Meet Justin, the new Kuwaa Mission well tech.

His name is Justin Kpehe Hena. Before I give you more on Justin, let me give you a little background on what’s going on with the Kuwaa Mission. Safe drinking water for the Kuwaa people has been on the agenda of the Kuwaa Mission since the Mission’s inception in 2008. It was not difficult to prioritize safe drinking water, as we saw the negative impact of contaminated water on the people. The people themselves realized that if they were going to rebuild their lives and communities after the civil war, they had to be healthy. They realized safe drinking water would be a significant contributing factor towards that goal. There were other needs of the communities, of course (sanitation facilities, clinics, worship facilities, schools, and roads, for example. But the Mission, with the consent of the Kuwaa people, agreed to start with that which was manageable and most impactful – safe drinking water. The initial step was to purify surface water drawn from rivers and creeks through water filters. The Mission later graduated to digging wells and installing hand pumps manually. We are pleased to introduce you to one of the men you have empowered through your support to dig the Kuwaa well and install pumps to provide safe drinking water to the Kuwaa people. So let me introduce you to Justin who has been with us since 2010. Justin Kpehe Hena is a thirty-one-year-old Liberian who has sacrificed to make the Kuwaa Mission dream a reality. Justin started working with the Mission at age 19, two years after the idea of the Mission was conceived. As he was too young to head any project of this nature, he came with his boss, Mr. Barsay Andrews, known as Koko, another dedicated young man. Working with Koko in the Kuwaa land enabled Justin to develop his digging skills and mental toughness. Justin hails from the Gbandi tribe, a neighboring tribe to the Kuwaa people. He makes no distinction between the Kuwaa people and himself. He says, “I don’t know of any differences between the Kuwaa people and me or the Gbandi people – the languages, maybe. But we are the same people. I grew up among the Kuwaa; they know me; I know them! Being with them is being at home.” Next week, Justin heads up to Kalata with three of his men, Prince, Momo, and Kortu, to manually dig a thirty-five to forty-foot well that we hope helps supply the town with safe drinking water! This is exciting, not only for the inhabitants of Kalata but also for Justin and his team! And—of course—for the Kuwaa Mission. Justin and his team will do what they love – digging until they hit water! They live for the thrill of discovering water after laboring for days and sometimes weeks! In searching for water, the deepest hole Justin has dug is forty-six feet deep. That, to us, is deep because this is manual digging! Justin and his team love the thrill, and they appreciate the help the exercise of digging gives them. By digging for the Kuwaa Mission, they can feed their families and send their children to school. Justin is grateful to God for the Kuwaa Mission. “We thank God for this Mission (Kuwaa Mission). Through them, we don’t just do what we love to do; we can send our children to school. It is hard work; it is not easy, but we enjoy doing it because of what it does for God’s people here in the bush and what it does for us. I thank the Kuwaa Mission!” Prayer: God of the Kuwaa People and God of the Kuwaa Mission, our God, we thank you for all the people you send us to make the mission possible. We thank you especially this month for those whose generosity helps to bring joy to Justin, Prince, Momo, and Kortu. Please continue to provide their every need just as you provide joy and protection for Justin and his team.

Amen

Jensen Seyenkulo – COO, Kuwaa Mission  

  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: 

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Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

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Dear Friends, With your help and in collaboration with the Christian Health Association of Liberia (CHAL), the Kuwaa Mission delivered over $7,000 worth of badly needed medicines and medical supplies to the Kondesu Clinic this Christmas season! Thank you for demonstrating your love and dedication to “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40)! Many of you know that the Kondesu Clinic was built by the Kuwaa Mission and turned over to the Government of Liberia a few years ago. The Government was very grateful to the Kuwaa Mission (that means you) for foresightedness. Since it is the Government’s responsibility to attend to its people’s healthcare needs, the Liberian Government agreed to shoulder the burden of running the clinic. They said they would provide personnel, medicine, and whatever else was needed to keep the clinic open, functional, and impactful. Unfortunately, although they started well, they needed to sustain the effort. Trained personnel would not accept the assignment due to its remoteness. The clinic was shut down shortly after that and remained closed for almost three years due to neglect. Through the intervention of the new County Health Officer (CHO), Dr. Peter George, the clinic reopened three months ago. It reopened when Dr. George assigned three trained healthcare workers and five support staff to the clinic. The Kuwaa Mission’s lobbying efforts also helped to get the clinic reopened. We say thank you for that! Even with the staffing problem resolved, the clinic continued to face the problem of a medicine shortage. It could not fully meet its healthcare goal without drugs. After these first three months of the clinic’s operation, following the restaffing, it has become clear that the quarterly supply of medicines from the Ministry of Health (MOH) is insufficient. We celebrate Kuwaa Mission’s partnership with the Christian Health Association of Liberia (CHAL), a partnership negotiated by the Kuwaa Mission’s COO, because it enhances the Mission’s efforts to fill in the gaps between MOH’s quarterly deliveries. Not only is the Kuwaa Mission grateful for this partnership, but the region’s residents are also very appreciative! The four towns in the area demonstrated their appreciation when they mobilized a team of forty (40) men and women to make the fifty-five-to-sixty-mile journey on foot to transport the remaining medicines and supplies from Fassama. (Fassama is the last town accessible by car to the clinic site in Kondesu). Thank you, partners, for giving so generously to this great mission during this season of giving. You have returned joy to a depressed people who now have an additional reason to celebrate Christmas with smiles on their faces! THANK YOU! YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Your end-of-year donations will further enhance our ministry and thank you! Prayer: God, we have never doubted that you would accompany these once-forgotten Kuwaa people. You have loved them as much as any other group! We give you thanks for the men and women whose gifts show your love to the Kuwaa people. Bless them and keep them, in Jesus’ name!

