During her trip to Sierra Leone in January and February, Janet accompanied Magnus for three nights to meet and feed children, who are forced to live on the streets in Kabala, Makeni and Waterloo.

Magnus has been visiting the street children for a number of years, and several of those he has cared for have joined Bethesda Orphanage to live a very different life. His great compassion and strong faith in God, enable him to build trust and instil hope by feeding the children both spiritually and physically, sharing the encouragement of Jesus and the nourishment of food and drink. 

Travelling late at night, between 11pm and midnight, enabled Janet and Magnus to meet and feed approximately 180 children.

The reasons for children needing to live on the streets are various. Many are orphans with no means of tracing family members, others may have been abandoned or run away from home. Sierra Leone suffers from great poverty, and food or nourishment of any kind is often hard to come by.

The street visits follow a typical routine of firstly sharing the Gospel, then sharing victuals.

At the first destination in Kabala, dealing with the children was relatively easy. Everyone settled down quietly to hear a bible reading and the distribution of food and drink was carried out smoothly. 

The next visit to Makeni, however, was not quite so straightforward. The children's age span was wide, ranging from a 3 year-old boy, who lives with his mother and brother on the streets, to older boys and girls in their teens. The group listened well to the bible readings, but when Janet started to give out the food, she needed to be rescued by Magnus as she was faced with a sudden surge of children, who were so desperate to receive something to eat. 

A similar experience also took place at Waterloo. Everything started off well and the children listened attentively as Janet read to them. But the moment it was anticipated that food was on the way, the mood changed considerably, presenting a safety threat. She and Magnus attempted to leave in their car, but children were clinging to the vehicle and begging for food. They were able to drive off and parked the car some distance away, before returning to the scene after about 20 minutes to a smaller group of children, who they were then able to provide for. Magnus noted that the group included a young girl, Augustine, who was probably about 8 years-old. He and Janet prayed for her and Magnus is currently making enquiries to try to gain more information about the little girl.

Janet's three days with the street children provided her with a stark reminder of just how hungry these children are and how their instinct for survival overrides everything else. She said, 'None of the children meant to cause any harm, they are just so VERY hungry, and desperately trying to survive'.

We would welcome your prayers for all of the street children and any financial support you can provide, if that is possible. 

All contributions, big or small, are very gratefully received.

To Donate

If you would like to make a donation, to help SLM's work in Sierra Leone, just click on the Donations button, located at the top of each website page. Please also state if you would like your donation to go towards a particular project.

Alternatively donate by Bank Transfer:

Barclays Bank

Sort code: 20-16-08, Account number: 30799076, Account name: Sierra Leone Mission 

(NB We are very grateful to receive anonymous donations, but when making a bank transfer donation, the donor's name is needed for auditing purposes. Please be assured this information will remain private.)

Or send a cheque to:

Sierra Leone Mission. Postal address: Janet Foord, 2 Cheyne Close, Church Milton, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME10 2SQ

Last year, Janet O'Shea visited Redruth Baptist Church in Cornwall to give a presentation about the work of the Sierra Leone Mission (SLM), including the building of a new Health Centre for children in Brama and surrounding villages.

After the meeting, Janet was approached by a nurse, Debbye, from Treliske Hospital, who kindly offered to collect discarded, unused items from the hospital that could be donated to the Health Centre. 

Some weeks later, Debbye delivered a car full of goods, and told Janet about a doctor, Anne Clarke, who is a Specialist Clinical Physiologist working in Neurophysiology at the same hospital. Anne had noticed that Debbye was packing up the materials and was interested to know what where they were going. When Debbye explained the items were destined for Sierra Leone, Anne announced, ‘That’s where I’m going!’

It transpired that Anne volunteers for the charity TeleEEG, visiting third world countries to establish clinics and train technicians in the use of EEG (electroencephalogram) technology, which records brain activity. Following a trip to Pakistan in October, Anne was scheduled to visit Sierra Leone in November. 

It also turned out that Anne lives only three miles from Janet!

Before leaving for Pakistan, Janet and Anne met up for a long discussion about SLM's work, following which Janet contacted Magnus to link him up with Anne.

As a result, Magnus collected Anne and her co-worker, Steve, from the airport, providing them with accommodation at the Health Centre and his services as a chauffeur to several hospitals in Sierra Leone. Typically, Magnus refused to be paid for his service, so instead, Anne and Steve treated the Bethesda children to a day at the beach for ball games and fun with bubbles!

Anne and Steve spent time with one of the Bethesda girls, who suffers from epilepsy, and they have promised to give her continued support. In addition, Magnus was able to connect with a number of doctors at the hospitals they were visiting, who could be hugely beneficial to the future of the Health Centre.

