Day of Prayer event brings U.S. church members to West African country
Nearly 16,000 U.N. personnel guard this small West African nation as it recovers from 14 years of civil war.

Their light blue helmets are easy to spot on the streets of the capital as they guard public buildings, man roadside checkpoints and drive armed transports down city streets.

To the Liberians, they're a welcome sight.

“It explains to me that this election will be fair,” said George Tengbeh II, sitting outside the University of Liberia Sept. 24 as U.N. helicopters buzzed overhead.

Tengbeh, minister for the Weala Church of Christ, came to the university to meet church members visiting from the United States. George Kiadii, a Liberian businessman and one of 22 candidates for Liberia's presidency, invited the small group of Americans to attend a two-day prayer rally for the upcoming elections.

Ken Shumard, an elder of the North Atlanta Church of Christ who has worked with Kiadii on micro-development projects for Liberia, organized the trip. Also participating were:

• Gary Chamblee, of Phillips Consulting, a consulting company for churches and ministries

• Roger Dickson, missionary and director of Africa International Missions, Cape Town, South Africa

• Jack Evans, longtime minister and president of Southwestern Christian College, Terrell, Texas

• Marvin Phillips, minister in Tulsa, Okla., who makes frequent trips to Africa with the Bibles for Africa program

• Bob Waldron, executive director of Missions Resource Network, Bedford, Texas

Kiadii, who took classes at Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas, in the 1980s, spoke to university students about his plans to de-centralize the country's college system and improve its facilities as students return.

Tengbeh and other Liberian church members said they are praying that the Oct. 11 elections will bring much-needed stability to Liberia and allow church leaders to focus on training new ministers and educating children — most of whom have known nothing but war since birth.

The Weala church sponsors a School of Evangelism, which graduated its first 10 preachers in June. Tengbeh also administers a church-run primary school with 510 students in grades kindergarten through 8. Some of the students are in their 20s due to constant interruptions in their education, Tengbeh said.

Inside the auditorium University of Liberia President Al-Hassan Conteh echoed Tengbeh's sentiments as he addressed the student forum. Almost one-third of the school's students have not returned since the conflict reached a boiling point in 2003. Many of the students took up arms in the fighting, and many more remain in refugee camps outside Liberia.

“Some of this generation still does not have a diploma because of the interruption of the war,” Conteh said.

Before Kiadii took the podium, Conteh told the students one of his favorite adages about higher learning — “Education is what survives when what was learned is forgotten.” He expressed his hopes that education would create a brighter future for Liberia, far from the “pitfalls of the 1980s.”


YEARS OF VIOLENCE

Situated on the Atlantic Ocean between the Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone, Liberia is Africa's oldest republic. Freed slaves from America founded the country in 1847 and named the capital city after President James Monroe. By the 1970s Liberia had become a trading hub for West Africa, a government official told the Chronicle.

But civil unrest over a proposed increase in the price of rice paved the way for a military coup by Samuel Doe in 1980. Doe's men publicly executed President William Tolbert Jr. and 13 of his aides.

Doe's regime lasted until 1989, when rival Charles Taylor launched the National Patriotic Front of Liberia and led an uprising against Doe, who was executed in 1990.

Taylor maintained power and was elected president of Liberia in 1997. International observers declared the elections free and fair. But two years later Taylor was embroiled in a controversy, accused of supporting rebel forces against the government of Sierra Leone.

Fighting intensified, and in 2003 rebel forces opposing Taylor came within miles of Monrovia.

“Missiles were flying over us,” said Alassis Goldore, an elder of the Smythe Road Church of Christ in Monrovia. More than 500 people sought refuge in the church's facility as multiple rebel factions attempted to seize the capital. “We all tried to find a place to hide. When it cooled down, we came out.”

The elders stayed with the church because “we could not leave the sheep,” Goldore said. “We could afford to get out, but what about them?”

Though the Smythe Road building was undamaged by the fighting, across town the West Point Church of Christ sustained damage when a bomb hit a corner of the church's building on Jan. 21, 2003, said youth minister Washington Yanwhea Jr. Three people died in the blast, and many more were injured. One church member still has shrapnel in his face, Yanwhea said.

Later in 2003, after hundreds had died in the conflict, peacekeepers from Nigeria and troops from the United States arrived to restore order. Taylor went into exile in Nigeria and the rebels signed a peace agreement with the interim government.

“Your prayer has kept us going,” David Kolleh told the American visitors Sept. 24. Kolleh is minister for the church of Christ in Gbarnga, about 120 miles outside Monrovia.

Life in post-war Liberia is difficult, especially in rural areas, he said.

“It's appalling to travel up-country,” Kolleh said, “but the people's love for God is overwhelming.”

Today there are 102 churches of Christ in Liberia's 15 counties, with a combined membership of about 10,000, ministers said. Isaac Daye, minister in nearby Gambia, has assisted in campaigns and has helped to establish an office in Monrovia for correspondence program World Bible School.

Ron Pottberg, of Texas-based World Bible School, plans to travel to Liberia for a gospel campaign in November. West Monroe, La.-based World Radio also is establishing programs in the country.

Even during the fighting, leaders of the Smythe Road church continued construction on a new auditorium to accommodate their growing congregation, Goldore said.

Standing with visitors from the United States inside the partially completed structure, he led a prayer for the congregation and the country, asking God to provide “people who will lead us and not rule us.”


PRAYERS AND BIBLES FOR LIBERIA

Several Liberians said that the prospect of choosing one of 22 candidates to be their next president is confusing — and a bit overwhelming.

“Liberians have never seen 22 candidates, and every one of them is saying 'I am God-sent,'” said Maxwell Whea, pulpit minister for the Smythe Road church.

“I believe God is going to work it out,” Whea said. “Pray that people will accept the new leader.”

When one of the candidates, George Kiadii, asked a group of church members in the United States to attend a National Day of Prayer, they saw it as a God-sent opportunity to help the Liberian people.

In the late 1990s Kiadii organized a group of about 3,500 independent churches into a political organization, the National Vision Party of Liberia. Economic development is one of the party's main goals.

“The wars fought in this country (are about) economy,” Kiadii said. “How can we bring this fragmented nation to reconciliation? I thought that the church was the place to start.”

More than 500 people attended the Day of Prayer, which had elements of a religious revival and a political rally. Churches of Christ did not to participate in the event.

“We do not want to commit our churches to a political party,” Whea said. “We're going to support the right person who will stand for God.”

The U.S. church members told the Liberian church members and local media that they were not in Liberia to support a political candidate but to offer prayers for the country and the upcoming elections.

“You can't have a testimony until you have a test,” Jack Evans said at the Day of Prayer. “God is raising you as a nation. You've been in a valley, but now he's raising you to the mountaintop.”

The church members also announced the donation of about 100,000 New Testaments, sent through the Bibles for Africa program. Roger Dickson, director of Africa International Missions in South Africa, coordinated the shipment, scheduled to arrive in Liberia at the end of September. Marvin Phillips raised funds for the Bibles, which include 60 pages of study materials.

The U.S. church members arranged for churches of Christ to receive some of the New Testaments. Dickson said that he's hopeful the Bibles will help people across the war-torn country learn the gospel.

“We can only imagine the tremendous impact these 'little missionaries' will have in the years to come,” Dickson said.