Some Garrettsville area residents may remember in May of 2015-2018 a used clothing drive throughout town focused on donating childrens’ summer clothing and shoes for an orphanage in Liberia. There were clothing collection containers set up at various locations in town including the Huntington Bank, Faith Evangelical Free Church, E&H Ace Hardware, and St. Ambrose Church. A local group called Friends of Liberia sponsored the clothing drive and worked over a period of a few years to collect enough clothing and shoes to fill a 20 ft. shipping container. The clothing was stored at Garrettsville Mini-Storage, which kindly allowed the group to store the clothing at a discounted rate for the cause. Much of what was collected was from our community, but there were others who read the article placed in The Villager about the clothing drive, including a group of ladies who worked together in Aurora and donated brand-new infant clothing.
Next, Friends of Liberia contacted and partnered with the congregation at The Fountain Church in Garrettsville, who through their Missions giving and contributions raised a large portion of the money needed to ship the container to Africa. The Fountain Church and staff also agreed to sponsor various fundraising activities to help raise funds – including a yard sale during the Garrettsville Community Yard Sale that sold items donated by the congregation. Another organization out of our area caught wind of the project, a ministry called King of Glory in New York State, and they graciously donated funds to help the project get off the ground. In addition to the collected clothing, congregants from The Fountain also donated craft and schoolroom supplies, gym and exercise equipment along with musical instruments for the children at the Phebe Grey Orphanage.
On Wednesday, September 25, 2019, the 20 ft. container with the donated childrens’ clothing and goods was transported by tractor trailer to the shipping port in Cleveland, Ohio and a few days later, began its journey across the Atlantic Ocean by vessel to the port in Monrovia, Liberia, Africa. It took over a month on the water, as the cargo ship stopped at many ports throughout Europe before arriving in Africa.
The container was then docked and inspected. This took time as duty fees were assessed and added to the importation fees. Church of God Orphanage missionaries Maxwell and Debra Thompson and Church of God officials worked tirelessly with the port and local officials to provide the necessary paperwork and documents to secure the contents, which took more time. The present economic situation in the nation of Liberia and a government employee wage dispute created difficulties because some Liberian government offices were closed and the orphanage was not able to obtain the usual, non-profit permit for the port officials in a timely manner.
Finally, on December 4th, 2019, the contents of the shipping container were delivered to the Phebe Gray Orphanage in Liberia. It was a very happy day for Friends of Liberia, the orphanage missionaries as well as orphanage employees who worked hard to unload the container and to sort its contents! A project that had started with one man’s heart for the children of Liberia who had lost their parents due to civil war and a 2014 Ebola outbreak, had finally been fulfilled, with the help of many kind and generous people.
Friends of Liberia would specifically wish to thank our community – the congregants and Pastor Mike Grantz of Faith Evangelical Free Church, congregants and Father Stephen Ziegler of St. Ambrose Church, and congregants and Pastor Kevin Crouch of The Fountain Church – without them, there would have been no clothing and shoes to ship, or donations to send the clothing to Africa! Next, a thank you to Huntington Bank and Garrettsville’s E&H Ace hardware for hosting the boxes in and outside of their businesses to aid in the collection effort! Friends of Liberia would also like to thank the good people of our community who donated clothing in the public boxes, as well as those who contributed so generously at our fundraising location during the Community Yard Sale!
All donated funds were administered online by the Church of God World Missions Headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee and were transferred electronically to the shipping company and the orphanage, as once the shipping company was paid in full, there were port fees, duty fees, and port handling fees which were met directly by the orphanage with donated funds.
Because of all your generosity and giving, a tiny spark grew into a blaze and our community was able to put a smile on the faces of the beautiful children of Phebe Grey Orphanage for Christmas 2019! Thank you, everyone from the bottom of the hearts of the volunteers of Friends of Liberia!