Janet, who has recently returned from a trip to Sierra Leone to visit the Health Centre, says: 'The sovereignty of God never ceases to amaze me. It is wonderful to take a step back and see how He weaves the tapestry of life to make a perfect picture! Whilst I don’t believe in coincidence, I do believe in God incidences!'

Janet O'Shea will be arriving at Sierra Leone this evening!

Below is a letter, written on 20 January, just a few days before her departure:

Hi everyone,

As the children say ‘only four more sleeps!!’

I am very much looking forward to visiting our family in Sierra Leone and seeing first-hand the amazing work that they have been involved with. There is so much, that possibly a month might not be long enough for me!

I will stay at Bethesda and spend time catching up with each and every one of the children. I am hoping that Mariatu and Abdul might be home from University, but if not I am sure we will visit them. I have not met Marie (the latest house mum) so I am looking forward to meeting her. Our usual treat is to visit the beach for a day; we hire a mini bus and pray (very earnestly) that we will make it! The children usually only go to the beach at Christmas so they get very excited.

I will be teaching at Magang School for at least three weeks. We will replace windows and doors and paint the entire building inside and out. I am taking templates and paint to decorate the classrooms with teaching aids. My focus will be on early reading and numeracy.

I have received some money to buy food for the street children. I am hoping that we can visit them two or three times during the visit. As well as feeding them we also share the gospel, most would profess to be Muslim but they always listen attentively.  

I will also be very excited to visit the new Church and School at Kamakontakay. Magnus has told me that they will be holding their first baptism when we visit.

The Connexion in Sierra Leone are holding their annual conference during my visit, which will be very interesting. I shall take fraternal greetings from several of the Trustees and committee members.

I am very much looking forward to actually seeing the Health Centre. There are already patients staying there and everything seems to be going well. It will be a great asset to at least 35 villages around Brama.

Thank you so much for your support for Sierra Leone.

God bless

Janet

We hope to be able to post some photos with updates from Janet during her trip!

The whole community at Brama give thanks and celebrate the opening of the new Health Centre. Asking for prayer that all those who attend the centre will be healed in both body and soul.

. 

Magnus’ prayer requests for January

Please pray that the Annual Conference, taking place from Friday 10 to Sunday 12 February, at Mongegba and Hastings will be both successful and spirit-filled.

Please also pray for our outreach work at Kamakontakay, Mathoir and Kabala. God was extremely kind to us in 2022, and we pray for more of His blessings throughout 2023. In particular we ask that He will enable us to complete the roofing at the school and finish the church building construction. As a separate Christian House of Worship this project is critical to encouraging new converts to our faith.

Prayer is needed for the sick, and we call on God for his healing power. We lift up Abdulai Kargbo from Mabang, who is suffering from pain and undiagnosed complications, Tommy Kanu, who lives in Manallo, who is enduring a cold with aches and pains, and Jobby Williams of St. Marks Church, Waterloo, who has tragically lost a leg to diabetes.

Finally, we pray for the General Elections that will take place in Sierra Leone in June 2023. Elections here have the potential to unleash serious violence, so we offer prayer and ask for protection for our country's citizens as well as the presidential, parliamentary and local councils. 

Details of Janet O’Shea’s forthcoming trip to Sierra Leone have now been finalised.

Janet will be leaving St Ives on Tuesday 24 January and arriving in Sierra Leone in the early evening of Wednesday 25 January, staying at Bethesda until Wednesday 22 February.

The trip will include three weeks of teaching the children at Mabang School, helping also to renovate and paint the school building, as done previously at Brama, adding teaching aids and a book corner to further enhance their facilities.

Catching up with the children and young people who live at Bethesda Orphanage will be an enjoyable and rewarding part of Janet's stay, as will attendance of the annual Connexion Conference, offering an opportunity to meet up with pastors and local people.

Janet is also very excited to be spending time at the newly opened Health Centre, which has been named the Ralph O’Shea Hospital, as a legacy to Janet’s husband and his significant contribution in supporting communities in Sierra Leone.

Finally, regular visits are planned to join Magnus and his team in sharing food and provisions with the many street children, a large number of whom are orphans or victims of poverty, struggling to survive on their own.

If anyone feels led to make a donation towards this essential work, please be assured that every penny will be go to this cause. Details of how to donate are below.

Thank you!

Donate

To make a donation to any of our Sierra Leone initiatives, just click on the Donations button, located at the top of each website page. Please also state if you would like your donation to go towards a particular project.

Alternatively donate by Bank Transfer:

Barclays Bank
Sort code: 20-16-08, Account number: 30799076, Account name: Sierra Leone Mission 

(NB We are very grateful to receive anonymous donations, but when making a bank transfer donation, the donor's name is needed for auditing purposes. Please be assured this information will remain private.)

