Lausanne World Pulse – Urban Articles – The Echo of a Saint: Signs of Hope in a Slum Community
April 2008
According to one recent article, there is only one toilet in the entire community, forcing half of Kroo Bay’s population to defecate in public. The article goes on to note that one-fourth of Kroo Bay’s children will not live to see their fifth birthday and a tenth of the families in the community have lost a loved one to sickness or disease (typically cholera or malaria) in the past month. Given major technological advances in the twenty-first century, combined with the billions of dollars spent on aid to Africa, it’s hard to believe there is really a place like this on earth.
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Noah Tullay, a native of Kroo Bay, returned home after years of study to minister to those in desperate poverty. |
My friends and I were visiting the Word Made Flesh community that works in Sierra Leone. We were all going to meet up at Noah’s house.
Noah Tullay runs the Good News Club in Kroo Bay. The Good News Club is a weekly Bible study which includes joyful praise, dynamic Bible stories, heartfelt prayer, compassionate first aid, and nutritious food. Noah grew up in the Kroo Bay community with his father’s two surviving wives. He never knew his own mother. When he was ten years old his dad died. Overcoming obstacles, Noah left Kroo Bay to complete his education. He then returned to the slum that was his childhood home.
His return is a sign of hope, an indictment against the plundered childhood of Kroo Bay’s little boys and girls—reminding them to dream past the clutches of poverty on their own lives. His return stands as a prophetic statement against poverty’s assault on the oppressed humanity of Kroo Bay—a deeply spiritual affirmation that every human being carries the image of God in his or her intrinsic beauty. His return is a tangible sign that the Kingdom of God has arrived in Kroo Bay—inviting us to follow him and our friends who are poor, because God is near.
That afternoon, Noah invited us into his little home in the slum. He has taken in several children, at least one of the boys orphaned during Sierra Leone’s brutal 10-year civil war. We sat in his front room as he offered us cold drinks.
Noah then took us to the bottom of Kroo Bay. The further down the hill we went, the poorer things seemed to get. We eventually arrived at an old, dilapidated church. With several broken windows and a tropical-weather-beaten exterior, I could hardly believe the building could be used.
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