from Stoughton to Sierra

"I was born and schooled in Moribatown. I grew up as a fanatical Muslim opposing anything Christian. I was a worker in the rutile mines when the war struck and we escaped to Freetown. Before reaching Freetown, I met an aged uncle of mine who was a fetish priest and agreed to initiate me into a secret cult that will bring unimaginable wealth to me to which I readily agreed. I was required to bring some items including the hair of a leopard which is easily available in the big market at Wallace Johnson Street in Freetown. This took me to Freetown where I met a step sister who had been separated from me for over twenty years. She was selling drugs. During my visit with her, a man of God ministered to her and she gave her life to Christ and gave up the drug business. She in turn started ministering to me and that brought separation between us. I was still in search of money to get my desired items but it seemed as if every door closed except my sister’s.

She loved and cared for me but I hated her Christian life. One day she invited me to an Easter retreat that was to last for four days. I disappeared the first day but what took me to that program on the second day still remains a mystery in my life. In fact I went there with my immoral partner hoping to be lodged and fed. The messages swept me off my feet because it seemed as if the preachers knew me perfectly and were explaining and exposing my evil deeds. On the 8th of April 1996, I gave up, took a decision and surrendered to Christ when an alter call was made. I was baptized, discipled and sent to a mission school in the succeeding months. I got married to Agnes on the 9th of July 1998. Graduating from the mission school, I became an assistant pastor in a small branch of the ministry in Freetown in 1999. I was working as a manager of a local company in the city as well as pastoring a branch when I began to sense the call of God upon my life for missionary work specifically for my birth place.

THE ORPHANAGE

The call came at a time when things were so hard in the nation. How could I abandon my job and take my family to the village and expose them to such suffering?  Once in a while, I would travel to the village to see what was happening there. The need for the gospel was there, but the conditions of living were terrible. The war had devastated lives and many children had lost their parents. One night on one of my visits, I had a vision. In this vision, I saw a good number of hungry kids. They came to me asking for food. I told them I have nothing myself to eat but one of them categorically said that I have made an agreement with God for them that as long as I am alive they should not go hungry. Stretching my hands to talk to them, money from nowhere filled my empty palms and I gave it to them.   One of them said, “You see.   I told you that it’s your responsibility to feed us.” and the kids went away. I went back to Freetown wondering how to go about this. I resigned my job on the 17th March 2003 to the annoyance of my entire family,

I shared my vision with a Liberian pastor who introduced me to the internet and we came across World Orphans based in Colorado USA who agreed to help us build a home for the kids. I trusted my colleague pastor so I allowed him lead me in every aspect since the internet was his idea. World Orphans sent $7000 to build a home for 100 kids but my colleague made away with most of the money. I wrote World Orphans, they believed me but could not assist further. Back in the village, the village chief donated 12.6 acres of land for the project. I sold most of my assets I had acquired during my work, added up the money and started the construction. Unfortunately, the building was destroyed by a powerful hurricane on the 22nd of April 2005. My hopes were dashed. I talked to many organizations on the internet but nobody seems to listen so I decided to wait and see what God, the giver of this vision would do.

DAVID TANNER

In January 2004, I came across David Tanner, an American missionary that comes to our village every year because of a child rescue ministry he had with World Evangelistic Outreach Baptist Church. We became friends and I shared my vision with him. But before then, I had begun to survey and register orphans in our communities.  Dave encouraged me to continue praying and see what God will do. When he came in 2005, he visited the site of my destroyed building took pictures and went away. In 2007, we started a school for the orphans in our church building as a way of caring for them. All the teachers were the pastors God had used me to raise in this village. In 2008, Dave wrote me that he was coming with a team to set up a feeding center for the kids and the team arrived in January 2009. In that team were Pastor Sandy Baird and Phil d’Entremont. After spending 4 days with the kids, visiting our land and seeing the school we were trying to construct on this land on our own, the Bairds decided to help us construct a home for the children. That same year a home for 32 kids was built (funded by Mrs. Karen Baird from her family inheritance).  The home started with 26 kids. Following the successful completion of the first home and satisfied with the management, the Bairds decided to fund the construction of another home. This was done in 2011 and a team of 15 people including Pastor and Mrs. Baird arrived in June that same year and did the painting. Mr. Phillip d’Entremont, Mr. Creative as we call him here, was appointed our international director to our delight. Today, we have 70 kids in the home glory to the giver of the vision who has perfected it in his own time.

THE CHURCH

The project is been run by Faith Healing Bible Church, a ministry dedicated to preaching the undiluted gospel nationwide and beyond with 110 branches in Sierra Leone alone with Rev. Francis AM Mambu as general overseer.

IMPACT OF THE PROJECT ON THE CHURCH

Sierra Leone ranks among the world’s poorest countries.  Moreover, the nation is bedeviled by fetish and occult practices. The high rate of permittivity and illiteracy particularly in our district makes evangelism almost impossible in some areas. If evangelism is not coupled with developmental programs, it becomes difficult to attract most people in poverty stricken areas. The injection of the orphanage project into our evangelical programs seriously added a big feather into our cap especially as it is the first of its kind ever in this part of the nation. The community could not believe that in a place of greed and selfishness, a place devastated by war, a place where many projects have come and gone without any benefit to the beneficiaries, a place where to get one square meal a day is a serious battle which many do not win for the day, it’s unbelievable that one could gather so many helpless children in such a place; housing, feeding, education and caring for them in every aspect. Many wonder at such display of Christ like love and are attracted to it. Churches are planted in communities where these children came from and many including fanatic Muslims have voluntarily given their lives to Christ. Grassroot evangelical film crusades using Godly films ( thanks to David Tanner for donating a projector to this ministry) is giving us a breakthrough in church planting to the point that we have been able to plant a church in Bonthe Island. The island is about forty miles off the coast in the Atlantic Ocean.  This island was once known for cannibalism with traces of it still in existence. The Grace of God has done this and we are grateful to Him first, Pastor and Mrs. Baird, Phil d’Entremont and the entire New Hope family. God bless you."

-Pastor Francis Rogers