By MARJI BISHIR
Center for Missional Outreach
Marji Bishir learned about the dangers of being appointed to a
church in a remote, war-torn area from the Rev. Asone Nah Wollor,
who spent a year in such an outpost.
On Super Bowl Sunday,
I was a guest preacher at
72nd Street United Methodist
Church in Monrovia, Liberia.
That morning, the pastor, the
Rev. Asone Nah Wollor, picked
me up from the residence
of Bishop John G. Innis, the
Bishop of Liberia.
On the ride over, I asked
the pastor if he knew what his
next appointment would be.
He explained the appointment
process in Liberia, then
launched into the year he had
been appointed to Lofa, a
dangerous and violent area of
Liberia.
It was 2004, a year after
a peace agreement to end
a terrible civil war had been
signed and six months after
U.N. peacekeeping forces had
been deployed. A transitional
government was in place.
Still, people were afraid and
tensions were high.
When Rev. Wollor learned
that he had been appointed
to Lofa County, he thought: “I
don’t want to go there!” This
was the home base of LURD,
an insurgency group that had
attacked the forces of President
Charles Taylor, who now awaits
verdict in a war crimes trial in
the Hague.
The pastor’s wife cried
when she heard the news. Rev.
Wollor called Bishop Innis and
said, “Bishop, I cannot go to
Lofa. I do not know the road to
Lofa.”
Bishop Innis replied, “Do
not worry, I will carry you there,”
and arranged to drive Rev.
Wollor himself. Resigned, the
pastor packed his belongings
and kissed his wife, who
refused to go, goodbye.
When Bishop Innis and Rev.
Wollor arrived in Lofa, their first
task was to locate the church.
When they finally found it, the
building had been overtaken by
jungle vegetation, a clear sign
that nobody had been there in
quite a while.
Next they called a town
meeting and asked, “Who in
this town is a member of the
Methodist church?” There was
silence in the room.
Finally, a hand went up —
that of a LURD rebel girl soldier,
holding an AK-47.
As soon as Rev. Wollor had
finished clearing the weeds
from the church, the rebels
took over the church basement
as their armory.
Fortunately, disarmament
soon came and the pastor
persuaded the rebels to turn in
their weapons for money and
rice.
“The first person I went to
was that girl,” he said. “I told
her, turn in your weapon!”
Despite the obstacles, Rev.
Wollor built the church from
one rebel girl to a congregation
of 41 in the span of a year.
Peace, security and
disarmament are not issues
we deal with in the U.S. as we
evangelize. We often don’t
realize the incredible difficulties
faced by clergy in other parts of
the world.
Rev. Wollor, despite his
fears, remembered Matthew
25:35: “I was a stranger and
you invited me in.”
My prayer is that we all
engage in larger acts of justice
in the world.
Last June, Bishop John Innis of
Liberia spoke at the North Texas
Annual Conference and invited
Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe to preach
at his upcoming annual conference.
President Sirleaf read the epistle lesson. To date, no sitting head of state has ever read scripture in a worship service. This remarkable service culminated the six-day annual conference of the Liberian United Methodist Church under the leadership of Bishop John G. Innis, who served as the keynote preacher for the 2011 North Texas Annual Conference last June. 
