“For all the saints, who from their labors rest”

During the last week in October the pastors and evangelists of the ELCSL gathered together in Njala for training, education, and conversation about the life of the church.   At the close of our time together, the evangelist from Momajo, Mr. Abdul Collier, shared that he was somewhat nervous before coming to Njala because he had dreamed about the event.  In his dream, he saw that the training would take place as planned, but there would be a major barrier or obstacle in the process.   By the time Mr. Collier spoke, we all knew that his dream had been remarkably prescient.   The training took place, but with a different schedule and mood than anticipated.

Rev. Juliet Rodgers Pearce, pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Kissy, Freetown.

On  Tuesday night, shortly after all the participants had finally arrived in Njala,  ELCSL Pastor Juliet Rogers-Pearce became  ill.   We attended to her as best we could, but it was clear that her condition was quickly becoming critical.    We sent for a car to transport her to the Njala hospital.   Pastor Juliet died within moments of arriving there.

Members of the ELCSL community gathered in shock, grief, and somber silence at the Njala hospital that night.  “Ah, life” was the sorrowful refrain I heard over and over as we sat together.  Phone calls were made to family and friends, and arrangements were made to transport the body to a mortuary in Freetown that night.    Another ELCLS pastor, Lynton Gomoh, along with the evangelist from St. Paul, were charged with making that journey.    Like many African women, Juliet was the primary caretaker for many extended family members.  She was Pastor Lynton’s foster mother and a main source of support for him as he trained to become a pastor.   Her death was especially shocking for Lynton that night.

In the context of a nation with little to offer in terms of medical care, quick and sudden deaths like this are common.   Pastor Juliet had a recent history of heart problems, and had consulted a medical practitioner the day before we traveled to Njala.  When she shared word of her most recent diagnosis  and the treatment she was receiving, I wondered at the time whether or not she was receiving proper care and advice.   And while the Njala hospital is a fine, new facility serving a university community, I saw no medical equipment for emergency cases.   My basic sense is that there is nothing that could have been done in that context to prevent her death.

A life-long Christian, Juliet had been one of the original evangelists trained to serve in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone in 1989 and 1990. On more than one occasion she made reference to things she had learned in those long ago training sessions, and she shared her eagerness to learn more at our Njala meeting.  In the early days of the ELCSL, she was a determined and feisty woman among a cadre of male colleagues.  Her dedication to service, to learning, and to the life of the church bore the fruit of her ordination as a pastor in 2006.

Mr. Abdul Collier, lay evangelist from St. Andrew Lutheran Church in the village of Momajo. He is new to this role and among the next generation of ELCSL leaders. He is participating here in a training exercise on the Lutheran liturgy. His quick and heartfelt smile signifies for me a joy and graciousness rooted in faith, even amidst the sorrow of death.

There are many traditional African beliefs and practices related to death and the afterlife which I am learning in these days.  Overall though, I have been most struck by the resonance of the gospel across time and place and culture.  From Corinth to the U.S. to Sierra Leone, the good news of Jesus Christ is the same:   “for this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying this is written will be fulfilled:   Death has been swallowed up in victory.  Where O death is your victory?  Where, O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (1 Corinthians 15:53-57)

Truth while Driving

Trucks and buses in Sierra Leone often proclaim a message.

Driving back to the ELCSL offices through Freetown the other day, a policeman standing by the side of the road signaled that my driver should pull over and stop.  We pulled up behind a line of stopped cars, and the policeman came over to inspect our vehicle.  I’ve been in Freetown long enough to know that we were about to begin playing a game calling for good negotiation skills and the will to endure.   The basic reality is that the traffic police are always looking for some extra income, and drivers will often pay the officer for any violations or infractions identified in that moment rather than go to the police station or to court.  Poda-poda bus drivers and taxi drivers are especially subject to these police stops as a cost of doing business.  I’ve seen police with long wooden boards attached to a strap and studded with large nails, designed and used to prohibit the movement of buses and taxis.

