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By Steve Weatherbe
HELEN Fletcher’s business cards are waterproof.
The feisty prime mover behind the Liberian Christian
Outreach Society is returning to the west African nation of 3.5 million at
the end of January – knowing that the rainy season there is quantum
leap wetter than her hometown of Victoria, even during a recent
record-setting downpour.
“You can’t go anywhere when it rains there.
But you keep on doing what you are doing where you are,” says the
former nurse, now a home-care aide.
What she and the staff and other volunteers at
LCOS’s Village Ministries in Liberia are doing is quite a lot,
especially considering it started only in 2002.
A second class of 40 women, each from her own village,
is in training to be self-employed clothing makers.
The first 30 graduated in February, taking with them
the pedal-powered Singer sewing machines they trained on, and all can now
afford to send their children to school and provide them three meals a day.
Late last year, the first group of 90 former child
soldiers enrolled in Village Ministries’ new vocational school. The
school is beside an iron mine that closed during the 14-year civil war
– which devastated the country, before ending in 2005.
To qualify, each student had to turn in a firearm
– which was chopped up on the spot. Now they are training to be
carpenters, auto mechanics, farmers or masons. For the first year, their
expenses will be covered by the Norwegian government.
While both ventures include gospel evangelism, Village
Ministries has a third component called village outreach –
which is strictly preaching. “We’re going into 13 villages
where Christianity has never been preached,” says Fletcher.
They are utilizing a popular evangelism tool produced
by Campus Crusade for Christ International. “We’re showing the Jesus film in the native
languages. We showed it to 10,000 already, and 6,000 became
Christians.”
Fletcher originally went to Liberia in 2005 with Mercy
Ships Canada, to work in the ship’s operation room as a nurse for
three months. An inveterate traveler, she visited villages outside of the
country’s capital, Monrovia – and then thought up the idea of
equipping and training a woman in each village to sew and dye batik
clothing in African style, as a way to lift her family from poverty.
Almost immediately, she met pastor Eric Sumo –
who, three years before, had established Village Ministries to show the Jesus film in far-flung
villages, to recruit candidates to be trained as local pastors.
Fletcher sees the Holy Spirit in the meeting, because
“Pastor Eric had a proposal drawn up that was very close to my
idea.”
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When her three months were up, she says, “I could
really feel I shouldn’t be leaving. Mission work changes you.
I’d become much closer to God. And God was pushing me into a new
ministry.” She returned to Victoria determined to raise support for
the women’s school, and established LCOS’s Canadian fundraising
arm.
LCOS has taken on the job of funding Village
Ministry’s staff of 11 and its Monrovia office, for $3,000 a month
– as well as both schools, once the Norwegian grant runs out.
Fletcher is paying her own expenses, and then some, from her work providing
home care.
“It’s a faith mission,” she says.
“That means relying on the Holy Spirit to provide.” She
believes the Holy Spirit is speaking to Victorians, but many are not
listening. The current economic uncertainty is one factor. Another is the
ministry’s emphasis on economic development.
“But you can’t say to a Liberian, ‘I
want to tell you about Jesus, but I don’t care that you don’t
have any clothes or clean water.’”
Fletcher is looking for corporate support, and donors
for specific needs – such as a new vehicle and sewing machines. She
is eager to talk to any group that will listen. “God seems to soften
hearts of individuals.”
The situation in Liberia is urgent. The civil war left
the country devastated and impoverished. The death rate is high, especially
among children. Though half the population is Christian, the Muslim
minority is seeing a huge infusion of support from Saudi Arabia.
“They are building mosques, schools and
businesses, then putting local Muslims in charge.”
As well, they are beginning to put pressure on the
Christian-friendly government to follow the country’s secular
constitution, banning Bible reading from the schools.
“We can preach freely now,” says Fletcher,
“but for how long?”
While LCOS waits for its charity number from Revenue
Canada, donations can be made directly to International Christian Mission
Services, Box 24, Stn A, Abbotsford, BC, V2T 6Z4. Checks should be made out
to LCOS.
January 2009
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