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Sierra Leone – Ministry
Pastoral Training
We were asked to come to Sierra Leone to be involved in the redevelopment of the bible school located in Gbendembu. The school was started in the late 1920’s and has continued as the key training center for pastoral training up until this time. It has undergone restructuring several times to allow it to continue meeting the needs of the church. The goal as we came was to upgrade the level of the training and redevelop the physical property of the school. The program was being taught in Krio the trade language of Sierra Leone and offered at a pre-secondary school level. The plan was to shift to English and offer a program at a secondary school level. This is called the certificate level.
During our first year we worked on the development of two programs that would be essential to helping students learn to be effective pastors. The key program was for the men to help them gain the skills needed to pastor. The other was a pastors wives program led by Nancy to help the wives gain needed skills to effectively support their husbands in pastoral ministry. Each program was set up to require three years to complete.
As part of the school program there would also be a field service program which was developed in two parts. The first part would be a part of the student’s life while resident at the school. In cooperation with the district various preaching points were identified as well as new locations and students were assigned responsibility for these locations. They were to help them develop into local churches. The goal for the preaching points to help develop leadership and membership so that they could organize as a local church. The goal for the new locations to do evangelism and outreach and establish a local church. In every case the work was under the supervision of a mother church as assigned by the district.
Twelve new churches were started as a result of this partnership between the district and the bible school.
The second area of field service as called dry season evangelism. The students were required to serve in a district in the area of church growth and planting. They would be sent out for a month during the school break which was Dec to Feb. This was during dry season hence the name. Groups of two were sent to the various districts to help in the extension and evangelism work of the district.
We have no complete records but are aware that a number of new churches were started as a result of this ministry.
Construction
We would be involved in the development of a new campus for the school and renovation of the old facilities to allow for the growth of the program. All of the existing buildings needed various levels of repair in order to be used has housing for students and staff. The main classroom building built in 1929 also needed extensive work to serve in the interim while waiting for work on the new campus began.
Early on we were able to purchase 36 acres adjacent to the existing property. A plan which included four staff houses, four new dormitories, a classroom, library, office and chapel building was prepared and approved. There were a number of other smaller buildings and wells as well as landscaping of the property included in the overall plan.
By the time of our departure the original eight buildings had been renovated. One staff house and two dormitories, classroom and library were complete. Work had also begun on the third dormitory and was finished after our departure. We had also put in the foundation for the chapel.
A second area of construction also was included as we were able to set aside time and resources. In cooperation with the district villages without a church building were identified and we assisted in the construction of these building. Our main contribution was to help in putting in the foundation. Many of the work teams that came had the opportunity to help in the construction of these buildings.
Evangelism
During our second term we noticed the presence of two new groups in our area. The first was a Moslem sect called the Amidyyans and the second a christion cult from Germany called the New Apostilic Church. In cooperation with the national evangelist Perry shared in a teaching and evangelism program to our district to help people understand what cults were and understand clearly what the gospel is. Rev. Amadu Harding was the national evangelist who lead this ministry. We visit ten churches in the initial phase of this teaching/evangelization ministry.
Lay Leadership Training.
With the help
and encouragement of Rev. JY Konteh who was the District Superintendent of
the Gbendembu district Perry began developing a program of lay training.
The church in Sierra Leone was growing so fast that there were not enough
pastors to deal with the new churches that were being started as well as
the large number of daughter churches and preaching points. It became
clear that we needed to train our lay people to assist the pastors. A
three year program was developed that involved attending a week long
seminar covering a different set of key topics each time. The first two
seminars were held in Gbendemu. There were only twelve men from our
district at the first. At the second a group from Makeni district joined
us and the number grew to over thirty. In the third year the response more
than quadrupled and two different seminars were conducted. The one in the
north was held at the Makeni retreat center with almost one hundred people
attending from three districts. The other was held at the Kissy Grassfield
church in Freetown with over one hundred in attendance. At the next
meeting of the National Board of Administration it was decided that every
district needed to be involved. Three seminars were to be scheduled to
make that possible in the next year. Before that happened the rebel war
intervened.
Top
Sierra Leone, independent nation in western Africa, bounded on the north and east by Guinea, on the southeast by Liberia, and on the southwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean. The total area of the country is 71,740 sq km (27,699 sq mi). Freetown is the capital and largest city.