Typical bus on the Freetown - Bo road. This one is carrying a smaller load than many.

The policeman who stopped us did a cursory inspection of the car and then asked my driver Abu for his license.  Abu apologized profusely and explained that he had forgotten it at home that morning.  A long and animated conversation followed.  I decided to sit it out and not get involved, although I was consulted at a couple of points.  In the meantime, I watched as a British friend was also pulled over and then waved on.   After 20 minutes, the police gave in and let us go without gaining the hoped for reward.

Once we were down the road and around the corner, Abu pulled his driver’s license out of his pocket to show me:  he had it all along.  He explained more about the game at hand.  Abu said that the policeman who pulled us over knew him, and knew very well that he had a driving license.  Abu further explained that if he were to show his license the police would confiscate it, and then even more time and effort as well as money would be needed to get the license back.

Stories abound about being stopped by the police.  When I shared my recent experience, one friend said that when she refused to release her license into the hands of the police, she was charged with failure to cooperate.  And so it goes.   It seems that quick thinking and creative talking are required in every case;  conventional wisdom suggests that politely and pleasantly ignoring the implied request for a bribe is in order, along with a professed willingness to go to the police station when the possibility  is raised.

Third in my growing collection of messages seen while driving.

While there is much that might be said about systemic corruption and underlying economic problems,  for today I would simply note that humor goes a long way in helping Sierra Leoneans cope with the challanges of everyday living.  Here is a typical Sierra Leonean joke reflecting the culture and context:    A priest was driving home on his motorcycle one night and he was pulled over by a policeman.  The policeman asked for the priest’s license and then carefully inspected the entire motorcycle with a keen eye for any possible violation.  Time went past and the police officer was frustrated because he couldn’t find any reason to pressure the priest for money.  Finally the policeman said:  “Father, it’s getting late and it’s dark. Aren’t you afraid to be driving alone at night?”  The priest responded,  “There’s no reason to be afraid –  I’m really not traveling alone.  I travel with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”   And the policeman said, “Well in that case, I’ll have to charge you for overloading your vehicle.”   In Sierra Leone, this joke draws a laugh every time.

Holy Ground

“Our first task in approaching another people, another culture, another religion, is to take off our shoes and walk gently, for the place we are approaching is holy… else we may find ourselves treading on another’s dream.  More serious still, we may forget… that God was there before our arrival.”

A friend sent me this quote many years ago when I was living in the Islamic-Christian-Arab-African context of Sudan.  Since those long ago days I have come across this passage on a number of occasions; it offers simple wisdom for cross cultural living in a new and foreign land.

The choir of St. Anthony Lutheran Church in Yegele. They made their own choir robes patterned on ones sent from the NTNL. The church building is a typical mud brick structure and a work in progress.

When I was in the village of Yegele last week I found myself walking on holy ground, amidst a people of faith sustained and

“Pa Blake” is the founding evangelist for St. Anthony’s Lutheran Church. He is “an old man” and in poor health.  I was moved that he was able to worship with us.

blessed by the abiding spirit of God.   St. Anthony’s Lutheran Church was planted in Yegele some 20 years ago, part of a cluster of 3 congregations established in the area at that time.  This congregation has never been served by an ordained pastor,  but leadership and inspiration have been provided by lay evangelists from the community.  My visit provided the opportunity to celebrate baptisms and holy communion — for the first time ever in that church.

God’s grace was poured out in abundance that morning at St. Anthony’s as I baptized almost the entire congregation:  71 worshippers of all ages!  Then we shared God’s gifts of bread and drink, and God’s people were fed for the first time in their own church home.   It was rich and meaningful to be among  the members of this community of faith and to see the visible signs of God’s presence shared there.   I was speaking English and the evangelist (James Vandy) translated my words into Mende, but the traditions of our faith tell us that water, bread and drink speak the ultimate language of God’s love and forgiveness.  (In the absence of wine for communion, we used a local, red colored cola.)

