Blocks for peace

“Years ago, our forefather left the Wara-Wara mountains near Kabala” The village elder’s eyes glowed with the light of his people’s collective memory. “He sat down between the Gbagbe and the Seli Rivers and called the place Firawa, The Vast Forest.” Firawa is surely hidden deep within the vast forests of the Nieni chiefdom. In dry season, December through April, a single rain battered road exists, a road that stands nearly impassable for the remainder of the year. Something extraordinary is happening in this remote forest village, a true testament to God’s power and love extending to all the corners of the world.

The CRCSL planted a church in Firawa in 2008. This church has grown from a few members meeting on the pastor’s porch on sundays. In 2012 Firawa is one of the largest churches in the CRCSL community yet In spite of this stunning growth the church continues to meet in the pastors house. Things, however, are changing. The village is now working to build a church in Firawa. Muslim and Christian are working side by side on the plot of land that will soon hold the house of God to make local mud-bricks. This remote forest village is defying norms, Firawa is rising up and speaking loudly to everyone everywhere. “we are united” they say, “we  will be at peace.” 

Firawa Youths mixing Mud for blocks

CRCSL Women's Conference

From time to time a story is told in the assemblies of God's chosen people that gives a tangible testament to his glory, might and love. During the CRCSL National Women's Conference in Foria, Yeri Marah of Yarah CRC testified to the goodness of God in her life. For twenty-six years she was without child struggling with the grief of barrenness, tormented by thoughts of what could have been. Last year at the Women's Conference in Shekuya she requested a prayer that changed her life forever. This year she rose to testify holding her newly born child. Yeri is the symbol of the conference, an outward sign of an inward change.

For one week the Women of CRCSL Gathered to hear a series of sermons on repentance and its relationship to salvation by Rev. Manteneh Kargbo of the Missionary Church of Africa. In addition to Rev. Kargbo’s inspiring sermons, the conference had a very special focus on collective prayer and confession. The nightly prayer vigil was full of women young , old, big, small, rich and poor laying down their burdens and interceding for everything from village concerns, to presidential elections. 

There was a unity of purpose, a sentiment that the prayer they were praying could really change the way things were. There was a sense of reaching through the veil of the flesh and holding onto the bridegroom with two hands, speaking the deepest concerns of the heart out to him while falling deeper and deeper into his warm heavenly embrace. The Story of the Women’s Conference cannot be logged into a database or recorded in a spreadsheet, it is the story of Divine grace: While we were still sinners, Christ listened to our pleas and answered us. 

Zach Adams