letter from Sierra Leone
Evangelism in a fast-growing Muslim-majority city
James Stileman
Two men, recommended to one another four years prior, finally met in Nairobi in March this year.
One was Thomas Wilson, Anglican Bishop of Freetown, Sierra Leone, who had become increasingly anxious about the state of his church. Freetown is one of the fastest growing cities in West Africa, yet the Anglican church was unable to keep pace. Pentecostal churches were attracting the young with contemporary music and dynamic services, but his diocese was failing to adapt. His clergy were too focused on tradition and the liturgy, and were reluctant to upset the church’s older, more conservative members.
Reunited at Bible by the Beach (after 61 years!)
James Stileman
Hazel Gordon and Linnet Smith left their Cheshire girls' school in 1965. They hadn’t seen each other for over 60 years until this year’s Bible by the Beach (BBTB) conference in Eastbourne over the Early May Bank Holiday.
They sat in a seafront hotel and talked for four hours without stopping. “It was a fitting conclusion to our first meeting,” said Hazel, “to attend the Sunday evening celebration service in the Congress Theatre. What a profound moment to stand together as we sang ‘From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny’. We felt so blessed to have had this remarkable opportunity – and to discover that the adventure of life has not yet stopped.”
letter from Liberia
Building the church in West Africa
James Stileman
In an episode of Come Fly with Me, the BBC’s 2010 satirical fly-on-the-wall documentary set in a fictional UK airport, Ian Foot, the Chief Immigration Officer, challenges a passenger from Liberia for travelling under a forged passport. “The slight giveaway,” says Foot smugly, “is there is no such country as Liberia.”
The affronted passenger, appalled by the officer’s racism, points to Liberia on a map of West Africa and the humiliated Foot lets the visitor through.