This transcendent language of God’s grace was spoken that same morning at St. Andrew’s in Momajo (served by Pr. Moses K. Momoh visiting from St. Mark’s in Freetown), and Grace in Jimmi (with Pr. Edward Lavally visiting from King of Glory in Njala).   Altogether, 142 Lutheran Christians were baptized in these  neighboring congregations, and worship that day truly was a foretaste of the feast to come when “a great multitude from all nations, tribes, people’s and languages will gather before the throne and before the Lamb.”  (Rev. 7:9)

Mother and daughter: 2 of 54 baptized by Pastor Moses in Momajo. Same mother and daughter were pictured at the ELCSL assembly in my Sept. 9 posting.

Traveling Mercies: African Hospitality

Over the past few months some of the youth and women of the ELCSL have made valiant attempts to supplement my Krio learning with lessons in the Mende language.  I am familiar with basic greetings at this point although my tongue still twists whenever I attempt to say certain Mende words.  There is one word, however, that I know quite well and will remember for a long time to come:  pumwe.

I first learned the word “pumwe” driving through Njala some months ago.  I heard it all along the way during travels last week to 10 provincial ELCSL congregations in a region dominated by the Mende tribe.   Every time we drove through a village and the children saw me riding in the car, they waved and shouted “pumwe.”   This Mende word for white person was proclaimed with wonder, curiosity and excitement.

Waving to the pumwe in Yegele.

On Saturday night, I stayed with 2 Lutheran colleagues  in a village called Yegele.   On the way to Yegele, we dropped off members of the ELCSL team in two other villages.   Every time we stopped, we were warmly greeted by members of the Lutheran community and promptly fed a wonderful meal of newly harvested rice and stew.  And of course the children we met in each of these villages were curious and excited  about the newly arrived pumwe.   Most of the time the children I met were bold in their willingness to approach and interact with me,  but when I was being playful towards the children in Momajo, they ran away screaming and crying in fear.  Still, by the time I left the village and when I returned the next day, I had about 25 new little friends who followed me everywhere.

First of many meals shared over 4 days while visiting Lutheran churches "up country." This meal of rice with cassava leaves was at Faith Lutheran Church in Senehun.

By the time we arrived in Yegele on Saturday night, we had already eaten four or five times that day.   Traditional Mende hospitality provided yet one more meal that evening, as well as snacks of fried plaintain and roasted groundnuts.  As we sat on the porch of our host’s home through the evening hours, children started to gather.  I learned that I was the first white person ever to visit Yegele, and I was a subject of great curiosity for the children especially.  In fact, I was the entertainment for the evening, and all I had to do was sit  on the porch to draw an attentive, youthful crowd.   Ten children became twenty, and twenty became thirty, and soon the porch was overflowing with more and more kids.  My adult companions were amused, especially when parents came calling for their children in the dark of the night.  One bold boy named Baba Musa spoke a little English and was quite confident in trying to talk with me.  I sang and did the motions for “head, shoulders, knees and toes;” he followed along and had the other kids join in.  Later, the children sang songs in Mende for me.

My goat. I left him in Njala. The goat may provide meals for pastors and evangelists when we meet for a training session in 2 weeks.

When we departed from Yegele on Sunday afternoon after worshipping at St. Anthony’s Lutheran Church, Mende traditions blessed me again:   I was given a goat in thanksgiving for my visit.   The goat traveled in the back of my vehicle as we made our way over the next day and a half to Bo, Bumpeh, and Njala before heading back to Freetown.  More food and traditional hospitality graced us on the way.  In Bumpeh, members of the ELCSL team were greeted by the paramount chief, and we processed through the town with drums and singing.  In addition to the traditional meal there, and some newly harvested rice to bring home,  I was given yet another traditional gift — a hammock.   It promises to be well used once I figure out where to hang it.  In the meantime, I give thanks for abundant traveling mercies!   And I’ll post more pictures and stories about all these things  next week.

The road to Yegele had one unexpected stop. My car is an Isuzu Rodeo with four wheel drive, but the wheel base was a bit too low for this spot. Amazingly (with a little help from the second car in our Lutheran caravan, and a tow rope from down the road), we eventually made it through the mud.

