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United Methodists in Liberia take aim at poverty

By George Stewart*
April 8, 2009 | MONROVIA, Liberia (UMNS)


Bishop John Innis speaks at the dedication service for a community clinic, school, church and headquarters at the Weala District of The United Methodist Church’s Liberia Conference. A UMNS photo by Joseph Zeogar.

The recent dedication of a clinic, church and school by The United Methodist Church in Liberia helps enhance the country’s development and respond to the denomination’s effort to eliminate poverty. 

Liberian Bishop John Innis has called on United Methodists and other Christians to rethink their country and support the leadership of the nation by helping to drive development in every sector of Liberia, following the decade-long devastation in the country.

The community clinic, church, school building and the headquarters of the Liberia Annual Conference’s Weala District is a way to address the suffering faced by children because of war, poverty and disease.

“I am not just dedicating these buildings, but I am also presenting all United Methodists to God for renewed commitment to the spiritual, moral as well as the material growth and development of our Church and Nation,” Innis told United Methodists, government officials and community residents at a Jan. 24 dedication ceremony.

As Liberia recovers, The United Methodist Church, the nation’s largest Christian denomination, is making steady progress with the developmental program of the Conference, said the bishop , who also serves as president of the Liberia Council of Churches. The Liberia Annual Conference has more than 170,000 United Methodists throughout the country’s 43,000 square miles.

The denomination’s contribution to the nation’s recovery programs is evidenced by the community development partnership between the Norwegian church and the Liberia Annual Conference. Within a year, the partnership has constructed 11 community-driven projects in several of Liberia’s districts.

The United Methodist Council of Bishop’s Hope for the Children of Africa Initiative sponsors the John Wesley United Methodist Church School and the district building in Margibi County, Liberia. The U.S. Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference constructed the district parsonage and the clinic is one of 11 projects in the conference sponsored by The United Methodist Church in Norway.

Overseas partners  

In his dedicatory remarks, Innis said, “God has done so many wonderful things for Liberia through The United Methodist Church with the laudable assistance from oversea partners like the Illinois Great Rivers Conference in the USA, the Detroit Conference and the Church in Norway.”

The Illinois Great Rivers Conference has invested more than $1 million in the area of salary support for United Methodist pastors and the construction of clinics, schools, hand pumps, parsonages and churches, thereby restoring hope to communities in war-torn Liberia, he said.

“You are being dedicated as new people for Christ,” Innis stressed. He said it was time for church members in Liberia to begin looking at the greater interest of the church and avoid acts that have the tendency to undermine the body of Christ. He also reminded the audience that “the church is a beacon of hope and must equally give hope to itself through the faith in Jesus Christ.”

The construction and dedications of these facilities now bring the number of mission stations of The United Methodist Church in Liberia to four, he noted.

Funds from the Hope for the Children of Africa initiative earlier benefited Camphor Mission Station in Buchanan Grand Bassa County and helped renovate the 300-foot multipurpose school building, badly damaged during the civil war.

The Camphor building was nearly complete when the civil war in Liberia reached it in 1993. The roof was removed from the entire building and all the furniture was looted. Bush covered the entire facility. The money from the Council of Bishops’ fund makes the school building usable for hundreds of students currently at the mission.

The Camphor school project was one of those initiated by Innis when he served as principal and mission station director of Camphor Mission before being elected bishop in 2000.

The Council of Bishops funds also helped to refurbish the school, staff and students’ residential buildings in Gbason Town Mission Station in Sinoe County in Southeastern Liberia and Ganta Mission Station.

Giving information on Liberia reconstruction projects through The Advance of The United Methodist Church can be found at http://new.gbgm-umc.org/advance/projects/search/index.cfm?action=details&id=3019290&code=15126N.

*Stewart is the manager of the Liberia Annual Conference Radio Ministry.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Illinois college signs pact with university in Liberia

United Methodists in Liberia, Norway sign pact

Resources

Liberia

BBC-Liberia Profile

Council of Bishops

Hope for the Children of Africa

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