“Be Agents of Positive Change”

… Women Cautioned

Mrs. Elmira Sellu, Regional Missionary Initiative/UMW

Facilitators at the start of a three-day women’s empowerment workshop have called on participants to be agents of positive change for the improvement of their respective communities.

Mrs. Elmira Sellu, Sis. Alfreda E. Anderson, and Ms. Beatrice Fofanah speaking briefly at the start of the three-day Regional Missionary Initiative Workshop at the S. T. Nagbe United Methodist Church in Monrovia, challenged participants at the workshop to make positive differences in their neighborhoods, communities, country, and the world at large.

Participants at the Regional Missionary Initiative Workshop

In separate remarks, the three leaders representing the General Board of Global Ministries, Liberia Annual Conference, and the Sierra Leone Annual Conference told participants at the gathering to be selfless and always think about bringing hope to the hopeless and courage to the downhearted.

Mrs. Sellu urged participants to always be in readiness to show positive attitudes, love, and a clear heart to others. She told participants to be good leaders who care about people’s feelings—what they feel, how they feel, and why they feel that way, in a given situation.

Madam Sellu said agents of positive change are leaders who live lives with legacies that benefit others.

She maintained that any leader who fails to reproduce himself or herself is a failure, leaving behind a short positive memory but with a long-lasting negative effect on those left behind.

The workshop is now in its second day of dealing with various topics such as “women as leaders in church and society”, “women and gender”, “women and HIV/AIDS”, and “how to work with young women” among others. The workshop is filled with interactions and dramas depicting various behaviors of good leaders and servants.

New Hope School Starts Lesson

The Women of the Monrovia District Conference, United Methodist Church on Monday, September 10, 2012 officially opened the New Hope United Methodist Women Elementary School in Mount Barclay for the regular lesson academic year.

The eight classrooms school was constructed to provide educational opportunity for the children-mainly girls, of the Mount Barclay community, has enrolled over 105 students. The institution though new is now helping parents to get kids off the streets. “This is a hopeful sign that parents of the Mount Barclay Community want to link up with the Monrovia District Women in removing the children from the streets, especially girls,” Madam Margretta Sieh, Principal, stated.

In a brief meditation to the students, the Rev. Dr. Jerry P. Kulah District Superintendent of the Monrovia District Conference called on the students to look up to God as they go through their lessons. Speaking on the theme, “your future is in God’s hand” Rev. Kulah said the school is a fulfillment of the mission and vision of the general United Methodist Church in Liberia in educating the future leaders of the country. He urged the students to take their lesson serious, adding “you might be the next president or doctor of Liberia.”

The President of the Monrovia District Women in a special statement delivered at the program thanked the Women of Oak Grove United Methodist Church of Decatur, Georgia in the United States of America for the partnership in educating the children of Liberia. She praised Zoe M. Hicks and Madge Watson for their role in coordinating the partnership between the two women groups.

The New Hope United Methodist Women Elementary School was dedicated in February 18, 2012 by the Rev. Dr. John G. Innis. The school has eight class rooms, offices for the principal and vice principal, the secretary and registrar. The building is also equipped with teachers’ launch and modern bathroom facilities. The school cost about US$100,000.00

The school brings to 81 the number of United Methodist Schools in Liberia.

Defacing a Historical Relic

My mental picture of Miller McAllister United Methodist Church was shattered when I reached the Ganta United Methodist Mission Compound, the official grounds that host the Church. I struggled for the entire day trying to find the natural stone building of the Miller McAllister UMC that I knew before and replace it with the cement sprayed ash-gray one. I quickly took a picture of the MMUMC since I could not lay my hands on the picture of the famous “stone building” which represented a historical relic not only of the United Methodist Church, but the entire community of Ganta. Being deeply troubled, I decided to see some members of the church.

