Updates From Jo Anne Lyon

All in a Sunday

A few Sundays ago I participated in a remarkable service in Alexandria, VA which included immigrants from Sierra Leone and Liberia, West Africa. We celebrated the courageous work of William Wilberforce, a man who tenaciously pushed legislation through the British Parliament that ended the 19th century slave trade. The people with whom I worshipped grasped the magnitude of this great feat far more than I.

We all sang “Amazing Grace” in West African style. As we sang I was reminded how the melody to this great hymn was one that had been embedded in the ears of John Newton. As a slave trader he would navigate the ships across the ocean and would hear the slaves slow mournful humming coming from the dungeons in which they were chained. Realizing his great sin he cried out to God! God heard him, redeemed him, he became an Anglican priest and wrote the words of "Amazing Grace" then set them to the melody that had so haunted him. The words and melody together reflect the transformation through Christ that had taken place in the heart of John Newton.

Before I was introduced to speak, the choir of West Africans sang a song they said their great – great….grandmothers would sing to ward off the slave traders. In beautiful a capela harmony, they sang, “Over my head, there is music…” They went on to explain to me this meant Jesus was protecting them because He was the music over their heads.

These folks had been well schooled in Wilberforce and I didn’t have much to add., so I explained that their denomination, which is of the Wesleyan tradition, has a rich history of confronting social tyranny and was extremely instrumental in the 19th century abolitionist movement. The Sierra Leonean pastor began to weep, and she later shared with the congregation: “ We did not know you, our brothers and sisters on this side of the water, were pleading our case. This brings us even closer together.”

As I began to talk about current happenings in Sierra Leone and Liberia regarding the Modern Day Slavery such as

• Children being robbed from desperately poor parents who think their child is relocating to receive an education..only to realize they have been made to work as slaves in the mines and as house servants.

• Young women being sold into prostitution , also thinking they are going for a legitimate job.

• Children’s body parts being removed ( i.e. ears, toes, fingers and vital organs) and sold for profit or to be used in witchcraft.

I saw weeping throughout the congregation.

Immediately after the service, two men dressed in business suits, having been in the States for over 10 years came to me. As thy attempted to restrict their tears, they said “As you talked this morning I realized I had been a slave.” They both went on to recount their stories. After we warmly embraced they said, “Please keep talking about this. We need our country to be rid of the 2nd time slavery.”

Waiting patiently behind them was a smartly dressed woman who began to relay her family’s experience with trafficking. She told how the children her mother had birthed before her were killed and their body parts sold by the local witch doctors in Liberia. When her mother became pregnant with her, some relatives suggested she go to the nearby city with a hospital to give birth.. “I was that child,” said the business woman. “You see”. she said, “The people in this area are uneducated and illiterate and they do whatever the witch doctors tell them because they don’t know any better.” “ It is all about illiteracy,” she emphasized.

I left with two resolves….

Continue to work to abolish modern day slavery with everything I have within me…

Continue to abolish illiteracy with everything I have within me….

Join me as we join the heart of God in doing His will.

Blessings,

Jo Anne Lyon
Executive Director