Raising the Roof: Jubilee Center progress report

I stopped by the Jubilee Center the other day to see what is happening there, and watched in amazement as the construction workers raised the roof.  The Jubilee Center is a good-size building.  In the U.S., such work might be done with cranes and lifts but here the work depends completely on the physical strength and coordination of the laborers.

At the end of September half the roof over the sanctuary was completed.

When Bishop Barnett told me he had seen the roofers at work the other day, he also mentioned that the work was hard and somehow dangerous; good balance, a certain fearlessness, and an ability to work together are required for the job.

Every panel was manually lifted into place.

In watching the workers go about their business, the construction process reflects a basic fact of life:  nothing is particularly easy here, but much is possible.

"Like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds on it." (1 Cor.3:10)

Considerable progress has been made in the overall construction of this project since I arrived in February.  New buildings are springing up all over Freetown but the size and scale of the Jubilee Center make it a bit unique.

The completion of the roof — expected this week — will mark a significant step in the establishment of a  Lutheran landmark in the heart the  city.

The Jubilee Center is on Tower Hill in the heart of Freetown.

Let there be light?

Sunday during breakfast, the electricity went off, and the power was off until Monday around 9:30 pm.  The electricity has been on and off since then, and the office is running on a generator as I write this.   These power outages are not particularly unusual (and we do better than some neigborhoods) but the reality of regular powerlessness sets the context for a topic of conversation in Freetown these days.

Back in April, the president of Sierra Leone promised that the long awaited Bumbuna hydroelectrical system would soon be working and that Freetown would have reliable light and power at last.  Then we were told yes… but not yet.  News reports indicated the system would go on-line late in the rainy season, after there was sufficient water to fuel the turbines.  After waiting 35 years for the completion of this project, no one was surprised to wait awhile longer.

In the face of many difficulties including ongoing post-war recovery, the government of Sierra Leone is trying to envision and work towards a better future. This billboard can be seen throughout the country. Thanks to Jim Laesch of Lutheran Bible Translators for the photo.

Headlines in July and August proclaimed the successful completion of the Bumbuna project, and the president was pictured in the news as having officially thrown the switch to generate power for the capital city and outlying districts.  Still, Freetown remained in the dark.  News reports and rumors explained that throwing the switch at Bumbuna simply allowed the authorities to begin testing the system.  The fully operational power system was promised soon.   Freetown continued to wait, still in the dark.    Again in mid-September,  we began to hear news that Bumbuna power was coming, and radio announcements indicated that Freetown would emerge from darkness neighborhood by neighborhood.   Government officials once again traveled to the hydroelectric station and officially commissioned Bumbuna.  Headlines on Sept. 18 proclaimed the completion of the 35 year old project — a solid accomplishment for the government of the day.

The other night after the sun had gone down, I was sitting on my porch enjoying a breeze from the bay and listening to my ipod.   The electricity was off that night, and I was burning a candle for some light.  As the guard was doing his nightly rounds, he saw the light from my porch and came by to chat.  He joked, “Pastor, I saw the light and thought you had Bumbuna power.”

When President Koroma addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in NY last week, he was quoted as saying “We  are already delivering on our priorities…. we have completed the hydro-electric project which is supplying clean, affordable power to Freetown for the first time….”   Last night as I sat outside once again in  the dark,  the guard came by  and echoed what I have been hearing for weeks.  Sierra Leoneans are quite astounded,  even angry, to hear  the nation’s president repeat the same empty words about the Bumbuna project.    Most people are resigned to the reality of waiting another month or two or more for abundant, clean and affordable power, and they simply wish the government would stop making proclamations about it.   George also said that many people in Freetown don’t really care about Bumbuna power in any case, as they are too poor to be able to afford electricity in their homes.  What people really want, he said, is food and jobs.

