EMMANUEL

Ann Seliskar, an SMA Lay Missionary, was ministering at the Ganta Leprosy and TB Rehabilitation Center and also teaching social work classes at Mother Patern College of Health Sciences, Monrovia. She specialized in pastoral duties, health awarenesses, and counseling in addition to working with the local parish in Ganta, Liberia.

She shared with us this Emmanuel story…
Emmanuel is a seventh grade student and a recipient of a De Brésillac Project Scholarship for Education in Liberia, Nimba County. Suffering from tuberculosis, he stayed at the Ganta Leprosy and TB Rehabilitation Center (more known as the Rehab Center), near the border of the country, Guinea for three months.

As an SMA Lay Missionary ministering at the Rehab Center, Emmanuel, a bright eyed and quiet 15 year old boy, shared his story with me. Orphaned during the fourteen years of civil unrest in Liberia, he had been passed from one relative to another. Before his illness he had lived with a friend in Ganta who could not help him to pay his school fees so he sadly dropped out of school. I was delighted to interview him for a scholarship as returning to school was his most important goal. So, after he recovered from TB, Emmanuel left the Rehab and rented a room in Ganta where he was going to school on the scholarship and yet struggling to survive. Expenses included a school uniform and shoes provided by the scholarship, and a mattress, rent, and a backpack which I helped him with. He was on his own for food.

Wanting to start his own small business so that he did not have to be constantly begging for money in order to eat, he asked me for help. Realizing he was serious about wanting to work, I provided some small money. He bought the necessary polishes, removers, files and a small handmade woven basket. Emmanuel soon began a small entrepreneurship of manicuring and pedicuring that he really enjoyed. He continued to stop by after school to say “hi.”

After my summer visit home to the States to visit family and friends, I returned to Ganta and met with the Scholarship recipients gladly reassuring them that their scholarships would continue. Also I informed them of my new assignment to teach at Mother Patern College, in Monrovia. They were sad to see me go, but understood.

Emmanuel (right) and his friend.

A student soon revealed to me that Emmanuel had allegedly been shot and killed as he crossed a bridge to Guinea to expand his manicuring business. I was moved to tears. Eventually, news came that Emmanuel was alive but in prison for at least nine months. My informant, Freeman, traveled alone to Guinea and discovered that police had arrested Emmanuel, who as a stranger, was thought to be a thief. Bringing food to Emmanuel, Freeman, the brave young student, could not pass the food without the guard receiving “compensation” for the favor. Since Freeman had no money, he could not get the food into Emmanuel, but at least he knew for sure that he was imprisoned there. He pleaded for him to be released and told the guards that Emmanuel had no family to come bail him out.

Emmanuel soon was freed and no charge was ever brought against him because he had done nothing wrong. Freeman then contacted me. When the semester ended he promised to find Emmanuel for me, knowing that Emmanuel was somewhere in Sannequille.

In Sanniquellie on May 22, 2009 about sixty scholarship students joined Fr Don Phiri, SMA assistant parish priest at St Mary’s and me for a picnic and prayer. I gave them a presentation “How Much God Loves Us,” and looking out the window I caught sight of Emmanuel standing at a distance with the biggest smile I had ever seen. Tearfully, I praised God that Emmanuel was alive and well. Of course, I welcomed him and asked him to explain what had happened. Telling his story to me, I realized that Emmanuel was a victim of injustice being a stranger in a foreign land. Thankfully, although extremely hungry for those nine months, he was never beaten or abused while in prison.

When he returned to Ganta, sadly he discovered that all his possessions had been stolen and his friends shunned him, thinking he was cursed or a ghost. They had apparently been told that he was dead. So he left Ganta for Sanniquellie where he has a grandmother and older brother to welcome him home.

After the picnic celebration, through the scholarship fund, all the necessary school supplies were replenished and his high school tuition paid. Emmanuel was overjoyed and so grateful.

The latest report is that Emmanuel just had an emergency appendectomy on July 29th in Monrovia where he was visiting his twin brother for the first time since they were separated in the war. Some assistance was given so that he could have the operation at JFK hospital there. Please pray for his speedy recovery and that only good will follow him from now on in his life.
When he gets out of the hospital he informed me that he will live with his grandmother on the outskirts of Sannequillie and attend church service regularly at St Mary’s Parish. Emmanuel is a true witness of God’s goodness and the power of prayer. We thank the Stacy Foundation for their generous grant for scholarships in Ganta and Sannequillie that is currently helping 120 students. The De Brésillac Scholarship recipients certainly need our ongoing prayers and support as life in Liberia is not easy.

May God bless you for all you do to encourage them.