Church team returns from Liberian mission

After four years, a new Liberian president, and a little girl with a new heart, First United Methodist Church of The Colony returned to Liberia with a team of 13 members, including three teens and many young adults, both men and women.

Last year, FUMC asked Ganta Mission School what would be the most helpful missions. They were given a laundry list of needed projects, including rebuilding the back of a bombed-out Home Economics building where life skills are taught (at a cost of $10,567); teaching graduating senior girls how to write and apply for college at Cuttington and Africa universities; trauma counseling for children who have suffered great loss during the civil war; vacation Bible school for 200 children at Miller-McAllister United Methodist Church; in-service training for teachers, all of whom have never had it; and reorganization of the library.

Training and preparation began with the team's reading of “Blue Clay People” as well practice cooking and eating Liberian food. The team prepared to live with no running water, no electricity, bucket baths, and bugs. Many of the team worked to save their money for their trip for two years, so it was going to be hard to raise the money for the bombed-out building. A few months before they left, Pastor Judith Reedy received an e-mail from a father in her congregation. He said that his 17-year-old daughter had read about the mission needs. She had never spent any of her birthday or Christmas money the past 17 years. It was $2,000. She wanted to donate it all to the Home Economics building, and he said he wanted to match it.

When FUMC counted their money from various contributors, they had more than enough to rebuild the building - roof and walls, and take 1,000 pounds of rice and 400 smoked, dried fish to the leprosarium for all their families.

While in Ganta for two weeks, they were able to dig a water line to connect to the Home Economics building, chisel out a PVC conduit for wiring for when the school is able to purchase a small generator, and make bricks to add on to the building and put a zinc roof on the building. The home economics department uses six donated treadle Singer sewing machines which work beautifully. With these machines they will help support the school by sewing their own uniforms for purchase as well as uniforms for all schools to purchase at a cheaper rate than the market. The home economics department will also use the building to cook food to sell and have a terrace area for students to eat when they have food.

Lewisville ISD teacher Lesa Haney trained nine team members to lead a teacher in-service training for 62 teachers. The workshop taught the teachers what could be done using only a chalk board and/or paper. A three-member finance/administration team from FUMC worked with the school's administration in developing a system of accounting, including year-to-dates.

At the school, they were able to hire a Liberian carpenter to build another set of shelves and to label each book in the library in what team member Alex Sexton calls "Dewey Decimal Light." Sexton also was the resident computer guru, and helped set up the two laptops which the team brought to give to the school and the hospital. He set up a student database for them and was a favorite with the little children.

The writing workshop was attended by 14 girls, 13 graduating seniors and one junior, and was designed by team member Emily Pitt as her Girl Scout Gold Award Project. At the end of the workshop, an award was given for the best written essay. The award was one full semester paid to Cuttington University. Another award was given to the junior for her scholarship to GUMS in the coming year. The girls vastly improved their writing in that workshop week and were intensely serious about contributing to the welfare of their county.

VBS was a huge success with 200 kindergarten through third-graders in attendance every day. The team somehow managed to feed them healthy snacks, an important event since the children in Ganta do not have lunch at their schools.

The trauma counseling was with rural, tribal schools and is continuing through the end of July with two team members who stayed over to work with the extremely impoverished and traumatized children. They also repaired a school roof for one of the groups with some funds they had brought independently.

Since FUMC's stay there in 2004, they had sponsored several students, one a college student who graduated summa cum laude, second in his class, from Cuttington University during this 2008 visit. He is now hoping to attend medical school. As a result, the entire team was invited to Dadee's graduation party. There they were greeted and surrounded by women dancers who sang and danced and wove around as a welcome.

Upon return, the church prepared and served Liberian food to everyone present on Sunday. There they showed pictures of over 200 Liberian boys and girls who need scholarships in order to attend school. Those bios and pictures are available online at www.supportgums.com for anyone who would like to sponsor a student at $120 per year.

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