St Paul’s United Methodist Church, Tucson Arizona’s association with John Dean Town, Liberia and the Gretta Moffat School started in the early 1980s.
Two ladies from St Paul’s, Gretta Moffet and Wilma Johnson, were on a Methodist Women’s mission trip that included visits in and around Liberia, West Africa.
During their visit they stopped by Camphor Mission, a French boarding school in the jungles of central Liberia, for a short two-hour visit. A local Liberian by the name of John Innis was the principal of the school and provided guidance around the campus and generally answered questions.
As they were leaving, Gretta turned back to John and said “one day you will be the Bishop of Liberia for the United Methodist Church.” As they were walking away, Wilma asked Gretta “what made you say that?” Gretta said, ”I have no idea. I was not even thinking about it when something in my mind said to turn back to John and to say what I did.” Bishop Innis later called that “The Prophecy of Gretta Moffet.” To this day, every speech he gives, every sermon starts with this Prophecy.
Many years later Rev Billy Still, the senior pastor at St Paul’s UMC at that time, was in Liberia on a mission trip and met then Bishop Innis. The Bishop told him about the “Prophecy of Gretta Moffet”. Billy told the Bishop that he knew Gretta and that she went to St Paul’s UMC in Tucson, his church. Billy invited the Bishop to visit which he did and that started our relationship.
St. Paul’s now had the beginning of a long-standing relationship with the people of John Dean Town. Like many people in Liberia, the people of JDT have recovered from the devastation of a 17-year civil war. But it left many scars. We are deeply committed to helping our friends re-establish their community.
We started our support with what seemed to be a simple task. JDT desperately needed clean drinking water. In 2006 more than 150 children in the John Dean Town area died from diseases contracted from the use of dirty water. So we funded a project to help local people dig a well. This project has had a tremendous impact on the local population. In 2007, after a simple hand pump well was installed, that number was reduced to 16, and many of those were not related to dirty water.
The Gretta Moffat School and Mission was established in 2005 when St Paul’s UMC got actively involved. St. Paul’s built the school, maintains the building, provides the salaries for locally hired and well trained teachers, and provides uniforms and school supplies for the children.
St Paul’s sends $8040 each December to cover the entire cost of salaries for 6 teachers and the principal.
Several years ago there was a continuing problem with the locals having to always walk through the jungle to get to a place where they could trade things or for the clinic to get increased medical help, etc. They needed more permanent access to a road.
Fortunately, Firestone Rubber has several harvesting areas around that part of Liberia. In order get their stuff to the port in Buchanan, they built a very sturdy dirt road. They in turn allowed us to build a one lane dirt six mile road which connects to the Firestone road and ends in John Dean Town.
They call this the Billy Still Road.
In 2008 Rev. Billy Still and members of the congregation visited John Dean Town and the Gretta Moffat School there. JDT is comprised of about 15 huts and 60 people, a church, clinic, the Gretta Moffat School plus a few odd buildings.
St. Paul’s provided money to build a medical clinic. The village selected three people who had high school educations to go to nursing school in Monrovia. St Pauls provided their tuition and living expenses. During our trip we staffed the medical clinic with these three nurses which provided immediate medical aid to over 3000 people who live in the area. Those who went on the trip carried about 50pounds of medications to stock the clinic during that visit.
Jerry Giah, current principal of the Gretta Moffat School, sent us a principal report – copies of which are available in the Narthex if you would like to read one – and in that report he shares greetings to all of the school’s partners, including St. John’s UMC of Tucson, and further shares the following:
On behalf of these individuals, I wish to express thanks and appreciation to the Pastors, Officers and Members of the St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Tucson, Arizona for their continuous support to the institution since its establishment by sending teachers’ salaries annually. May God richly bless them.
The school further sent us condolencses upon the news of the deaths of Marv Moffatt and Rev. Billy Still, who had both been so influential in its founding and continued support.
This partnership is one of the ways we live out our mission to be a generous community following Jesus for the good of the world. Through your regular offerings that support the ministries of St. Paul’s, as well as your special gifts to go to the Gretta Moffatt school, you make an impact in the world.
We do want to invite you to consider making a special gift to support our church’s commitment to pay for the salaries of the teachers at the Gretta Moffatt school. You may do so this morning or later by giving a donation to St. Paul’s and marking the donation for the “Gretta Moffat School” or “John Dean Town.”
I stand in awe and gratitude for the witness you all have given to following Jesus Christ with this partnership, and thank you on behalf of so many.
St. Paul’s UMC and the Gretta Moffat School, Africa
