I’m sitting my temporary apartment in Albuquerque, NM for three months while my wife Sally is busy working at University of New Mexico Hospital during this Covid-19 epidemic (‘m staying busy taking part in the big mountain bicycling scene). It seems like such a short time ago that much of the world, especially Liberia, was dealing with another epidemic:  EBOLA.  This year they are again fighting a novel disease and again the Kuwaa Mission will not be sending people to Liberia.  While we here in the US seem to be losing, or more accurately have lost, the battle against COVID-19 the people in Liberia seem to be doing fairly well.  They apparently learned their lesson from Ebola:  listen to the doctors!

Receiving room at the Kondesu Clinic

We did have very successful 2020 year:

• 3 new wells
• Repaired 3 existing wells
• Conducted 2 Children’s Bible School programs
• Conducted 2 Community Lead Sanitation Programs
• Delivered $1000 worth of medical supplies to the two Kuwaa clinics
• Provided funds to complete a new roof and provide paint for the school in Belle Baloma
• Provided funds to purchase and install a solar system in Belle Baloma so that they can conduct night school for adults.
• Provided bibles for evangelists and churches
• Together with the Lutheran Church in Liberia’s Bishop Daniel Jensen Seyenkulo visited the three largest Kuwaa villages and reconfirmed their support for the work of the Kuwaa Mission and their agreement to continue to work with us.
• Teamed with the Gbarpolo County Development Association to bring cell phone coverage to three Kuwaa villages. Now anyone can contact people in those villages directly by phone from the United States.  This simplifies our work tremendously.
• Continued to support the Lutheran Church in Liberia work to train additional evangelists who will return to their villages and work with Rev. Paye. Paye is the pastor assigned to the Kuwaa  Lutheran Churches of Bopolo County.
• Signed an agreement with the Lutheran Church in Liberia (LCL) for the support of Rev. Paye to enable him to carry out his duties more effectively.

Cell phone tower with solar panels and dish

This coming dry season, starting in January, we hope to provide funds for one more well, one Children’s Bible School and one Sanitation Program.  Due to Covid here in the US we were not able propose a grant for well funds this year. We will continue to work with the LCL for Rev. Paye’s support.  Since we are not traveling to Liberia we will not be able take with us any of Days for Girls menstrual kits.  Days for Girls has changed dramatically how they are structured so we are working to find a way to continue to provide these essential kits to young developing women.

Korpo Barsay conducting a Days for Girls program

The Kuwaa Mission has been extremely rewarded this year by the strong continued financial support from individuals and congregations.  We need your continued support now more than ever as we work through the world wide COVID-19 spread and our reduced opportunities to serve the Kuwaa People. We are always looking for volunteers, both here in America and those willing to expand their horizons (and possibly their comfort zones a bit) to help us further our work. We continue to develop two new programs:  ADOPT A CHURCH and ADOPT A SCHOOL.  The schools and churches in the Kuwaa area desperately need help bringing their facilities up to a reasonable working standard.  With Covid-19 and the years long problem of extremely high unemployment it has not been possible for the people to generate enough funds, especially up country, to maintain and rebuild all their buildings.  A few thousand dollars and tons of prayers will do wonders.  I ask each of you individually and as congregations to consider adopting a school or church and be responsible for developing a relationship with the people.  It will one of the most rewarding challenges you will undertake. In the following school photo please note the portable blackboard.  A blackboard is a piece of plywood painted black and generally nailed to the wall.  In some schools the students have benches, some do not.  In only one school are there chairs with a writing surface, concrete plastered walls and concrete floors.  In the other 15 villages the photo below is typical with the possible exception of chairs/benches made from bushes in the forest.. 

Typical classroom. 

