Communicating Visually

I’ve always heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. When you’re in a place where you don’t even know a thousand words of the local language, this phrase takes on new meaning.

Photo gallery →

During my time overseas, I have seen how photography can communicate the Lord’s heart for people more profoundly than anything else. A photograph crosses all barriers, especially language barriers. I could sit with a Chinese woman, and we could look at the same photograph, and it could speak the same message to both of us, regardless of what language we speak.

This month, I hope to use photos to show you the importance of what God is doing at African Bible College in Yekepa, Liberia.

Liberia’s story is one of conflict, tragedy, and a long journey to recovery. More than 250,000 people died during the country’s 14-year civil war—many of them Christian leaders.

After a comprehensive peace agreement was signed in 2003, the country slowly began reviving its educational system, stimulating its troubled economy, and counseling its children, many of whom had been forced to become child soldiers. The church is also reassembling. But it’s not only physical things like church structures that need to be rebuilt. It’s Christian leadership as well.

By rebuilding the African Bible College, Samaritan’s Purse is helping to establish the spiritual foundation of this country. The school was formerly one of the top Bible colleges in Africa, with two other branches in Malawi and Uganda. When the war came, Liberian President Charles Taylor was unable to compensate his troops to fight for him, so he gave them "permission" to loot whatever they could find for their payment. The result at the college was 22 completely destroyed buildings. Everything was taken—every inch of wire, steel from the rooftops, and even sewer pipes were dug up to sell.



In this photo, a grand piano that used to sit in the school’s chapel is now only a skeleton after looters stripped it to the frame.

A few years ago, ABC founder Jack Chinchen, an American missionary, returned to Yekepa to see what had happened to the college during the war. The campus had become so dilapidated that the college’s sign had been reclaimed by tall grass and plant life.




A campus that had once been tirelessly maintained was now overgrown and abandoned. Jack’s son and daughter-in-law, who had accompanied him to Yekepa, committed to reopening the college in September 2008. Samaritan's Purse has partnered with the family by rebuilding eight of the school’s buildings.

So much work has gone into clearing the bush around all 22 buildings, and things are now moving along nicely. There are six, possibly seven, teams coming from the U.S. to assist with the rebuilding process this year. My main responsibility is to coordinate and take care of housing, meals, transportation, and activities for the teams while they are here.