Sierra Leone Initiative

On September 12, 2006, Bishop Middleton, of the Central Pennsylvania Conference and Bishop Humper of the Sierra Leone Annual Conference, West Africa formally signed the dual conference ap-proved contract beginning the work of the Sierra Leone Initiative. This initiative represents another stepping stone in the 100-year relationship that exists between our two countries’ churches. We continue to send missionaries, build and support primary, secon-dary, technical, and theological schools, build and supply medical clinics, and drill or dig wells for safe drinking water.
Sierra Leone’s infrastructure was destroyed by a ten-year long civil war which also devastated many of the churches. As a result of this war, congre-gations find it difficult to support pastors and their families.

As part of the Susquehanna (formerly Central Pennsylvania) Conference the Sierra Leone Initiative (SLI) provides a unique opportunity for Susquehanna Conference churches to keep pastors in full-time ministry in Sierra Leone.

When a church chooses to become part of SLI, the congregation signs a covenant agreement to provide the financial support necessary for pastors to stay in full time ministry to make disciples for Jesus Christ.

The covenant amount a church agrees to provide annually is $1,200 with a commitment term of 10 years. $1,000 supplies the pastoral support and $200 offsets the disbursement of these funds and helps pay for the delegates to travel once a year to the respective countries. SLI partners with the General Board of Global Ministries to ensure full accountability and quick delivery of all funds. This includes funds that covenant churches may be able to send to their partner churches in SL.

As a member of the SLI, churches have the opportunity to partner with a UM church in Sierra Leone. As this relationship grows each congregation covenants to pray for and correspond with each other, allowing a personal bond to form between the two churches.

Each covenant church is encouraged to have a liaison person to facilitate the initiative, send a volunteer to Sierra Leone, and support needs iden-tified by correspondence with their partner SL church.

VIM-guided tours from Susquehanna Conference visit Sierra Leone one to two times each year. Join a team and visit accessible churches to see the need in Sierra Leone. Location permitting, visit your partner church. Perhaps this visit will lead to persons from your congregation desiring to go on a work team or to raise funds to help refurbish your partner church.

Each year two individuals from Sierra Leone visit the Susquehanna Conference. These visits rep-resent excellent opportunity for establishing personal knowledge of Sierra Leone by inviting the visitors to your church.

These trips provide the most effective opportunity to send and receive letters from a partner church.

Please pray for the initiative’s work with pastors and congregations in Sierra Leone and prayerfully consider joining this project.

Sierra Leone Initiative Brochure & Covenant Agreement