Contributed
It was a jubilant day on April 20th this year. Dancers from nine villages welcomed their big American Guest visiting Sierra Leone and their village.
Bishop Kyle Searcy is Senior Pastor of Fresh Anointing House of Worship International, Montgomery, Alabama (www.fahow.org) and Fresh Oil Fellowship of Churches International.
Children in Moselolo and surrounding villages have no access to school. The nearest schools are 5-10 miles away. They are subjected to child labor, domestic work, child abuse through childhood marriages and other problems such as illiteracy resulting in extreme adult poverty adding to the statistics of Sierra Leone continually listed as high in illiteracy, very poor poor healthcare and very high rate of poverty in the world.
The Lord has laid it upon our heart to help this community with a six-classroom school building while sharing the gospel. While the nation has been recovering from a civil war, Ebola outbreak and flooding that destroyed most institutions, dozens of villages continue to be marginalized and completely left behind. Moselolo has been one of those including nine surrounding villages. They have had no access to schools, continue to suffer from high illiteracy rate, malnutrition, high infant and maternal mortality, lack of access to medical care.
More than 600 school-aged children are unschooled in Moselolo village, Moyamba District, including nine other villages like Momassa, Mosenengoh, Mokango, Mokebbie, Mokombo among others have no access to any school. Ironically, Sierra Leone is rich in diamonds, titanium ore, bauxite, iron ore, gold, chromite but holds the record of infant, child, and maternal mortality rates that are among the world’s highest and are a result of poverty, a lack of potable water and sanitation, poor nutrition, limited access to quality health care services, and the prevalence of female genital cutting.
Upon Bishop Kyle’s visit last week April 20-27th, children were represented from all the nine surrounding villages to welcome their noble Guest Bishop Kyle.
Bishop Kyle Searcy of Fresh Anointing House of Worship International and Fresh Oil Fellowship of Churches International paid a visit to Sierra Leone and met the villagers of Moselolo and surrounding villages. He was welcomed by jubilation and dancing
Ground-Breaking Ceremony in Moselolo by Bishop Kyle Searcy and Dr. Lauretta Will Sillah, International Coordinator of WIMI and CEO of People’s Foundation for Humanity Development
Momassa, one of nine villages surrounding Moselolo village have no access to school.The villages survive on mostly small-scale farming and petty trading and engage in subsistence agriculture. The rest of the population in the country is about 6 – 7 million from different statistical sources. Members of the population Living on Less Than $1.25 Per Day: 52%. Education in these remote villages will help lower child labor, youth dropouts, poverty rate, illiteracy rate and unemployment
More than half of Sierra Leonean villagers collect their drinking water from highly polluted, unprotected water sources causing water-borne diseases and high mortality rate from poor sanitation and diseases like malaria, typhoid fever and hepatitis
During a WIMI meeting, while praying with the women of Moseilolo village the women raised their biggest concerns to Dr. Lauretta Will Sillah about the lack of a school in their village. Upon sharing this with Apostle Kemi Searcy, her heart was touched thinking of her own childhood educational struggles in Ghana, so the Apostle and her husband spearheaded the school building project leading to the Bishop’s visit to Sierra Leone, in April.
Town Chief Kondoe Stevens heartily welcomed the Bishop and offered him a bag of rice, a sheep and a bag of gari for the builders. The Community committed to help with volunteers, donation of local materials such as sand, sticks, water and cooking for workers. A village child appealed on behalf of his fellow future generation for education and greatly blessed the Bishop for thinking about them.
Bishop Kyle keenly listening to sad stories through a translator, Dr. Lauretta Will Sillah. Bishop Kyle, through his translator from Mende language to English keenly listened to the sad stories of repercussion of lack of schooling. The Bishop was moved to emotion especially by a lady Mamei Charlie who shared how she had four children. She was so desperate to have them educated she sent them away to Freetown, but they were all killed. She said" if there were a school here maybe my children would still be alive." The Bishop responded that he was now glad this school will give hope to the other children in this village.
The Bishop admonished the villagers, prayed for them and committed to address their concerns by committing to building a school in the village with the help and grace of God. He shared the story of the 30-year close friendship of his wife, Apostle Kemi Searcy and her best friend, Dr. Lauretta Will Sillah. The two of them have been working for years in the global women ministry WIMI (Women In Ministry International). For details, check out www.wimiwomen.org. Their divine connection was ordained by God as a journey that started years ago and has landed to this school building that God had in mind the whole while. He said it was the Love God had for the villagers that is causing the building of the school.
Bishop Kyle prays over and pours Anointing Oil on the Foundation ground and also prayed over the Bible as the Word of God the Foundation will be built upon and to Guide current and future generations of pupils, teachers, administrators and everyone into everything about the School, then he symbolically laid it at the bottom of the Foundation Cornerstone of the School.
Bishop turns the sod to officially lay the Foundation for DESTINY CHRISTIAN ACADEMY.
The villagers crowned and gowned the American Bishop with the endowment of an Honorary Paramount Chief of Moselolo Village. He proudly posed in his Royal Gown with the Children awaiting to attend their school.
Here we can construct a new school and many of you can schedule short term mission trips to teach the students for a week to a few months. Together we can make a difference in the lives of people for years to come. Our goal is to finish this school by August 2021 (when the heavy rainy season begins) We will need help building the school both on the ground and internationally. Will you help. No amount is too small. Please check out the website below for donations towards the building project.
FOR A TAX-FREE DONATION TOWARDS THE ABOVE SCHOOL PROJECT, CHECK THE LINK BELOW:
https://destinychristianafrica.org/?fbclid=IwAR0vTVXVvn2Se21Myv_8IyWGx7BTdMWKaZkonUanwIpsfgPil7BxXvlNTBc
Dr. Lauretta Will Sillah, CEO/Founder of People’s Foundation for Humanity Development (PeFoHD) and International Coordinator for WIMI (Women In Ministry International), provides Executive Leadership and Strategic Vision of PeFoHD. For 21 years, through her charity and missionary team initiatives, Dr. Sillah has pioneered a Water, Sanitation and Solar Light school project with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) at her alma mater – Centennial Secondary School, Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone as well as several Women Group projects through the Women In Ministry International (WIMI) Training/Empowerment programs. With strong support from her headquarter church, Fresh Anointing House of Worship in Montgomery Alabama, academic and professional colleagues, her four sons: Alieu, Marcus, Alusain and Antoine, as well as other friends and families abroad , she has, for over 2 decades, collected and donated over a million-dollar worth of emergency relief supplies and educational materials to higher institutions including University of Sierra Leone, Njala University, IAMTECH, orphanages, victims of disasters, primary and secondary academic institutions in Sierra Leone in relief efforts during Post-war, Post Ebola, Post Flooding and Post Landslide disasters. She has participated in the 2017, 2018 and 2019 conferences at the United Nation’s High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development Goals in New York. An ordained Minister at Fresh Anointing House of Worship, USA, Dr. Sillah is married with four grown sons, four granddaughters and four adopted children.
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