I visited Rev. James Z. Labala, District Superintendent of Gompa District and one time pastor of the Miller McAllister UMC. “What happened here?” I asked. “I spent five years debating with my congregation on the need to preserve the building as it has been for the past sixty years, but they won the argument,” he said. Actually members of the church wanted the church plastered with cement to conceal the natural stony look of the church. “We want to have our church plastered and painted like other churches,” Rev. Labala quoted some of his members. While others complained that the stones were uneven and  took away the beauty of the church. “As a matter of fact there are some members who want the church reroofed with zinc instead of maintaining the present clay tile roof,” he added.

Still not understanding why any group of people would want to get rid of such antiquity, I approached a group of church members who were completing their day’s work of cleaning around the church in anticipation of the funeral of the Late Rev. Herbert Zigbuo. According to Rev. Labala in our earlier discussion, the Late Rev. Zigbuo was one of those who supported him in his drive to preserve this historical relic.  Without being direct, I asked, why is the church sprayed with cement? “We want to get rid of the old look of the church” a young lady said to  me. “We are in modern days now,” another lady intoned. I was more disturbed than I had been when I first saw the church.

I returned to Rev. Labala to ask  a little more about this church. According to Rev. Labala, the church was established in 1926 by Dr. George Way Harley from North Carolina the United States of America. He was a member of the Edenton Street United Methodist Church. According to other sources, the building of a church in Ganta was the culminating point in Dr. George Way Harley's work in Liberia. Erecting a church was the high point of his work in mission building. It took many years to build the church. The work was delayed for a long time because of shortage of funds and pressing demands for other buildings.

Though he did not say how long it took to build the church, he just said, the church was completed in 1950 and because Charles Miller a devoted Methodist layman and Agnes McAllister a gallant young missionary among the Kru people in Garraway in the 1890's were the highest contributors of funds to the building project the church was named in honor of both families: The Miller McAllister Memorial United Methodist Church. There is a missing puzzle of what the church was called before its current name. Be it as it may, this historical church is about to be erased, not by tearing it down, but by defacing it from its original look which is worth every effort of preservation.

Still not wanting to judge those who I thought were in the process of defacing the church as wrong doers, I probed further by asking Rev. Labala who is also a graduate of the University of Liberia with a degree in architecture, if the sixty year old building posed any form of danger to the congregation. “Not in another 50 years time” Rev. Labala said.  As I write this piece of information trying to capture the attention of those who will want to rescue this historical relic, I saw visible cracks in the walls, sun light streaming through the roof, which suggested to me that water also pours down on the congregation during the rainy season.  Then I said to myself these folks may be right by saying, “away with the old.”

[On second thought, I realized that a new campaign of “generational change” is about to enter into the church.] So I decided to once again confront Rev. Labala about the issue of cost if one wanted to change the roof to zinc which is what some of his members are calling for. “It will cost us US$14,000 to keep the clay roof and probably the same amount or more even if we decide to use zinc,” Rev Labala said. I also realized that the cost of preserving this relic will be high, but the impact of erasing it will be more devastating to those of us for whom historical records mean so much.

I further realized as I was concluding this article that “away with the old” is not just a campaign of wanting to change the outlook of the Miller McAllister Memorial United Methodist Church, but to make sure this relic of the 18th century is preserved.  

About the Author                                                                                                                                                  I am a Journalist, Transitional Justice Worker, and former Inquiry Officer TRC of Liberia. I am interested in transitional justice work and my research interest is in the area of education, land tenure security, youth, and gender sensitivity issues. At the moment, I am serving as the Director of Communications for the United Methodist Church in Liberia. I am based in Monrovia.

African Delegates Hold Pre-General Conference Prayer Summit in Liberia

Rev. Dr. John G. Innis told African delegates who attended the Prayer Summit in Monrovia Liberia from March 28-31, 2012 to pray for the sustained peace, unity and harmony of the global United Methodist Church. He urged the Prayer Summit delegates to pray for the sovereign rule of God over the future of the Church and its programs, projects, and ministries.

Delegates representing several Annual Conferences in Africa met in Liberia for four days in a prayer meeting referred to as the “Prayer Summit.” The meeting, hosted by the Liberia Annual Conference, was intended for the African delegation to speak with one voice on most of the legislative issues that will come up on the General Conference floor in Tampa, Florida, USA. The fifty member delegation prayed and decided that as delegates from Africa they will stand together to protect the unity and connectional nature of the global United Methodist Church.

