(Taken from kelsiezern.wordpress.com)

If you haven’t heard already, my mom and I are headed to Liberia, West Africa in a few, short days!

Let me give you a brief summary of how this all came about. A few years back, after crossing paths on a road trip to South Dakota, Greta (my mom’s friend from college) and her husband Eddie (from Liberia) and my mom began a conversation around what it would look like to bless Eddie’s home community. After many phone calls, prayers and federal paperwork, Covenant International was born in order to build Covenant Mission Academy (CMA), an official school building.

My mom has traveled to Liberia twice; January 2022 and March 2023. This time around, I have the honor of joining her. Covenant Ministries Inc. is a local church that operates an official school. Covenant International’s project is called Hope Builds: to build a school building for CMA. Some of the biggest hurdles in Liberia are education and real estate. Hope Builds focuses on raising money for land (just purchased at the end of 2024!), building the school, and supporting and working with locals, teachers, and leaders etc. While we are there, our time in country will be spent continuing to build upon the relationships with CMA board members and teachers, doing lessons in the school with the students (playing games, reading, etc) and praying, leaning into the voice of God about what is next.

What’s my part in all of this? Great question and I am glad you asked! First, this has been a lifetime dream of my mom’s to start her own non-profit and it has been amazing to watch her pour into this passion project. This is important to her and I want to be a part of it! We have always talked about going to Africa together one day. And then, since the founding of Covenant International that specifically I would go to Liberia with her. With my graduation being at a sort of an awkward time of year, I felt like I have some flexibility and it presented the perfect opportunity to go. In addition, my degree is in marketing and advertising, and I look forward to achieving another goal of mine while I am there: focusing some efforts on how we can build Covenant International’s social media presence. It will be so helpful to create content after being on the ground, getting to experience daily life and projects there first hand. It will give me a better grasp on how I can assist in creating a strong online presence. And I am just excited to serve and to meet these people my mom has been talking about for years!

Ways you can be praying if you think of us!!!

Safe and smooth travels (Jan 6 – Jan 23)
Good health (we have our anti-malaria pills and necessary vaccines but still…)
Cultural awareness and sensitivity, and navigating cross-cultural communications
That we all would be encouraged, especially the school kids in their education and discipleship
Hope Builds campaign/project
Conversation and relationship building with CMA board