Jensen Seyenkulo – COO, Kuwaa Mission  

  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: 

Donate

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

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Dear Friends,

Through your support, the Kuwaa Mission has sponsored several evangelists from Kuwaa land who have wanted to improve their method of evangelism. We are pleased to introduce one of the three who entered the training program this year, 2022. Ms. Rebecca Kpanah Bonah, or RB, as her classmates affectionately call her, is one of the two female students in the program this year. She is a resident of Belleh Yallah, arguably the largest town in the Kuwaa region. Although she served her God and the congregation with dedication, it never occurred to her that she would take this great leap of faith to pursue the kind of knowledge offered in Totota. Based on her commitment to the work of her church, the church thought she was the best candidate for the training program in Totota, many hours’ drive away from home. As much as she enjoyed sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ, she could not imagine leaving home and family, especially her fifteen-month-old child, behind.RB is among the youngest and brightest in her class of eighteen students, sixteen men and two women.   Born into a family where the father, an evangelist, took the spreading of God’s Word seriously, she has always felt the joy of being around God’s word. She watched her father share the Word of God with enthusiasm for many years as she was growing up. When she left home early to pursue her education (there were no opportunities for former education in her village), she knew where she would find satisfaction. It would be in sharing the Gospel! But it never occurred to her that she would leave home and family to study at this level. Therefore, the suggestion that she should go to the Louis T. Bowers Lay Leaders and Ministers Training Center (LTBLLMTC) was not attractive to her. She finally heard the voice of God through the voice of God’s people through her meditation on Matthew 6:33. That voice spoke to her in her struggle like no other! It convicted her and put things into perspective for her. She decided that she would put God’s Kingdom first, no matter how painful! RB completes the first four terms of study at LTBLLMTC in two weeks and is determined to complete the program. She misses her children, especially the fifteen-month-old, but she knows she belongs here. She said, “It has not been easy, but for the most part, I have enjoyed it. I did not know it would be this fun! Thank you for the opportunity.”  Thank you for being so supportive, Friends! You are making a difference. RB is expected to return home during each break, during which she will work on a ministry project in her congregation. After she completes the program, she will help with the ministry of the Lutheran Church in Liberia.

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for the many laborers you have sent to your vineyard in Kuwaa land. We thank you for RB and all those who help to make her ministry possible. Bless the work she does, and bless the work they do. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen! 

Jensen Seyenkulo – COO, Kuwaa Mission  

  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: 

