Pastor David Lam, Sidney, along with two other pastors from The Church of God, journeyed to Liberia in January to help Christianity continue to grow in the western Africa country.

“We have a fairly large church group there,” Lam told the Herald. “There’s about 5,000 members in Liberia.”

Accompanying Lam were Pastor Jesse Cook of South Carolina and Pastor Roy Pieper of Pennsylvania. Although the faith of the people in Liberia is strong, the amount of members has decreased from about 10,000 in the 1980s. A civil war from 1998-2003 caused the decrease either because of casualties or people fleeing the country for safety reasons.

“What we were doing is encouraging our churches because they had just got over a civil war,” Lam said. “The church is trying to rebuild and other churches as well are doing remarkable things to rebuild Liberia.”

During their time in Liberia, Joseph Kerkulah was installed as bishop. The bishop’s wife delivered twins - one was named after Lam (David) and the other was named after Pieper’s wife (Cheryl).

According to Lam, Liberia was founded by freed slaves of America. That’s part of the reason why Christianity is strong in the nation.

“They can speak what we lovingly call Liberian English. They also speak tribal languages,” Lam said. “When you preach, you have interpreters talking for you on either side. Some of the folks don’t speak English at all, they have interpreters.”

He adds that services - the U.S. pastors conducted a week-long convention - were full of a lot of singing and dancing.

“They are dancing folks, happy to be saved,” Lam said.

To help spread the message, the church bought five brand new motorcycles to help church leaders in Liberia to travel from town to town. Prior to the motorcycles, church leaders had to walk to the next town.

Gasoline costs about $4.25 to $5 a gallon. Because there currently isn’t any electricity to run gas pumps, gas is purchased by the gallon in glass jars.

The Church of God Church also donated $1,500 to have the building continue for a brick building of worship.

Although there aren’t any public utilities, modern devices that are huge in Liberia are cell phones.

“It seemed like everybody I saw had a cell phone. They have towers everywhere. You get tower (service) just about every place in the country,” Lam said. “The bishop said cell phones are the Liberian’s super highway.”

The U.S. pastors were able to stay in hotels and at a Catholic compound, both have generators for electricity. The diet consists largely of rice and chicken.

During his time as a minister with The Church of God, Lam has made trips to many international areas such as India, Haiti, Central Africa, East Africa and Mexico.

The ministers are hoping to establish a three-year rotation to visit the various countries.

He says it’s a great experience at these other countries, but he’s always happy to return home. “The United States, for all its ills, is still the best country in the world.”

editor@sidneyherald.com