Youthful worship and praise: powered by the Spirit

Against this backdrop of Sierra Leonean life and times, the Lutheran Youth Organization of the northwestern region met in assembly last weekend under the theme “We are called to be salt and light for the world.”  These young adults continue to inspire with their energy, commitment and  faith.   Having lived through war and living now with educational, economic and employment challenges, they know and celebrate the true light of Christ shining in the darkness.  These young people want to make a difference in their church and in the world.  Together they give thanks for the trustworthy promise of life and light that is ours in Christ.  They went back to their homes empowered by the Spirit shared in bible study, worship, singing, dancing, and time spent together.  Called to be light,  the youth of ELCSL continue to be shining , hopeful and faithful witnesses.

Cost of living

On a day to day basis, the staff of the ELCSL are my teachers, translators and interpreters of all things Sierra Leonean.  Much of what I have learned about life in this country I have learned from them.   A couple of my colleagues are working especially hard to make certain that I continue to learn and speak Krio (I have to admit they have a challenge).

Phyllis Brewah, ELCSL treasurer and Doris Tucker, church secretary

Like many foreigners in Sierra Leone, I travel often in the company of my own driver.   My driver is Abu, and he has been a good tutor in the ways of moving around  a city with no stop signs, traffic lights or  street markers.  A former taxi driver, he knows his way around the town and country.  From him I have learned how to navigate congested round-abouts and crowded city streets with a certain calculated assertiveness.  From him I have learned how and when to use the car’s horn (often seems to be the rule).  He has shown me the best routes to take when I drive myself, and he has a keen ear for sounds that signify the need for car repairs.

Abu also offers great insights about the cost of living in Sierra Leone. From him  I have learned the difficulty of making ends meet and providing for a family in Freetown.     Working as a driver, Abu earns about $70/month.   His wife teaches at a Catholic primary school and possibly earns a slightly higher salary.    Jobs are scarce in this economy and they both are thankful to be working.  They have 4 children, including a daughter born this summer by emergency cesarean section.   Abu’s mother in law also lives in the household, along with other extended family members I have yet to meet.   Just days before his daughter was born, Abu told me he was looking for a room to rent during the week, as he lives quite some distance from the ELCSL offices and the cost of public transport was eating too much of his income. (Depending on connections he might spend $1/day to take a series of poda-poda minibuses.)

One way to measure the standard of living in Sierra Leone is to calculate the purchasing power of a salary against the cost of one bag of rice.   Rice is the most important part of the Sierra Leonean diet, often served with cassava or potato leaves, or groundnut stew with fish.   Given the amount of rice a household consumes in a month,  families traditionally purchase rice in large quantities.   Rice has averaged $30 – $40/for a 50 kilogram bag in recent months.   The poorest families are able to afford rice by the cup.  Abu tells me he can afford to buy half a bag of rice at a time, and that the family stretches this by mixing it with bulghur wheat.

Abu, wife Bernadette, and newborn daughter "little Kate." I am honored that she was given my name.

Celebration of the birth of Abu’s daughter was initially subdued by the difficulties of the labor and delivery and the ultimate need  for emergency surgery.   In a nation with the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, we gave thanks that the cesarean operation was successful and mother and child came through it well.  But the costs incurred were staggering for a family that lives carefully and humbly day-to-day.   (One of the reasons the maternal mortality rate is so high is because most women cannot afford to pay for medical care and so avoid hospitals and doctors until they are in critical condition.)

When I first came to Sierra Leone, the exchange rate was 3000 leones to the dollar.   Today the rate is about LE 3900 – $1.  Prices have increased about 20% for many items in the past 2 months, and everyone is concerned that the leone will continue to lose value and prices will continue to rise.   In this economy, everyone is trying to stretch their few leones as far as possible, so spending even 1000 or 2000 leones  (25  or 50 cents)  is not done lightly.

