In 1986
the children of Gbuyee -like Peter Paye 10,
Diana Kou Kokeh 6, Patrick Payee Tee 5 and Caroline
Yah Sunwabe 4, - had no school, no church, no
safe water or health care - no prospect for
a better life. The children slaved long hours
working on farms, mostly sugar cane rum producing
farms from the age of 7 onward. Around this
time, Saye Gborplay 11, had just died of alcohol
poisoning after drinking too much rum at the
steam powered still he was minding. Nah Paye
(Peter’s brother), a 15 year old boy,
who was used by his uncle to go out stealing
each night had been caught and beaten to death
a month before Saye’s death. Peter Paye
started sleeping at my place to avoid being
forced to steal and getting beaten. The following
year all the boys were to be forced to be initiated
into the “devil bush” to swear their
life to the “Devil”, be scarred,
circumcised and coerced into ritualistic cannibalism.
These children were trapped by a dead end future
of poor health, perpetual poverty and slavery
to abusive relatives and devil bush priests
(Zoes) in Gbuyee. 
After graduating as
a teacher at UBC and arriving in Liberia in
1986 I was invited to come meet the people of
Gbuyee and, hopefully help start a school for
them. Saying a simple “Yes” to this
invitation has profoundly affected my life,
my heart, my destiny. Frankly, I did not trust
or feel any strong connection with anyone older
than 13 in Gbuyee - but God gave me an extraordinary
love for the children. They had such life and
joy in their eyes - in their unforgettable smiles.
I used up all my rolls of Fuji chrome slide
film clicking pictures of them. They were so
beautiful! The slides are packed in Canada,
but I can still see the optimism and resilient
love in their young faces through the eye of
my heart. During my first week in Gbuyee I made
a special commitment to those children, that
with God’s help, I would see that each
one would have a chance at an education and
to know real freedom in Christ. Virtually all
the adults were alcoholic, subsistence farmers,
oppressed, more concerned with the production
and consumption of sugar cane rum than the production
of food or cash crops. They were ensnared in
satanic worship, human sacrifice and ritualistic
cannibalism as members of the Devil bush society.
We started the first
school and church ever in Gbuyee in 1986 and
despite much opposition and challenges hundreds
of children from Gbuyee and surrounding villages
got a good start on their education. Tragically,
we lost students like Samuel, Mamie and Fania
to malaria, typhoid, and other easily preventable
diseases. This lit a fire that launched our
work with Community Health Ambassadors.
It was another
blow to my heart when the local (devil bush)
leaders
drove us out of the school in 1988 saying they
would take ownership and run it. In May 1990
the civil war drove us even further from Liberia.
On my return to Gbuyee in March 1992 the huge
celebration warmed my heart as all my children
ran out of Gbuyee village to hug me. We sang
together as we walked towards the school and
I heard God speak as through every bone in my
body.
“These
are the children I have given you to hold –
Hold them well.”
