Joni Byker reports from Liberia.

I was privileged to travel to River Gee County a couple of weeks ago to gather stories from our health program. This county is in the southeastern part of Liberia, and it was my first time seeing it! It was great to get to know the trained community health volunteers and to hear how their training has made a difference!

The program focuses on health for children 5 years old and younger, as well as pregnant women. Since the program has begun, there have been zero deaths in children under 5 in our communities! Praise God!

Our Church-based Livelihood Program continues to grow and expand. We are currently expanding into three more communities in the Bokomu District, which is an unreached area we have been working in for over a year. A road was recently made to reach these communities, and I am excited to be able to empower and teach the women in Bokomu!

Currently, in all of Liberia, we have 814 women attending classes.

A few months ago, it was announced that Liberia is hosting its first marathon! In addition to the marathon is a 10k run—equivalent to 6 miles.

Right now there are over 40 Samaritan’s Purse staff who have signed up to run this event (the 10k, not the marathon), including myself. Training at a regular schedule has been very difficult considering all of my traveling up country, but yesterday, we had a practice run of 3 miles and I felt great!

Please be in prayer for all of our staff. We have made the transition from dry season to rainy season, and with that comes many colds and especially malaria. Two of our expats (and maybe a third) have contracted malaria this week alone. Another expat staff member had a motorbike accident (is OK, just very sore), and another broke her hand.

I know Satan can use many ways and devices to attack our team, and this can also be one of them. Please pray for health and safety for us as we do our work here in Liberia.

This week I am heading out to the bush with our new intern Jamie and our new volunteer Nikelle to help with Vacation Bible School follow up. Please continue to pray for our VBS team as it is the first program to enter into these communities, giving us the opportunity to impact these kids!