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The great danger of visiting Liberia, as we did in February during the 2005 Liberia Annual Conference, is that one might easily confuse the context with the story.

The context is a nation that has experienced more than two decades of violence, and many years of political and economic devastation. It has been 14 years since Liberia, once the jewel of West Africa, has had operative centralized electricity, water supply and sewage systems. Buildings have been destroyed as a result of fighting or they have deteriorated.

Until 2003, when former President Charles Taylor left Liberia to go into exile, most Liberians lived desperate lives, focusing on day-to-day survival and protecting themselves against extortion and robbery. Many Liberians were eager for the United Nations and the United States to help end decades of civil war and random violence.

More than 200,000 Liberians were killed and more than a million became refugees.
Except for a few more affluent Liberians and those with resources from outside Liberia, education and medical care have been practically nonexistent. Almost an entire generation is now without formal schooling. It is a sobering land to visit.
But this is only the sad context, not really the story.

The real story is the Liberian people's determination to restore their nation to health and vitality. The real story is the commitment and sacrifice of Liberia's United Methodists as they work to reopen their hospitals, clinics and schools and regain democratic control of their government. This is an inspiring story.

At present, a transitional government, established during peace talks following Taylor's decision to step down as president, holds power in Liberia. We had the good fortune to sit with the transitional President Gyude Bryant when he visited the annual conference to thank Bishop John Innis and The United Methodist Church for their critical role in helping to rebuild Liberia.

Also, we stayed at the home of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a member of First UMC in Monrovia. A free and open presidential election will be held this October, and Johnson Sirleaf is one of the leading candidates. She and others have organized the Unity Party, which is mobilizing a powerful community of Liberians determined to establish an honest, accountable government after years of corruption and abuse. She is helping register women and others previously excluded from the political process. She is determined to make sure Liberia's resources go to providing services and education to ordinary people rather than lining the pockets of the powerful.

It is an inspiration to observe this movement of Liberians who believe in democracy with all their hearts, who believe government can be accountable, and who are willing to give themselves and all they have to rebuild their governmental systems.

And it was inspiring to watch United Methodists practicing the teachings of Jesus in the most demonstrable ways.

The United Methodist hospital, established in 1926, provides health care for a major section of Liberia, as well as for people from neighboring Guinea and Cote D'Ivoire. In addition to the hospital, the Ganta complex included primary and secondary schools, one of Liberia's best nursing schools and a leprosy and tuberculosis care facility. Everything but the quarantine facility was destroyed by government and rebel troops.

The United Methodists of Liberia began working, with the support of UMCOR and the General Board of Global Ministries, to reopen Ganta as soon as the worst of the violence ended in 2003. The hospital was reopened with one doctor in March 2004.

During annual conference, the director of Ganta Hospital reported on the gradual reestablishment of services over the past year and mentioned that over half of those coming to the hospital for help are the former government and rebel troops who were responsible for the hospital's destruction. The members of annual conference, some 1,200 Liberian United Methodists, responded quickly with applause ? happy to be able to turn the other cheek, happy to have the opportunity to pray and care for those who had persecuted others.

During our visit to Liberia, we met with one official at the U.S. embassy. We were unhappy to discover that U.S. financial support, as well as technical assistance, for the redevelopment of Liberia appears to be waning. Meanwhile businesses such as a well-known U.S.-based tire manufacturer are attempting to take advantage of Liberia's vulnerability by cutting long-term sweetheart deals with the transitional government.

We have done this before. In the 1980s the United States supported antidemocratic governments in Liberia in exchange for placing military installations in Liberia. Some Liberians fear that the United States will again choose military and economic expediency over supporting the development of democratic institutions there.

We hope that we will choose to support our sisters and brothers of Liberia in their longing for democracy this time.

The Rev. Dean Snyder is senior pastor of Foundry UMC in Washington, D.C. Jane Malone is his wife. Snyder, who preached at the Liberia Annual Conference session, was invited by Bishop John Innis, who visited Foundry in 2004.