A church construction project in River Gee County, Liberia, represents the dawn of a stronger country.
For decades, residents of this Liberian village have anticipated Sunday morning ringing from the church up the hill. A young church member takes a metal rod and strikes a steel plate suspended between two wooden posts. It can be heard for more than a mile all around.
Church members arrive for worship at their newly-constructed building in River Gee.
But today’s ringing signals something new on the old bell—a church service, yes. But something more.
Many of the families are already in their Sunday best walking the dirt paths leading toward Mercy Temple Church of God in Christ, a long-standing congregation in Sweaken, an area of southeastern Liberia’s River Gee County.
Today is the day they dedicate their new church building. It is a celebration and a testament to God’s blessing in many ways, including the community’s newfound strength.
A member of the church strikes a free-hanging steel plate to signal the start of church services.
Difficult but Joyful Work
The zinc roof and pillars of the new church were provided by Samaritan’s Purse, as were some of the materials for installing latrines. But everything else was provided by church members collecting materials from the land. To have their building supplies locally sourced is not simply a nice ideal in these parts. It’s a necessity for strengthening communities that are fighting to rebuild after a crippling civil war that ended nearly 20 years ago. This is what Samaritan’s Purse teams have been cultivating in River Gee.
The men of Sweaken temporarily repurposed their fishing canoes in order to gather sand for constructing the new building.
Richard, a longtime church member, is both a fisherman and a farmer. He checks his traps each morning to see the catch of the previous day. He supports his family from this, in combination with the cassava, corn, and other crops he plants and harvests.
As he earns income, he also supports the church, giving a percentage of whatever the Lord provides. Over this past year, his canoe has also proven invaluable to the church’s construction project.
“If someone is washing your back, you wash your stomach,” Richard said, talking excitedly about how the new construction required so much sand and so much water, both of which he helped supply. “We wanted to provide what we were able to provide. I would paddle out into the river, shovel the sand into my canoe, and paddle back. We all did. Then the women would carry the sand up to the site.”
Communities are praising God in Liberia.
For many days and weeks last year, while foregoing their work on farms and fishing, the men canoed out and shoveled. A line of more than 30 women, led by the pastor’s wife, Rozetta, carried buckets of sand and buckets of water from the river to the top of the hill.
The sand was used to create the foundation and flooring. The water from the River Gee was mixed with the red dirt all around them to form sun-baked bricks for the walls.
“It was hard work and tiring work,” Rozetta said. “But it was joyful work and God sustained us.”
John Luseni, a Samaritan’s Purse staffer working in River Gee with our church partnership project, said the new building represents a big step for the community.
“They will take care of the building because they know how hard it was to get the sand and how hard it was for the women to take the sand to the churchyard,” he said. “They were fully involved. This is a great change in this country. They never said, ‘No, we don’t have sand. It is difficult to get sand.’ They were determined to bring the sand. That brought ownership. If you do things for me, then you can control me. But if I do things for myself, I own it.”
Redeeming a Divided, Still-Suffering Country
Sweaken is a long way from Monrovia. Few resources make it to River Gee except those required to export the area’s minerals to other countries. Just a few miles outside of the county’s capital, Fish Town, the pavement ends and a rutted-out and often muddy road toward the villages begins.
Remote areas of Liberia are learning how to rebuild community and to thrive after civil war and ebola crippled the country.
For many years, our teams have helped areas of River Gee with water, sanitation, and hygiene; livelihoods; maternal child health; literacy training; and church construction. Both civil war and Ebola have left behind scars that will impact generations.
But the seeds are finally bearing fruit after many years of community strengthening and church mobilization training. Mercy Temple Church of God in Christ is just one example of the churches with whom Samaritan’s Purse partners. They work with us on livelihoods projects and other work, and make evangelism a focus. Through them, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed in both word and deed—thereby bringing salvation and creating stronger, light-filled communities.
Daniel Ruiz, Samaritan’s Purse country director for Liberia, said his hopes for this West Africa nation lie in these small congregations, even those in more remote areas. “Through these churches and communities, the prayer is that a country will be transformed,” he said.
Liberians are celebrating stronger communities through God at work in churches and Samaritan’s Purse projects.
