With profound gratitude to all the men and women who have and continue to serve the Kuwaa Mission! For most of you, I imagine, the pictures you have seen of Liberia and the Kuwaa people are hard to relate to.  The pictures I have posted over the years, show people who continue to live much like they did when I lived there between 1970 and 1980.
The picture to the right is of me on a Kuwaa farm sometime around 1974, although I could imagine a very similar picture being taken today.  The thing that strikes me about this picture and is locked in my memory are their smiles.                             

They worked harder than anyone I have ever seen, but always with a smile. My attitude towards work was formed by the many days spent side by side with them clearing a farm, burning the cleared trees, mudding houses, cutting grass, or chasing birds away from the rice fields. The list goes on.  While they worked, they sang, laughed and engaged in the most animated conversations.  Work was about community.  You came together to work in the morning and finished the day eating as a group around a large bowl of rice.                       

The Kuwaa people continue to live a difficult life, but you will seldom find a picture that isn’t full of smiles.  These people truly appreciate everything that the mission has done for them.  With the resources donated to the Kuwaa Mission, we do our best to provide for their most basic needs.  The joy on their faces is profound even if from the first water from a new well, a new clinic that provides the most basic of health care, or the recent work with Days for Girls to provide women with the most basic feminine hygiene kits. All of the pictures you have seen on our website show their gratitude for what your donations have allowed the mission to do.    
As the webmaster for the Kuwaa Mission website, I have the privilege of showing everyone the fruit of your donations and hard work for my Kuwaa family.  I am personally grateful to each of you for your prayers and for the financial support you continue to provide. 
We ask that you continue to pray for the mission and for the Kuwaa people.  If you don’t already do so, please consider a donation as everything helps and the Kuwaa people appreciate it greatly. 

If you are interested in helping, we are always looking for volunteers!  There are many ways to help.  Are you a website designer, do you enjoy marketing, do you like crafting, sewing (like the Days for Girls projects) or do you want to make a life changing visit to the jungles of Africa to help some of the most genuine and appreciative people you will ever meet!

Please reach out at Webmaster@kuwaamission.org.  with questions or if you want to help.

Your brother in Christ,

Todd Thompson (Mulumba), “The Chiefs Messenger”

Proud son of Rev Richard and Doris Thompson

Your contributions to the Kuwaa Mission are tax-deductible.  We are a 501c3 non-profit organization.  Our tax ID number is 27-5458111

Donations can be given in two ways:  A Check to the mission address or PayPal on our Website:
The Kuwaa Mission c/o Bethany Lutheran Church 1340 8th Street. Slidell, LA 70458

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.  Psalm 139:13-14

 Kuwaa Mission to aid in providing Health and Wellness Education for pregnant women through Big Belly Business book distribution.

 To promote healthy pregnancies and combat Liberia’s high maternal and early childhood mortality rates, the Open Society Initiative for West Africa launched the Liberia Big Belly Business pregnancy book.  The Kuwaa Mission is joining in this effort.

“After the end of the civil war, Liberia’s maternal mortality rate soared to 994 out of every 100,000 new births. Upon assuming office in 2006 as Africa’s first democratically elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf promised that her government would make efforts to curtail the high maternal death rate. According to the World Health Organization, that number was reduced to 640 in 2013.  However, the outbreak of the Ebola virus in 2014 ravaged the country’s weak health system, with maternal health being no exception. The situation led to an increase in the deaths of pregnant women. Because of the poor state of the health system and the increased death rate, Liberia was again rated among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa with high maternal mortality.” (http://www.bushchicken.com/big-belly-business-pregnancy-guide-launches-in-monrovia/)

The term ‘big belly’ is often used informally in Liberia to refer to a pregnant woman.  Several health organizations throughout Liberia have joined together to bring the Big Belly Business book and pregnancy training to women throughout Liberia.  The Kuwaa Mission is joining into this effort to provide books and training to women (and their partners) in the villages of the Kuwaa chiefdom. 

The Big Belly Business book provides women with health literacy and empowerment information to help expecting women learn how to have a healthy pregnancy, safe delivery, and a healthy baby.  The month-to-month guide allows pregnant women to anticipate the various changes to their bodies and instructs them on what to do each step of the way.  It also gives advice to the husband, extended family, friends, neighbors and community members to take an active part in caring for the pregnant woman.

Pages from the Big Belly Business book. Photo: Jefferson Krua

The illustrated Big Belly Business book was written in simple Liberian English for easy understanding by Liberians who may not be well-educated. Prominent individuals such as Elma Shaw, T. Michael Weah, and Chase Walker all contributed to its contents.

We thank you for your generous support of the Kuwaa Mission and for your prayers for the work of the mission and the Kuwaa people we serve.  Please pray for the Big Belly project and for all the women and infants who will be strengthened, encouraged and supported through it.  And may God richly bless each of you with the joy of his presence in the month ahead.

