Pray for Sierra Leone

Freedom defines Sierra Leone. When the British government banned slave trade in 1807, Sierra Leone became a base for Navy ships to capture illegal slave vessels. 50,000 freed prisoners from all over Africa settled in Sierra Leone and formed the culture that defines the people living there today. Sierra Leone’s flag contains three colors that each signify a part of the nation’s identity: green, blue, and white. Green represents the nation’s agricultural beginnings and the lush mountains that tower over the nation’s tropical landscape. This landscape also influenced the country’s name. Portuguese for “Lion Mountains,” the name refers to the sound of thunder echoing through the nation’s great hills. The color blue highlights freedom, symbolizing Freetown, the nation’s capital, originally founded as a home for freed slaves. The color white in the flag is closely connected to the nation’s motto, “unity, freedom, justice.”

These ideals have not always governed the nation. In 1991, a corrupt government brought the nation to civil war while greedy factions drove the conflict onward. For eleven years, freedom and justice were held captive as tens of thousands of people died. Two million people were displaced and millions more were scarred by the horrors of war. Since the war’s end in 2002, decreasing poverty rates and a growing economy show the nation has made good progress toward recovery. Supported by a democratic process, national leaders who seek to serve their people are gradually finding solutions. Significant progress is still needed as people in Sierra Leone experience high rates of illiteracy and unemployment, and it remains one of the world’s most impoverished countries. The effects of an Ebola outbreak in 2014 and the COVID-19 pandemic continue to undermine development.

Though Sierra Leone became one of the first West African nations to be evangelized, a mere 13 percent of the population identifies with Christianity today. Sixty percent of the population identifies with Islam, which is steadily growing. Occult practices and other ethnic religions are commonly combined with both Islam and Christianity. The government of Sierra Leone protects freedom of religion and allows Christians to spread God’s Word. However, many churches are ill-equipped to tend to the needs of their communities, and few leaders have any training or education. To support the Church, foreign Christian organizations are providing physical, emotional, and psychological healing to the nation’s people. Christian radio is also a tool used by the Church to make the Gospel accessible to the illiterate.