metnorisl Christian Church
Oklahoir.a CSiurch of Christ

Pontoon Beach Church of Christ Pine Flats Chrlatlan Church

Uo.oo 80.00
75.00
60.00 30.00 60.00

Slate Valley Christian Oiurch

Tower Hill Christian Church

Oiuroh of Cbrist(weston) Expenditures

Bell Telephone
Kofail Oil Shell oil

August
121.05 5.82
8.12
19.10 23.71

Transportation

Olobe Dem.Publishing

Living Exp.

Office Exp.(postage,Misc.items)
Expenditures Office Exp.
Kastercharge Expenditures Oct.

1050.00
20,00

Sept.

Living Exp.Sctransportatlon

Blue cross medical ins^Aug.Sept.Oot.)

1300,00

138.00
30,00

8.00

Blue cross medlcel (Nov.Dec.)

SLCC Printing

Living Exp.& transportation

Office Exp.
Expenditures Nov.

97.05 38.80 671.00

20.00

kid

Living Exp.

Office Exp.(misc.items,shipping)

600.00
100.00

Pictures;

Bassa County schools in military formation for a U.N. Day

parade. LCHS is dressed in dark trousers and white shirts.

Bobby Joe, one of our better senior students,

There has been little change in the condition of little Sid

ney Tarr who has been in a coma since he fell in a swimming pool and almost droundo He is still alive, and his physical
condition has not changed much in the last month. The

doctors gave up hope of asving his life, but to everyone's has been permanent and massive brain damagec Byron and Anna
Tarr continue to need your prayers.

surprise, he has survived. The greatest fear is that there

Brother Abba Karnga's visit to the U.S. has brought us a

great deal of encouraging news about new recruits for the work. At least two new couples have indicated their inter

est in the work and we hope that one of the couples will try to come within the next year. At this writing we have
no definite commitment directly from them, so we will not use their names at this time. Please pray with us that the Lord wi11 open doors and provide the way for theme

Wayne and Anna Shaw are now back in the states, and Wayne is s:tudying at Ozarks Bible College, Anna was not in good health when she left and continues to have trouble with a kidney in-fectipn that troubled her much here. They have told us that they want to^return to Liberia if Anna's health problem

can be solved. We share this with you as a matter of prayer. Pat Click tells me that he has been able to solve our print
ing problem, so we hope that we can have the newsletter

our ham radio set to keep in touch with Mr, Click, our
area.

comming each month now with regularity. We have been using

forwarding agent, and also our friends in the St. Louis

We deeply appreciate the prayers and support of our many

friends. Continue to be prayer partners with uso
Love to al1,

Missionaries: Wayne Meece Family

Forwarding Agents: M/M Patrick G . Click

P .O . Box 437

Unn, Missouri 65051

HALLS FERRY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

12105 Old Halls Ferry Road

Florissant, Missouri 63033

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Buchanan, Liberia, West Africa
December 1974

Dear Friends in Christ,

This has been the "week that was", and next week looks like i t will be just as full of excitment as this one has been. This week began with our second annual commencement for the high school and the first for the college.

We are very proud of the progress that has been made in the high school program. We now feel that after four years the high school program is firmly established and recognized and that now we can begin to focus more attention on the college program which is laging behine because of lack of teachers, and student interest, especially qualified ones. With more graduates from the high school coming each year now, we will soon see the latter problem solved, and we trust the Lord to open the way for more help in the teaching program.
More about that l a t e r .

Commencement this year was a big event. We even made the headlines in the national daily newspaper. The Liberian Star. Senator Joshua L. Harmon, the senator from Grand Bassa County, was the speaker for Commencement and the Honerable Joseph M. N. Gbadyu, Supervisor of schools for the county presented the diploma to the first graduate of Liberia Christian College.
There were fourteen students in the high school graduating class this

year (fifteen last year). There were five others who did not gradu ate because of low grades in school and on the national exam. We were proud that the Valedictorian for the class, Bobby Joe, scored among the highest of all the students in the co\antry who took the exam this year. There were more than 500 people in attendance at
the ceremonies. We feel that our contribution to education in the

county is important because there were only six in the graduating class of the lone government high school in the county. We also feel that it is important that the high school feed our college with qualified and dedicated young people^who can be challenged and
trained as church as well as civic leaders of Liberia tomorrow.

