Today has been a tense day. All Conference has been working up to this moment, the day of the elections for the Connexional Officers, including the post of Chairman and General Superintendent, currently held by the Rev. Reuben Dove. Behind the scenes there has been much debate over who is the best person to take the Connexion forward.

The day started more lazily than usual; we missed the first sessions to catch up with outselves. It was also good to avoid being asked we thought should be G.S.; itwould be prejudicial for us to be seen to support one person over another.

We made Conference in time for another address by the Dean, a passionate plea for unity amongst God’s people.

After lunch and further stabs at speaking Krio, it was time for the vote. This was a loud and enthusiastic affair as expected. Great care was taken to ensure that no accusation of vote tampering was made, and that procedure was followed. As the votes came in there was laughter and great grace displayed by winners and losers, and much affection for nominees shown. Rev. Theophilus Nicol, a fellow Liverpool FC supporter won the position of Assistant G.S. and in the final act of Conference, Rev. Reuben Dove lost out to Re. Sallu Koroma. Reuben was generous to Sallu. It will be strange not working with him after all these years, but I am sure that our frindship will continue.

Conference has been good. We have learnt much about our family here, and got to know many of them well. That said, I am glad that we shall be returning to visiting the churches and schools again – we’ve spent too many hours sitting on hard benches!

Today was the first day of Conference. This is the annual gathering of all of the ministers of the churches in the Sierra Leone Connexion, delegates from their churches, and other guests such as representatives from the Bible Colleges and the Bible Soceity. They meet for worship and to do the business of the Connexion such as electing the leader of the denomination. This is currently the Rev. Reuben Dove, who for many years was our Head Agent, one of the Sierra Leonians we ‘employ’ to coordinate our business in SL on our behalf.

Today was mainly opening speeches and Reuben’s report which was fascinating. It is always good to hear what they have been trying to acheive, what has worked and what has not. They also got to listen to a talk by me. Although they love telling stories, they rarely use them in their sermons. This, however, is something I love to do, and so I told them a version of the Prodigal Son with a Freetown twist! Thankfully it seemed to go down well – I always worry about causing offence through not realising what things are considered inppropriate in their culture.

I also got to perform a ceremony I had hoped to do last year when Reuben passed on the role of Head Agent on to Rev. Sylvanus Alba Nicol, an insightful man with a wickedly dry sense of humour. We had hoped then to be able to publically mark the great work Reuben had done for us over the years, and it was good to be able to finally do this.

Much of Conference we don’t fully understand because of the Krio they speak, but it wonderful to see everybody all at once. Tim is coping well – and just about managing all the names!

Written by Rev. Reuben C. Dove

For Conference I asked some of our friends in Sierra Leone if they might be able to provide some reports and stories of the work in Sierra Leone in recent times, particularly raltaing to their evangelistic efforts. I received the following which I share again here for those who weren’t able to make it (edited for reasons of space). The first is from Rev. Reuben Dove, the General Superintendent of the SL Connexion

‘It will interest you to know that the entire team of ministers and laypastors are involved in the Evangelism Ministry of the Connexion. At our usual monthly Ministers and Laypastors Fellowship, each minister and laypastor contributes towards a fund known as Mission and Evangelism. Whenever there is need for us to embark on an evangelistic exercise we use the fund to enhance transportation cost and any logistics.

Alfred Kobba at Mile 91

In the past, the work of the mission was centered on the Freetown and Peninsula area. Now the tide has turned and in compliance with the Great Commission we have now moved to the provinces where we have evangelised Kono, Mile 91, Magburaka, and most recently Kenema. In Kono, we a church and school although the building has not yet been completed.There is also a church and school in Mile 91. We continue to thank WRU for their generous contibution in funding the construction of six classrooms where the congregation meets regularly for worship and weekly meetings. The school is now sending her first crop of students who sat the NPSE primary school leaving exams to secondary school! I want to inform you that there is growth taking place at Mile 91 now. Infact we have arranged to train one local member to assist with the evangelistic work. Alfred Kobba is doing extremely good work in the mission field outside there. The average number now is about 20. We expect to have more growth taking placein not too distant future.

We have a congregation and school at Magburaka. Here we praise God for the Friends of Sierra Leone (FSL) who paid for the piece of land to erect a school and church building in the future. Most recently we have planted a church in Kenema the newest in the Provinces. The congregation meets at the newly constructed health Centre with the approval of the community and the chief. There is great progress.

The problem of finance has been the key factor militating against the smooth running of the evangelism ministry.

Our main strategy is establishing school alonside the church planting exercise. We have proved that this strategy has been successful. Through teaching the children we can get to the parents whom we can then evangelise and win them for Christ. Through this way we have planted many churches.’