wfn.org | United Methodist prays for family, U.S. help in Liberia

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 11, 2003  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
ALL-AA-AF-I-RM{359}

NOTE: A head and shoulders photo of Abbie Kla-Williams is available at
http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html.  For related coverage, see UMNS
story #360.  

By United Methodist News Service

As war and starvation ravage her native Liberia, Abbie Kla-Williams prays for
U.S. intervention and worries about the family she left behind several years
ago.

Liberia is a long way from Rockville, Md., where the United Methodist woman
has lived since coming to America in 1996. The pain is evident in her voice
as she talks about her family - five children, six grandchildren and a
great-grandchild. She fears for their safety and worries about whether they
have enough food. Two grandchildren, ages 18 months and 7 years old, died of
starvation in 1990.

"Sometimes I cry for my children," she says. "... I don't know whether my
children eat or not. I miss my children a whole lot."

She hopes the United States will help restore peace and order in her country,
which has been wracked by civil wars since the 1980s. Rebel factions are
seeking to depose President Charles Taylor, a former warlord under indictment
for war crimes by an international court in Sierra Leone. A team of U.S.
military experts arrived in Liberia July 8 to assess the country's needs.

"I want America to do more," Kla-Williams says. "I want her to come to our
aid and to help us. They need to do more to help us, to get our country in
order."

One of her sons, Edwin Clarke Jr., had to flee with his family when rebel
forces struck a suburb of Monrovia, the Liberian capital. Clarke, an
assistant to United Methodist Bishop John Innis, was returning home from work
with his wife, Lorraine, on June 5 when he learned of the attack.

"By 7 p.m., heavy artillery sounds could be heard around our neighborhood,"
he says in an e-mail note. "We could actually see the bullets flying through
the night skies."

The Clarkes began packing as the firing drew closer. Their 4-year-old
daughter, Edraine, screamed, "Daddy, I am scared! Mommy, please hold me!"

"Lorraine tied Edraine to her back and picked up a small mattress as I was
trying to throw clothes in a bag," Clarke says.

The family fled on foot, returning later to find that they had lost
everything. "This means that when peace finally comes, I will have to start
rebuilding my entire life and home," Clarke says.

Faith is a sustaining force for the family, which is active in United
Methodist congregations in Monrovia and Rockville. "Without faith, I don't
think I would be able to go about," says Kla-Williams, who attends Grace
United Methodist Church. She prays each day for her children, and she
believes she will see them again.

Kla-Williams was suffering from malnutrition when she came to America with
the help of a brother, Saba Kla-Williams, a U.S. citizen in Rockville. After
regaining her health, she found work as a caregiver for elderly people and
began sending money back home to her family. Though her children - ranging in
age from mid-30s to 40 - have jobs, their income is sporadic. 

The money doesn't come easily for Kla-Williams, who sometimes goes for a
month or longer before getting an assignment from a health care agency. "It
is very hard to pay my utility bills and my rent," she says.

She wants to bring her family to the United States, but visas are hard to
obtain. Kla-Williams herself must apply each September for permission to
remain in the United States. Since leaving Liberia, she has seen only one of
her children - Edwin, who visited the United States earlier this year on
business.

This is a critical time for the church in Liberia, Bishop Innis says in a
letter on behalf of the Liberia United Methodist Empowerment Foundation. The
church is growing there "because for many, the church is their hope," he
writes. U.S. and European congregations have been generous - and Liberians
are learning to help themselves - but the church needs money for its
hospital, orphanage, schools and other ministries, the bishop says. 

Like its members, First United Methodist Church in Monrovia is struggling and
depends on money from outside the country. "The people ... do not have the
means to keep the church going," Saba says.
 
Saba, who belongs to Millian United Methodist Church in Rockville, is a
businessman and part-time teacher. He welcomes the news that a coalition of
West African nations is sending a peacekeeping force to Liberia but insists
that U.S. intervention is crucial. Without it, he doubts Taylor will fulfill
his promise to leave office or that the country will return to peace. "The
people of Liberia want American intervention," he says.

"Everything has been destroyed," he adds. "The only thing we have is people -
suffering people. ... We are at the bottom. The very bottom."

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is responding to the crisis in
Liberia. Donations can be designated for Liberia Emergency, Advance #150300,
and dropped in church offering plates or sent to UMCOR, 475 Riverside Drive,
Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Credit-card donations can be made by calling
(800) 554-8583.

Support for the Liberia foundation can be sent to General Board of Global
Ministries-General Council on Finance and Administration, United Methodist
Church, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, 10115; Code: LUMEF-014368-8AT.
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United Methodist News Service
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