Liberia: A Nation in Need of Christ

Liberia is a nation of approximately 5.7 million people, with a history marked by war, disease, poverty, and tremendous human suffering. From 1989 until 2003, two civil wars devastated the country. An estimated 250,000 people were killed, representing roughly 8 percent of Liberia’s population at the time. Hundreds of thousands more were displaced from their homes, families were separated, children were recruited into armed groups, and communities were destroyed. Schools, hospitals, roads, electrical systems, and water infrastructure were damaged or abandoned. More than two decades have passed since the war ended, but Liberia is still rebuilding from its effects.

The physical needs are impossible to ignore. Poverty remains widespread, access to dependable electricity and healthcare is limited, preventable diseases continue to take lives, and many families struggle to provide basic necessities for their children. Yet these conditions point us toward an even greater reality. Liberia does not simply need better infrastructure, more money, or additional humanitarian organizations. Like every nation and every person, Liberia’s greatest need is Jesus Christ.

The Orphan Crisis

The number of orphaned and vulnerable children in Liberia is staggering. Depending upon the definition and year used, estimates have placed the number of children who have lost one or both parents in the hundreds of thousands. Earlier international estimates placed Liberia’s orphan population at approximately 250,000 children, meaning roughly a quarter of a million children had lost at least one parent. It is important to understand that the word orphan in international statistics frequently includes children who have lost one parent, not only children who have lost both parents.

The civil wars were a major cause of this crisis. Thousands of children lost parents during years of fighting, while others became separated from their families as communities fled violence. The end of the war did not end the problem. Malaria, HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, extreme poverty, and other diseases continued taking parents and caregivers. Then, in 2014, Ebola struck Liberia. The epidemic killed nearly 5,000 Liberians, leaving thousands more children without one or both parents or primary caregivers.

Not every vulnerable Liberian child lives in an orphanage. In fact, many live with grandparents, extended family members, neighbors, or struggling single parents. This can place enormous pressure on households already living in poverty. A grandmother who can barely provide for herself may suddenly become responsible for several grandchildren. Families may have to choose which children they can afford to send to school. Children may work instead of attending school simply so the household can eat.

This is why the orphan crisis is about much more than constructing orphanages. These children need stable families and caregivers whenever possible. They need food, clothing, education, healthcare, protection, and opportunities for the future. Most importantly, they need to know that they were created by God, that their lives have value, and that there is hope in Jesus Christ.

Poverty and Hunger

Poverty touches nearly every other problem in Liberia. More than half of the population lives below the national poverty line, and conditions can be especially difficult in rural communities. Poverty affects whether a family eats, whether a child attends school, whether a sick person receives medical treatment, and whether a family has access to safe housing, transportation, sanitation, and clean water.

For a child, poverty can determine the direction of an entire life. A family that cannot afford school expenses may keep a child home. A teenager may begin working instead of continuing an education. A sick child may go untreated because the family cannot afford medicine or transportation to a clinic. Poverty also increases children’s vulnerability to exploitation, child labor, trafficking, abuse, and other dangers.

Christians should be deeply concerned about poverty because Scripture repeatedly commands us to care for the poor. But we must never confuse improving someone’s earthly circumstances with saving their soul. A person can escape poverty and still enter eternity without Christ. Our responsibility is to demonstrate the love of Christ while faithfully proclaiming the Gospel of Christ.

Clean Water and Sanitation

Liberia receives tremendous rainfall and contains abundant rivers and groundwater, yet safe drinking water remains unavailable to many families. Approximately one in four Liberians lacks access to basic drinking water services, and adequate sanitation is an even greater challenge. In some communities, families depend upon wells, pumps, streams, rivers, and other sources that can become contaminated. Poor sanitation increases the risk of contamination and the spread of disease.

The consequences are especially dangerous for children. Contaminated water and inadequate sanitation contribute to diarrheal illnesses, cholera, typhoid, parasites, and other preventable diseases. Something as simple as a protected well, functioning pump, toilet, or handwashing station can dramatically improve the health of an entire community.

True Faith Missions should care about clean water because Christ commands us to love our neighbors. Yet clean water also provides a powerful picture of the Gospel. Jesus said in John 4:14, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” We want people to have safe water to drink, but ultimately we want them to know the One who gives Living Water and everlasting life.

Disease and Healthcare

Disease remains a tremendous burden in Liberia. Malaria is one of the country’s most persistent health threats, particularly for young children and pregnant women. Liberia also faces tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, malnutrition, and other conditions that are preventable or treatable when adequate medical care is available.

The Ebola epidemic demonstrated how devastating disease can become when a healthcare system is already under tremendous pressure. Liberia recorded more than 10,000 Ebola cases and nearly 5,000 deaths during the 2014 through 2016 epidemic. The effects went beyond those who contracted Ebola. Healthcare workers died, clinics were overwhelmed, families lost providers, and children lost parents and caregivers.

