Roots Report – Sierra Leone

RESTORING HOPE IN SIERRA LEONE

By Cindy Wiles

The African choir, swaying in smooth rhythmic soul, sang from the rich depths of wounded and tested  hearts, “I need you, you need me, we are together, a family…I love you, you love me, working together in God’s family,” as the friends and partners of Restore Hope: Sierra Leone gathered in the conference room for the dedication and grand opening of the Hope Center on October 8, 2010.  Members of FBC Arlington were sprinkled throughout the sea of African faces that filled the room.  The salt and pepper crowd, representing government ministries, partner organizations, co-laborers in the Kingdom, neighbors and friends had all come to celebrate the completion of a building that will serve as a base for Restore Hope ministries.   FBCA cross-cultural workers are primary drivers of ministries that flow from the center which include dental ministry, a skills training center, computer technology classroom, volunteer housing and missionary residence.  Situated on the peninsula of Jui – a suburb of Freetown, the densely populated capital of Sierra Leone, the Hope Center, surrounded by the Lion Mountains overlooks the campus of the Evangelical College of Theology on one side and on the other side a beautiful river that empties into the sea.

A pause that looks beyond the lush green vegetation reveals a stark contrast between the impoverished communities of wounded and unreached people who struggle to etch out a living while embedded in the thick growth of the natural environment.  The Jui Peninsula itself reports a 90% unemployment rate and a growing AIDS population which has become a target focus of health care workers in the nation.  FBCA members Mike Steiger, Chris Bowerman and Cindy Wiles met with local leaders of the Jui Dynamic Youth Association who are seeking to address healthcare issues, youth at risk issues, economic development issues and implement job skills training programs for men and women in the area.  Nearby communities such as Grafton, the site of FBCA missionary residence, is a community of the wounded – filled with amputees, war widows, orphans and child-soldiers – many of them still drug addicted – gathered together in one small geographic region where they were camped for rehabilitation and placement after the civil war.

FBCA workers, Ron and Sharon Hill and Gabriel and Sada Herrera, are members of a partnership team called Hope Team – seeking to restore hope in Sierra Leonean people through transformational ministries.  While physical and emotional need cannot be ignored, the Hope Team works toward implementation of holistic ministries that lead individuals, families and communities toward sustainable heath and hope in Christ.  Alongside other Hope Team members – Christine Conanan (Philippines), Chuck Luke, (GA, USA), Donald Conteh (Sierra Leone), Bobson Ali (Sierra Leone), Alfred Kargbo (Buckner International, Sierra Leone) and Tom and Becki Brockelman (FBC McKinney, TX) – the Hills and Herrera’s are involved in a large partnership that addresses a broad spectrum of strategies.  With spiritual transformation as an overarching strategy, the team also carries out ministries of healthcare, youth at risk programs, development, skills training, educational enhancement, partnership interests and orphan and family care.

The dedication ceremony had representatives from several partner organizations to include Buckner International (USA), The Evangelical College of Theology (SL), New Era Evangelism and Development Program (SL), The University of Texas at Arlington, The University of Sierra Leone, Fourah Bay College,  Pioneers and PRH – Restore Hope, Inc.   Also among the attendees were representatives from the War Widows Association in Grafton, a neglected and abused population segment who received the ministry of Nancy Jordan and other FBCA female volunteers who introduced quilting skills to produce quilted products that will be marketed by Baptist Global Response through the WorldCraft Market of the Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) in North America.

Dr. Wiles, in his keynote address to the attendees stated, Sierra Leone needs hope:

H – Health (physical, emotional, psychological, family, spiritual)

O – Opportunity (for education, employment, health and development)

P – Progress (toward a brighter future)

E – Eternity (not only eternal perspective – but eternal life which can only be found in Jesus)

Like the base of a diving board extending over the depths of the water, the Hope Center is a fixed point from which ministries can spring into the rural provinces.  The provinces are the home of not only Sierra Leon’s poorest and most underserved population segments – but also the home of 12 of the least reached peoples and 31 unreached people groups.  Groups classified as unreached have less than 2% evangelical Christian adherents among them and no strong reproducing indigenous church.  While gospel access is prevalent in Freetown – due to religious and geographic isolation, many of the provinces remain unreached.  Chuck Luke, a Pioneers missionary on the Hope Team, will begin scouting these geographically isolated areas to establish a ministry base where he will utilize community health evangelism to take the gospel and health to the people.  Gabriel and Sada Herrera will also be engaging these provinces through evangelism, church planting and medicine.  Many of the Fulani in the north are now accessing the gospel through radio broadcast in their language, supported by the GCPN network.

GCPN is the non-government organization (NGO) through which many of the ministries of the partnership are channeled. But it is only one of many partners who are working together to bring hope to Sierra Leone.  The partnership of churches, faith communities and organizations is greatly needed.   Whether your skill is sewing or civil engineering, teaching or drilling, welding or heathcare, social work or agriculture, coaching or counseling – there is a place for you in Restore Hope: Sierra Leone.  For more information on FBCA volunteer opportunities contact Jerimiah Smith at Jerimiah.smith@fbca.org or for a more extensive list of opportunities contact  the GCPN office at info@gcpn.org