Again thank you for your support and as we enter another Christmas season let us be thankful for so much the Lord has blessed us with.  If you have any questions about the church / school programs please feel free to contact me. Stan Olsen, CEO

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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

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Thanksgiving Prayer Letter

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ A blessed Thanksgiving to you all! This has been a rough year for all of us. It has also been a rough year on foreign missions.Missionaries could not be sent overseas because of the Coronavirus. However, this year has been a blessing to the church and its organizations also. Out of necessity the church had to develop new strategies to carry on its ministry and mission. The same is true of the Kuwaa Mission. The Mission had to develop new strategies to keep the Mission going forward. The Mission was blessed because the goal, as reported by Stan Olsen, of at least one well in each town was completed. Thanks be to God for the dedication of Stan. While the wells and hospital were being built, a few Kuwaa men were trained. Two months ago, at a Board of Directors meeting, it was discovered that the work to help the Kuwaa people rebuild their infrastructures could still go forward. Bishop Jensen, Pastor Paye, and Mr. Sami Zinna joined the Zoom Board meeting. The Board learned that there were other projects that could be done under the supervision of one of their own people. The first thing they requested was that the Mission provide the funds to finish putting up an internet tower. That was easily accomplished. Now Pastor Paye can keep in contact with the Evangelists in each town. The next thing that they requested was a Solar Energy System so that they could conduct adult education classes. Funds are available to accomplish this project. Again we thank God for providing the funds. The third project they suggested was the remodeling and rebuilding of the churches and schools destroyed by the Civil War. The Board said that they could do this project also if the funds come in to buy the materials needed to rebuild the buildings. The Board is confident that the funds will become available. The beauty of this project is that we don’t need to send someone over to supervise the work program. They can do that themselves. All they need is the building materials. We rejoice and thank God because we know that God’s people will provide. This program is an answer to prayer because we don’t have to send anyone to Liberia with the Coronavirus raging. This is another reason to thank the Lord. Another reason the Kuwaa Mission asks you to celebrate Thanksgiving is for all the brothers and sisters who have helped and/or supported the Mission’s work, and for those who are or will be helping and/or supporting the work program. You have and/ or will make it possible to help the Kuwaa people to have better physical and spiritual lives.

         From this war tattered building to this newly constructed block building 

From Idol Worship To Baptism

A blessed Thanksgiving to each and every one of you! And a very big thank you for your help and support of the Kuwaa Mission. Your brother in Christ, Dick Thompson, Co–founder of the Kuwaa Mission

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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. 

Dear Kuwaa Mission Supporters: It is with great sadness that I share the news that our KM Representative at Christ Lutheran Church in Costa Mesa, California, passed away this month. Bonnie Herring was a good friend and longtime supporter of our work with the Kuwaa people. We will miss her greatly, but we know that she is with Jesus. The roll of a representative in a congregation is a great asset to the mission. If you are so inclined to be a rep in your church, please let me know. We would love to have you help us. We need volunteers in all areas of our mission. Since the COVID19 has most of us in limbo these days, I wanted to reassure you that the Kuwaa Mission Board is continuing work both here and in Liberia. We have had several requests made for us, as a mission, to assist with the repair of several village schools and churches. Dry time is soon upon them and it is the perfect time to do this work. I am listing below some of the items that are necessary to do this work. Each is listed with cost for one building repair.…How much in total we will need is not known until the work has begun.                 We pray that you, our supporters, both individually and as congregations will see fit to finance some of these supplies. If you do, please note on your donation which materials you are adopting. Our former village of Belle Baloma has a night school that has lighting supplied by a generator that is old and not working well. A $2200 solar powered system would light up 3 classrooms. Many villagers cannot attend during the day because they have farm work to do. No work= No eat! We are looking for some individual, congregation or group to adopt this needed solar system project.            

ROOFING MATERIALS PROJECT:

• 1 BUNDLE OF 28 GAUGE ZINC;                 $135 USD
• 1 CARTON OF ROOFING NAILS;.                $55 USD
• 1 CARTON OF ASSORTED WIRE NAILS;     $32 USD
• MISC. ROOFING MATERIALS;                      $22 USD
• 1 SACK OF CEMENT;                                     $45 USD
• 1 TIN OF WOOD CARBOLINE;                     $45 USD

Any items you can adopt would be most appreciated.  Again, this is the Cost of 1 item.  We will need many items adopted to repair schools and churches.  Many are still in disrepair since the recent 14 year civil war.  Please remember to mark you donation with the items you are adopting.  

