APRIL 2017 UPDATE
FROM SIERRA LEONE:
“--- why do
you look for the living among the dead? He is not here he has risen…..” [Luke
24:5-6]. Sure he is risen hallelujah, his resurrection gives us assurance for
our salvation, and as the Apostle Paul said, and our labor in the Lord shall
not be in vain. Thank God we are serving a living savior he is not among the
dead.
GREETINGS: I on behalf of my colleagues and my family I bring you again
a special Easter greetings from Kabala the “Land of powerful mixture, Sierra Leone . We give thanks to God for the
celebrations of the resurrection of our Lord which precede with the lent period
that demonstrate what the sacrifice of our lord means to our salvation , the
lessons lent during the lent as well as the Easter was great and builds our
spiritual strength in the Lord . Thanks for being part of this great events. I
am please to present to you information concerning the happenings in Sierra
Leone.
VOTERS REGISTRATION:In preparation for March 2018 presidential
and parliamentary election in Sierra Leone , the 20th of March 2017
saw the beginning of registration of voters. The excise was initially supposed
to end on April 16 , but because of poor turnout of people for the possible
voters for the forth coming election , . Pray for this.
YIRAH FILAYAH BADELA BUILDING: We want to thank God for the support
received from the CRC Nigeria during my home service last year. The financial
assistance received we have used part in building a church in Yirah Filaya Badela . We thank God the building is
now roofed. We hope more fund will come to enable us plaster it, soon. Pledges
were made by some congregation, we really appreciate that as some have started
redeeming, in which we are hoping to use that for the plastering. While that of
Lengekoro we did some renovations, we
changed the doors and the windows.
VISIT BY MRS. MARY CRICKMORE AND
ESTHER KUHN: Both
CES and the CRC-SL we are always excited when we see partners and friends
visiting and encouraging us. The Month of April was such a great blessings to
us , as we received Mrs. Mary Crickmore who is the regional director for World renew
, visiting and helping to set up the books with our new cashier as well as the
new administrative officer of CES. Mary was able to visit the people of Yirah
Filayah Badela, were the people expressed gratitude, women, men, old and young
all came out to welcome us with different style of dancing. A sign expressing
their gratitude to God for what CES have done in their community in terms of
development. Among which was provision of good drinking water from the springs
on the hills.
Upon the
return of Mrs. Crick more , Esther Kuhn who is also a staff of world renew but
working in Senegal also came for a two weeks learning visit to CES , to see
what CES is doing in the field .
LERANING MATERIALS FOR NANFAYIE
SCHOOL: Again we
want to thank God for the continue support of Smithers CRC in Canada for their
support for education in Sierra Leone through the CRC . Beside the building of
three classrooms block. The Church also donated money [$1500] which we used to
buy learning materials for the school. Recently we visited the community in
which we presented the learning materials which included text books in all the
subjects for all classes, as well as chalk, pen, pencils, drawing books, slate
for beginners, balls for sport exercise books etc. The head teacher Pastor John
K Jalloh on behalf of the staff, pupils [who were on holiday] expressed
gratitude to the brethren in Smithers for their supports. Beside Nanfayie some
of the learning materials were also given to Foria, Kondembaia and yarah
schools as well.
EASTER CELEBRATION: Celebration of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ especially in Sierra Leone is always accompanied with all kinds of
fanfare. When one consider the population of Christian and the Muslims in the
country especially in Koinadugu, it’s certainly sure the Christian are a
minority, therefore their historical events such as Easter would have been just
a low key celebration as did the Apostles, even though there was fear of persecutions[earl church]. But here
the Muslims saw the holiday as a best day to go out for outing, picnic
etc.
To make the
event indeed a worth celebration for us Christians. The Boys’ Brigade with the
collaboration of the pastoral council, decide to organized an inter churches athletics
competition. Churches in Kabala were grouped into four to compete with each other.
Instead of the young ones going to the mountains’ , beach etc for funs that
many a times result to unwanted behavior thinks that sporting activities will
bring the church together to celebrate the resurrection. It was indeed a
successful and colorful event. White house {Deborah] in which CRC church
belong, came second in the events. Many people including the local officials
and even the Muslims applauded the program.
