It is indeed a great pleasure to see so many people who have, at some point, attended Ganta Mission School, or worked there, or visited there, or have just heard about the place who have come tonight to break bread together with us.

My prayer is that gathering here today will mark a beginning of our lasting commitment, devotion, and dedication to Ganta Mission especially at this critical time when the institution is in a dire need for reconstruction and renovation.

I am happy this evening to be able to express a few thoughts of my own as we engage in the perpetuation and the strengthening of this powerful vision that Dr. George Way, & Winifred Jewell Harley had for our people.

But before I share my thoughts tonight, please permit me to express my deep thanks and appreciation to Samuel Smith and members of his organizing team who have brought us together to this Reunion. If it had not been for their efforts, this occasion would not have been possible.

Sam, can you and your team stand up, so that we may show our appreciation to all of you for the hard work.

The meeting was well conducted. We made a lot of progress today. If I had my wish, I will suggest that Samuel Smith be elected to serve at least one term of office so that most of what we put in place today can be implemented by him, of course with our help.

When Sam approached me several months ago, asking me to be one of the keynote speakers, he told me that the theme of the conference was, “Taking the Lead.”

I thought about it for several weeks. The more I thought about what I was going to say, the more I reflected on our present situation in Ganta. I discovered that the topic can be approached from many perspectives. Which of the perspectives should I deal with-- General statement on Leadership Development, or deal with a particular statement about institutional leadership within our particular context?

After much reflection I got my answer. I looked at the Ganta United Methodist Mission School Ode I have just composed.

The clause in verse 2 that says “Your children of tomorrow prepared to lead the way…” yes, there it is. GUMMSAA must be ready to take the helm of leadership to help our institution to survive.

Answer me:
Are we prepared to lead the way? Yes!
Are we prepared to lead the way? Yes!
Who say so---Everybody!
Who’s is everybody—GMS!

The founders of Ganta Mission were great explorers. George Way Harley and Winifred J. Harley left Connecticut, New England, like Abraham left Ur to go in search of a strange and foreign land where they could make a difference. In either case, Abraham and Sarah were leading the way for the people of Israel. George and Winifred Harley were leading the way to improve the lives of the people of Liberia.

In the 1920’s many parts of Africa, including Liberia, were still infested with tropical and other kinds of diseases such as Frambesia, (commonly known as yaw) malaria, typhoid fever, yellow fever, leprosy, Glossina palpalis (commonly known as sleeping sickness), cholera, Smallpox, Chickenpox, and other diseases were very prevalent in our society. This was long before the World Health Organization (WHO) came to Liberia. Africa was still known as the White Man’s Grave Yard.

Our founders, cognizant of this health hazard-—that going to Africa could be detrimental--were willing to take the risks, blaze the rugged way in order to come to make the crooked places as straight as they should be—and to bring light to dark places. Their dream was, to help in the eradication of illiteracy, poverty and disease among our people. They worked very hard to make that dream come through.

When I was growing up on Ganta Mission, one of the songs we used to sing during chapel was:

          “My Master was a worker with daily work to do
          And he, who would be like him, must be a worker too.
          Then welcome honest labor, And honest labor’s fare,
          For where there is a worker, the Master’s man is there.”

(Please forgive the sexist language of the song, when it was written, inclusiveness was not the issue of the time).

Our founders were hard workers with daily work to do. And those who want to be like them must be hard workers too. Taking the lead requires hard work - work hard and work smart.

Our founders were healers, curing diseases of all kinds.
If you want to be like them, you must be a healer too.

Our founders were builders, building institutions and fashioning human characters. If you want to be like them, you must be a builder too.

Our founders were teachers, molding lives and planting the seeds for people who would themselves be visionaries. If you want to be like them, you must be a teacher too.

Our founders were helpers, helping the lepers restore their personhood, their humanity, and dignity. Our founders established a community for them after being excommunicated and ostracized from their own towns. Our founders were helpers. If you want to be like them, you must be a helper too.

Our founders were leaders, who led the way to an old rice farm on a hilltop that they transformed into a modern mission station. If you want to be like them, you must be a leader too.

Taking the lead challenges us to engage in transformative ministries, careers, vocations, jobs, and professions that transform lives—situations, and conditions of people who are on the edge of societies. Taking the lead requires us to minister to those who have become invisible in society—the disinherited, the rejected, the poor, and those Frantz Fanon calls “The Wretched of the Earth.” We are called to minister to the victims of society, those who have their backs against the wall, and those who are trampled upon by others. We are to make WAY for them if we are to truly lead the Way.

If I were preaching a sermon this evening, the periscope or passage I would use as my text, would be the same passage Jesus used to summarize his ministry. Those same words summarize the ministries of the Harleys in Liberia. Luke 4: 18 and 19.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

 
-   Good news to the poor, that is education and economics.
-   Proclaim release to the captives, that is sociological.
-   Recovering the sight to the blind, that is physiological-medical.
-   Setting at liberty those who are oppressed, that is political.
-   And proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord, that is theological.

The Harleys built one of the best churches in Liberia for the proclamation of the Kerygma, the Gospel – the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.

The Harleys led the way to Ganta to accomplish all these goals. They have turned over the work to us nationals. We must now take the lead.

Let me share with you one more very important fact about missionary activities.

