Stephen and Mirrlees Dolley spent 6 months in Ghana where they met a Liberian man, Jonathan Nathan, and struck up a friendship.
Stephen Dolley’s first visit to Liberia, staying with Jonathan Nathan for 10 days. Stephen met Jonathan’s friends George Daddah and Abi Babalola. Visited some villages and the Chocolate City swamp community, prayed for the sick and shared the gospel. Several notable healings including a young child who had never walked before – completely restored.
First visit with Andy Bell and Stephen’s wife, Mirrlees. We focused on “Jesus said to heal the sick, not just praying for the sick”. Many significant healings, including a broken leg, cancerous growths, a paralysed youth, a blind man and a woman whose was crippled by a Herpes virus and a lady who had suffered a nervous breakdown - all healed. Travelled to Gbanga to minister, where among many healings, a deaf woman was healed.
Stephen visited for one month, and various friends joined for different periods. Andy Bell and our friend Phil came for 10 days. More than sixty people receive immediate healing and many others later testified to healing following our prayers. We visited nearly a dozen different communities healing the sick and sharing the good news of Jesus. In a Muslim village the Imam witnessed many who were sick in his village being healed in Jesus’ name. The Imam gave thanks to God for what had taken place. We went into the Mosque with the Imam and lifted up the glorious name of Jesus.
Later Stephen’s wife, Mirrlees, and friends Nick, Gordon and Alison came. We focused on various practical projects including training in computer skills, book-keeping, sand-water-filter and assembling a compressed-earth block making machine Stephen had made which would be used in building our first school at Chocolate City.
During this 4-week trip Stephen was joined by Andy Bell, Gordon and Nick (their second visit), and Jonathan, Mike and Daron. Wonderful to see the Chocolate City School completed. Prayed with an Imam whom I had previously seen in a dream – he asked again and again for Jesus to come and take control of his village, drive out evil and help him to lead the people to Jesus. Our first visit to Lofa county and the town of Ganglata. Again many remarkable healings including the restoration of a woman who since the age of 6 had lived like an animal and not spoken a word. Although we were given permission by the town chiefs to share the Gospel, there was evident fear of the Poro priests preventing people openly confessing their faith and being baptized.
Due to the Ebola outbreak we were not able to visit Liberia, but the churches we are working with have maintained a remarkable witness in both practical and spiritual outreach. Church teams went out giving Ebola prevention training and bringing hope and faith in the place of the fear and despair that had gripped so many.
Gifts from a number of UK Newfrontiers churches allowed Jonathan to build a six-classroom school in Fendell where there is very little school provision. The parents are delighted with the quality of education they are getting.
Stephen visited for three weeks, joined at various points by Andy Bell, Daron, Gordon Again we saw over a hundred healings. We also gave leadership training and explored the Gospel Jesus preached. On arriving at Ganglata we discovered that the town was just returning to normal after five months of Poro initiation for the children. We challenged the chiefs in Ganglata to turn away from the outlawed and secretive Poro practices and lead their people in the light of Christ. God had already spoken to them and they made an enthusiastic response. This was a turning point for the whole region.
In June we got the shocking news that the whole community in Fendel, where we have a school, has been bulldozed by the government, rendering hundreds of people homeless. The pastor’s home along with those of many of the church members were destroyed, along with their possessions and livelihoods.
A 10-day trip with a small team; Stephen, Andy Bell and Chris Nowak. We took the Good News of Jesus to 22 settlements in Lofa including four towns. The Cotton tree that had stood for many years as a symbol of Poro had been mysteriously burned in the night a few days before our arrival! There was a clear change in the spiritual atmosphere. Over three days we prayed for more than 200 people and saw many wonderful healings. Overall, more than 70% of the sick prayed for received instant relief and many more have confirmed their healing since our return.
A 10-day trip with Stephen, Andy Bell and Chris Nowak. Again focusing on Lofa county. The Cotton tree story continued this year with another miracle. When we arrived we found the tree lying on the ground. A mysterious stranger had walked into the village one afternoon with a chain-saw and cut the tree down! God seems to be sending very strong messages to this community that someone else is now in charge! The teaching focus was on the Gospel of the Kingdom and baptism. We saw may communities reached with the Good News of the Kingdom. Many were healed and 41 people baptised.
A 16-day trip with Stephen, Andy Bell and Chris Nowak. Our main focus was to teach and demonstrate Growth Groups as the most effective means of evangelism and discipling. We did so in churches, schools, clinics, police-posts, people’s homes, to town-chiefs, under trees, in palaver huts and on a large farm with all the workers and supervisors. On our outreach, we mostly took people who had never done it before, so we were coaching and demonstrating how to share the gospel, heal the sick and demonstrate Growth Groups. Many on the Liberian team had their first experience of healing the sick and sharing the Gospel of the Kingdom. We started to pray about reaching into Guinea with the Gospel.
Liberian pastors George and Robert crossed into Guinea from Lofa county and found an open-door for the Gospel. This has spurred us on in praying and planning for effective outreach with the Gospel into Guinea and Sierra Leone. We need to develop training in Growth Groups, Missional Communities and Story Telling.
One of the highlights of our trip to Liberia this year was seeing the impact of Christian schooling on the children. They were so positive, eager to learn and hungry to know Jesus better – attitudes that were noticeably lacking in the government school we visited. I have been visiting Liberia for 9 years and in that time children who were 7 are now young adults of 16! It made me realise the importance of Christian education for the wider mission of the Kingdom of God. We have now increased our commitment to building Christian Schools.
A 16-day trip with Stephen, Andy Bell and Chris Nowak. The Lord directed us to focus entirely on Missional Communities; church in the community as opposed to church in their church buildings. Little did we know how strategic these would prove to be. As we left Liberia, the world was waking up to Covid.
In October we launched our first on-line conference titled, “Listening to Jesus”. We met over 5 weekly sessions to help us to truly listen to Jesus and obey His word.
In February 2021 we had our second on-line conference titled, “Listening to Jesus in one another”. We looked at what it means to function as the Body of Christ – in proper relationship together for His purposes. As a result of this, monthly leadership gatherings were reinstated and out of that came monthly workshops for mission.
In August we launched the Story Telling training for use in evangelism and discipling.
This year was a year of major school-building and upgrading. We have completed our eighth school, three of which are in very rural areas.
George and Robert spent a few days travelling in rural areas of Sierra Leone, where again there was a wide-open door for the Gospel amongst the Muslim communities there. 92 people were baptised and many more are eager to follow Jesus.
A 16-day trip with Stephen, Andy Bell and Chris Nowak. The entire trip focused on practicing using the Discipleship Training materials. We learnt a lot about how not to use them and much about better ways to use them. We practiced teaching multiple stories to new communities in a short time and became even more convinced that discipleship in small groups was so much more effective than trying to teach larger groups of people all together. Using our experience from this trip we have greatly improved the training materials.
A 17-day trip with Stephen and Andy Bell. The focus was on establishing Discovery Groups in numerous communities, both Christian and Muslim. It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm of some 50 Kingdom Apprentices trained since year. It was also amazing to see how hungry the Muslim communities were to hear about Jesus.
