Song Geon-woo
Mother has repeatedly emphasized, “We must walk the path of the gospel where no one is lonely.” The gospel in Ghana began in 2005 with the dispatch of a missionary for a single member who had returned after receiving the truth in Korea. Since then, it has borne abundant fruit and expanded into Nigeria and Liberia. More recently, the gospel work in Sierra Leone has also unfolded within God’s providence.
Sierra Leone is located about 1,500 kilometers west of Ghana. Just as Korea was once relatively unknown compared to more prominent Asian nations like China and Japan, Sierra Leone has long remained in the shadows of other more powerful countries in Africa. In early 2024, the seeds of the gospel were first sown in Sierra Leone, when a female adult member from Sierra Leone, who was attending the church in Australia, started to preach the truth to people in her hometown on video calls, by the help of some evangelists and the pastoral staff from Australia. Three people joyfully accepted the truth and drove to neighboring Liberia, where they were baptized and celebrated the Passover, the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and the Day of Resurrection.
The members in Sierra Leone, who kept the Festivals, had already shared God’s word with their families and friends, making appointments to study the Bible together. When they returned, a young adult brother from Ghana, who had been serving in the Monrovia Pre-Branch Church, Liberia, accompanied them to support worship and evangelism. After briefly returning to Ghana, he spent a few more months preparing to go back to Sierra Leone. At the end of November, a Korean assistant overseer couple from Ghana went on a two-month mission trip there. Even though only three members were sent there, they relied solely on God and strengthened one another as they preached the gospel in Sierra Leone. Although we were lacking in many ways, God filled us with the Holy Spirit. As a result, 70 people were baptized in a span of just two months, by January this year.
Despite experiencing God’s miracles, we still had a concern. Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, is divided into eastern and western residential areas. The eastern area is home to working-class people, while the western area is inhabited by people with relatively better living conditions. The two areas are located far apart, and transportation between them is very inconvenient. Among the members who were baptized in Liberia, one lived in the western area, and the other two resided in the eastern area. When the pre-branch church leader went to assist in worship services, he focused on caring for the members in the eastern area where the pre-branch church was established, although there were also members in the western area. The pre-branch church leader and the assistant overseer managed to visit the western area as well, but they found it hard to teach them God’s word often due to the long distance and insufficient time. The Ghana Zion was also facing a shortage of workers. Apart from the prayers and encouragement of the members, there was no means to help them.
At the end of February, we heard that the parents of a deacon from the Dubai Church in the United Arab Emirates were holding worship services at home in the western part of Freetown. The deacon received the truth in the United States and moved to Dubai for work recently. He had been continuously preaching God’s word to his parents in Sierra Leone. His mother was baptized about a year ago, and his father was baptized during his visit to the U.S. in December last year. The deacon said that he had never imagined there would be an assistant overseer in Sierra Leone when his father was baptized. Ever since being baptized, his parents have continued studying the Bible through video calls with the U.S. members. They have completed the new member education course and are now practicing sermons from Sermon Preaching. They have not missed even a single worship service. His father is a retired senior official in the legal profession, and his mother runs a large restaurant. Hoping that Zion will be established in Sierra Leone, they invite their friends to their home every week to help them study God’s word online with the help of members from the U.S.
Even at this early stage of planting, the gospel in Sierra Leone was being preached simultaneously throughout both the eastern and western regions of Freetown. The gospel had already been planted throughout the country as we gathered our small efforts—evangelism through connections by members from Australia, the U.S., and Dubai, and missionary support from members in Ghana, just as the sermon says, “Even a large stone can be moved easily when it is divided and shared.” God had already prepared places for worship. In the east, a member who was connected through the church in Australia offered a worship place. In the west, the parents of a deacon from Dubai expressed their sincere hope that their building would be Zion, and their friends are now waiting to receive baptism. The Passover was solemnly observed in both regions this year.
Going forward, a Ghanaian assistant overseer who was recently dispatched to Liberia will make regular visits to Sierra Leone to support Bible studies and evangelism. Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia are all member nations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a 16-country union that allows visa-free travel among its members. The church members in the United States are also preparing to send a mission team to Sierra Leone, expanding their efforts beyond online evangelism. There are still countries in West Africa where a pre-branch church is yet to be established, but God has already shown us His amazing work by building Zion in Sierra Leone within just one year of planting the gospel. We firmly believe that if we obey God’s will with faith, the gospel work will be completed swiftly.
Through the gospel work in Sierra Leone, I was once again reminded of the words from the Truth Book written by our Heavenly Father: “God does not neglect even a single soul.” He has already accomplished the final stage of His redemption work through His inexpressible sacrifice and has granted us the remarkable advancement of communication and transportation to fulfill the gospel work. At the end of His redemption work, He has called us to simply care for one another, so that no one walks the path of faith alone. Our Heavenly Mother always watches over us with love, never overlooking a single child who is weak in faith or has fallen behind and continually offering heartfelt prayers. We, too, must turn our hearts to the souls we may have neglected and to the regions we have yet to reach. If we give sincere attention to even one soul beside us and faithfully share God’s word so that no one feels alone, God will guide even those in the most isolated and overlooked places—regardless of geography, environment, or language—and bring the gospel to completion across the world. I firmly believe this.
Through this experience, I came to realize one more thing: When we enter the Kingdom of Heaven, we will immediately lay our crowns before God. In that moment, we will see so clearly how God helped us every step of the way, and we will know that the crowns we received were never truly ours—they belong to God. While I was troubled by the challenges of supporting the mission in Sierra Leone, I had no idea that help was already coming from Dubai and the United States. How many more unseen stories like this must be unfolding across the world? Our efforts can only reach so far, but in all the places beyond our grasp, God is working powerfully. Is it any wonder, then, that the first thing we do in Heaven is to lay our crowns at His feet? Just imagining it fills my heart with awe and gratitude.
The gospel path You walked alone—the seven-day fast, the ten-day fast, the forty-day fast, and the sacrifice on the cross . . . Through countless moments of solitude and suffering, You made sure that Your children would never have to walk the path of the gospel alone. From the bottom of my heart, I thank You, Father and Mother, for Your boundless love and sacrifice.