The Liberian people tell a story about the duck and the chicken.

They say

that everybody likes chicken eggs because the chicken always makes noise

and shows pride in the egg it produces, but the duck just lays its egg and

goes away saying nothing and showing no pride in what it has done, so everybody likes chicken eggs, but nobody eats duck eggs. The application is simple;
if you take pride in what you do, others will take notice of it and like it

too.

We are proud that Liberia Christian College has now graduated its first

student, and (if you will excuse me for mixing metaphors) I believe we have

not, in the American idiom, "laid an egg". George Innis was granted an Associate of Science Degree, which is a two-year junior college degree with
a broad general curriculiam and, in his case, a major in Bible. Mr. Innis is an older man in his early fifties and operates a drug store in town. His graduation has brought a lot of attention to the school and has demonstrated
that we mean business.

In addition to all the school activities, we have had house guests all week. Mrs. Esther Howard from World-Wide Missions International of California, has

been staying with us this week.

The Liberian people asked if we would help

them with this because they have difficulty preparing American food which they feel a "new stranger" must have. We are happy to help them with this.' In addition, we have been feeding another missionary couple here to see Mrs. Howard and on a short vacation. They were with us for meals for three
days.

If the Lord is willing, tomorrow we will begin a trip into the bush and

will be there for eight days.

where the high forest is still are elephants there as well as teaching and preaching for the of Liberia. This group is the

We will drive about 180 miles to a village

standing. We have been told that there other larger forest animals. We will be annual conferences of the World-Wide Mission strongest supporter of Liberia Christian

called Doedin, deep in the interior and one of the few places in Liberia

College, and they have allowed us to use their school-church building as a meeting place for the high school and college for four years now without
charge.
I have been asked to teach classes to the older men and church leaders on

the subject of stewardship.

Brother Abba Karnga, the most able leader of

this group, has told me that he believes that a strong stewardship program
is one of the great needs of the church in Liberia. There will be about 500 people at this conference; some of them will walk

three to five days one way through the bush to get there. The conference, like the North American Christian Convention, is mainly a preaching and teaching time with a minimum of business. This is a great opportunity for us to reach the real leaders with some strong Bible training. We
will tell you all about it and have some pictures next month.

School is over for this year except for grade cards which cannot be passed out yet because the President is coming to town and we are to hold grade cards so the students have to stay in town to march for him. The dry season months of December, January and February will be taken up with preparing and moving to the campus
There are a few jobs to be completed and then we will be able to have school there next year.

There was good news from home this week. We have a new recruit, William Ayers, a black man from the Christian Church in Youngstown, Ohio. Mr. Ayers is a native of Liberia, but he went to the U.S. as a teenager and has lived there since. He has a lot

of experience as a teacher suid will be able to help a great deal in our education program. More about him later.

We are very optomistic about next year. The Lord is really open ing doors and moving in a wonderful way.
We send our greetings for Christmas and the New Year. You can

feel sorry for us as we will be far from home, but we will feel sorry for you as we enjoy the beach and the sun on Christmas Day. God bless you very much for your prayers and support.
Love in Christ,

The Meeces

Pictures

1.

Mr. George Innis is presented the first degree from Liberia Christian College, by Joseph Gbadyu.
Senator Harmon, Commencement speaker.

2,

Missionaries: Wayne Meece Family Forwarding Agents: M/M Patrick G . Click

P ,0 , Box 437

Linn, Missouri 65051

HALLS FERRY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

12105 Old Halls Ferry Rood

Florissant, Missouri 63033

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