Tragedy in Sierra Leone

A Story by: Barbara Cross

Today I hear the news from Sierra Leone….300 dead and 600 missing after mudslides from torrential rains. I know it’s the rainy season. I know and love these people. How many boys living on the street were swept away? Will we ever know how many lives were lost? But, I have a God that knows everyone. My God knew every hair on their head, and loved them.

Until God

Six years ago, Sierra Leone was an African country, so far away that it took (what seemed like) forever to get there. It was a country that wasn’t even on my radar for missions, until God.

God showed me a people and a country where He was working. God showed me children, boys, teenagers that had survived, living on the streets of Sierra Leone. Six years ago, our worlds, those street boys’ and mine, collided. I knew I would never be the same when I watched a little boy stuff his shirt with rice to take with him back to the streets, to save for another day… or to share with friends still on the streets. I took his picture with that rice in his shirt and showed it to the boys and girls in my ministry back home.

We cannot know the pain of hunger and homelessness unless we have slept on the street or dug through trash for food. God showed me His love for these kids, and I knew I was to be a part of His story there.

Sharing God’s Love

Today I sponsor two of those children in Sierra Leone. I go every year to help with camps to teach them about God, who loves them more than we can imagine. I go to share the Savior’s story who loves them so much He would die so that they might have a future and a hope. And, selfishly, I go to give those children who call me Mom a mother’s hug and love in person.

And, today, so many have died in Sierra Leone without a Savior. The work of the 25 Project is a lot like that story of the starfish on the beach. We have not touched ALL of the children of Freetown or Waterloo, Grafton, or Tombo. But we have told those we serve about Jesus. And, that is what Jesus commands us to do. I pray every day for more… more boys to tell, which requires more sponsors, which requires us to get the word out to more people here in the states, the richest nation in the world.

What About You?

So now you know. You know my heart and my desire. I pray that you will join me in sponsoring a boy in Sierra Leone for less than the cost of a meal each month. For only $36 a month, you don’t have to go, but you enable the 25 Project to care for and teach a young man about Jesus. Why wouldn’t you follow Jesus’s call to care for His sheep…. To feed His lambs, to shepherd and teach them about a Savior who will Rock their world! If you’ve read this far, I pray that God is speaking to your heart today.

Sponsor a Child in Sierra Leone

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Jesus: Matthew 25:40)