With Deep Gratitude: Honoring Reverend Olivia Fonnie’s Service to the Child Reintegration Centre

Today, we give thanks for Reverend Olivia Fonnie and her years of faithful service as Director of the Child Reintegration Centre in Bo, Sierra Leone. Rev. Fonnie began her leadership at CRC in 2019, bringing with her deep experience in children’s ministry and Christian education. Before joining CRC, she served as Director of Christian Education and Specialized Ministry to Children for the United Methodist Church, Sierra Leone Conference, a role she had held since 2011.

During her tenure, Rev. Fonnie helped lead CRC through an important season in its history. The Centre’s work continued to grow beyond its original rescue model into a broader vision of child reintegration, family strengthening, and community-based care. CRC’s stated vision is that every child should grow up in a safe, loving, and permanent family, and its work has included education support, access to healthcare, counseling, parenting education, economic support, case management, and family strengthening services. Rev. Fonnie’s leadership has been part of that unfolding story.

And she carried it through a deeply meaningful chapter in CRC’s story. The Child Reintegration Centre was founded by Bishop John Yambasu and the United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone after the civil war, with a mission to serve children who had been orphaned, abandoned, or made vulnerable by crisis. During Rev. Fonnie’s leadership, CRC celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary and honored the many children, families, and staff who had been part of that long journey of faith, courage, and love.

As Rev. Fonnie begins her new role as Lead Pastor of Charles Davies UMC in Freetown, we send her forward with our deepest gratitude and our heartfelt prayers. May God bless her ministry with wisdom, joy, courage, and peace. May the congregation she now serves be strengthened by her leadership, encouraged by her faith, and blessed by the same compassion and steady care she has shared so generously with the Child Reintegration Centre. We pray this next chapter brings abundant fruit, renewed purpose, and every grace needed for the work ahead. May she know how deeply she is appreciated, how warmly she is celebrated, and how faithfully she is held in prayer.