SOMA Stories: Children gate-crash meetings in Sierra Leone
Our SOMA Sierra Leone team found that their teaching on healing was boosted in numbers when 20+ children gate-crashed the clergy conference and listened attentively to all they were bringing.
It was such a joy to journey with this team in prayer and see all God was doing in West Africa.
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Simon writes, I have recently returned from a 3 week SOMA visit to the Anglican Dioceses of Bo and Freetown in Sierra Leone, West Africa, in the Internal Province of West Africa, which includes the Gambia, Guinea, Liberia and Cameroon (Ghana and Nigeria have their own Provinces), leading a SOMA Team to support and train Clergy and Lay Leaders from across the Anglican Churches in Sierra Leone. Our Team of five was made up of three seasoned clergy from UK/Canada who have been there many times before, one lay member who came to West Africa for the first time, but had served on seven SOMA teams to East Africa and we were blessed also to have a local Sierra Leonean pastor who is Evangelism Director for EFSL (Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone). We had hoped to also have Mrs Myna Jones, a Sierra Leonean living in NE London and widow of the late Canon Emile K Jones, but she fell sick just before travel.
We started in the Up-Country Diocese of BO, the capital of the Southern Province, and the Diocese also included the Eastern Province, which had suffered most during the Rebel War in the 1990s. 50 clergy and lay leaders came for a two day training conference on ‘Ministry in the Power of the Holy Spirit’, and then our team split into two to visit more remote areas to take the training local and we had one further day visiting local Secondary Schools in Bo, presenting a drama ‘The Unforgiving Servant’, adapted from Bob Hartman’s sketch, used by Bible Society’s ‘Open the Book’. ‘I’m really sorry!’ and ‘Hey, that’s OK!’ were the catchphrases repeated by all and we brought home the message of Total Forgiveness, from the story of Joseph forgiving his brothers. The bishop, principal, teachers and students all loved it!
In Freetown Diocese, we trained 60 clergy and lay leaders for a further two days, before then going on the road to more remote Deaneries to train others who could not travel to the capital Freetown, but also helped those who had done the training begin to work it out in their own context. Our team split again into two and presented a summary of the two day teaching, focussing on ‘The Spiritual Realm’, ‘The Holy Spirit and His gifts’ ‘Healing and Deliverance’. The other subjects were ‘Being Filled with the Spirit’, Forgiveness and Holiness. In each session we did some teaching and then had small group work and/or prayer ministry.
On the final Saturday, three of our team led a Diocesan Youth Day for 60 youth from the Diocesan Youth Fellowship, Boys and Girls Friendly Societies, where we focussed on five dramas from the book of Acts, which the teams of 8-12 youth presented to the whole group in turn with some Africanised improvisation! It was awesome. We did short teaching and testimonies and had locally led praise and worship, without instruments but with much clapping and movement! Alongside this, we all were given breakfast at the beginning and lunch to conclude. By the way ‘Youth’ meant ages 14 to 35 years! The Diocesan Mission and Evangelism Team helped us deliver this day and were ably led by John Foday, the Diocesan Evangelist, who grew up at Holy Trinity Kissy - burnt
down by rebels but rebuilt under the inspired leadership of the current Bishop Thomas Wilson when he was vicar there. That church has grown to over 1000 and Simon preached there on his previous visit in 2016.
Our host Bishops were Solomon Scott-Manga in Bo, who had previously been Principal of St. Paul’s Anglican Secondary School and was a life-time teacher and Thomas Ikunuka Wilson in Freetown, a lifelong clergyman who had witnessed his fourth SOMA Conference in Freetown and has served as Diocesan Bishop since 2013. Three of our team met them just after Lambeth Conference in August 2022 in London, hosted by SLIDA (Sierra Leone Inter Diocesan Association) who helped to sponsor our visit alongside the Relay Trust, who had built a super ‘Mount Zion Training Centre’ in the hills south of Freetown near Regent, where our team stayed for the Freetown Diocesan mission, only opened in November 2023!
On Sundays, our team were invited to preach in a variety of churches in both Dioceses and were given an amazingly warm welcome with services lasting usually 10am - 12.30pm, whether with Communion or without. Both Dioceses use the Alternate Service Book from the Church of England, donated by their Twin Dioceses of Guildford and Chichester, but during the locally led Praise and Worship, the congregation came alive and it was so good to see the joy and laughter and exuberant praise of God’s people in their own cultural setting. Some of our team could use the local ‘lingua franca’ of Krio, which helped to connect with the congregations also.
Travel was on good roads mostly but we needed 4X4 vehicles to access some of the more remote village churches, such as Holy Trinity Charlotte, near Regent in the hill country south of Freetown. The humidity and heat in March was a challenge, but we thanked God for Air Conditioned rooms in Bo and rooms with fans in the cooler hills in Freetown at Mount Zion. We were so thankful for our excellent drivers who took us to the remoter locations and also navigated the dense traffic with Okadas (motorbike taxis) and Kekes (motor rickshaws from India) which thronged the streets of Bo and Freetown.
We have many memories of the colourful scenery, day off at the beach with Baracuda kebabs and chips (or fried rice), a visit to Home Leone, a model village near Newton, wonderful hospitality, welcomes and new friendships made with people living on the edge so often, but joyful and thankful anyway. ‘All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so, so good...’ This modern worship song sums up our experience. Thanks be to God.
Simon Holloway.
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