Sierra Leone Report
by Stephen Cartwright SOC Director
In December 2006 I was contacted by a gentleman called Emmanuel Davies that lives in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He had previously been a student in the School of Christ in Ghana. He was deeply burdened for the School of Christ to come and start a training center in his home country of Sierra Leone.
I visited Sierra Leone in February 2007 to look at the possibilities of running the school in that nation. The country had been ravaged by years of war and is only now beginning to stabilize its condition. As a result of the war there is very little electricity supplied to the capital city of Freetown and in some places a great lack of running water. To travel from the airport to the city requires you to travel by ferry across the water. The first time I came to Sierra Leone, the ferry had finished running for that night. So, I was left on the docks until 3am when arrangements were made with the captain to take us over to the mainland.
Conditions are not wonderful in this place, but the School of Christ is desperately needed here. Many pastors have not been able to go through the formal training of Bible School for two to four years because of financial straits, lack of time or both. This has left a gap in the lives of those that are called of God, and in a lot of instances has led to a faulty understanding of the scriptures. God has supplied the need by allowing us to come with the School of Christ to train these leaders with very little financial cost to them.
During my trip in February to meet with Bro. Davies, I also met another gentleman called Emmanuel Bowe. This man had also been through the SOC in Ghana and had been praying for two years for the School of Christ to come to this nation. At this time it was decided that we would start the first school on July 16th.
We had a couple from Sweden named Ulf & Lisa Bjorling who felt called to Africa as missionaries. They came with me in July to oversee the running of the school for one year, and July 16th they started the school with 50 pastors and leaders. During the upcoming year they plan to run six schools. Bro. Davies and Bro. Bowe have traveled into the different provinces meeting with churches to introduce the School of Christ.
Present Update:
This article was written in 2007, the school was run in this nation for 1 year with 6 classes. Since that time we have not run any more schools there, but our director Emmanuel Davies moved to Liberia with his family to run the school of Christ in Liberia in the year 2009.
Bro. Bowe and Bro. & Sis. Davies
|
