Hope for the Future

Last week in my blog entry on faith, I shared the difficulty of finding the words to describe my Sierra Leone Ubuntu Explorer Journey experience.  I have resolved it is all in God’s time; especially since last week and this week, several Sierra Leone United Methodist Church ministries are highlighted in the United Methodist Women’s 2013 Prayer Calendar as the Mission Focus.  Guess my timing is right on time!

The Mission Focus for today, February 11, is Sierra Leone United Methodist Church:  Nursery School in Moyamba, Sierra Leone.  This is appropriate because I visited this ministry but also this blog entry is about hope and the children and youth of Sierra Leone are the hope.  My heart was touched deeply by them.  Their joy and beautiful smiles was infectious.  I saw a spirit within them that assures me all will be well in Sierra Leone as they continue to rebuild their lives and communities after a civil war which forever changed their landscape, physically and emotionally.  I will never forget a little boy walking home from school that came running after our SUV giving a thumbs-up and yelling “I love you.”  In that moment, tears welled in my eyes, because Christ had to come to me through the smile, the thumbs-up and words of this little guy, “I love you.”

I’m grateful we got to travel beyond Freetown, a heavily populated city, to more remote, less inhabited villages and towns such as Bo, Kono, Moyamba and Kenema.  In Kono and Moyamba we met wonderful women, children/youth and men that were very hospitable and gracious to us.  Their extraordinary joy and faith was inspirational and an illumination of Christ.  Many had lived through their civil war and yet the love of God exuded from their being.  Their great passion to help empower others on their journey affirmed that like us, United Methodist Women (UMW) in the United States they are very concerned about and committed to the education of women, children and youth and their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as given by our Creator God.

Konomusu students practice hair-styling techniques.

 

In Kono, our first stop on bun-shaker road, we visited the Kono Musu Training Center, a ministry of the Sierra Leone United Methodist Women Organization (UMWO) and an international project supported by UMW of the U.S.  The center trains teen girls and women (all ages, tribes, abilities and faiths) to become skilled in sewing, hair styling, embroidery, soap making, weaving, tie dying, gardening and soup making. 

Almagaila shows her prototype for a school uniform.

Courses are offered for up to one year.  It was amazing to see the extraordinary lessons being taught and the use of ordinary tools (not 21^st century technology) because no electrical power is available, i.e. treadle model sewing machines and an open fire for soup cooking and tie dying.  This reminded me that simplicity of life is possible; life is sustainable without the latest and greatest technological gadget…we westerners could learn a lesson to slow down and live a simpler, just as fulfilled life.

I do not want to sugar coat the immense poverty we saw in our travels, including in Kono, a city known for its diamond mining.  My continued cry to God throughout the journey was, why is there such poverty in a place with an abundance of natural resources equated to wealth—diamonds, iron ore, etc.?  Why, oh God do the children have to suffer?  Many have sickness/diseases that are likely preventable if they had access to health care or clean water.  It was reassuring to see many pre-natal/maternal care facilities in the remote areas as well as in Freetown like the UMC Kissy Hospital.  The poverty is real and yet it was clear to me that God has not forsaken them, God’s grace is their source of strength and joy.

When we visited the Harford School for Girls in Moyamba, the young women were talented, studious and committed to obtaining the education and spiritual life provided.  We arrived on a Friday evening when they were readying themselves for evening vespers.  Of course we were invited to worship with them; a joy.  We were awakened early Saturday morning by beautiful singing.  It was the girls gathering for morning vespers before they began their weekly chores of washing clothes.  The song, “The Women Gather” by Sweet Honey in the Rock came to mind as I observed the girls gathering around the well to collect water and chat as they moved about the campus. 

We were blessed by five young women, Edna Tucker, Mary Sawyer, Fatmata Sillah, Princess Williams, Marina Seisay (l to r in photo), who assisted us by drawing our water, helping get our belongings up and down the stairs and learning to create a Christmas craft project that they would teach to the children in the Nursery School (mission focus) housed on their campus, because we knew we would not have time to share the project with the children as we hoped. 

Even though parents and family were gracious to bring the children to school Saturday so that we could interact with them, we were only able to read and sing to them after they had kept us spell-bound in retelling the Christmas story, singing and blessing us with gifts. 

Beyond the visits and interactions, general observations of how the women mentored the young, not just in age but also those with less leadership experience gave me hope.  As is common in most societies, the women get it.  They understand as followers of Jesus, they have to work for the good of all in the community…transcending boundaries of class, tribes/race, languages, religions, gender, etc. 

