This is an update of our last mission trip from Sherri Drwenski who is part of the leadership team for the Education Project in Sierra Leone.
Dear friends,
Our flight out of OKC was delayed for hours which caused us to miss our connection in London. We ended up spending an extra day in London and flying out Wednesday evening traveling through Nairobi, Kenya, with a stop in Ghana before finally making it to Sierra Leone!
The church service on New Year’s was lively with so much joy it was hard to contain! At midnight, everyone wishes you well in addition to saying “I hope you change.” I have to agree with that statement. I really hope to change! I think one of the biggest things that I came away with this trip was that it isn’t about me or my plans to make things happen in Sierra Leone! In fact, God doesn’t even really need me, but allows me to have a part in this work because He is good. Two of the main things I set out to do were sidelined and there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it. 
This is very frustrating for my American mindset, but really a commonplace thing in Africa. I had to tell the Lord that I didn’t want it to be about me and confess that I was sorry for where I did make it about me. The books that I had gathered for the tutoring program didn’t arrive with our team, but only came on the evening we left. And the library books for the senior secondary school that were sent in the last container were mistakenly taken by Njala University with the books donated to them by OSU.
In a country with no libraries, it’s not too hard to understand why these books weren’t returned when someone noticed that they were all marked clearly “Wellington Sr. Secondary School Library”. In fact, I learned that the only library in the country was vandalized during the civil war and books are just too expensive to replace. So it was with a very discouraged heart, that I realized the room that stood ready to be stocked with hundreds of books donated by friends had only encyclopedias and a few other books that somehow made it to their location. The pastors felt the loss greatly when it was understood the books were gone, but I assured them that God was able to replace the loss and provide them with a library. These are men that have faced death at firing squads and have depended on God for their survival and the survival of the 90 children they took in with no means. How can I be discouraged about such a small set back? My God is able and mighty and nothing is too hard for Him. When the library is completed, we will able be able to look at how mightily God provided. They have a vision for this library to not only serve the Senior Secondary and Junior Secondary students, but they will also open up the library to university students and others to bless the community around them. So I am once again humbly asking for book donations.
We had the wonderful privilege of traveling with two amazing women, Shanna and Deborah. Deborah is staying for the next six months to tutor the children in reading and math and really be a mom to them. We had an amazing time getting the children into groups and starting the reading program. She is going to be such a blessing to them, and I’m excited that she gets to continue the good work started by Amy Kernal. Shanna has been to Africa four other times and loves more than any person I know. I literally asked God to help me love deeply like her all those around me. Every time I turned around, she was praying with someone, or studying the word with children, or just loving on someone.
We were there with another team from Dallas and had the incredible opportunity to take part in a community outreach. The children of the orphanage sang and performed for hundreds of people, while we got the chance to serve meals to those who came. We rarely see people who are truly hungry. We talked about it later with the older children and described all the ways that people can get food in America. There are no food stamps or food banks or soup kitchens in Sierra Leone. So when the word goes out that the church is serving a free meal – not just rice, but rice, meat, and something else I couldn’t identify, plus a cold beverage – the people came. They sat patiently while we handed out meals. But as time went on the children in the back of the room started to get panicky about not getting a meal. They began to mob us as we served, making it almost impossible. We kept assuring them that they would get a plate, but that didn’t help. They only knew that they were hungry and we had food. The orphans served food and drinks to those around them. Isn’t that just an amazing thought! Orphans, who are usually at the bottom of the totem pole are serving others. We felt that Jesus was right there in the midst of these people caring for their needs and making sure they were fed.
The whole trip was filled with ways that God showed us each day, all day His faithfulness and provision. But one of the most amazing things that happened while we were there is still hard for me to believe! A group of us were walking down the hill with Pastor Hassan in the lead. A lady called out to him from in front of her house, and he walked over to talk to her. When he came back to our group, he said that she had just given birth on Christmas Day to a baby girl and their imam had told them that it was a sign that the baby should be blessed in the Christian Church! This family was Muslim!! The mother said that she had a peace about that and asked the pastor if they could bring her to the church. Pastor Hassan, who himself was raised Muslim, told the family that this happened because God wanted them to accept Jesus Christ. The father said he wasn’t ready to do that yet, but would allow his baby to be blessed in the church. Well, sure enough, just two days later, this woman came to church with her very small baby. She sat next to us at the front of the church through the service. Then the pastor called her to the front of the church where she sat with her baby. He told the whole congregation her story and how God used this baby to bring this family to know about Christ. He spoke directly to the baby, blessing her and when he asked the baby’s name, the mother said it was “Christiana”!! He gave the mother a bible and asked her if she would teach her child about God and raise her the way God wanted her to. The woman agreed she would and the church then blessed her with an offering. The pastor’s quiet, but very strong faith never wavers from the truth that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man comes to the father except through the son. Oh, for boldness like that!!
My dear, sweet husband is called “a hard-working man” by all the children and adults at the orphanage. 
Hassan Oxford, his right-hand man at the orphanage, said that he is a man of works, not words. He works from sun-up to past sun-down on things that need fixing. He repainted chalkboards for Deborah’s tutoring and at the senior secondary school. He cleaned out the generator tanks that were contaminated with water and bolted the generator down so that it could be outfitted with a muffler he brought. He fixed the always breaking-down chairs and tables at the orphanage. He and two other men made a table for the kitchen ladies from pallets. They had nothing to set food off of the ground on. He made a cover for the water tank on the roof that was open to birds and bugs. He and his crew sprayed the orphanage three times for cockroaches. I have to think that this helped, but it seemed to make them only go running everywhere! He was also seen fixing lockers for children or anything else they brought to him that needed fixing! And one of his main jobs was to make sure that Deborah was set for her stay. He installed new mosquito screens on the windows and door, hung her mosquito net, built her a shelf, and sprayed her room for bugs! He loves all the children so much that it is very hard for him to say goodbye without tears. 
They love their Papa Greg and how hard he works for them! In addition to all this, Greg met with the Minister of Works and Infrastructure with Pastor Hassan to show him the bridge plans and to further the work that Crystal and Mike Webb are doing to build a bridge in a very remote village. The minister was an amazing man that has a passion for bridge-building in his country and cleared the way for 4-HIM’s new construction company, “Nehemiah Construction Company” to be licensed to begin the work. And last but not least, Papa Greg was given the privilege of preaching at church on Sunday and also sharing the word with the children during several devotions.
I know this is a very long at this point, but I have to share one more thing that the gave me so much joy! I feel like it was such a gift from God. I worked in the library at the orphanage to reorganize the books over several days and had many helpers and visitors. When the children came in, I would ask them to tell me about what they had read in the library or what their favorite books were. I had so many children describe to me their favorite books, even pulling them off of the shelves to show me. One girl pulled off of the shelf a Christian U.S. History textbook. This seemed like a very unlikely “favorite book”, but she showed me her favorite part. It was a section about how John Wesley came to America and shared the gospel with American Indians. This same girl told me that she wanted to be a journalist and write a book about the war. I was then able to show her books on the shelves that others had written about wars. I showed her Anne Frank’s Diary, Zlata’s Diary (a 13 year old’s diary about the Bosnia War), and also showed her Corrie ten Boom’s book written from prison. I encouraged her to read these and write her book! 
Isn’t it amazing that God loves these children so much that they have a wonderful, small library in their orphanage, in a country without libraries. And God is using these resources to build up these Nehemiah’s so they can in turn restore their country!
Thank you again everyone who shared in this with us through your encouragement, prayers, and support. God is good all the time!
Love,
Greg and Sherri