Lawrence of Sierra Leone

So after my first few months in Mozambique I was asked to lead a team back to Sierra Leone, where I spent my earliest childhood memories due to my parents working there.  I ended up going by myself as there was no team..which ended up being a special treat for me!

I spent most of my time in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital city.  I lived and worked with Andrew and his family who lead our charity’s base and church there.  My time was very special and I got to preach, visit some families in the slums by the river and visit the school run by Iris Ministries as well as help edit a book.

It was in the school out in the bush that I met one of my now heroes: Lawrence.   Lawrence was previously a high ranking customs official who during Sierra Leone’s civil war suffered terrible tragedy.  He was late to work one morning by a few minutes and when he arrived he found all of his colleagues bodies strewn on the road as they had been murdered just a few minutes previously.  Having already lost his wife to the war he knew that in order to survive he needed to flee and so ended up in Belgium due to having some connections there.  He made a new life for himself but felt restless and so returned to his native Sierra Leone once the war ended.

Lawrence felt very strongly that he should put his education to good use (he’s clearly very bright -he used the words ‘buffered’ and ‘perplexed’ in the same sentence..and English isn’t even his first language!) and for understandable reasons could not return to his previous customs role.  Instead he retrained as a teacher and rather than accepting a post in a good school in the capital with a decent salary he chose to work for our charity in a small village outside the capital. Lawrence said that these young people needed him more and that he has chosen to live in the school so that he can offer his support to the families also.  I felt so honoured and humbled meeting him and being able to encourage him.