Author Archives: Tiim & Kathy

A day on the water was a refreshing change, however the visit to Bunce Island was very sobering. We boarded our African boat at the Aberdeen beach. The beach was full of fishing boats and women waiting for the fishermen to come in.

Our boatman was Tommy. Traveling with us were Augustine and his friend, Mariama. It was a long three hour ride to the island with much to see along the way.

I could try to explain Bunce Island’s part in the slave trade, but this sign says it well.

On a lighter note, we had an amazing lunch prepared fresh by our boatman. Barracuda on skewers, fries and plantains. Yum!

The day began with the visit to Union Bank to pay for our upcoming Covid tests. Once that was taken care of, we headed to Lumley Beach to meet with Tommy who will be taking us in his boat to Bunce Island tomorrow.

Augustine took us on the most interesting roads to Christiana’s place. So many narrow, crowded roads!

Christiana greeted us and invited us into her parlor. She stayed on the porch cooking. To our surprise Moses and Pastor Harris were there having arrived the past night from Liberia. We had a nice discussion with them about their vision for helping village children and at risk children in Monrovia. They presented us with the gift of African dress.

Christiana served us a dish of sweet potatoes and a gizzard meat sauce. Good discussions were had about humbly serving God and His faithfulness to us, no matter what our circumstances are.

Our next visit was to Alimatu’s place. She lives with her mother and siblings. She surprised us with beautiful African clothing she had made for us.

She is an amazing seamstress. We loved seeing her at her machine

We ended the day presenting Moses with all the used children’s clothing we brought from the USA for the children of the village that he serves. It was a wonderful humbling day.

Well, we are back in Freetown for our final five days. We wanted to go see Alyssa’s friend Mariama again.

After leaving Mariama we go to the Big Market again to buy some gifts. It was very crazy and stressful! The bargaining and pleading to buy made it hard to think. We ultimately were able to make some purchases with the help of Augustine’s bargaining skills. It was so stressful that we didn’t take any photos at the market. But here are a few items we bought.

Kenema is a city north of Bo. It is a major hub for the towns and villages in the provinces. There is a large market where people from the villages come to sell their produce and also buy what they need.

There is a Catholic school here with expansive grounds. The children love to see us white people. They call out “Pumway, pumway” (white man). The boys really wanted to be in a photo with us!

The major mode of public transport in Kenema and Bo are motorbikes.

I have been wanting to capture one of the many pieces of this journey that has so captured our heart. The children! The many many smiles, hugs, and joy filled hearts. Delicate, trusting little hands needing to touch this unusual white skin. No wonder Jesus said: “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven”.

We had the privilege of touring two campuses of Njala University. Emmanuel is a first year student at the main campus.

Kadiatu is a second year student at the campus for medical professions. She is working on her Registered Nurse higher diploma.

One of her lecturers, Mary Mbayoh invited us to lunch. She lives on campus in the lecturer’s quarters with her family. Mary is also a member of Kadiatu’s church. We had a nice lunch and then toured the campus.

Our daughter, Alyssa, has sent gifts for us to deliver to a young man, named Samuel. Samuel is the son of her friend Lamarana, who she met on Mercy Ships ten years ago. Lamarana now works on Mercy Ships full time. During the Covid shutdown, she started an orphanage in Bo. Her two sons live there along with eight other children.

The home was beautiful, clean and the children happy and attending school. So nice to be there. We gave Samuel his gifts and talked to the children awhile.

We asked them what they would like to do with their education. There were two bank managers, two presidents, a nurse, a lawyer. As a thank you gift, they had the boys go catch a chicken and we brought it home live. it was killed and cooked for us the next day.

Before we visit the hospital and the orphanage we want to share a few photos of daily life here at the compound.

Kadiatu takes us on an interesting tour of the government hospital where she has worked as a volunteer nurse for over five years waiting to get her government pin code so she can be paid.

We are now back in Freetown and we have WiFi and running water, electricity and AC! I want to reflect on our last day in Bo today, since it is fresh in my mind. Then I will cover other highlights of the week in future posts

It is a special day at Agape Free Pentecostal Church. It is their annual fundraising program. They are raising money to tile the floor and finish the ceiling. The members are divided into two teams and have a fun competition. The entire service was about four hours and they had fun! They love to sing! Tim and I were somewhat clueless during the event since it was mostly conducted in Krio.

After service photos

We took the family to dinner after the service to thank them for all the work they did for us. It takes everyone to make the household work, cooking, cleaning, hauling water, washing dishes…all by hand! They never let us work at all. Even Massah did dishes and served us well.

On the ride home, Massah who is sitting between us is tearful. When we get home she comes to me and begins to sob on my shoulder for awhile. Then she goes to Tim and hugs him. She is breaking our hearts!!

The next morning we see Massah off to school with smiles again.