November 2005  
     
    Newsletters top    
  And the Beat Goes On... Summer in Sierra Leone...  
  The Way I See It... President's Desk  
 
 
     
   
     
 

CinA-Sierra Leone is celebrating twenty years of national leadership!

  
     
  Everything seemed to be going wrong. Hadn’t they done everything right? After careful planning and diligent prayer, they arrived on their new mission field of Nigeria, West Africa. And then, almost immediately their hopes and dreams to reach the people of the land were smashed. Civil war erupted forcing the young missionary couple to leave. It felt like failure before they even began. But missionaries know that God doesn’t make mistakes – He was just guiding them on to another field, London, England.  
     
  This is the story of President Emeritus Elgin Taylor and his wife Dorothy, which was played out back in the mid-nineteen-sixties. No time for serious contemplation, they moved right into ministry, witnessing and discipling in England. By 1969 they had trained a young man, once a tobacco salesman in Sierra Leone, to take Christ to the people instead of teaching them how to sell cigarettes! A second missionary joined the young man in 1970. These two men laid the groundwork for a growing ministry, established a mission base in Freetown, and prepared to turn the work over to others in 1971.  
     
  Three US missionaries who arrived that same year developed the ministry to greater proportions. They discipled the first converts of the work, started the first adult and teenage girls Bible studies and outreach to children and appointed the first elders. CinA's involvement with the Gospel Youth Singers resulted in the witnessing and musical programs expanding to other towns and villages. A newly-established CinA training school enabled nationals to work with the missionaries in evangelism. As the work force grew with the addition of both foreign missionaries and trained nationals, the ministry continued to take on new dimensions. Bible correspondence courses reached out to a wider area and evangelism seminars were recognized by other church leaders as important training for their own people.

 

During a ministry visit to Sierra Leone, Ken Wiebe, who directs the Sierra Leone Partnerships Ministry in UK, discusses project plans with field director Christian Kallon.
     
  Though there has been an exchange of foreign missionaries (eighteen in all) through the years, the beat goes on. God has consistently kept alive the vision and dynamics of the early days. Both foreign and national missionaries and national pastors together raised up more nationals to shoulder increasing responsibilities, and established churches, grade schools and adult trade schools in and outside of Freetown.  
     
  In 1985, the work became indigenous, forming a National Conference of Christians in Action with Issa Kargbo as chairman. Missionaries were no longer the dominant leadership force in the ministry. Later, with Raymond Attawia in leadership, the National Conference began a sub-ministry to develop relief programs for CinA member bodies and the wider community. Even under extreme conditions in cities and refugee camps during the ten-year civil war, national pastors and disciples were at work leading people to Christ. New churches and ministries were born as trained disciples went back home to witness in their villages and later return to CinA in Freetown for pastoral training.  
     
  In 1997 the last foreign CinA missionaries left the country. The Lord is using the national pastors, missionaries and workers to expand the ministry further afield and build on the original works that overseas missionaries and nationals had established.  
     
 

Christian Kallon, Field Director, has the vision to place pastors and missionaries in many towns and villages, especially in the unreached areas of the country. Pastor Samuel Gbanyah started a church after returning home from a refugee camp following the civil war. While in the camp, he was led to the Lord, discipled by Freetown church pastors and later returned for pastoral training. Our newest fledgling ministry, started in the city of Daru by Pastor Jesse Bangura and others, saw 14 Muslim converts baptized in June. Other nationals are also moving toward their goal of becoming pastors and church planters in remote, unreached areas of Sierra Leone.

 

  

The income of many church family members is supplemented by selling food at a stand in front of their home. Roast corn is a popular treat.
     
  And so the beat goes on….  
     
 

Contributors: Raymond Attawia, Alan Goerz, Christian Kallon, Issa Kargbo and Kenneth Wiebe.

  
     
 
From the beginning, the Sierra Leone missionaries, whether foreign or national, have been supported by a strong team of senders from North America and Europe. We salute all past and present senders: none of these servants could have gone to the mission field without you. Senders keep them going, and insure that the beat goes on….
 
     
 

 

  
 
 
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  And the Beat Goes On... Summer in Sierra Leone...  
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