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By Phileas Jusu*
7:00 A.M. EST May 6, 2010 | PANGUMA, Sierra Leone (UMNS)
Denise Paran shakes hands with town chief George Mungbe as the team from
Camp Hill (Pa.) United Methodist Church meets community elders in Panguma,
Sierra Leone. UMNS photos by Phileas Jusu.
View in Photo Gallery
Both Muslims and Christians gave an eight-member mission team from Pennsylvania an unforgettable welcome.
The team from Camp Hill United Methodist Church arrived in this
Sierra Leone village in late February following a commuter jet trip to
Newark, a flight to London Heathrow, a seven-hour flight to Freetown,
Sierra Leone, and a 250-mile van trip to Panguma.
As the van neared Panguma, uniformed choirboys lined both sides of
the dirt road leading into the village of 8,000 people. Singing and
dancing women in traditional African dress added their welcome. The van
then stopped and both groups walked with the team for half a mile to a
welcoming ceremony.
A live goat welcome
Amadu Ndoeka, president of the Sierra Leone Conference Council on
Finance and Administration, introduced the team to Panguma Chief Almammy
Farma. The chief then presented the Pennsylvania team with a live goat
as a gift.
Ndoeka is responsible for the presence of the team in Sierra Leone.
Last fall, he visited Harrisburg and invited the Camp Hill congregation
to enter into a partnership with the Panguma church.
Panguma women, attired in special costume, share their music and dance with their U.S. guests.
View in Photo Gallery
“The people here welcomed us beyond our expectation, and we have
found just an amazing community of Muslim and Christian people who live
together and work together and are just full of love for one another,”
said Fred Clark, leader of the Camp Hill team. “Everywhere we have gone,
we have felt so welcomed.”
Ndoeka told the team that the welcome by Muslims and Christians was
expected. He told how Muslims had joined Christians as they re-enacted
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem after a Palm Sunday service in Panguma.
Carolyn Estill Shover, a first-time visitor to the continent, told
how she was welcomed. “Theresa grabbed me,” she said. “She held my hand
and said, ‘You are welcome; you are my friend.’ I have never in my life
been treated in such an amazing manner.”
Results of civil war
The community held the welcoming ceremony in a church without a roof.
Rebels had burned the town in the late 1990s and camped in the church,
using pews for firewood. The church was without a roof as workers had
torn out the remnants of the old roof and were installing new rafters.
All power lines were torn out by rebels and never restored.
Ndoeka explained that Panguma used to be prosperous, endowed with
diamonds, coffee and timber, but “that blessing turned the community
into a target for the rebels during the war.”
Panguma United Methodist Church is undergoing rehabilitation. The community suffered during Sierra Leone’s civil war.
View in Photo Gallery
There are industrial diamond mining and timber operations on the
outskirts of Panguma, but the impact of the industries can no longer be
seen in the town, he said. The community continues to need basic
services, including clean water, quality roads, electricity, jobs and
health care. Most of the houses ruined by the war still lie empty after
homeowners fled the area during the war. The traumatized residents vowed
never to go back to Panguma.
Ndoeka explains the financial difficulties. “Sometimes a whole
collection for a Sunday service can only amount to 4,000 Leones ($1).
For anybody who wants to do the work of God, this is the right place to
start because here you are really touching people who are in need;
people who will appreciate,” he says.
Partnerships
Central Pennsylvania Annual (regional) Conference encouraged local
churches to enter into partnerships with churches in Sierra Leone, one
of the poorest nations in the world. The 11-year-civil war (1991-2002)
left pastors without a living wage. American churches have provided
salary support for Sierra Leone pastors since 2007.
The support has considerably improved the living standards of pastors
and encouraged more young people to enter the preaching ministry, a
vocation previously selected only by retiring civil servants.
The Camp Hill church has had a partnership with the Panguma church
since 2009, but the February visit was the first time any of the church
members had been to the town.
“Our team was very excited to personally meet the people we've been
trying to support all of this time,” Shover said. “We really wanted to
get a personal relationship with them and have names and have faces and
appreciate them; appreciate their personalities for everything that
makes them unique.”
“The United Methodist Church might be the oldest in Sierra Leone, but
we have lost quite a lot of our membership to the charismatic churches
these days because what used to be the strong link of The United
Methodist Church was weakened in terms of our overseas partnership and
their contribution,” Ndoeka said.
He explained how the conference struggles to even pay salaries of
conference workers. Local churches cannot afford to pay for anything
beyond their own communities—one reason why partnerships with American
churches are so important.
Clark described the visit as an eye-opening opportunity, particularly
for those visiting for the first time. “The beauty of the land here
caught us by surprise,” he said. “The cultural differences have been
most interesting and we are trying to understand that, and we expect
more as we go along.”
*Jusu is a United Methodist communicator based in Sierra Leone.
News media contact: David Briggs, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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