Liberia Mission Campaign
St. Luke’s Downtown, along with several others local Lutheran congregations, is participating in school and church mission projects in Liberia, West Africa.
Background
Reverend Samuel Sumo Payne is the pastor at St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Lima, Ohio and a Chaplain at Mercy Health – St. Rita’s. He was born in Liberia, West Africa in a village named New Town and attended the Gorlu Public School. In 1987, a family in Nebraska brought him to the United States and provided him a home while he attended college. He achieved a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree and was ordained as a pastor in 1996 in the ELCA. He has been the pastor at churches in the Midwest and received is Doctor of Divinity in 2014
Pastor Sam still has many family connections to Liberia. His father, the late Rev. Roland J. Payne, was the first Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Liberia. In 2008, Pastor Sam traveled to Liberia for the funeral of his grandmother in the village of Gorlu where he attended the Gorlu Elementary School years back.
He was shocked by the condition he saw the churches and the school in. “Everything was broken down and things looked very hopeless,” Pastor Sam says. God spoke to his heart to come back and share the story with his American Lutheran friends to help bring life and hope to the people in the villages of Gorlu and New Town by helping renovate the schools and churches.
In the past four years, the saints of God at St. Matthews Lutheran Church, Lima, Trinity Lutheran Church. Galion, Zion Lutheran Church, Lima, and St. Luke’s Downtown, along with several friends of Pastor Sam have provided resources to renovate the schools and provide school supplies for students and teachers.
Earlier this year, with the support of those listed above and others, construction neared completion for a second Lutheran church. St. Thomas, Newtown, Liberia joined Esther Bacon Memorial Church in Gorlu as newly renovated church buildings where the Word is preached and Holy Communion is served. A Guest House for hosting volunteers and visitors in planned next.
We are thankful to Pastor Sam, our partners here in the States, and our partners in ministry in Liberia for the opportunity to extend the Gospel to the people of Gorlu and Newtown. Should you wish to help us continue to support this outreach effort, please go to our donation page, or send a check to St. Luke’s, indicating it is for the Liberian Mission. All funds go directly to support the school and church.
Following are some photos sent by Pastor Sam’s nephew who lives in Monrovia, Liberia.