Or send a cheque to:

Sierra Leone Mission. Postal address: Janet Foord, 2 Cheyne Close, Church Milton, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME10 2SQ

The Sierra Leone container, which left the UK in October, successfully arrived at Bethesda on December 13 at one o'clock in the morning!

Showing typical enthusiasm, the children at Bethesda Orphanage turned out of their beds to help to unload the container, which was filled to the brim with shoe bags, books, toys, clothes, shoes, medical supplies, school tables and chairs, mattresses, and more.

With all hands on deck the operation was completed in just two hours.

Next day, the mammoth task of distributing the shoe bags to children from The Connexion churches and schools began with a trip to Kamakontakay. Followed by deliveries to Fabaina, Brama, Songo Loko, Fufuwater, Magbafti, Manalo and Makomba.

The picture shows just some of the many excited children, who were delighted to receive their shoebag gifts on Christmas Day.

This year Magnus also has plans to have the empty 40 ft container adapted to create much-needed additional accommodation at Bethesda.

The new Health Centre was officially opened on Friday 9 December with a dedication service of prayer and thanks led by Magnus Bendu. The service was well attended by local villagers and school children, and was followed by a tour of the new building.

The Health Centre is to be named the Ralph O'Shea Hospital, in honour and memory of Ralph's tireless work in supporting communities in Sierra Leone.

A video of the dedication was filmed on Friday. Click on the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, Sierra Leone Facebook Page to access.

 
At the beginning

The idea for the new centre grew from a Connexion visit to Brama, Sierra Leone in November 2018 by Janet O’Shea, Bethany and Esther Green. They were introduced to a church service congregation, where they noticed a young boy. Sitting next to his mother, he was in pain, whimpering quietly to himself, and it soon became obvious that there was something seriously wrong. His mother explained that two weeks earlier her son had been playing football when he fell and broke his leg - in two places. She could not afford medical help and could not raise the money for transport to reach a clinic where he could be treated.

At Mabang, the team also met a young man with his two small children. He had just buried his wife because she had not been able to reach the hospital quickly enough.

In addition, at Brama School during a two-week visit in the summer, at least six children were taken ill with malaria, while at Bethesda two children needed treatment for malaria and one for typhoid.  

Help was given to those mentioned, but it left no doubt of a great need for health facilities. 

Magnus expressed his great concern to the Connexion team for the necessity of cheap, available medical support, and raised the consideration for funding to build and equip a local Health Centre. 

Prayer

Prayer followed these visits and Magnus’ request, and in June 2019 Zion Community Church prayed as a whole community for confirmation that this was a project that the church should support. 

God provided their answer with speed. That very evening a generous cheque was received (from a donor outside of the church community) for £5,000, which enabled the purchase of land, and this was followed in December by a donation from a Connexion church member for £30,000 to cover the costs of the build. Confirmation indeed!

Since that time, more donations were received from Connexion members, including a generous legacy from Ralph O'Shea, enabling completion of the Hospital. Currently new work is starting on the additional build of a maternity ward, which has the potential to save many lives.

Donate

Money will still be needed to assist with the running of the Ralph O'Shea Hospital and to complete the new maternity ward. If you would like to make a donation to help SLM's work in Sierra Leone, just click on the Donations button, located at the top of each website page. Please also state if you would like your donation to go towards a particular project.

Alternatively donate by Bank Transfer:

Barclays Bank
Sort code: 20-16-08, Account number: 30799076, Account name: Sierra Leone Mission 

(NB We are very grateful to receive anonymous donations, but when making a bank transfer donation, the donor's name is needed for auditing purposes. Please be assured this information will remain private.)

Or send a cheque to:

Sierra Leone Mission. Postal address: Janet Foord, 2 Cheyne Close, Church Milton, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME10 2SQ

Together we thank God for His amazing answer to prayer!

In close consultation with a group of local women, who held three days of prayer and fasting at the new Health Centre in Brama, Sierra Leone, Magnus learned of their conviction that a maternity and ante-natal ward should be included in the Centre, given that paediatrics and maternity care are so closely linked.

With almost immediate response, Magnus has breathed life into this God-given initiative!

Foundations have been dug out and, using bricks that were left over from building the security wall, work has already started on the construction a new maternity unit, which will be positioned at the rear of the main Health Centre.

During November, Magnus and the Health Centre committee have also been interviewing candidates who've applied to work at the Health Centre. They have offered positions to two experienced nurses and are awaiting their response.

Currently, the Health Centre cannot afford to employ a doctor, and the intention is to start out with a Community Health Officer, which is common practice in Sierra Leone.

