Prayer Letter-December 2020 | Kuwaa Mission: Helping the Kuwaa People of Liberia

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

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: