Delivering
Medical Care and Christ
in Sierra Leone

It took a year to prepare for The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod’s (LCMS) first mercy Medical Team (MMT) to Sierra Leone, West Africa. During this time, LCMS missionaries worked with local Lutherans to scout locations, secure government authorizations and order medications.

But long before this, A…* was sick and in pain. She believed that Allah was cursing her for her wickedness. She didn’t see any hope out of her situation form the hand of Allah. And yet, she heard that people were coming to set up a clinic to provide medicine and care.

In May, all the planning came to fruition when a seven-person team traveled to Yardu, Sierra Leone. During the week, more than 1,450 people received medical care at the MMT clinic, including 29-year-old A….

As A… was treated by Sierra Leonean nurse B… C…, team leader Rev. D… E… held A…’s hand and shared with her the truth of God’s grace in Christ. At the end of their time together, A…’s tears flowed with the release from the fear of Allah to the hope in Christ.

The Lutheran Church of Sierra Leone works every day to share the love of Christ through His Word and Sacraments, and the MMT and LCMS missionaries assist in this good work.

“People will come to receive the medicine, and when they are coming and waiting, we preach to them. … Christ is the only way, the truth and the life,” said F… G…, a member of the Sierra Leone church. “If we receive medicine, it is from Christ, and not from us. So, when people come for the medicine, we tell them Christ is the way and not us.”

Thanks be to God, the church in Sierra Leone is growing.

This article is copied from:
LCMS World Relief and Human Care
SHARING
newsletter
July 2018

* Though the names of individuals were included in this article, I have deleted them just in case this post is read by an extremist Muslim who might seek to take violent action. The alphabet letters assigned for the names bear no relationship to the names in the original article.