The plan is to officially dedicate and open the Health Centre on Friday 9 December.

On completion, the Health Centre and patient wards will be able to serve communities from 35 villages in the local vicinity. Trained staff will work in the clinic and also support communities in the villages, helping them to improve general hygiene and implementing vaccination programmes. They will also be able to provide post-natal health care for mothers and their babies. 

Health facts in Sierra Leone

• The child and infant mortality rate in England and Wales in 2018 was 3.8 per 1,000. In Sierra Leone it was 78 per 1,000. 
• Between January and March 2020 in Freetown alone there were 581 maternal deaths. 
• Maternal deaths account for 36% of all deaths amongst women aged 15 - 49 years. 
• Sierra Leone is the most dangerous place in the world to be pregnant. 
• There are only 245 doctors in Sierra Leone serving 7 million people. 
• 1 in 17 women won’t survive pregnancy or delivery. 
• 60% of population live below the poverty line. 
• 1 in 3 people do not have access to clean water. 
• 3 in 5 people live in rural areas. 
• MOST deaths could be prevented! 

The majority of maternal and infant mortality in Sierra Leone is caused mainly by birth asphyxia, prematurity, sepsis and congenital deformity, which can be prevented. 

A pregnant mother-to-be living in a rural setting cannot easily access medical help. Most often there will be an elderly woman in the vicinity to 'assist' with the birth. These untrained women have been identified by the Sierra Leone Government as the primary reason for the country's maternal deaths. This type of support is now illegal, but often when problems occur it is too late to travel to a health facility and usually there is no money for transport or health care.

Funds still needed

Whilst we are delighted to be able to complete the Health Centre's main construction with utilities, and provide necessary medical equipment, further financial support will still be needed, particularly during the first few months of operation, until the centre is established and running itself. The centre will be invaluable to the local communities, helping to save the lives of children, babies and pregnant mothers.

Donate

If you would like to make a donation, to help SLM's work in Sierra Leone, just click on the Donations button, located at the top of each website page. Please also state if you would like your donation to go towards a particular project.

Alternatively donate by Bank Transfer:

Barclays Bank
Sort code: 20-16-08, Account number: 30799076, Account name: Sierra Leone Mission 

(NB We are very grateful to receive anonymous donations, but when making a bank transfer donation, the donor's name is needed for auditing purposes. Please be assured this information will remain private.)

Or send a cheque to:

Sierra Leone Mission. Postal address: Janet Foord, 2 Cheyne Close, Church Milton, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME10 2SQ

Thank you!

At this year's Conference in October, everyone was delighted to be able to communicate directly with Magnus and Daniel via a Zoom meeting. 

Magnus’ prayer requests for November

Please pray for God's intervention with the state of the economy in Sierra Leone. The cost of living has increased excessively for people who are already living in abject poverty.

Please also pray for those who are sick: Sinnatu Simbo, one of our teachers in Brama, is suffering from stomach pains; Abdul Cargo, another of our teachers at Mabang, is struggling with pain that prevents him from moving around and standing, and has yet to be diagnosed; and Stella Browne, who is suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes and other heart-related complications.

Prayer will be welcome for our outreach work at Kamakontakay, Kabala, Kono and Mathoir. We ask for continued support and inspiration for our people who serve as Evangelists and Pastors in these villages, bearing in mind how difficult it can be to serve in Muslim dominated communities.

Please continue to pray for the setting up of the Health Centre in Brama. Our committee is meeting regularly to ensure the commencement of medical services for the local communities by the end of November 2022. Our prayers are for God's direction and provision.

Finally, we continue to pray for political and economic stability in the UK. We pray that God will intervene and help the leaders to put the country's interest above the interests of the political parties and their ideologies.

The mammoth task of wrapping, boxing, stacking, transporting, unloading and - eventually – packing up the 40-foot container has now been completed, and it is finally on its way to Sierra Leone.

The container was filled to the brim with shoe bags, books, toys, clothes, shoes, medical supplies, school tables and chairs, mattresses, and more…

We pray for the container’s safe arrival at Freetown and a trouble-free process with its release and transportation to Magnus at Brama, and we very much look forward to seeing photographs of the goods being unloaded.

This year Magnus also has plans to have the empty container adapted to create much-needed additional accommodation.

At the Conference in October, Janet O’Shea was able to share the highs and lows of 2022 in Sierra Leone, and the delegates were very excited to be joined by Magnus and Daniel for a screened Zoom meeting. Thankfully, the technology actually worked, thanks to Ben Quant and Tim Wells drawing on their technical expertise!

The Conference was given an update about the new Health Centre, which should be in a position to officially open this month. And Mariatu sent through a lovely photo of her dressed in a nurse’s uniform, as she begins her second year of training.