JANUARY 2014 UPDATE
The year
2013 has come and gone, we give praise and Thanks to God Almighty for seeing us
throughout the years past. It’s exactly one year now since we came to work in
Sierra Leone. The work as usual in every work it has its up and downs. But with
God on our side, it was indeed a successful year of the growth of the church
here in Sierra Leone. In the past one
year, the lord opens doors for the growth of the Church. One new Church
[congregation] was started in Rokel. Most
importantly we are healthy and sound to see the New Year 2014.
LAND IN MAKENI: As I did mention in my January
letter, we started the year in a positive note, with a donation of a piece of
Land in Makeni Town for the Church, we’ve gone and seen the Land, we are ready
to start work there soon to enable us keep the plot, We hope by the beginning
of February, we will start moldings cement blocks to protect the land to avoid encroachments
by land grippers. For us to secure the ground we will need at least one
thousand dollars [$1000].
GENERAL SECRETARY: In our efforts to establish
indigenous leadership of the Church in
Sierra Leone, last year as you are aware, election was conducted for the
leaders of the Church. One of the offices that were yet to be occupied was the
office of the General Secretary that was left to the executive of the church to
find a suitable person for the office. Prayerfully, in their meeting held on
Fifteen January [15], a general secretary was appointed. He is Pastor David
Tamba Koroma. Pastor Koroma was one of those elected last October; he was
elected as the vice president of the Church. But now he is been appointed the
General Secretary, with this development a new vice president will be elected
in their next Synod meeting. Pastor Koroma will start work God willing on the
first of March. He will serve in this position for the next Four years.
ANNUAL WOMEN CONFERENCE:W e give thanks to God, this year’s
annual conference of the CRC women, was held in Foria on January 23rd
to 26th. It was attended by Women from the entire congregations that
made up the CRC in Sierra Leone. The speaker of the conference was Rev. Ezekiel
James Sudu the training coordinator. The
theme was: -“Woman of integrity.”About
124 women were in attendance in the conference, It was a moment of spiritual
renewal and fellowship among the women that came from different regions of the
country.
NEW STAFF: It is a thing of great joy to both
the pupils, parents and staff of thee CRC Kabala school to have another new
staff added to the existing ones, as the school reopened after the Christmas break,
we thank God for the coming of miss Nikki Perregaux from USA who has come to
join in the teaching of future leaders of Sierra Leone as they are given the
best Education needed for a Child to grow..
NEW BELIEVER: One of the reasons why Rev. Edison
Kamara was sent to Nigeria Last year was for him to be trained in the area of
Evangelism and Church Planting. Upon his returned, he has started a small class
of fifteen People from the Kabala congregation, training them on how to evangelize
and share the gospel with unbelievers. On Saturday, he had a section with the
participants, at the end of the section, he challenged them to share the Gospel
with their Neighbor or friends who are not Christian, and invite them to
Church. The result of that was on Sunday January 26th one Mr. Isa
Koroma, one of the participants brought Mr. Mustapha Turay to Church, who gave
his life to Jesus. The lesson we learned from that was that we need to share
the good news with our friends and neighbor, sometimes people having the
feeling that may be “my friend or neighbor will not accept”. But for Mustapha,
it work out he has found the savior.
WELCOME HOME: Sunday 26 January was , yet another
wonderful day of the Lord, as the congregation in Kabala welcomes , home some
of the pioneer missionaries of the Church who had served here faithfully , more
than thirty Years ago. The work started
basically as an integral ministry , [CES]which has now given birth to the Church
, and the school ,they are:- Rev. Paul Kortenhoven,
with Ray and Pauline Prins.There was Joy to see these former missionaries come
back to visit and see what the Lord is doing with the work he has used them to
Start many years ago. We are also expecting the visit of John Loeks by 30th
January.
SAD TO SAY: In the Month of October Last year I
did report about the Church in Waterloo, how we visited and even reconciled
them to continue to be members of the Christian Reformed Church in Sierra
Leone. Unfortunately it did not work out as Pastor Elisha Gomeh, had vehemently
refused to remain in the Church. The President, Rev. MB Jalloh and Rev. Kamara,
did travel to Waterloo to convince them, but Pastor Gomeh refused to listen.