Christ demonstrated tremendous compassion toward the sick, and His followers should do the same. We should provide medicine, food, clean water, and medical assistance whenever God gives us the opportunity. But physical healing is temporary. Even the healthiest person will eventually face death. The greatest healing is the salvation of a soul through Jesus Christ.

The Deaf

Liberia’s Deaf and hard of hearing population represents another largely overlooked mission field. The 2022 national census found that approximately 4 percent of Liberians reported some degree of difficulty hearing. This does not mean that every person within that percentage is completely Deaf or uses sign language, but it demonstrates that hearing impairment affects a significant portion of the population.

For a Deaf child living in poverty, the barriers can be tremendous. Access to specialized education, trained teachers, interpreters, assistive technology, healthcare, and employment opportunities can be limited. In some communities, a Deaf child may grow up with very little formal language or education. Those barriers also enter the church. A Deaf person can sit inside a church building while preaching takes place and still never understand what is being said.

This creates an enormous responsibility and opportunity for Christian missions. The Deaf do not simply need charity. They need dignity, education, communication, fellowship, discipleship, and the Gospel presented in a language they can understand. Our desire should be to see Deaf Liberians come to Christ, learn the Word of God, become disciples, and eventually become missionaries to their own communities. The Deaf need Christ, and they deserve the opportunity to know Him.

People Affected by Leprosy

Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, has not disappeared from Liberia. Liberia reported 63 new cases in 2024, and others continue to live with disabilities and physical damage caused by previous infections. Modern medicine can cure the infection, but treatment cannot always reverse nerve damage and disability that occurred before diagnosis.

The social consequences can be equally devastating. Fear and misunderstanding surrounding leprosy have historically resulted in people being rejected, isolated, or treated as though they were untouchable. For someone already living in poverty, disability and social rejection can make obtaining employment, housing, food, healthcare, and community support even more difficult.

The example of Jesus could not be clearer. Mark 1:41 tells us that Jesus, “moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him.” Christ went toward the person others avoided. He touched the person others considered untouchable. That must be the heart of Christian missions. There are no untouchable people at the foot of the Cross. People affected by leprosy need healthcare and dignity, but above everything else, they need Jesus Christ.

The Forgotten

The orphan, the Deaf child, the widow, the person affected by leprosy, the person living with a physical or intellectual disability, the family drinking unsafe water, and the child going to bed hungry can easily become statistics on a page. But God does not see statistics. He sees people. Liberia’s 2022 census found that approximately 8.7 percent of people age five and older reported at least some functional difficulty, while approximately 2.7 percent experienced severe difficulty or an inability to perform an activity in at least one measured area.

Every percentage represents someone’s son or daughter. Every number represents a person with a name, a story, and an eternal soul. These are people created in the image of God, and Christ died for them.

The Greatest Need

The needs in Liberia can seem overwhelming. There are potentially hundreds of thousands of children who have lost at least one parent, millions living with the effects of poverty, communities without adequate sanitation, families without dependable clean water, children threatened by malaria and malnutrition, Deaf people facing communication barriers, and marginalized people who can spend their lives largely unseen by the rest of society.

True Faith Missions wants to respond to those needs. We want to feed hungry children, care for orphans and vulnerable children, educate students, help provide clean water, minister to the sick, reach the Deaf, and embrace people whom society has rejected. These are not distractions from the Gospel. When done in obedience to Christ, they are expressions of His love and opportunities to carry His Gospel into places of tremendous need.

But we must never forget why we are there. If we provide a child with food but never tell that child about Christ, we have met a temporary need while neglecting an eternal one. If we provide clean water but never introduce people to the Living Water, we have only satisfied their thirst for a little while. If we educate a child but never teach that child about the Savior, education alone cannot save them. If we care for the sick but never proclaim the One who conquered death, we have stopped short of our greatest calling.

Jesus asked in Mark 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

That is why True Faith Missions is in Liberia. We are not there simply to make people’s earthly lives better. We are there because we believe the Gospel is true. We believe Jesus Christ died for sinners, was buried, rose again, and is the only hope of salvation. We believe the Great Commission still applies to the Church, and we believe the people of Liberia deserve to hear the Gospel clearly.

Our prayer is not to make Liberia dependent upon Americans. Our prayer is to see Liberians reaching Liberia. We want to train pastors who will preach the Word of God, raise up teachers who will disciple children, equip Deaf believers who can reach the Deaf, strengthen churches that will care for their own communities, and prepare men and women who will carry the Gospel into villages and communities we may never personally enter.

Liberia needs clean water. Liberia needs schools. Liberia needs healthcare. Liberia needs safe homes for vulnerable children. Liberia needs people willing to reach the forgotten.

But above all else, Liberia needs Jesus Christ.

That is why we go.