07 Feb Bishop Whipple and Others Headed to Sierra Leone

On Thursday, February 7, four persons from Indiana left for Sierra Leone:

• Bishop Phil Whipple, who has not yet visited Sierra Leone.
• Jeff Bleijerveld, director of Global Ministries.
• Donna Hollopeter, associate director of Global Ministries.
• A former doctor at Mattru Hospital in Sierra Leone.

They will attend the annual meeting of Sierra Leone Conference and tour United Brethren churches and ministries in the country. They will also devote considerable time to the work at Mattru Hospital.

A few months ago, the doctor traveled to Sierra Leone, at his own expense, and initiated an extensive assessment with hospital staff and some national church leaders. This laid a foundation for the meetings that will be held during this February 2013 trip.

They will meet with various groups involved with Mattru Hospital—administrators, the medical board, Sierra Leone Conference leaders, representatives from the Wesleyan Church (which has a good hospital), and officials from the country’s health services.

“We hope to come up with a strategic plan, with action steps, that will take us into the next ten years,” says Bleijerveld.

“The hospital probably won’t be able to function properly in the next 10 years without outside staffing,” he says.

When we pulled out our missionaries in the 1990s during the civil war, it happened so quickly that there was no time to mentor Sierra Leoneans. After the war, the hospital was severely crippled. The buildings were looted and damaged, the hospital staff scattered.

“It’s been difficult to create a sustainable model,” said Bleijerveld. “So what we’re trying to do in bringing in these groups together is to determine, What is a reasonable model for Mattru Hospital? What do we need to do in the next decade?”

They will also visit the Vai people, a largely unreached group of 124,000 Sunni Muslims who live on the border with Liberia. Sierra Leone Conference has been sending teams to do evangelism and other work among the Vai. One Global Ministries project involves providing funds to cover travel costs for these teams.

They will also visit the Bible college outside of Freetown, some of the high schools and primary schools sponsored by Sierra Leone Conference, and individual United Brethren churches.

“Over 10,000 students attend United Brethren schools in Sierra Leone,” says Bleijerveld. “We have 78 churches, and I think we have just under 50 schools, all of them funded by tuition and government subsidies.”

Update: They were delayed, and now won’t leave until around 4:30 pm on Friday, February 8. Their travel arrangements will take them from Chicago to London, and then to Freetown by 5:20 am Sunday. Ferries from the airport to the city don’t start running until 8 am. Sierra Leone Conference ends at noon, in Freetown, so they probably won’t make it for much (if any) of the conference. This is Bishop Whipple’s first visit to Sierra Leone, though he previously traveled to Africa when he was a local church pastor.