It’s sad, but they have decided to leave. It is not good but we cannot force
them either, the money they were looking for, CRC could not offer them, He
said. This has thought us a lesson on how to work with these brethren that are
claiming to become CRC members. [We need your prayers for God’s wisdom to help
us know who are actually called to work with us].
TPF SENSITIZED STUDENTS AGAINST TEEN PREGNANCY: The Peoples Foundation of Sierra
Leone ,a community base organization , that was started by Krissi,[ now one of
the Teachers at CRC school Kabala] , is
going round the schools in Kabala , sensitizing the students on the ill
associated to Teen Pregnancy. This trend is really affecting the Education of
the Girls here in Sierra Leone. Some have left school because of Pregnancy. At
the CRC School on 28th January, Miss Krissi and her group performed
a
play,
portraying the sad effect of teenage pregnancy in school, the risk associated
to abortion, having kids that do not have capable parents to care for them. It
is an evil that has bedevil the Sierra Leonean society. In every Town and
village one visit, you will find this trend.
REBUILDING KONDEBAIA CHURCH: To prevent the collapse of some of
our churches in the village as we experience last raining season in Barli, we
started restructuring and reinforcing some of the Buildings. For the building
in Kondebaia, we have to pull everything down including the wall, to start all
over again. The carpenters have successfully removed the entire roof, and the
blocks are carefully removed, the building has begun, we are trusting that we
will be able to complete the wall and put the roof before the rain comes. The
building and the roof was really in a bad shape. It was the grace of God that
it survive last year, so we do not want to test God .To do that we have asked
God to help us get the necessary resource to rebuild. We thank God because the
community [youth both Christian and Muslins] came out to help the few
Christians mould the bricks that is needed to rebuild.[ 1690 mould bricks was
made in a day].We also thank the CRC-Nigeria
Church in Wukari[Puje] for their gift of $ 600, which we are using on this
renovation.
APPRECIATION: We continue to thank you all for
your prayers and constant support to us here and the ministry. We are committed
to serve the master in this vine yard. We also commends your mails and phone
calls to us, without you praying and support us here, we would have not done
much. Thank you and please continue to support the work here in Sierra Leone.
ALPHA GOES FOR TRAINING: In our efforts to continue to train
Nationals who will not only be future Leaders, but trainers themselves. Upon
the return of Rev. Kamara from training at the International Institute of
Evangelism in Nigeria, we were fortunate at this time to be offered a
scholarship by the institution for any person we will send to be trained. In
view of that, we took up that offer and so sent Pastor Alpha M Kargbo. Pastor
Kargbo has so far left for Nigeria and has begun studies at the institution. We
thank ISE for their kindness. Alpha, was the Youth Coordinator of the Church,
he will be there for four Months.
PRAYER REQUEST:
1. Pray for our brethren in Waterloo,
that they will continue to serve the Lord and not depend on how much money they
will need from people, in other to serve God.
2. Pray for Pastor David Tamba Koroma as
he takes up the position of the GS.
3. Pray for the NA partner of the School here as
they consider building a new classroom block at the school that God will
provide the needed resources.
4. Pray for the new villages and town we
intend to plant new churches this year.
5. Pray for pa Conteh that God will bless him
more for donating a plot of Land in Makeni for the Church.
6. Pray for the forth coming new TLT
class that is beginning the 17th of next Month [February].
7. Pray for journey mercy for Joel Ringma and
David Mayer, who will be visiting us next Month.
8. Pray too for the safe arrival of John
Loeks, and the upcoming meeting on the construction of classroom at the school
in Kabala.
9. Pray for our children as they
continue to go to school here, especially for my Daughter Judith, she is not
happy at all with the school she is attending. We are thinking of bringing her
back to Nigeria, so that she will go to school there.
10. Pray for us too that God will
continue to give us the courage to serve here, as news back home is not all
that good to us. Someone [wicked person] burnt down my Farm.
11. Pray for the evangelists as they
continue with their work in the villages.
12. Pray for Tabitha Sudu, she just
received a message from Nigeria of the Death of her Grandmother.
CONCLUSION:
Thank you all for your cares and for being part of our success stories in
Sierra Leone.
SUBMITTED
BY:
REV.
ISTIFANUS BALA BAHAGO
CONSULTANT
CRCSL/CRWM
Email:ibbahago@gmail.com.
Phone:
+23278264240
+23277668139
www.apostlebahago.blogspot.com
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