Sierra Leone has a tropical climate; the mean temperature in Freetown is about 27° C (about 80° F) in January and 26° C (78° F) in July. Annual rainfall averages more than 3,800 mm (more than 150 in) along the coast, diminishing to about 2,000 mm (about 80 in) in the northern interior. Most rain falls from May to October.
Much of Sierra Leone’s wealth is derived from rich mineral resources, including diamonds, chrome, bauxite, iron ore, and rutile. Small amounts of gold and platinum are also mined.
The population is composed predominantly of black Africans belonging to nearly 20 different ethnic groups. The largest groups are the Mende in the south, and the Temne in the north. Creoles (also known in Sierra Leone as Krios), are descendants of freed slaves returned from the Americas. They form an important minority in the Freetown area, where small numbers of Lebanese, Indians, and Europeans also reside. Some 65 percent of the population lives in rural areas, many of them in the more than 29,000 settlements that include isolated, temporary homesteads.
Of those reporting a religion, 60 percent of the people follow traditional beliefs. Christianity, adhered to by 8 percent of the population, is strongest among the Creoles, and Islam (30 percent) is practiced by the Temne in the north. English is the official language. Of about 20 African languages spoken, Mende and Temne are most widely used. Another common language is Krio, a Creole language derived from English and various African languages. Only 31 percent of the adult population is literate.
The economy of Sierra Leone is based on agriculture and
mining. Some 67 percent of the population is engaged in farming, fishing,
or forestry. Much of the farming is of a subsistence nature. Plantation
agriculture is significant only in the coastal region. Minerals are the
country’s principal export.The staple food crop of Sierra Leone is rice.
Other crops grown for domestic consumption include cassava, millet,
sorghum, peanuts, and sugar. Such agricultural commodities as palm oil,
palm kernels, coffee, cacao, ginger, kola nuts, and piassava (palm fibers)
are grown for export. Cattle, goats, and sheep are raised, and the fishing
industry is of increasing importance.
Gem and industrial diamonds, once the leading mineral products of Sierra Leone, are now produced at levels far below those of the past. This reduction in output is due to the near exhaustion of some fields, persistent smuggling, and civil insurrection in some regions. In 1997, 110,000 carats of gem-quality diamonds were produced, down substantially from peak production in the 1970s. Rutile, a titanium ore of which Sierra Leone has one of the world’s largest deposits, in the early 1990s assumed the role of leading export, producing half of all earnings. Bauxite also is mined in large quantities.
The unit of currency is the leone (981 leones equal U.S.$1; 1997 average), issued by the Bank of Sierra Leone, which was founded in 1964
Sierra Leone is divided into four regions: the Northern,
Eastern, and Southern provinces and the Western Area. These are divided
into 12 districts, each having a resident minister. The districts are
subdivided into more than 140 chiefdoms, each controlled by a paramount
chief and a council of elders, who are responsible for maintaining law and
order and administering justice.
In 1998 the estimated life expectancy at birth was only 52 years for women and 46 years for men. The infant mortality rate was among the highest in Africa—129 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. Medical personnel and facilities were grossly inadequate.
The British established a colony at Freetown in 1787 for slaves repatriated from Great Britain and the United States and for slaves rescued from shipwrecks. The land of the original settlement, where the city later developed, was purchased from local chiefs. The Sierra Leone Company, formed in 1791, administered the settlement until 1808, when it became a crown colony. Britain set up a protectorate over the hinterland of Freetown in 1896. Sierra Leone became an independent nation on April 27, 1961. Early in 1991 guerrillas spilling over from the Liberian civil war captured several towns near the Liberian border; Guinea and Nigeria supplied military aid to the Sierra Leone government to contain the threat. As government forces fought back the Liberian guerrillas, a Sierra Leonean rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), sprang up to take territory of its own, and a brutal civil war ensued.
In 1998 and 1999, rebel soldiers, thousands of whom were
less than 18 years old, terrorized Sierra Leone’s countryside with
calculated atrocities. Rebels mutilated hundreds of civilians, often
severing their hands from their arms, to send a message of intimidation to
Kabbah’s government. The United Nations and other international
organizations condemned the human rights abuses.[1]
In the past year the rebels have surrendered and the country is working at returning to normalcy.
Copyright © Perry J. Hubbard