Liberia is used to receiving missionaries. Now initiatives are taken to make the previously war-torn country into a sending nation. Tentmaking will be a central tool.

The story behind the emerging tentmaking movement in Liberia stretches back to 2012. Visionary leaders received information about the All Africa tentmaking conference in Douala, Cameroon. For financial reasons, they decided to travel by bus. The journey takes close to two weeks. At one border crossing they got robbed. They still made it to the conference. As they listened to the teaching and talked with leaders from other nations, the idea to start sending tentmakers from Liberia was born.

Moses Quito and Clinton Gbawoh started working out their visions as soon as they got back home. The following year they arranged the first tentmaking training in Liberia. More courses followed later. In 2019 Tent Liberia was officially launched as a branch of Tent International to further expand the work. 

Creating awareness

The vision has remained the same even as new leaders have now taken over. The past years GO Equipped courses on tentmaking have been held both in the capital city, Monrovia, and in the regions of Liberia.

“We are still at a stage where we create awareness for this way of doing mission,” says Tent Liberia’s director, Christopher Johnson.

The most recent GO Equipped training was held at the downtown campus of University of Liberia in Monrovia.

“We give priority to reaching out to students. This is a highly mobile group that can easily be mobilized. Students may for instance travel to other nations to study. As they start working, they may also be open to finding jobs in other nations,” says Tent Liberia’s director.

“The Go Equipped course is one of the best things that has happened to me in my Christian journey. I learned a lot that only my heart can contain. Every time I open the course book, I keep learning more,” says Kuku F. Lloyd. She works as HR Training officer in the Liberian Senate and was one of 20+ participants at the GO Equipped course in Monrovia last month.

“The course has already impacted the way I work. It was enlightening to get to know that Jesus is not just interested in my spiritual life, but in the fullness of who I am and what I do – including how I perform my work,” says Kuku F. Lloyd. She already has rich cross-cultural experience through four years of studies in Europe. Now she is planning to move abroad again to serve Jesus through life and work. 

Follow up needed

Christopher Johnson sees good follow up of the course participants as crucial to help them follow through in their plans of going as tentmakers. 

“We need more staff and volunteers to expand the work and be good facilitators for those who come to our courses. Tent Liberia plans to be self-funded through its activities over time, but for now we need help from sponsors to build things up,” says Johnson.

A third West African Tent-branch will open in Niger on April 2 this year. Together with Tent Liberia and Tent Nigeria the new branch will form a three-leaf clover for recruiting, training, and sending tentmakers from West Africa. For now, Tent Nigeria remains the big brother of the West African branches both when it comes to people sent and to activities. 

Later this month and in the beginning of April, both Tent Niger and Tent Nigeria will arrange GO Equipped courses. The course in Niger will be held in the capital Niamey from March 30 till April 2, whereas the course in Nigeria will take place in Benin City from April 5 till April 9. You can find an overview of all planned GO Equipped courses at https://www.tentinternational.org/events.

By Steinar Opheim