Francis and Isaac go to Africa

Rev. Francis Miller and Isaac Monah flew to Accra, Ghana yesterday on their way to Liberia to advance the Dougbe River Presbyterian School project.

While in Liberia, Francis and Isaac will meet with government officials in both the nation’s capital, Monrovia, and the capital of Grand Gedeh County, Zwedru.  Then they’ll travel to the future site of the school in Sayuo, where they will arrange for a survey of the land donated for the project and begin to clear the land.

You can follow the trip by reading the blog Francis is writing on Cleveland.com.  Find it, along with a Plain Dealer article about the trip,  here:

Dougbe River project is finding partners

Our junior sales associates at Noble Elementary School, just down the street from the church, have raised $1,385 to pay for doors at Dougbe River Presbyterian School.  And that’s just one of the partnerships we’ve made this year as we continue to build momentum toward our mission of building a school in rural Liberia.

The project’s general board is being expanded by two members to add representatives from Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Holmes County, Ohio and Parma-South Presbyterian Church in Parma Heights, Ohio.  Other churches that have contributed to the project are Glenville New Life Community Church in Cleveland, the Church of the Western Reserve in Pepper Pike, Ohio and Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Moscow, Idaho.

You can read much more about the project by clicking on the Dougbe River tab at the top of the page.

Isaac’s report on his trip to Europe

Friends:

Isaac Monah recently went to Switzerland and Germany to make presentations on the Dougbe River Presbyterian School project (see tab above).  The day after his return, he and John Luttermoser went to Holmes County, Ohio and made a presentation to the congregation of Hopewell Presbyterian Church, which will be a partner in the project.

Here is Isaac’s report:

I left Cleveland on April 8 and went to Switzerland to do some networking, through the invitation of my friend Dr. Redouan Bshary.

In Bern, Switzerland, I spoke with a lot of people and did a presentation. They were happy with the news and willing to be partners in the near future, when the school is built. But also, there were questions that were raised. They wondered if donations to the Dougbe River project could be claimed as tax deductions in Europe, as they can be here in the States. I told them that Noble Road Presbyterian Church’s session and the Dougbe River general board will decide and I will get back to them.

I was in Bern for four days and then I traveled to Munich, Germany, where my friend’s parents live. I also talked to some people there and went to church there. The people I met there also said they want the school to be built first, before they can help. I spent four days in Munich – it’s a nice city – then we came back to Bern on a six-hour train ride through some nice parts of Switzerland and Germany.

Thanks, Isaac

Isaac’s trip to Liberia

Isaac Monah recently returned from a trip to Liberia, where he continued work on the Dougbe River Presbyterian School project.  Isaac met with local leaders in the town of Sayuo, where the school will be built, and in eight neighboring towns.  He also talked with representatives of German Agro Action, a development program in southeast Liberia that has provided wood for an elementary school in the region and might also be a resource for us.  And he met with Prof. Bassirou Bonfoh of the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Cote d’Ivoire, who offered to help us with the establishment of the farm that is a key part of our long-term financial plan.

A Bird’s Eye View of Noble Road Church

Thanks for checking out Noble Road Church! You’ve actually come looking at us during an exciting time in the life of the congregation. After several years of visioning and searching for the best ways to engage in ministry, we’ve come to an important realization: there are no “best ways;” there is only being who we are in community as we seek to follow the love ethic of Jesus Christ.

During the year, if you were a bird flying after the people who make up this church community, you would be amazed. You would find people volunteering with a homeless advocacy program in the City of Cleveland. You will find some of our folks tutoring inside the local elementary school. At certain times of the year you can hear us scribbling on paper as we write to our local representatives imploring them to act for justice; you will travel with our young people as they sit at the feet of Nobel Peace laureates; you could visit our church facility during the week and listen to the voices of adults from across many nations of the world learning to speak English, and at the same time watch preschoolers putting together the letters that spell their names. On Sunday mornings you would hear the gospel of Jesus proclaimed in song, prayer, preaching, and fellowship.

Life in the Noble Road Church community is vibrant and fluid. Our location in a progressive, first-ring suburb of a major city encourages us to be involved. Indeed, when we are at our best, we find our direction in the words of the prophet Micah who proclaimed:

God has shown shown you what is good, and what does the Lord require of you: but to do justice, and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

–Hebrew Scriptures, Micah 6:8

If you are looking for a church community that reflects these values then we would for you to contact us. Let us know so that we can join you in whatever God is leading you to be doing, wherever that may be.

In peace,

Pastor Francis