I am conscious on a daily basis of the gap between my own standard of living and that of the average Sierra Leonean.  I have a house wired for electricity and with running water. Many families draw their water from a neighborhood tap and carry it home.  I have a car (compliments of my support from NTNL).  I can afford to buy fuel at $4.50/gallon (the cost of gas is regulated by the government).  I can weigh the options of buying imported Jiffy peanut butter at $6/jar, or Maxwell house coffee for $8. I can think about buying a tin of milk powder at $10 or a can of tomato sauce for $4.   Within the limits of what is available in the market here, I can eat a varied diet with beef,  chicken, seafood, pasta and rice.

I am abundantly blessed and immensely grateful for my privileges.  I am also conscious that here in this place I serve as an ambassador  for Lutherans in the U.S., that I represent power and resources, and that I am teaching my colleagues as much about being American as they are teaching me about being Sierra Leonean.   Learning how to give and how to receive is a significant dynamic in this context, and I find myself leaning on God’s wisdom frequently.   It is meaningful and humbling, joyful and challenging all at the same time.

Field of Dreams: Thomas Memorial Lutheran Church

During the recent ELCSL assembly, I ate dinner with the delegation from Thomas Memorial Lutheran Church in Newton and they invited me to join them in the work of harvesting groundnuts.  Last week, under rain-threatening skies, I spent the morning with my Lutheran brothers and sisters in their field of groundnuts, and talked with them about their hopes for their church.

Newton is a village community 24 miles from Freetown.  The villagers are primarily farmers and traders, and the community is particularly known for producing palm wine.  Every time I’ve visited Newton, I’ve seen men walking/jogging down the road carrying containers of palm wine. These runners balance a stout pole across their shoulders and haul 5 gallon jugs fastened to each end of the pole.  Fresh from the palm tree, the “wine” is a milky white, non-alcoholic beverage; based on the sample I was given, it has a mild, refreshing taste.  I am told that in Krio, this drink is known as “God-to-man.”   Sounds like good theology: an acknowledgment of God’s hand in creation.  (I can offer no testimony about the fermented palm wine, but it is a popular traditional drink.)

Thomas Memorial Lutheran Church is named for the first evangelist who worked to begin the congregation back in 1989.   Interestingly enough, the land for the church was given by a Muslim member of the community — a man who was committed to the Sierra Leonean value of religious tolerance.

Pastor Hannah and worshippers at Thomas Memorial. Note the rear wall of the structure where the cross lets the light shine.

In order to raise funds for the ongoing ministry of their congregation, the members of Thomas Memorial worked together to plant a sizeable “garden” of traditional Sierra Leonean crops.  This year’s primary planting was groundnuts.  The current evangelist, John Kandeh, told me they will practice crop rotation on the land.  Once the groundnuts are harvested, the land will be planted with cassava which will grow throughout the coming year.

My driver and I  drove through some heavy rains to reach Newton on the morning we had scheduled for the harvesting. I had no way to contact the villagers that morning to learn whether or not inclement weather would impact the harvest plans, but I assumed that the work would be done rain or shine.  As it turned out, the rain paused just in time and a crew of  men, women, and children worked for a couple of hours to pull the peanut plants from the ground and to pluck them for cleaning and drying.  In two hours of work we managed a small portion of the field yielding one sack of groundnuts in their shell. The remainder of the field was to be harvested the next day.

Peanuts amidst the palms: strong backs required

Much to my surprise, I was given the fruits of the harvest that day, as well as the gift of a chicken.  This is typical, and humbling African hospitality;  these surprising gifts were the community’s way of thanking me for my presence with the ELCSL and my work at the national church assembly.  I shared the groundnuts with the ECLSL staff and the chicken has taken up residence in the compound here.

The work crew. The children followed us to the field and automatically started to work -- plucking the nuts from the roots.

The church structure in Newton is a typical mud-brick building with a zinc roof and unfinished windows.   The congregation hopes eventually to reinforce their building with concrete, and to create a more permanent structure.  Unfortunately, the rear wall of the current building collapsed this summer during the heavy rains.   The fruits of this year’s harvest will be used to pay for the costs of rebuilding this wall.

