Online Archives

BY RICHARD BROWN-WHALE

As I write this, I have just returned from our church’s very successful mission trip to Kpeneji, Liberia, West Africa. Working with five Liberian United Methodist pastors, our six-member team from Camp Chapel UMC led evangelistic worship services, Vacation Bible School for children, and an Alpha course, in basic Christian teachings for adults. Every day, the numbers grew.

We discovered a few Christians living secretly among the Muslims of this predominantly Islamic village and saw 24 others give their lives to Christ. We provided further help to those accepting Christianity for the first time. A lay preacher was identified to lead this new congregation and began holding worship services on Sunday, Jan. 16. Two of the Christians agreed to be Sunday School teachers.

In addition, Liberian United Methodist Bishop Innis met with us on our arrival and joined us in Kpeneji on Friday for the ground breaking for the mission compound we have helped make possible. While plans are readied for the first stage (a secondary school in which the newly found Kpeneji UMC can also meet), we will be assisting with an agricultural project that will generate income for the church and create local jobs.

Further, Camp Chapel UMC provided medical supplies to the new clinic in Kpeneji and established a nursing scholarship at the School of Nursing directed by General Board of Global Ministries missionary Sue Porter (from our conference) in Ganta, Liberia.

Let me share some of the lessons we learned from our time in Kpeneji:

1) Jesus and his Holy Spirit always goes before us. We thought we were going to a place where no Christians existed, but Jesus had already gone before us in this small handful of Christians living in this village. The Holy Spirit had already begun preparing the way and we reaped the benefit of this “prevenient grace,” as John Wesley called it.

2) In Christ, all things are possible. I have always believed this, but this experience further confirmed this. We could not have reasonably expected a result this successful. None of our careful planning could replace the activity of the Holy Spirit who always delivers more than we could.

3) We don’t have to be able; but we do have to make ourselves available. As we each offered to do things that pushed us, stretched us, and made us uncomfortable, we discovered that by agreeing to be used by God, God worked through us to accomplish miracles.

4) The mission is not always what we believe it will be. One member of the team became ill and had to return home early. Heather Akehurst-Krause accompanied her home. It wasn’t the mission Heather planned to do, but it was needful. Heather was the best person to accomplish this and she stepped up to do it.

5) We need each other. We would not have been as successful without the cooperative effort with the five Liberian pastors, but neither would they have been without us. We each could do more by doing it together; each person adding their unique gifts to result in something far better than any of our efforts alone. We also could not have done this without your support.

6) Prayer undergirds all success. The success achieved was accomplished by God who heard the prayers of all who went and all who stayed behind to lift us up to the throne of grace. We bathed each day in extensive prayer and we saw our faith that God hears our prayers answered tenfold.

I am sure there are many more lessons we have yet to recognize and many more yet to be learned in the future. Since returning, we have seen members of the team demonstrating a greater commitment to Jesus Christ, witnessing for him here and engaging in new leadership experiences.

The Rev. Richard Brown-Whale is pastor of Camp Chapel UMC in Perry Hall.