Liberian Scars

I was able to spend time in Liberia with some of the most amazing church leaders in West Africa. They have gone through so much with the war during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Pastor Daniel Johnson told me about how his family and that of Pastor Elijah Clay fled their homes into the streets of Monrovia, only to find themselves in the middle of a gunfight, bombs dropping all around them, innocent bystanders only meters away being cut down, blood flowing in the streets. They just sat on the curb and prayed for God’s protecting hand. They walked away unscathed, at least physically.



He told me how he was not able to run errands during those days. If a man was walking down the street, he would be enlisted at gunpoint into one of the ragtag armies. So, his wife went out to search for food. Once she was arrested, thrown on the sidewalk, and accused of being from an opposing ethnic group. Amazingly, at that moment, one of the gunmen recognized her as a high school classmate. He vouched for her and they let her go because she could fluently speak their language. They let her go just before ordering her execution.


Today there are still pockmarks in the walls and holes in the streets from bullets and bombs. There is little to no infrastructure in Liberia today—no electricity except through gas generators. But, the Nazarene church there is the most mature, most giving, most compassionate, most progressive, most impoverished, and most authentically genuine that I have ever been around during my time in Africa.

Here's a close-up of the same building: