Nick's Trip to Sierra Leone (Pics!)

A few posts ago, I told you that Nick was going to Sierra Leone, Africa with a team from our church.  Well, he's back now (yay)!  Nick and the team got back just ta week ago today after 10 days in SL, and it was a really good trip.

The thing that amazed me most about this trip was the way it fit Nick's heart and experiences like a glove...

Our church is partnered with a ministry there and, in many ways, ministries are just like businesses, right?  The team weighed in on management decisions, small business opportunities, and met with the ministry's board.  An amazingly perfect fit for Nick's business/management brain and his interest in social enterprise/microfinance (he took classes in seminary on this because he wanted to learn more).

The other part of the trip was pouring into the churches and church members - preaching on Sunday and teaching Bible courses (thankful for those preaching classes and seminary).  Of course, our year in East Asia with Crusade was helpful from the missionary aspect too. So cool.

The church where Nick preached.

We are so thankful to God for allowing Nick to have this opportunity that used all of his "random" patchwork of things he is passionate about - social enterprise, business, and ministry.

The thing that surprised and saddened Nick most was definitely the level of poverty that he saw in the city of Freetown. The unemployment rate is especially high there (something like 75%), and the economy is only slowly recovering after so many years of civil war.  We have seen poverty before - in Mexico, in China, etc. - but he said this was definitely different.

If you think about it, please pray for peace among the staff, wisdom for the board, and wisdom for our church as we continue this partnership.  If you are hungry for more info, you can go back and read some of the day-to-day updates on our church's blog!  More pictures hopefully to come soon too!