"Liberia's motto has always intrigued me...'For the Love of Liberty brought us here.' It has always been their boast to be the first African nation that was free, all the others having first been colonised. Actually this has been to their disadvantage since they had no strong Western influence to educate, support, and give them a good basis from which to work and grow. To the contrary, they have always been a poor nation, proud to be free, but wholly enslaved to the animistic traditions which they tenaciously hold." The Liberian civil war erupted in December 1989, when the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), a military force led by Charles Ghankay Taylor, a former official of the Liberian government, invaded Liberia from the Ivory Coast. He received the assistance of mercenaries from other nations, with many recruits from the Mano and Gio ethnic groups. The Baghurst family found themselves in the path of this force and for a time found themselves captives. During their experience they learned that the "angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them" (Psalm 34:7). This is that story.