August 30, 2010

CHICAGO – Dr. Edna E. Johnson wanted one more great adventure in life. After a 28-year career instructing nursing students at the University of Connecticut, 73-year-old Johnson became a volunteer missionary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and moved to Liberia. There she witnessed miracles. "I knew about miracles, but I had never seen a miracle," she said.

"Maybe I'm a person of little faith," Johnson told the ELCA News Service. "But if you had seen the hospital when I first saw it and what it is today, you would say it is a miracle, too."

Curran Lutheran Hospital, where Johnson serves as nursing program developer, was destroyed during Liberia's 14-year civil war that ended in 2003.

Every day that went by without medical services represented loss of life.

"When I first saw the hospital there was no roof. It was just walls and all of the electrical wires had been taken out. There were trees growing up in parts. It was in ruins," said Johnson, who arrived in Liberia in 2004.

Curran is located in Zorzor, a town in Liberia's Lofa County. Zorzor means "loud noise," said Johnson. Although areas of Zorzor still look war-torn, Johnson said it is a beautiful area. She said Liberia, located in western Africa, is the about the size of Tennessee.

During her first few years of service, Johnson lived in a home with no running water and little electricity. "I have running water now and enough electrical power to get things done."

The same is true for Curran. "It has water, light 24 hours a day, a physician and staff of 100 people serving somewhere between 90,000 and 100,000 people a year," said Johnson.

"I have been a witness to the rebuilding of a hospital and the rebuilding of a country. To me that is a miracle," she said.

After Curran's reconstruction, the Esther Bacon School of Nursing and Midwifery was reopened.

In April 2010 more than 30 students graduated from Curran's nursing program and passed the national examination to become certified midwives. "That is a miracle to me, too" she said. With qualified nurses and a new maternity ward, Johnson hopes Curran Lutheran Hospital will impact Liberia's high infant mortality rate.

"Nurses are the backbones of medical care," according to the Rev. John S. Lunn, an ELCA pastor and nurse working at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. Lunn spends a quarter of his time serving as a health care specialist in Liberia.

"Liberia has one of the worst doctor-patient ratios in the world. There is one doctor for every 50,000 people. In the United States there's one doctor for every 350 patients," said Lunn. With the shortage of physicians in Liberia, "so much responsibility falls on nurses," he said.

To ensure nurses are well trained, Lunn and Johnson have teamed up to start a master's degree program in nursing education in Liberia. They hope that the program will help produce "good nurses and good midwives," said Johnson. She developed the curriculum; Lunn recruited nursing professors from the United States to serve as faculty.

"Education makes a difference," said Lunn. "If you have an educated nursing instructor, then you are going to have educated nursing students who will provide better nursing care."

"We think Liberians deserve good health care. Nurses are with people 24 hours a day. No other health care professional is with people that long," said Johnson.

There are 17 students starting the program in September. "We are setting high standards but will offer help. We want the students to succeed," said Johnson, who has vowed to remain in Liberia for as long as she is healthy and invited by the Lutheran Church in Liberia to work there.

"I had the opportunity to witness Edna Johnson's ministry in person," said the Rev. Twila K. Schock, ELCA director for global mission support. "Working in very Spartan circumstances, with very little infrastructure, Edna is a part of an important healing ministry which equips the Liberian church hospitals for their important ministry, as well as restoring dignity and health for patients."

"Supporting ELCA missionaries through the ELCA Missionary Sponsorship Program helps to ensure that these healing ministries – along with church building, evangelism, education and sustainable development in nearly 50 countries – can continue," said Schock.

Lutheran Church in Liberia

U.S. Lutheran missionaries were the first to help build a hospital in Liberia. That hospital – Phebe – opened in 1921. Curran Lutheran was built less than a decade later. Both Phebe Hospital and Curran Lutheran Hospital are hospitals of the Lutheran Church in Liberia (LCL). The LCL and ELCA are members of The Lutheran World Federation, Geneva.

In spite of being attacked and looted during Liberia's recent civil war, Phebe continued to offer medical services. Curran's building was destroyed twice, but it continued as a mobile clinic.

In addition to its health care ministries, it is estimated that about 90 percent of the LCL's congregations were affected by the civil war. In an effort to rebuild, the LCL has developed a strategic plan that analyzes the church's work in the post-war period and beyond. The plan is designed to rebuild LCL institutions and revitalize ministries for its members and all of Liberia.

2010 marks the LCL's 150th anniversary. Lutherans from around the world attended an anniversary celebration April 23-28. A highlight of the celebration included the attendance of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of the Republic of Liberia. Her presence served as a testimony to the impact of the LCL's ministries in Liberia, according to the Rev. Viking Dietrich, an ELCA pastor and regional representative for West Africa.

The ELCA Upper Susquehanna Synod was honored at the celebration for its participation in rebuilding the LCL, particularly Curran Lutheran Hospital and Day Memorial Lutheran Church in Millsburg, Liberia.

"We in the ELCA cannot imagine our life, our story, without that of the Lutheran Church in Liberia. Our ties are deep. Our commitment to one another is that profound," the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, wrote in a letter to the LCL in honor of the anniversary.

Hanson expressed gratitude for the many ways that the ELCA and LCL "work together for the sake of the gospel" through the exchange of mission personnel, a mutual sharing of resources and "a visioning together for mission" for the present and future.

The Lutheran Church in Liberia has more than 71,000 members in 46 parishes with over 385 congregations and 330 preaching points in 12 of the 15 subdivisions of Liberia.

Information about the Lutheran Church in Liberia is available at http://www.ELCA.org/Liberia/, on the ELCA's website.

ELCA News Service