Recent Mission/Good News Moments

A special shout-out to the following churches for hosting amazing ministry (Good News) moments in the past couple months with Emmanuel Nabieu.

• Bethel UMC - Thank you for a great weekend of sharing the many ways your church is manifesting God's love. The sermon on the Greatest Commandments, which I call the the "5-Loves") as recorded in Mark 12:30-31 was a great fit for that weekned.

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• Otterbein- Thank you for the invitation to speak at your church and for sharing the work on your Church's Facebook Page. ​

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• First UMC of Colleyville - It was great to be invited to your annual  Family Empowerment Kick-Off Event. Your church has over 70 Family Advocates. This is WOW! It was great to spend the weekend with your church and to hear all about the amazing ways you continue to grow your partnership with Helping Children Worldwide.

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• Ebenezer UMC- Thank you for inviting Yasmine to the the mission trip interest meeting at your church. We continue to appreciate you for all the many ways your church is involved with this ministry. We look forward to having you in Sierra Leone this year on a Mission trip. We are sure that you are going to love it!​​

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• Braddock St. UMC - Thank you for your many years of commitment to this ministry. What a generous congregation! Thank you for the invitation to share the impact of your church partnership with this mission.

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• Church of the Lakes - You started this journey with a capital campaign and you have been deeply engaged ever since.  Thank you for the recent invitation to share the good news moments at all of your services. It was great to see how joyful eveybody was as we talked about the minstry and seeing how each person is playing a role in making things happen. We look forward to having your church on a mission trip in 2024!

Two years ago, HCW Partner Church Ebenezer UMC committed to partner with Fengehun village to provide desperately needed clean water and sanitation solutions to the community.  Initially delayed by country-wide COVID restrictions, the projects are now well under way in the capable hands of Elmer and Joann Reifel, missioners with Christians in Action Missions International who are based in Bo, Sierra Leone. 

A major part of the Reifels’ work in Sierra Leone is providing clean water to communities in need via hand-drilled boreholes.  Elmer is also an ordained minister who serves as CinA’s Africa Area Director.  The Reifels use every opportunity to share the Gospel whenever possible. 

The Reifels’ work with Helping Children Worldwide began in 2018 when former HCW Field Director Kim Nabieu engaged them to drill wells in two small villages, funded by contributions made to HCW on behalf of a retiring Methodist minister.

With the launch of the Village Partnership initiative, HCW asked the Reifels to submit a bid for wells and latrines that were needed in Fengehun, a village served by Mercy Hospital’s mobile outreach team.  

During a 2019 mission trip to Sierra Leone, Ebenezer UMC Pastor Rob Lough and Missions Director Tina DeBoeser met with Fengehun leadership and committed to a partnership between their church and the village.  The projects were supposed to be completed in 2020, but COVID closures delayed the start until February of this year. 

The Reifels have completed the new fresh water well and have finished refurbishing the two older wells. They also began work on a new three-stall latrine. After the Fengehun projects are complete, they will begin similar projects in Lemblema, the site of another Village Partnership project.

"We are pleased to let you know that the new well, the first on our list of to-do's in Fengehun, is complete and fully operational," Joann Reifel reported.  "The pump base was installed in the new concrete base last week and given about four days to cure before installing the rest of the pump and shocking the water to purify it for drinking.  A yield test allows us to gauge whether or not there is enough water coming into the hole to use a pump, and we do that before we commit to installing a pump.  The yield of this well is a terrific 10.8 gallons per minute, so it should be able to keep up to the demand. " 

"The method we use for the drilling of the borehole is a manual drilling process using a variety of augers, cutters, rock breakers and tips depending on local geology," Joann explained.  “The new pump parts were installed in the original standpipe and the water source is protected now from the parts of the well that were collapsing in on it and causing the mud to build up over the years."  The new pipes also go further down than the old ones, allowing the villagers to pump water even during the dry season.

The new and renovated wells should supply Fengehun village with clean, fresh water for many years to come.  When the new latrines are completed, the village will be a healthier and more hospitable place for the residents.  

​By Melody Curtiss, HCW Executive Director

When Mercy Hospital's operating suite opened, Project Cure, through a generous donor, provided a large donation of medical equipment to outfit the new suite.  Unfortunately, a surgical table, a very expensive and essential piece of equipment, was not available in Project Cure's warehouse at that time.  For the time being, the Mercy surgical team would have to make do without a surgical table.

Missioners Dr. Gary Gilkeson and his wife and HCW board member Mary Ann Gilkeson had connected HCW with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to discuss global health outreach to Africa, and we were stunned and blessed to discover MUSC's enthusiasm, immediate connection to our cause, and their desire to be of assistance.  MUSC's Dr. Beth Gray and Dr. Misti Leyva traveled to Sierra Leone with the Gilkesons to collabroate with the Mercy staff.  They carried over equipment in their luggage, worked with the medical staff to identify needs they could fulfill, and were planning to return in July 2020 when COVID shut everything down.  (You can read more about the Gilkesons and MUSC's involvement in our Summer 2020 Magazine, "Not in my wildest dreams" page 12)

MUSC generously offered to let Kim Nabieu, the Gilkesons, and me roam through their warehouse of surplus medical equipment in Charleston.  Miraculously, Kim and Dr. Gilkeson spied a surgical table in the corner of the warehouse.  Imagine our delight when MUSC agreed to not only donate the table, but also to store it until it could be shipped, and assist with the crating! 

With those matters resolved, we faced a new hurdle. The difficulty was trying to get the bed to Sierra Leone, both in terms of logistics and cost. It took 18 months, miraculous interventions of generous donors to provide for the cost of shipping, and the determination of the Gilkesons, the MUSC staff, and our partner church Bethel UMC, to get the bed from Charleston to Bo.  After a year of further delays and complications with the shipping company, HCW's Program Finance Specialist Cynthia Grant (who is also M&E Team Lead and an international negotiation mastermind) was able to team up with Catherine Norman, the UMC Health Coordinator in Sierra Leone, to get the surgical bed to its destination, where it will enable the Mercy surgical staff to perform surgeries and save lives.