By Nancy Kocurek, WHPC Elder and WHPC-FICMI Team Member
“All we have left……is our faith in Christ.” This was the cry of members of a Christian church in Dubuzon, Liberia upon returning to their community after two devastating civil wars to find their church building burned to the ground. They vowed to rebuild their church and rename it Faith in Christ. With the help of WHPC, their church was rebuilt and now, some twelve years later, it has grown to more than eight satellite congregations in Liberia and two in neighboring Ivory Coast, thereby adding “international” to its ministry name.
How it Began
By 2008, Thomas Jeah, the founding pastor of the original church and his wife Marie, director of the church’s choir, had immigrated to the US after spending several years in a refugee camp in The Ivory Coast. Three of their seven children also immigrated to the US, while the remaining children stayed in Liberia to help rebuild their community and their church. The Jeah and Tiah families (their daughter Dorcas is married to Paul Tiah) were relocated to Austin and, via a refugee mentoring program, were connected to WHPC. That is where the love relationship began. Caring members of our church have been walking with these two families and their children for over ten years, helping them navigate a new country, a new language, and a different way of life. Today, Thomas, Marie, their son Daniel and his family are members of WHPC.
WHPC members Daniel, Marie, and Thomas Jeah on the day Thomas became a United States citizen.
WHPC Reaches Out
The relationship between WHPC and Faith in Christ Ministries International, or FICMI, grew organically. In the early years, WHPC sent funds to help rebuild their church building in Dubuzon. Some of our members raised private funds to purchase a desperately needed pick-up to ferry pastors over challenging terrain to minister to their growing satellite congregations. Donated choir robes from The Lakeway Church were secured and sent to Liberia to outfit their church choir - they were ecstatic! Since that time, WHPC members have continued to walk alongside the Jeahs and Tiahs and the Faith in Christ Ministry in many ways. The Jeahs’ son, Chancy, is studying to be a pastor at The African Bible College in Yekepa, thanks to the generosity of a WHPC couple.
Faith in Christ congregation members with the pick-up truck donated by WHPC.
The congregation celebrates Easter.
Mission Partnership
WHPC accepted FICMI as a mission partner and has provided annual funding for them since
2014. Monies have been used to provide three conferences a year at which representatives from the Dubuzon church and its numerous satellite congregations gather for prayer, celebration, and planning. In addition, WHPC sponsored Daniel Jeah’s trip to Liberia in 2019 to encourage and assist the ministry. Additional funds are being sought on a one-time basis to aid the families of the two deceased pastors, to help pay lay pastors who receive no salary, to provide Bibles in French for the Ivory Coast congregations, and to fund a youth retreat, a women’s conference, and a children’s ministry.
FICMI congregations have almost nothing materially. Most worship outside or in simple mud and wood huts, many do not own any land, and their members struggle for the basic necessities of life. They continue to face numerous hardships such as the untimely death of two of their trained pastors in the past three years. Yet their joy and hope in the Lord is overflowing and their prayers and praise amazing. Pastor-in-training Chancy Jeah is praying for our church in particular and our country, in general, to be protected from COVID 19. He prays, The Lord shall cover you and the church with his feathers and under his wings; you shall be saved from this coronavirus. No matter how terrible it is, it shall not defeat your people, in Jesus’ name. I declare total protection and healing over the land of America and the world, in Jesus’ name. Please extend my lovely greeting and prayers to the church family in Austin, Texas.
Pastor Thomas, now in his late sixties, continues to maintain close contact with his church and, judging from the number of phone calls he receives, he is still revered as their trusted advisor and prayer warrior. He and his family continue to meet with brothers and sisters from WHPC regularly to support one another and the growing church in Africa. They are grateful for the many ways WHPC has loved and supported them and their church.
We welcome anyone interested in this ministry to inquire about it! Contact Karl Slaikeu or Nancy Kocurek to learn more.