Thank you for your continuing prayers and financial support of the Kuwaa People of Liberia West Africa. May God richly bless you during this Covid crisis and bring us all through it safely in 2021.   Diane Stelling, Member of the Kuwaa Mission Board

(Kuwaa5Diane@sbcglobal.net)

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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.   

While we isolate, quarantine and/or shut ourselves out of contact with those we most dearly wish we could personally talk to, hug or just socialize with in whatever manner we prefer we need to remember that we here in the United States are not alone and the Kuwaa people need our support, our prayers and our positive outlook.

I recently received several photos from our well contractor showing the work he was able to accomplish this year.  While I left Liberia this year before any physical work had started due to the mud on the roads that made it impossible to get the supplies to the villages, we were still able to have a very successful dry season.  We again have Samaritans Purse to thank for the donated use of their helicopter.

In addition to our wells we conducted another Children’s Bible School, this year in Kondesu, with the local Muslim people with stories common to the Old Testament and the Koran.  It was very well attended with over 120 children and many young adults and elders closely paying attention.

Picture 1-Well

The first village we visited when the Kuwaa Mission started was Belle Yelleh.  Belle Yelleh was the home of a very notorious prison early in Liberia’s history and right up to the start of the civil war.  It does have two decent, by Liberian standards, roads so it is a rapidly growing village.  However that doesn’t mean that they have the support of the government or other NGO’s.  This year we installed the above new well and repaired two other wells.

The village of Lowoma has a very nice school building and new Lutheran Church but their main well was under performing as it was located in a very rocky area and thus not deep enough for adequate water flow during the dry season.  The people had to ration water between two wells by half the people getting water one day and the other half the next day.  Even then it was not the amount of water they felt they needed.  We installed a new well closer to the creek and they now have adequate water although a second well is desired.

Picture 2-New well in Lowoma

During the Civil War and for 10 years after Lutheran World Service / Lutheran World Federation was very active in Liberia with infrastructure, health, sanitation and reconciliation projects.  In Fassama, the only town in the Belle District with a road and made up predominately of the Kuwaa People, LWS had installed one well.  At the time that was sufficient but the town is now several thousand people so we repaired two wells in Fassama this year. 

Picture 3 – This LWS well had been out of use for several years so we cleaned the dirt, rock and debris out of the well, sealed the culverts to prevent soil from washing into the well and installed a new apron and pump.

Picture 4 -The repaired Fassama well!!

Picture 5 – Gatema also needed repair work to their well

Picture 6 – So we repaired their well as well.

If it seems like we repaired a lot of wells this year instead of installing new ones you are correct.  While our well contractor does very good work with the materials he has available, the sand and gravel for the concrete work are dug from the river, actually more of a creek, that flows near each village.  Despite screening the sand to try and remove soil and clay quite a bit remains.  As such the quality of the concrete is well below American standards.  However our wells hold up better than the wells installed by other NGO’s in Liberia.  The people keep the area around the pumps “brushed” to keep away rodents and other creatures from the forest but this also means the heavy rain tends to wash away the soil near the pump and thereby undermining the apron and spillway.  They also install a fence around the wells to keep larger animals away and children from playing near the well.

Liberia, as you may expect, is also facing the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Adding that to their historic high unemployment, extremely inadequate health care in the best of time, poor sanitation amid a plethora of other problems the people are experiencing times as they say are “not easy”.

The Kuwaa Mission continues to do the work we have been called to do for the people we have been called to serve.  We thank each and every one of you for your prayers and financial support.  Without you the Kuwaa People would be facing even more challenges.

 

Thank you,

Stan Olsen

 

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: 

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

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.