Though the delegates at the Prayer Summit did not name any specific legislation, the head of the organizing team in Liberia, Rev. Dr. Jerry P. Kulah said, “Africa has always been in God’s Messianic plan and timing to provide hope for the preservation of the purpose of the gospel.” Rev. Kulah, who is also member of the Liberian delegation to the GC said, when Jesus’ life was threatened as a baby by a wicked and idolatrous king Africa provided hope to rescue our Lord. (Matt. 2:13-18).There is no small biblical value attached to us, Rev Kulah added. “We are confident that in these end times, Africa can live up to the true ministry of up-holding and defending the purpose and virtues of the Church of Christ” he concluded.

Earlier, the Resident Bishop of the Liberia Area of the United Methodist Church, Rev. Dr. John G. Innis, welcome the delegates to Liberia and said he did so on behalf of Children, Youth, Young Adults, the Lay and Clergy leadership of the Liberia Area of The United Methodist Church, and his colleagues of the College of Bishops of the West Africa Central Conference. Bishop Innis urged delegates to pray for the sustained peace, unity and harmony of the global United Methodist Church. He also called on the Prayer Summit delegates to pray for the sovereign rule of God over the future of the Church and its programs, projects and ministries. “Do not forget to pray for the successful hosting of the events” of the 2012 General Conference, scheduled to take place in Tampa, Florida from 21st April to 4th May 2012, Bishop Innis concluded.

The Liberia “Prayer Summit” brought together three Central Conferences representing twenty six Annual Conferences in Africa. Delegates came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia, and host country Liberia. The delegation also met with the Liberian leader, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who is also a United Methodist. Meanwhile, the general resolution from the four days Prayer Summit will be issued soon.

Monrovia District Women Dedicates US$100,000.00 School Building

The Women of the Monrovia District Conference, United Methodist Church on Saturday 18, 2012 dedicated eight classrooms school in Mount Barclay outside of Monrovia. According to the District Superintendent, Rev. Jerry P. Kulah, the school was constructed to provide educational opportunity for the children of the Mount Barclay community, especially girls. “The school project is the Monrovia District Women way of helping to fulfill the mission and vision of the general United Methodist Church in Liberia” Rev. Kulah said. “The eight classrooms school was constructed by the Monrovia District Women in partnership with the Women of Oak Grove United Methodist Church of Decatur, Georgia in the United States of America” the UMC Clergyman added.
Also speaking at the dedication program, Rev. John G. Innis, Resident Bishop of the Liberia Area, United Methodist Church hailed the visionary sense of the Monrovia District Women and praised them for their commitment to ensure that girls are provided the opportunity to go to school. He called on parents of the community to make sure that their children will take advantage of the opportunity provided them. The UMC Bishop said, “the ability of the women to build the school is in itself a service to the future leaders of the country.” “You have redeemed the people of Mount Barclay, especially the children from darkness to light” Bishop Innis concluded. He further pledged his support to the Women of the Monrovia District Conference.
Speaking further, the USA based partners; Zoe Hicks and Madge Watson said, “the dedication of the school was a dream comes true.” “The school will not only provide the children with education, it will also teach them the value of education,” the partners said. “The vision of the school is to remove girls from the streets,” they added. Zoe Hicks and Madge Watson represent the women and the entire membership of the Oak Grove United Methodist Church in this partnership.
The school which is to be called “New Hope United Methodist Women Elementary School” has eight class rooms, offices for the principal and vice principal, the secretary and registrar. The 8,700 sq. ft. building is also equipped with teachers’ launch and modern bathroom facilities. The school cost over US$100,000.00 and it is expected to be fully operational in September 2012.
Meanwhile, the Monrovia District Conference Women and the Oak Grove United Methodist Church have committed themselves through this partnership to construct dormitory and hostel by the year 2015.