Area Residents Headed to Africa on Mission Trip

A handful of area residents bound for Africa next month will repair a deteriorating schoolhouse and share missionary skills with hundreds of pastors.

Six members of Open Arms Community Church of Bradford will spend from March 1 through March 11 in Conakry, Guinea, as part of a missions trip.

During the week and a half long stay, they will lead a pastor's conference, equipping about 200-250 ministers from West Africa, Senegal, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Cote d' Ivoire.

"Part of our goal in working with these pastors is to help train them to meet the needs in their communities," said Open Arms Multimedia Coordinator Josh Hatcher. "Not just spiritual needs, but physical and social needs as well."

He said he plans to produce a documentary focusing on the daily lives of Sierra Leone refugees, as well as their escape to Guinea.

"They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but video is infinitely more valuable," he said. "I'm very excited to be able to use the talents that I have to do this."

Members will also assist the teachers with children, as well as repair parts of the school building.

Among those making the trip include Open Arms Pastor Mike McAvoy, Shawn Murphy, Dr. Brad MacNeill and his two daughters, Jennifer and Bethany MacNeill and Hatcher.

"All my children have been on mission trips to the Indian/African subcontinents and have told me that I should go, because I'll never be the same," said Dr.MacNeill, a veterinarian from McKean County Animal Hospital. "I know I will be changed forever, but at this point, I just don't know how much and in what direction."

"I've heard people say that we shouldn't be helping people in Africa. We have poor people right here," Hatcher said. "The truth is, the poorest of our poor have food, shelter, education and often cable TV. These kids in Africa have nothing. They live on less than a dollar a day. They don't have access to the basic things they need for survival."

After watching a movie and reading a book detailing the civil war in Sierra Leone, Hatcher said he felt compelled to find a way to help the refugees and victims.

"When I read the story of this young boy who was conscripted to fight in an army, hopped up in drugs, and forced to kill at such a young age, I started to pray for a way to help," he said.

His prayer was answered. Hatcher received an e-mail from David Coker, pastor of New Family Church and Administrator of Gateway International School in Conakry, Guinea, requesting that his church and Open Arms team up.

"I get so many scams in my inbox, that I couldn't believe it," he said. "To get an unsolicited email from the exact people group in the exact city that I was praying for just seemed too strange, but they checked out, and we've been in close communication for a couple years now."

Since then, Hatcher and McAvoy have sent sermon notes, e-mails and money to Coker's church, and they have worked closely with a representative from a humanitarian non-profit organization from Texas called The Baobob Foundation.

More details are available by calling Open Arms at (814) 368-8846 or e-mailing openarms@openarmsbradford.org.

Photo of Shawn Murphy, Mike McAvoy, Dr. Brad MacNeill and Josh Hatcher by Ariel Campbell
Additional Photos: Children from New Family Church in Conakry Guniea, and Members of New Family Church at a river baptism service

To listen to McAvoy and Hatcher talk about the trip on LiveLine, click HERE.