Evangelist John Kandeh and members of Thomas Memorial. They are standing in front of the makeshift back wall of their church building.

Church Assembly

Lutherans from 22 churches in Sierra Leone came together in assembly September 3 – 6 in the provincial town of Kenema.  Youth of the church wrote and performed a spirited song “Rise Up and Walk” to lift up the theme for this gathering.

Peter and John command the lame man to rise up and walk (Acts 3:6)

Along with a typical agenda of  reports and resolutions, the centerpiece of the assembly was the election of a bishop to lead the church for the next 6 years.  In addition to 100 voting delegates, the election drew multitudes of visitors and observers.  Incumbent Bishop Thomas J. Barnett was re-elected with a 2/3 majority on the second ballot.

I was priviledged, and challenged, to serve as an “election commissioner” for this occasion.   I learned a lot in the process.  The ELCSL is a very young church (21 years old) and it operates  under a constitution adopted in 2003.   There are few precedents or procedures for conducting elections, and this was the first contested election with 3 candidates vying for the bishop’s office.  As I learned through this process,  elections in the Protestant churches in Sierra Leone need to be understood in the broader context of the nation’s political history.  Sierra Leoneans are well acquainted with power struggles, disputed outcomes, corrupt systems and tribal considerations, and  there is a general, even inherent mistrust of electoral processes.  In this context, the church is challenged to set a different standard, and to organize life together under the cross of Jesus Christ.

Pastors Ahmed Kaimapo (Calvary, Freetown), Hannah Kargbo (Thomas Memorial, Newton) and Yassim Turay (Lord of the White Sand, #2 River)

The election process was conducted by the Bishop of the Wesleyan Church in Sierra Leone with the assistance of 2 additional local pastors.  We had to deal with 2 crucial issues in order to ensure a free and fair election:   the need for a clean and transparent process, and the need to address the concerns of many participants who did not know how to read or write.  After debating the best course of action, we came up with a simple system.  Amidst the multitudes of people who came to observe the elections, we carefully established the bar of eligible voters.  When the time came to vote, we called each delegate forward by name.  We had prepared one ballot paper per voter, and I distributed these as voters came forward one by one.   We also prepared 3 ballot boxes, one for each candidate.  We demonstrated that the ballot boxes were empty at the start, we sealed them shut, and we labeled each box with a photograph of the candidate.  Delegates simply cast their ballot cards into the box according to their support for the pictured candidate.

Votes were cast  in secret behind a screen but the overall process was public.  Emptying of the ballot boxes and counting of the ballots took place in view of the whole assembly.  In the end, everyone was quite satisfied that the process was clean, free, and fair,  and considerable rejoicing erupted when the results were officially confirmed.

60% of the ELCSL are children and youth. This child was one of the youngest to attend the assembly.

Many delegates told me they had been fasting and praying for days in preparation for the assembly and the election.   The fruits of these spiritual disciplines were abundantly clear:   the holy spirit was present and at work.  I rejoice in the faithfulness of my brothers and sisters in Christ who are committed to life and ministry as Lutherans in this nation.   There is a tremendous commitment and ability to “rise up and walk,” and to do God’s work.  Very little is simple or easy in this context, but much is possible.   Please continue to pray for the ELCSL as this church enters a new era of its life together after the assembly.

Jesus is "known in the breaking of the bread" (Luke 24). Or in the communal sharing of the rice with cassava leaf sauce.

Church Times

From Sept. 2 to Sept. 6, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone will be meeting in assembly in the southeastern town of Kenema.  Participants include representatives from the 22 ELCSL churches, pastors, evangelists, youth and ELCSL staff .   “Rise Up and Walk” is the theme for this assembly based on the story from Acts 3 of the healing of a man born lame.   I will be leading a bible study on this scripture story for 3 days of the assembly.  In addition to reports and other business, this year’s ELCSL assembly will elect a bishop to lead the church for the coming 6 years.  Please pray for the Lutheran community as they meet together throughout the week, and as they make important decisions for their life together as God’s people in Sierra Leone.