In Christ’s service,

Rev. Carol George, Kuwaa Board Chair

Your contributions to the Kuwaa Mission are tax-deductible.  We are a 501c3 non-profit organization.  Our tax ID number is 27-5458111

Donations can be given in two ways:  A Check to the mission address or PayPal on our Website:

The Kuwaa Mission?c/o Bethany Lutheran Church?1340 8th Street?Slidell, LA 70458

 www.kuwaamission.org                                                     Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

“THE LOVE OF LIBERTY BROUGHT US HERE”

These words form the motto of the country of Liberia in West Africa. They were chosen July 26, 1847 by freed American slaves who had settled in West Africa with the help of our U.S. Congress. They declared their independence on that day as a free and independent nation – independent of English and French colonization unlike their neighboring countries.

While  we were missionaries in Liberia back in the 1970’s, our family celebrated  two Independence Days with all the activities associated with them: July 4 and July 26. The U.S. Embassy would host a large picnic with food and games highlighted with the raising of the American Flag by the embassy Marine Color Guard – a touch of home with the singing of our national anthem. Later that month we gathered with the Lutheran Church of Liberia and joined the Liberians as they worshipped and observed their Independence Day.

In a sense, the Love of Liberty recently brought us back to Liberia and our Kuwaa brothers and sisters in Christ. For over 10 years now we have returned to Liberia, bringing the Kuwaa people fresh clean water wells in each of their  remote villages, constructing a medical clinic in the center of their vast chiefdom and also building/rebuilding log and plank bridges over the many creeks and streams. In addition we have provided school supplies, roofing materials for churches/schools, teacher/evangelist training workshops, Vacation Bible Schools and numerous health classes for women and girls.

All of these activities have brought liberty and freedom to the Kuwaa. They no longer have to fear illness and death from dirty and disease filled drinking water from the streams. They no longer have to walk for miles and hours to get medical help. They are free to worship and be educated in roofed church/school buildings. These freedoms have provided them with improved health and living conditions not known to them previously. To God be the Glory!!

For all  this we thank you, our faithful supporters,  on behalf of the Kuwaa for being our partners in ministry in faraway Liberia through your prayers and financial support. The Kuwaa have the same Lord and Savior as we do. Jesus has freed us all from the fear and bondage of sin, death and the devil and has given all of us liberty to serve Him in love for others, no matter where they might be – next door or around the world.

Have a Happy and Blessed Fourth of July enjoying the Love of Liberty we share!

Ed Stelling,

Kuwaa Mission Advisory Board Member

Download the Prayer Letter

Word Version         PDF Version

Your contributions to The Kuwaa Mission are tax-deductible.  We are a 501c3 non-profit organization.  Our Tax ID number is 27-5458111

Donate on our Website or send a Check to the address below.  Thank You!

The Kuwaa Mission:  c/o Bethany Lutheran Church,  1340 8th Street,  Slidell, LA 70458 www.bethanyslidell.org
 

It is with sad but grateful hearts that we say goodbye to our CEO, Cindy Bye, who has resigned from the Kuwaa Mission – Board of Directors, effective the end of June, 2018.

Cindy  has been a volunteer for the Kuwaa Mission since 2009. In June of that year, Cindy first learned about the Kuwaa Mission when at her church in Anchorage, Alaska, she heard a presentation about the Mission by Rev. Dr. Richard Thompson, a former missionary with the Kuwaa, and Mr. Stan Olsen, a construction manager with experience in Liberia.  At that moment she felt a calling to volunteer and join the Mission. By the end of 2009 Cindy made her first trip to Liberia with her college age daughter,  Bekki.

Over the next 9 years, Cindy would travel to Liberia a total of 7 times, working alongside the Kuwaa people installing water wells to bring safe drinking water to the villages and improve their sanitary conditions.  As a retired water treatment engineer, Cindy believes that everyone has the right to safe clean water. The Kuwaa came to love Cindy, referring to her as Ma Sombee and even having a baby girl named after her.

Cindy says, “The most important lesson that I have learned from the Kuwaa is about the value of relationships. Material things and even the adventure and entertainment we seek do not make us truly happy. The true joy is in relationships. As Jesus said in John 15, ‘I tell you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.’”

We give thanks to the Lord for Cindy and her dedication to the Kuwaa Mission and the Kuwaa people. We wish her God’s richest blessings as she moves forward with new callings in ministry for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Karen Voris,

Kuwaa Mission Board Member

Download the Prayer Letter

Word Version         PDF Version

Your contributions to The Kuwaa Mission are tax-deductible.  We are a 501c3 non-profit organization.  Our Tax ID number is 27-5458111

Donate on our Website or send a Check to the address below.  Thank You!

The Kuwaa Mission:  c/o Bethany Lutheran Church,  1340 8th Street,  Slidell, LA 70458 www.bethanyslidell.org