Sierra Leone team “be fine”

UChurch’s Sierra Leone team has arrived safely and is busy at work!  Here is an update from several of their team members:

How de body?! We be fine! So here is a short recap of our adventure thus far…….

After 18 hours of travel, we arrived in Freetown, where we got off a chilly airplane straight  into an early-evening curtain of  very warm and humid West African air. “Oh, man – I’m sticky already!” one of us lamented. “Wonderful – I LOVE this!” another exclaimed (as her hair almost immediately began curling around her head). We were a formidable group – sixteen travellers with two pieces of checked luggage each in addition to our carry-ons. Do the math – thirty-two large pieces, and the porters were more than willing to heave the lot onto trolleys as we headed to the taxis.

We spent the first night at a guesthouse in Freetown where we were welcomed warmly and treated to a fabulous African meal of spiced chicken, rice, fried plantain, and banana and mango.  African food (at least in Sierra Leone) consists primarily of starch such as rice, yam or fufu (made from cassava, a root vegetable) and sauce. Vegetables are scarce, meat is expensive, but pineapple, mango and banana are common. Anyway, we spent the next morning at Sierra Leone’s university where we joined about 100 students as we sang, prayed, and then played a “game” that we thought up. We were there to encourage these bright minds as they face challenges we only read about in the papers. Six of us and six of them took turns exhorting all of us as we preached, coached and encouraged. We all had a lot of fun, and we were then able to pray for the leaders of the new inter-varsity Christian fellowship.

In the late afternoon, we split up into three vans and made the three-hour trip east to the town of Bo – our destination. Another guesthouse, another traditional meal – and a very warm, exhuberant welcome involving some great African harmonies! These people are very relational and make it clear that they want to really know us. Our hosts – Pastor Shodankeh and his lovely wife Santa – are so gracious as they make sure we are well looked after.

What have we been doing? Up at the crack of dawn (it seems!), worship and a short teaching, followed by breakfast. Time to brush our teeth before we hurry into the vans that will take us either to the girls’ school construction site, or the clinic or hospital. The medical team is headed up by Charge Nurse Kia and consists of Nurse Lisi, Nurse Katie, Fake Nurse Patty, and Chief Assistant and Major Encourager Yvonne. We spent the day at the local clinic in Bo yesterday, where the nurses there were seeing pregnant and lactating mothers and their sick babies. We were greeted there by Pastor Jonathon, and after he introduced us to the waiting room, he opened in prayer and praise, and the waiting mothers all took part! Kia, Lisi and Katie took turns taking vital signs (blood pressure and temps) and tried not to laugh when the little ones took great fright from our ghostly white skin. The team also spent much time praying for these mothers and their beautiful babies; not one turned us down. Typhoid, malaria, measles, pneumonia, malnutrition – the cases are many and the workers are few. The doctor, nurses, pastors – they work tirelessly and obviously care a great deal for these patients.

No matter how much training is done, how many stories are told, or how many pictures have been seen, the only way to know Africa is to be in Africa. And as soon as you are in Africa, you are a part of Africa. To describe our experience into Sierra Leone culturally would be equivalent to staring at Canada, being spun 180 degrees, and seeing Sierra Leone. Make sense? Don’t worry, we’re still just as confused. Picture every flaw Canadian culture exudes; our rampant materialism and individualism, then do a 180. Sierra Leoneans have a capacity to love unlike one I have ever experienced. They have nothing, yet ask for nothing; they love selflessly… even on a bunch of foreigners whom they’ve never met. I find God’s heart in these people; his desperation for relationship, his love for family, and his simple overwhelming goodness. To paint a picture of understanding for you, our team traveled to an orphanage where we delivered backpacks stuffed with treats and school supplies. The first child who received a backpack was the youngest, a boy the age of 2. While the older children waited patiently, the young boy discovered some candies in his bag. Instantly, he picked them up and handed them out to every child in the orphanage. This boy was 2 years old. If you compare this to the average Canadian 2 year old, you understand the type of people we are surrounded by; you understand how the heart of God is so vibrant and alive within them. Africa tends to have negative paradigms surrounding it, but these very ideologies are invented by those who have never known the love of God. Yes, there is poverty and ruin in this country, but there is something more powerful than that at work. I cannot be here and dwell on the heartbreak, because God has given me his eyes, and it is good. I feel overwhelming joy, because I see only His potential and His love. By God’s grace, Sierra Leone is moving forward.  I can only praise God that we are so blessed to be here and offer our meager abilities and gifts. We have the extreme privilege of being here at this time, yet if you asked a Sierra Leonean, they would only insist of what an honor it is to have us. If there is one thing I’ve learned so far, it is to never underestimate the strength of a nation being pursued by a relentless God. Keep us all in your prayers as we begin an exciting new chapter to this adventure- the participation in mobile clinics!