Prayers, e-connections deliver robes to Liberia by Linda Worthington
UMConnection Staff  | | The Rev. Alex Harman, right, pastor of 72nd UMC in Monrovia, Liberia, and his family. | FREE: 20 royal blue choir robes in good condition. Nichols-Bethel UMC, Odenton. Little did Peggy Williams realize the momentous impact this small announcement would have when it ran in the e-connection, the conference's weekly e-mail newsletter. The ad was seen by a recent seminary graduate from Waldorf who had met another seminary student from Liberia who attends Southern Methodist University, recounted Williams, the church historian. Marilynne Landweer, on staff at Calvary UMC in Waldorf, picks up the story. She had met the Rev. Yatta Roslyn Young, a seminarian in Texas, at a deacons' retreat in Georgia last January. Young's husband is chairman of the board at her home church in Monrovia, 72nd UMC. The two women became friends. 'Yatta told me about the great needs in Liberia and had her pastor contact me with some of his needs,' Landweer said.
One of those needs was choir robes.  'We were praying for some choir robes before Christmas,' Young told her. The very next day, Landweer read the ad in the e-connection and put Williams in touch with Young. The choir robes were almost on the way to their new home in Monrovia. 'It is very clear to me that God orchestrated the whole event so (Yatta's) church could have these choir robes,' Landweer said. Liberia is a country in West Africa with deep roots to United Methodists. The country was founded in 1847 as a home for the descendants of freed slaves from the United States. Until recently there has been a close relationship between the United States and Liberia. It is currently recovering, sometimes violently, from 14 years of brutal fighting. As a result, 'the infrastructure of the country is devastated. There is no electricity, pipe-borne water or transportation. Everything is broken down,' said Young. 'All these we had before the war. … Notwithstanding, we realize that though everything was destroyed, we have God with us.' When Williams agreed to send the choir robes to 72nd UMC in Monrovia, she turned to the Adult Fellowship Class for help. The members readily raised the nearly $500 needed for expenses and shipping. They had the robes dry-cleaned and a church member's business picked up some of the shipping costs. The choir robes arrived in Liberia at the end of November, in time for the last day of the church's week-long 11th anniversary celebration, said the Rev. Alex Harmon, pastor of the church. 'There was a scene of great jubilation at our church yesterday with everyone praising and thanking God for beholding with their own eyes a new blue choir robe from Nichols-Bethel,' he said in an e-mail. 'They (the Liberian church) have so many other needs,' Williams said, 'altar linens, an altar Bible, hymn books and Bibles, shoes and clothing for the children, school supplies, Sunday school craft supplies …..' Nichols-Bethel has already prepared a shipment of small toys that they're sending for the children, hoping they'll arrive for Christmas, but aware that packages often go astray before they reach the intended destinations. 'The needs of our church are more than we can count,' Harmon said. 'They range from low pastor salary to Sunday school material. But one thing we are so certain about is that our people are zealous and committed to serving the Lord.' | 
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