Donate

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

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Dear Friends, We are happy and excited to introduce you to the Kuwaa Mission’s new Chief Operation Officer (COO), The Rev. Dr.  Daniel Jensen Seyenkulo. Rev. Seyenkulo is an ordained pastor of the Lutheran Church in Liberia, a church he recently served as presiding Bishop for ten years. He is currently retired and splitting his time between his wife, their farm, and the Kuwaa People in the remotest part of Liberia, West Africa. Jensen, as he prefers to be called, is a Kuwaa man himself. He is one of the founding members of this fourteen-year-old ministry called the Kuwaa Mission. Jensen, as he prefers to be called, is a Kuwaa man himself. He is one of the founding members of this fourteen-year-old ministry called the Kuwaa Mission. The Kuwaa Mission came into being when the late Rev. Dr. Richard Thompson, a former Lutheran Bible Translators (LTB) missionary to the Kuwaa people, placed a call to Jensen suggesting they brainstorm about ways they could help their people, the Kuwaa People, put their lives back together after the civil crisis that had brought so much devastation and grief to the entire nation of Liberia. Jensen, who the same civil crisis had displaced, lived in Chicago with his family at the time. The two men agreed they would bring other like-minded people in on the plan. Those that came to mind were Ed and Diane Stelling and the late Rev. Chris Kowula, a Kuwaa pastor. After a series of exchange visits between the two men in Chicago, Illinois, and Anchorage, Alaska, the Mission was born! Jensen comes to the Mission with a wealth of knowledge and experience. He earned his postgraduate degree in New Testament Studies at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 1999, served the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) as parish pastor for twelve years, and as a program director at the ELCA Central Offices for six years. He returned home to Liberia in 2012 at the invitation of the Lutheran Church in Liberia to serve as its presiding Bishop. Jensen retired as Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Liberia in April 2022 and is now available to serve the Kuwaa people through the Kuwaa Mission. We thank God for adding another pair of hands to this unique ministry! Welcome, Jensen! We thank our friends for the prayers and other forms of support that make the addition of Jensen possible. Prayer: God, we thank you for this pair of hands you brought back to serve your people. We ask that you would grant him wisdom, knowledge, and your spirit of discernment for the work ahead. Amen!

  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: 

Donate

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

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Dear Friends of the Kuwaa Mission, It is rainy season here in Liberia, and the rains are FALLING! The rains seem to be trying to make up for the longer than usual dry season this year! Despite these rains, two women and two men, who have some Kuwaa background, traveled with me to Kuwaa-land a few weeks ago. The trip’s purpose was to assess the Kuwaa Mission work in the region and report back to the Kuwaa Mission Board. Thanks be to God for the opportunity!   As a Kuwaa man myself, the Kuwaa Mission is not strange to me. I have been involved with the Mission since its inception; I was one of the founding members. This time I was impressed to see the amount of work the Mission has done among the Kuwaa people. It was also pleased me to hear the praises of the Mission sung by the people. We cannot thank you enough for all the financial, prayerful, and other forms of support that make the work possible! Your support is making a difference! The Kuwaa Mission has done amazing work in the region where the Kuwaa people live.  I want to share some of that work with you. I was impressed most with the positive impact the wells are having on the population.

1. The children look healthy. The positive effects of safe drinking water on the people can be seen in the faces of the children! They look healthier than ever before. That was not just the impression of the visiting team; the technicians admitted it. According to the well technicians we met, the healthy appearance can largely be attributed to the increase in safe drinking water in these communities. We agree with their conclusion mainly because the wells are the only new interventions in these communities.
2. The adults are learning new practices around water use. The well technicians told my team and me that village dwellers have seen the well water’s positive impact on them and their families. This discovery has led them to take extra well water with them to the farms, where they labor all day without access to the wells. Through this practice, the farmers can access well water without the wells. That is a significant transformation for people who believe one cannot wash water, meaning water cannot be purified – you drink what looks good for drinking, period!

Sadly, the intense sun and the prolonged dry season affected water availability in some of these wells. According to the technicians(Team shown below), a good number of wells ran dry. The situation led to the straining of the few wells that contained water, damaging some handpumps. With the ten seals that we took with us, the technicians can now repair some. Thanks for helping make this possible. In addition, the Kuwaa Mission has been instrumental in training professional leaders from the area, who are now more equipped to be leading and evangelizing people in the region. We had the opportunity to interact with some these leaders. Their joy for what they do was contagious! In the past four years, the Mission has helped to fund theological education for 7 evangelists from the area.  Currently, one is under consideration to attend seminary.  A new group of four evangelists are currently being recruited for the next term which begins in September, 2022. My first recommendation would be that the Kuwaa Mission Board will authorize the building of more wells in targeted areas and permit the deepening of shallow wells in as many towns as possible. My second recommendation would be that funds be made available to enable the continued training in Lutheran theology, Bible, and literacy for the evangelists from the area. The need is great, and the work done so far is making a difference. We can make a more significant positive impact on these neglected people.

Prayer: Dear God, I thank you for the opportunity you have given us to serve you among the Kuwaa people. Open our eyes to what is needed most and equip us to do your will. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Jensen Seyenkulo

Bishop Emeritus, Lutheran Church in Liberia  

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  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: 

Donate

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

Please subscribe to our mailing list if you want to receive our monthly update letter.  

Shop like you normally do on Amazon but make a small contribution to the Kuwaa Mission with every purchase.  Please consider adding the Kuwaa Mission.