Liberian educator pleads with United Methodists for help
7/2/2003 News media contact: Kathy Gilbert · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn. A UMNS Report
By Daniel R. Gangler*
While fighting between rebel and government troops for
control of Monrovia continues, a Liberian United Methodist living in
Muncie, Ind., is pleading for the church and the U.S. government to
intervene.
A brief cease-fire in Liberia collapsed June 26, and
thousands of Liberians, who had begun to return to their homes, are once
again fleeing for safety.
Momo Fahnbuelleh, a doctoral student
in education at Ball State University, brought his concern for the
children of Liberia to the attention of the North Indiana Annual
Conference meeting in May in West Lafayette. Since then, he has written
to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, both United
Methodists, to support a U.S. intervention in Liberia. He also is
waiting for a return call from U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, another United
Methodist, on the same issue. Lugar, R-Ind., visited Baghdad in late
June.
The United Methodist Committee on Relief reports on its Web
site that "conditions for displaced people living in various types of
temporary accommodation in central Monrovia (Liberia's capital) remain
uncertain. There have been 23 deaths as a result of disease and hunger
since the fighting resumed, according to World Vision. The need for
humanitarian aid remains acute."
During a recent telephone
interview, Fahnbuelleh said he believes God will move in the hearts of
Americans in the church and in the federal government to help end the
civil war in Liberia. He noted that the United States helped found
Liberia after the Civil War as a haven for freed slaves. "The United
States is like a big brother to us," he said.
According to news
sources, before the drive on Monrovia, Liberia's civil war already had
uprooted 1 million people within the country and sent 300,000 fleeing to
neighboring countries.
Like Queen Esther pleading for her people
before the king in the biblical story of Esther chapter 4, Fahnbuelleh
said he feels he is pleading for the rescue of his own people from the
rebels.
"God is capable, and he will intervene," he said. "I have
hope now, since I have heard that a ship is being sent from Iraq to
Liberia to rescue American citizens. Likewise, I hope God and the USA
will come to rescue Liberia."
According to international news
sources, the USS Kearsarge - said to be carrying 1,800 marines, 1,200
sailors and attack helicopters - was diverted while heading for the
United States from Iraq.
The pastors and people of Normal City
United Methodist Church in Muncie have played an important role in
Fahnbuelleh's life during the past 15 years.
He first came to
Ball State in the mid-1980s for an undergraduate degree in education and
lived on the upper floor of the church's parsonage, which housed
international students.
Under the care of the Rev. Donna
Springer, who served the church in the 1980s, Fahnbuelleh was baptized
into the United Methodist Church. He said he was drawn to Springer
because of her anti-apartheid stance and her questions to him about
spirituality.
Following graduation in 1989, Fahnbuelleh returned
to Liberia, where he became the director of planning and research for
the Monrovian city schools. To better understand how to organize
schools, he became the principal of a school with more than 1,500
students in a building built for 900 students. During his tenure there,
he said he witnessed rebel forces teaching his students to hate and bear
arms.
"Kids fought at night and returned to school in the
morning," he said. He estimated that 40 percent of the rebel forces are
made up of youth between the ages 15 and 30.
When named as a
political enemy by rebel forces, he returned to the United States as a
political refugee. He arrived for a visit to Ball State in August 1998
and was surprised to learn that he had been granted a scholarship in
1992 to do doctoral studies in education. The letter from Ball State
about the scholarship never reached him in Liberia. The university
renewed his scholarship, and Fahnbuelleh returned to Ball State, where
he is completing a doctoral degree in education.
He returned to
Normal City Church, where the late Rev. Harold Wilson encouraged him
spiritually to do something positive for the children of Liberia.
Haunted by images of those children, Fahnbuelleh helped establish the
Liberian Children's Education Fund.
Believing God had a plan for
his life, he also began speaking in churches about the Liberian children
and later became a certified lay speaker.
During a North
Indiana Annual Conference session last year in West Lafayette,
Fahnbuelleh answered the call to ministry offered by Indiana Area Bishop
Woodie White and continues to explore his call to ordained ministry.
Last October, he was appointed to serve as lay preacher of Fairview and
Bellfountain United Methodist churches near Portland, Ind., and said he
hopes to complete his doctoral work this fall.
The parsonage in
which he lived in the 1980s is home once again, but this time
Fahnbuellah's family inhabits the whole house. He lives with his wife,
Satu, and their seven children and one grandchild.
According to
Muncie District Superintendent David Maish, the members of the Normal
City Church "played a key role in prayer and financial support which,
when joined with others, brought Fahnbuellah's wife and children from
Liberia to the United States."
This is a difficult time for
Fahnbuelleh. He has lost contact with more than 100 relatives living in
Liberia, and many of his relatives have been living in bushes and the
forest since April. On June 15, Father's Day, he received word from his
brother, a doctor in Liberia, that his father, 78, died of complications
following a stroke. He died in a refugee camp hospital Kenema, Sierre
Leone.
Despite these difficulties and losses, Fahnbuelleh said
his hope for peace in Liberia has not died. He prays for a miracle and
believes that one will take place through the church and intervention by
the United States.
The United Methodist Committee on Relief is
responding to the crisis in Liberia. UMCOR/Liberia's programs have
included agriculture, water/sanitation, education/training and health
care. Donors for its programs have included USAID, the United Methodist
Board of Global Ministries, and the Norwegian and Dutch governments.
Donations
can be sent to UMCOR-NGO Advance # 982353-7 at UMCOR, 475 Riverside
Drive, Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Credit-card donations can be made
by calling (800) 554-8583.
For more information on UMCOR's work in Liberia see http://www.umcor-ngo.org/english/countrys/liberia.htm#top.
Fahnbuelleh can be reached at (765) 286-4533 or hota@licef.org.
# # #
*Gangler is director of communication for the Indiana Area of the United Methodist Church.
|
Back : News Archives 2003 Main
|
|
“We believe in God and in each other.”The people of The United Methodist Church
Still Have Questions?
If you have any questions Ask
InfoServ
Purchase a $20 buzzkill t-shirt and help save a life
Buy a t-shirt
|
Korean News