MULTIPURPOSE , CHURCH AND OFFICE
BUILDING: To God be
the glory for the ongoing project. Just like the case of the Yirah Filayah
Church, some assistance was received from CRC-Nigeria for the continuation of
the building. In October when I traveled for home service, the building was in
the foundation level. Today we have reached the wall high, hoping to do the
decking very soon, before the rain comes. We really appreciate their kindness
as we look forward for more contribution to complete the work and then move to
the new site. This indeed is happening because you are praying and giving for
the promotion of God’s kingdom in Sierra Leone. Below is the level in which the
second phase of the project has gone.
YOUNG ADULT THANKSGIVING: The CRC kabala church young adult
celebrated their annual thanksgiving on Sunday April 23. It was a colorful
event that challenges the Young to serve God diligently and faithfully. The
theme for this year’s thanksgiving was “Arise and walk” [Acts.3:1-9}
THE GROWTH IN MAKENI CHURCH:Makeni congregation was started when
Maxwell Kanu return from his studies in Nigeria, He was assign to start church
planting in the capital city of the Northern province [ Makeni} On November 1 2015, the first group
of Christian started meeting in a Classroom . That marks the beginning of the
Makeni Congregation. Today Glory be to God ,the Church now has over 100 worshippers that
attend worship every Sunday. They now worship in an abandoned Land [whose owner
believed that there is evil spirit there], but Maxwell and his congregation
have faith and trust in the God they served. Their faith is seen as a
motivating factor that contributes to the growth of the church. The joy now is
that they have identified a piece of land, which we hope to buy soon. This will
be done as soon as our legal [lawyer]
okays the authenticity of the Land.
Also On
Sunday April 9, Rev. Maxwell’s daughter was baptized, Maxwell and Anna decide
to name the child Jemimah [what a wonderful name, and Rev. Bahago did the
baptism].
FFP STORE PROJECT: The Family farm store project in
Foria and Fogo have been roofed and plastered, the communities in Foria and
fogo are so happy to see this project completed. One of the farmers said to be
, “ we thank God for FFP that provide this for us, now we have place where we
can store our farm product”.
GIFT OF RADIO EQUIPMENTS: God has so many ways of
communicating the gospel to his people. One of the ways is through the Media.
Kabala which is our station is a predominantly non Christian community. Secondly
the district has the highest numbers of unschooled people. But the town and its
environ are good radio listeners’. Though the town has a FM radio station but
it cannot covered the entire district, recently the Council of churches in Sierra
Leone , having received a radio equipment from Europe , decide to give it to us
to use in Kabala. The Equipments are now with us to start a radio broadcast.
This is going to be a Christian radio station operated by the CRC SL . It will be call ‘RADIO SHALLOM’. We are now
waiting for approval by the government agency responsible for licenses and then
get the frequency. Already a team of engineers from the government office
visited our office to see where the studio will be sited. Interestingly, our
new office building that is under construction was highly recommended for this.
APPRECIATION: Beloved , thank you all for your
constant prayers and support for the ministry in Sierra Leone. And continue to
depend on you for the work to grow by the grace of God. Please continue to sent
your support for the Sierra Leone mission field to the World mission .
PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Thank God for the continued growth of
the church here .
2. Pray for Rev. Maxwell and his family
for the good work they are doing in Makeni.
3. Pray for the safe return of Rev. Frank Foray
Sesay who will be coming next month after completion of his study in Nigeria
4. Pray that the coming of Rev. Sesay
will help in the growth of the Church.
5. Pray for this new Ministry of Radio
program for us. It’s a ministry that has come and there was not budget or plan
for it. That God will provide the needed resources to get it run for the glory
of his name.
6. Pray that the Radio program will bring people
to Christ as they listen to the Word of god through the media.
7. The CRC SL is coming out with an
Education Board to cater and overseer the various Schools that are being
established by some congregation. Pray that Education will be a tool to bring
the gospel to our young people in the Land. Pray for wisdom for the board
members.
8. Please pray for more funding for our
Multipurpose , office and Church Project that os going on now.
9. Pray for Rev. M B Jalloh, he is back
in Hospital again he is diagnose to have several life threatening disease
including heart and lungs infections as a result of an aged long coughing.
10. April 27-29 the CRC SL with the
kabala pastoral council is organizing city wide evangelism campaign, pray for
souls to hear and accept the gospel.
SUBMITTED BY ;
REV. ISTIFANUS B BAHAGO
LEADERSHIP CONSULTANT CRC-SLCRWM
PHONE;+23278264240, +23277668139
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