The mentoring was also demonstrated in the multi-layered structure of the United Methodist Women Organization—women, young adult women, youth/teens and girls.  I met a young woman, Beatrice, at an after church UMWO fellowship for us at Bishop Baughman Memorial UMC in Freetown.  Beatrice was so excited because she was now a UMWO member, having recently advanced from the young adult group.  They are working at all levels to raise up women with voice and strength to make a difference in Sierra Leone and the world.  The United Methodist Women Organization of Sierra Leone gets it and because of their commitment to education and empowerment of women and girls, Sierra Leone will continue its future with hope as God promises in Jeremiah 29:11.  Thanks be to God!

Lastly, my hope is that United Methodist Women will continue to support the mission work in Sierra Leone through our Regional Missionaries, Elmira Sellu (Project #14019Z) and Finda Quiwa (Project #3109572), the Women’s Coordinator, Beatrice Fofanah and the UMWO of the Sierra Leone UMC Conference further reinforcing the concept of Ubuntu and our vision to empower women, children and youth at home and around the world.

Thanks Sally for your contributions to the blog.   Looking forward to next week.  

Launch Into The Deep - Finding Faith

 

The Daisy Senesie House (Or the Pink House) gather to walk into Lunsar.

How do I describe my recent Ubuntu Explorer Journey to Sierra Leone?  There are so many wonderful memories in my thoughts and my heart.  Can I possibly help you to see what I saw and feel what I felt?  Impossible…but I’ll try to share a few instances of faith, hope and love in action.  For the purpose of this blog post entry, I’ll begin with faith and will follow with entries over the next two weeks to share instances of hope and love in action. 

I have to be honest in stating up front that my faith instances are about challenge and testing, but I guess that is how faith forms.  There were two times that my faith was tested.  The first was when we were traveling to Kono to visit international ministry projects that United Methodist Women supports.  We got a late start and ended up traveling a very bumpy, red dirt road in the dark.  We could only see what the headlights revealed in front of us.  Riding in the back of an SUV, nothing could be seen out the side windows.  Weariness started to creep into our journey after seven hours on the road.  We began to acknowledge the Lord’s presence and protection by singing hymns and some native songs of Sierra Leone led by the conference United Methodist Women Organization’s president, Matilda.  Soon our hearts were joyful and our weariness subsided.

All was well for about an hour until Abu, our patient driver, let us know we had a flat…oh no!  Abu stops and says we have to get out of the SUV, yes in the COMPLETE darkness.  Only the starlit sky and the scope of light from our flashlights are visible.  Although my anxiety rose again, thank God it was Advent and I could recall the angel saying to Mary, “do not be afraid.”  As fear subsided I could take in the beauty of the starlit sky and the stillness of the dark night brought a reassurance that indeed the Lord was with us.  We were back on the road in less than 30 minutes.

The second test of my faith was while attending the United Methodist Women Organization of Sierra Leone’s Annual Convention.  Their theme was “Launch into the Deep.”  It was an awesome gathering of over 200 women.  Keep in mind this is a week-long convention, unbelievable.  The second day of the convention we went on an Ubuntu day of service in a village near Lunsar, the town where the convention was being held.  It was an honor to meet a village chief, to get his permission to go into the village and share the gifts of clothing and Christian reading materials.  

Even though the chief informed us that his village was Christian, there was an uneasy feeling when we were invited into the bush.  We had visited and shared with all the households on the main road.  Now a man from the village told us there were more households in the bush--deep woods with no obvious sign of human life.  The leaders of our group,The Daisy Senesie Family, called a conference because many of us were apprehensive to follow this man, a stranger, into the bush.  Then a wise woman, Rev. Georgiana Maligi opened her mouth to speak saying, "Sisters, we said we were ready to launch into the deep; we must go--God has called us."  Hearing these words restored my faith that all would be well.  Yes, there were families in the bush and seeing their joy and gratefulness for our visit, humbled me beyond words. 

What if we had denied Christ by not launching into the deep? We would have missed being able to pray with a father and his toddler son who could not walk, to have my hand held by a little boy who felt a kindred spirit even though I couldn't speak his language and to see a grandmother's face light up as if she was looking at the face of Christ when we gave her a bag of clothing and her grandchildren some reading materials.

As we were walking back to the convention site, the reality of the day hit me and my heart was filled to overflowing.  We had truly launched into the deep and met Christ face to face.  Thank you Lord, for the faith of one among us to encourage us to trust you and launch into the deep...finding faith.

Thank you Sally for sharing your story of faith.  We look forward to reading additional posts.