Blog Lessons

Here we sit in the CRC SL offices learning how to use the Blog for better communication with brothers and sisters across the globe: Sierra Leone and BC. For those who know me (Dennis) you are laughing right now because you know that I am not much of an IT expert.

Moving Forward Together

Greetings from the offices of the CRC in SL. I (Dennis deGroot) have had the great joy of meeting with brothers and sisters in Koinadugu District over the course of the last ten days. My main purpose in being here has been to meet with the students, staff and board of CRC Primary School to discuss our future together. We have also had two meetings with the Partnership Committee here in order to find our way together on a few key strategies. There are many possibilities but we will begin together on initiatives that have already been started and support them as best we can. I know that we are all eager to begin, however setting a firm foundation is key in having this be a sustainable and healthy relationship.

It has been my great pleasure to spend time with the newly appointed evangelist Ezekiel Sudu (centre in white) and his wife Tabitha and their children Gift, Marvelous and Victor. Gift and Marvelous are students at CRC Primary and Victor is still at home with Mom. The family seems like such a great fit for Sierra Leone and I am confident that God will use the family for his work here in SL.

I was also able to spend the better part of a day at the annual women's conference in Nanfiye. More than 100 women attended from churches all over district. They had invited a guest speaker who addressed them over the three days. I was also able to address them on the Friday afternoon. A good rehearsal for my sermon on the Sunday in Kabala. Nanifye is about three hours from Kabala by Land Cruiser. The first half of the road is not too bad but the last half could produce some butter in a hurry should one find some cream. This might be possible since there are Fullah herders in those parts.

First Meetings ...

Below are the minutes of the first ever meeting of the Sierra Leone branch of the CRC Sierra Leone and BC Partnership. I was so delighted to read these!

"The Great African Land Grab"

I caught "Dispatches" on CBC radio last night while I was picking up the babysitter. I found it fascinating listening to a report on "The Great African Land Grab" by Canadian Journalist Joan Baxter. Here is host Rick Macinnes-Rae's introduction:

In Sierra Leone, up on the bulge of northwest Africa, prosperity is measured in rice. They even have a saying: If you haven't eaten rice today, you haven't eaten. The slave-traders who went there centuries ago called it "The Rice Coast," and people from Sierra Leone, known as the Gulas, developed the rice plantations in the Carolinas in the colonies.

Back home, rice is grown mostly on small family farms. Before the civil war that decimated Sierra Leone from 1991 until 2002, it produced enough rice to feed itself and to export some. Now, foreign corporations are taking over vast tracts of farm land. Rice is being replaced by sugar cane. To be converted to ethanol for foreign industries and cars. Any chance these big land deals might hurt Sierra Leone's struggling ability to feed itself again? Well, not to worry.
It's all been arranged, apparently. Even if there are some big questions as to how, as we hear from Canadian journalist Joan Baxter.

For Joan Baxter's documentary, go to: www.cbc.ca/dispatches/ Scroll down to "Joan's Documentary" under "The Great African Land Grab."

Goat For Gold!

BC residents (and long-time supporters of the BC-Sierra Leone Partnership) are at it again. They have combined their passion for people in need, their love of sport and a great program by the CRWRC. The result? Goats galore. Take a look: www.goatforgold.com

Links.

We're working on a growing partnership between churches thousands of kilometers apart. It would be nice to visit daily, but that's not feasible. While we may see ourselves as part of a single chain, it is easy to take this for granted and not highlight these important links. In an online forum, what better way to remember and learn of our chained-togetherness than the following links:

• For more information on the religious climate in Sierra Leone, see the World Council of Churches website: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/africa/sierra-leone.html
• For Henry Hess's article in the May 2007 issue of The Banner, "In Sierra Leone, A Church is Born," http://www.thebanner.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=1014
• For Chris Meehan's article in The Banner, "CRC Blossoms in Sierra Leone" http://www.thebanner.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=2116
• For a helpful summary on the country of Sierra Leone, check out BBC's profile: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1061561.stm
• Check out the links in the right hand margin of this weblog. One is to the CRC Primary School in Kabala's building program, in partnership with Fraser Valley and Surrey Christian schools in BC. Another gives an angle on the birth of the CRC in Sierra Leone. They're worth perusing. -JR
  
  

How Broad is the CRC? Welcome Nigerian Brother!

Next month Rev. Ezekiel James, his wife Tabitha, and their 3 young children will be posted by the CRC of Nigeria as missionaries to Sierra Leone.

Please pray for the James as they leave their family and friends in Nigeria to follow God’s call to Sierra Leone. Please pray for the CRC in Sierra Leone, that God's 'will may be done in and his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven' through the ministry of Rev. James.

How amazing it is to celebrate (as Christian Reformed Churches in British Columbia, Canada) the arrival of a Minister from the Nigerian Christian Reformed Church as a missionary to the young Sierra Leone Christian Reformed Church!

JR