In the sixties, almost all the churches in Africa sent out a moratorium, asking missionaries to go home so that the indigenous people can take the lead in the mission work. They said that Africans have now come of age in the churches. Just like on the political arena, these countries were getting their political and flag independence, the churches also said they needed their independence from missionary control. They wanted to take over their own ministries in the African church. At the time they called this nationalization and indigenousation.

So most of the missionaries left. But what we sadly discovered was that as the missionaries left, the funds that came with them from the mission board were also disappearing. As a missionary left, the funds that came to support that missionary also left along with the missionary. Funds for operation were less and less in coming.

Some of the buildings could no longer be maintained. Some of the projects, hospitals, and schools began to close down. We had no money to work with.

What we learned in the 70’s and the 80’s as well as the 90’s was that if we want to take the lead, we must cultivate a very strong base of STEWARDSHIP. WE MUST ENCOURAGE GIVING. The indigenous church must bear the responsibilities for self-support. If the church is going to take seriously the issues of TAKING THE LEAD, THEN it must take seriously Henry Venn’s three prong approach to Mission: self-governance, self-propagation, and self-support.

On Ganta Mission, the moratorium has been achieved. We have indigenous leadership in all the key positions. We are now taking the lead, but we must put our money where our mouths are.

As much as the Board of Global Ministries, and other partners in missions are willing to support our efforts, we must take the Lion Share of the responsibilities. THE LIONS MUST TAKE THE LION SHARE. This means that we as alumni must put our whole weight – financial and material weight behind the work that is being done on the mission station.

Stewardship is not always measured in financial terms. It is also measured in how we care for the resources we have. We must be able to maintain our infrastructure and other resources we have.

Taking a lead is not always an easy task. The one who takes the lead must be willing to sometimes blaze the rugged way. A leader must be a path founder. A good leader is one who leads by example, by doing. Taking the lead is not always easy. Sam knows this to be true. It was not easy for him and others to bring us here tonight.

Taking the lead requires sacrifices.

There was an ad on the TV the other day. The man on the TV was saying,

    “If you cannot lead, then follow, if you cannot follow then get out of the way.”

There are many people and institutions that are not going anywhere. I want to follow someone who is going somewhere.

For the past 80 years, Ganta Mission has been leading the way in two major areas:

• Quality primary and secondary education, and
• Professional medical and affordable health care.

We must never relent in accentuating these positive impacts we continue to make in Education and Health care.

These have been our strength. We must continue to cultivate efforts to continue our lead.

We have been taking the lead in these areas. It has not been easy. With the increasing population, and limited resources, coupled with the devastation of our institution by the civil war, we will have to close ranks.

Taking the lead will require relentless motivation and fundraising.

In order to continue to take the lead in those two major areas of our strength I just cited, Quality primary and secondary education, and professional medical and affordable health care, Ganta Mission will have to be able to allocate and reallocate the needed capital, the resources, and means. John Gbelia, Herbert and Mary Ziggbuo cannot do it alone by themselves. They need our support. This is where we come in as Alumni.

1. Quality teachers are needed at the school.
2. To recruit and retain quality teachers, the teachers must have quality pay and quality living and working conditions.

Our devastated infrastructure must be renovated. The school buildings, the boys’ dorms, the girls’ hostel and the teachers’ living quarters must all be our priority.

The workshops where most of us received our rudimentary industrial education such as carpentry, woodwork, electrical, mechanical, agricultural, automotive, and general maintenance, must be supported with budgetary appropriations.

The girls’ hostel needs to be supported also. Home economic training and computer education skills must be appropriated for.

On the other hand of the spectrum, we have the responsibility of the hospital and the nursing program as an agenda item as well. If we are going to continue to lead in professional medical and affordable health care in the country, we need to also lend hands to the work at the school of nursing. We must invite the graduates of the school of nursing to join us in our efforts to carry the kinja. Maybe they would prefer to organize their own professional Ganta United Methodist Mission Nursing School Alumni Association, or they may prefer to join GUMMSAA-USA to form one team and one Alumni Association. In either case, we need to close ranks and identify allies as we continue to keep the lead.

The hospital does not serve only people living in Ganta. It serves people in the whole of West Africa region, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and beyond. We must reach out to people of good will all over our nation to partnership with us to keep alive this great institution.

Our Alumni Association is still in its infancy. We do not have any financial reserves from which to draw money and lend support, but we will get there soon. God willing we will.

Taking a lead is a challenge as well as an opportunity. Taking the lead requires these elements:

• Creativity,
• Innovation,
• Productivity,
• Motivation
• Commitment,
• Engagement and
• Involvement.

LEADERSHIP IS TEAM WORK. It is a process of getting things done through people.

Leadership is not an exact science like Arithmetic. 2+2=4. That kind of equation is not found in leadership. As you take the football from your own goal to the other goal, you driver, and pass it to one of your players, and he or she passes it to another player on your team, and you continue to pass it on to each other, sometimes the ball is captured by a member of the opposite team.

Leader is an adventure because you can never be sure whether you will reach your goal -- at least this time. So as leaders you have to try again, and again and again, using other methods, other means, other avenues and other ways to get to where you want to go. But you still use the same process, the process of good leadership.

This time, we did not raise enough money to do all we need to do, but we will continue to try again and again until we reach our goal.

Thank you.