March Prayer Letter | Kuwaa Mission: Helping the Kuwaa People of Liberia

I again traveled to Liberia and Kuwaa Chiefdom in the Belle District in mid-January and returned home in early February. This was a shorter trip than normal but I still feel that I accomplished a lot for the mission and the Kuwaa people. Rev. Dr. Daniel Seyenkulo, a founder of the KM and now the Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Liberia, accompanied me and his wife, Rev. Linda Seyenkulo to the village of Belle Yelleh. Belle Yelleh was home for much of Liberia’s history as the location for a very notorious prison. There was no road in and the only planes that went there were government planes carrying prisoners in, very few got out! However today there are two car roads in and no airstrip! The road we travelled required a river crossing in a hand powered ferry. This is the first village in the Belle District to receive a cell phone tower and phone connection to the rest of the world!! Solar powered cell phone tower with battery backup We had very productive meetings with the people in town and they recommitted themselves to helping the KM with wells and whatever else that we may request. We then travelled back to Monrovia to allow the Bishop to complete a days’ worth of paperwork before we flew into another area of the Belle District curtesy of Samaritans Purse and their helicopter. Here we visited with the people in Fassama, by far the largest village in the district, and then rode motorbikes to Belle Baloma for a visit there. Fassama School class being address by the Bishop The only pastor for the Belle District and the Kuwaa Chiefdom lives in Belle Baloma and has been doing an excellent job. During our visit the people spoke very highly of the Rev. Paye and all that he has done for the district. The only functioning night school is being conducted in Belle Baloma but there are hopes for a similar system in all the other villages – we just need the solar system for each village. This would be about $1200 per village; they have the student interest (usually older people who need to work during the day) and people who can teach. Please consider talking with your congregations and friends to see if you can “adopt” a school and get them the badly needed solar system. Belle Baloma School with the Lutheran Church in the background Rev. Paye led the drive to get this school building rebuilt while maintaining the roof structure. This 9 room school building is complete but still needs blackboards, additional doors, chairs, desks and the solar system. Unfortunately most schools in the district are not near as nice as the ones in Belle Baloma and Fassama. The people in both Fassama and Belle Baloma were very receptive to the message from the bishop and also recommitted themselves to helping the KM as needed. Both villages want to be connected to the phone system. They volunteered, and said if it was possible to get the 30’ long 4” diameter steel pipe tower to Belle Yelleh, to carry it to their villages. This is at least an 8 hour hike over two tall mountains, and it’s not an easy hike as I’ve done it!! Rev. Paye on the left being honored with the receipt of a “white chicken”. This shows the towns deep appreciation for all he has done. Unfortunately he recently lost his wife to cancer. In her honor the entire district shut down for a day and people travelled across the district to come and pay their respects. So all in all it was a great trip. This year we also conducted a Children’s Bible School for 130 kids as well as a Community Led Total Sanitation program both in Kondesu. We conducted an health education class for young women in four villages for the Days for Girls program and distributed about 150 re-useable sanitary kits to young girls just beginning their menstrual periods. Thank you all for your continued support, Stan Olsen: Acting CEO Your contributions to the Kuwaa Mission are tax-deductible. We are a 501c3 non-profit organization. Our tax ID number is 27-5458111