Janet O'Shea, Chair of SLM shares news of an eventful day in late January - and the unexpected blessings she received to help our communities in Sierra Leone. Read her account below:

Friday 26 January proved to be a very interesting day for me and SLM. At the beginning of the school term a local school had given out an appeal for shoes for Africa. A parent at the school had instigated the appeal and then contacted me to tell me that the three-week appeal was for Sierra Leone. I collected a car load of shoes, mainly children’s, and managed to pack them into boxes ready for the shipment. The parent who launched the appeal is not connected with Zion Community Church and as far as I am aware has no Christian contact.

Later on the same day, I met with David Price (SLM treasurer) and Jonathan Redmayne (SLM finance and legal guru!). We discussed the support that SLM gives to Sierra Leone each month: grants for pastors, teachers, Bethesda, Theology students etc etc. The monthly money has not been increased for several years and at the SLM quarterly meeting it was decided that grants for the teachers and pastors should be increased from January 2024. A teacher in one of our Connexion schools receives a quarter of the money paid to a teacher in a government school.

I stand firm on the truth that God supplies our every need and I hesitate to ask for money. Therefore I am asking for our Connexion Community and churches to pray about the situation. Our current monthly commitment to Sierra Leone is approximately £6,000.

When I returned home from our meeting there was a huge parcel on the doorstep. Intrigued I opened it straight away to find well over 100 knitted items for babies and children. There was a letter from a lady called Sheryll in Sheffield...???? She organises 350 knitters across the north of England and they knit for charities. How she knew about Sierra Leone I have no idea!

January has certainly not been a quiet month and I am forever being surprised at the generosity of God. Our work in Sierra Leone has opened up so many opportunities to work with and witness to non-Christians in this country. If you haven’t already ‘spread the word’ DO !!

God Bless

Janet

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