IMM at work in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has only recently come out of a brutal ten-year civil war. There is scarcely
a family in the country that has not been touched by the war, much of which was funded by the illegal trading of diamonds. The diamond mining area is away from the main centres of population. However one area called Tongo Field, which has an estimated population of 20,000 is a centre for diamond mining. It is 'over-populated' with housing difficult to find. It is the main town in a chiefdom and many of the people work as miners. Diamonds seem to be the main attraction. Until recently there were no evangelical churches.
Evangelist Mustapha Rogers was appointed to move up into the area, but sadly within a few short weeks he died from natural causes. He left a widow with 7 children.
The miners in Sierra Leone believe that diamonds belong to the demons, so many are involved in cultish devil activities in order to 'get rich' by finding diamonds. The area is Muslim-dominated but underneath the even more influential traditional religion holds sway. Those who pay diamond miners force them to work Sundays but have Fridays off.
The International Miners' Mission is working alongside the local church in Sierra Leone by supporting the programme of church planting in this needy area. Local UFM missionaries, Mike and Vi Webb have arranged for Pastor Dennis Manneh (pictured on the right) and his wife Aminatoa to head up this outreach in the Tongo Field mining area. This initially was based at Buima and the church there opened in October 2005. Subsequently daughter churches have been established in 4 other villages round about.
Current challenges include:
a) the provision of building materials, in particular roofing
b) supplying bicycles and a motorbike for the pastors
c) Bible training for the pastors
IMM hope to continue to support this development with regular grants, with the anticipated view of sponsoring outreach to other mining areas in Sierra Leone.