This posting is from a letter sent by Chad Courtney (Country Director – Sierra Leone - Willamette Medical Teams) to Jerry McIntosh (Director – Willamette Medical Teams).

A trip was taken on the 22^nd and 23^rd of January by Chad Courtney and Ben Margai (local pastor/church planter).  The purpose of the trip was to make the necessary arrangements and contacts for the WMT medical team arriving into Sierra Leone on the 15^th of February.  In addition to the February clinic site of Gbangbatok, they we also visited: 1) the Sierra Rutile mine to talk with the community affairs department and the actual proposed living quarters for the medical team as well as 2)  Moriba Town – a small village located approximately 30 minutes from Gangbatok. 

The Sierra Rutile mine is located about 5 hours by car from Freetown.  The first stop was to the office of Community Affairs for the mine to discuss logistics for the February medical trip.  Gbangbatok is located an additional 40 minutes from the mine.  In Gbangbatok they met with the chief of the village, the acting member of parliament responsible for the area, an area councilperson, the head of police, the staff of the community clinic, the local pastor (Pastor Kamanda) who reports to Ben Margai, and several leaders of the church.  They were welcomed warmly by all and all pledged their support of our medical operation.

The clinic will be held at the community health clinic.  The clinic is staffed by a chief health officer (CHO – who they were told has the equivalent of nurses training), a head nurse and two assistants.  The building is solid block construction, cement floor with a large waiting area and several private rooms for tending to patients.  There are benches for the waiting area and several examining tables but not much more should be expected in terms of equipment.

Water is in short supply in the village.  There are several well/pumps in the community but none of them are working.  All water for the community must be hauled in containers by hand from a somewhat nearby stream. 

Moriba Town sits approximately 30 minutes from Gbangbatok and was visited for two purposes: (1) to secure the assistance of the staff as translators for the medical clinic, and (2) as a survey to a possible future clinic.  The clinic itself is similar to that of Gbangbatok in terms of infrastructure and equipment (very basic).  Drinking water is also scarce or non- existent here. 

The mission team from Grace Community Church in Chico, California led by Pastor Dave Workman was in Tissana, Sierra Leone in November 2009. The 3-member team was there to follow up on several past educational and agriculture projects, present a seminar for local area pastors and laying the groundwork for the next G.C.C mission trip slated for April 2010.

This is the fourth trip for the G.C.C mission teams since 2007 and one thing that teams members noticed was Freetown’s appearance has been cleaned up to a certain extent with more shops open for business and less people selling their wares on the sidewalk. The throng of people walking the streets and doing business has NOT diminished.  Commerce appears to be on the rise and people appear to be “normalizing” their lives.

Activities while we were in Sierra Leone included: (1) procuring medicines for the clinic in Tissana, (2) meeting with old and new friends in the village of Tissana, (3) checking out the continuing construction of the church building, (4) pastor training seminar, and (5) meetings with our local team leaders.

November is the end of the rainy season but rain did fall on the land very heavily one afternoon and making travel an adventure.  The rain made the main road (only road) into Tissana impassable, so the team had to hike in and out of the village that day.

Also on the agenda for the trip were the details of registering the church with local officials, getting a driver’s license for our assistant pastor, and setting up a bank account. What seem like mundane, easily handled tasks here in America are much more time consuming and challenging in Sierra Leone. Multiple trips to government offices are required to complete things that would be a snap here at home. “Minor” details such as no Internet access and lack of ink for a printer in a government office could test the patience of Job.

Overall the trip was a success and another team from G.C.C. is headed back in April to complete several projects and get a couple more started. 

Greg Colby

Mission Team Member

Grace Community Church, Chico

Greetings to you all!!
I made it back from Sierra Leone in time for Thanksgiving and in pretty good shape! (My bum was sore & I had a few bug bites–nothing to complain about–just happy to be done with a near 40 hours of travel !)  Thanksgiving with family was wonderful and no I didn’t feel guilty for our abundance–just blessed.

Going back to Binkolo was eye opening in so many ways because it was different than I remembered. The difference wasn’t that it had changed but that we spent time in the town & with those who live & minister there. On my first trip two years ago we were only there briefly & it seemed less populated (probably because of the time of day & week we were there), tribal and Muslim in religion and without basic services. As it turns out there is a large Catholic Church & School, education seems to be a high priority & there is a large population in the region (10,000-15,000).

We also found a wealth of resources in lush farm land, a skills development center, and what appears to be a good water source for most of the community. In the nearby city of Makeni where we stayed, we also discovered the Salome Microfinance Trust which administers micro loans and appears to be a reliable, corruption free source of low interest short term loans.

The best part of this trip was meeting our friend & the Pastor of Grace & Glory Church Binkolo, Pastor Daniel Kamara and his family. The family just recently moved here and that has added credibility to the church. The city fathers have given us the use of a covered open air building and will be considering a gift of land once the elections are settled for the “Paramount Chief” in December.

Some of the strategies for growth that Pastor Daniel is taking initiative on are:

• Starting a nursery school–the first of it’s kind in the community
• Teen development & discipleship for the over 1000 students that are at the Catholic High School
• Starting home groups for study & prayer during the week with training for the future leaders
• Cooperative farming to support the church & nursery school
• Applying for a microloan to get the farming started

Some of the areas we will be assisting in are:

• Funds for school supplies
• Assistance for building when appropriate
• Helping with transportation needs for Pastor Daniel
• Assistance for additional staff as needed for school & church

Though I am just back — I can’t help thinking about the next mission trip! The students at the church have asked about us putting together a soccer tournament in the community. This has us thinking about a youth leadership development/sports camp. Also once the city fathers have considered the land we might be able to acquire–there will be many details to attend to. And though there are resources in this community, health education and medical resources are a great need for many (the child mortality rate is still 25% according to UNICEF for children under 5 here).

Thank you all for your prayers and support. I will continue to give you insight & updates (these are just a few thoughts as I try to clear my head) and you can learn about other efforts in Sierra Leone & Liberia online at West Africa Partners Blog.

Marc Johnson, Pastor
Grace & Glory Community Church
Vancouver, WA