So what exactly were some of the highlights of Richard’s visit?

• Meeting with many different supporting groups around the country
• Developing new relationships with new groups and individual supporters
• Media interviews including television, radio and the press
• Various meetings with Trusts and Charities, eg Comic Relief, concerning future funding
• Planning for the future involvement of an LNI team visit to Freetown
• Strengthening and encouraging the UK-based LNI churches
• Visiting two secondary schools, taking part in assemblies and class group activities, to talk about the Nehemiah Project and the Community School.

What else has been happening in the meantime, you ask?

• Containers
  Two containers have been shipped out to Freetown this month, each loaded with essential goods ranging from clothing and medical equipment, to sewing machines and tools for gardening and carpentry, to bicycles, boxes of books, auto spares, lubricating oils, generators, and even a motorcycle.
  So many groups and individuals have contributed to these container projects that it would be impossible to thank everybody in this update. But if you were involved please accept the grateful thanks of all the LNI staff and especially all the people in Freetown for your time, effort and generosity.
  We would like to say very special thanks to the two groups of people who actually did the loading and shipping of the containers for us.
  Special thanks go to Roy Palmer who, despite having had an unfortunate accident at the docks, organised one container.
  The second container was packed and shipped for us by a great bunch of people, led by Bob Hiley and Malcolm Silver, at the Book Aid warehouse in south east London. Book Aid is a UK-based Christian charitable organisation which provides books to many countries in the world, by the container load!
• Funding & Help
  • We have been very excited in recent weeks to receive confirmation of two significant grants towards the work in Freetown, from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust and The Equitable Charitable Trust. These grants are in the form of funds for the Nehemiah Project and the day school, the Kuntoloh Community School, for year 2000, with the possibility of continued funding for two more years!
  • Grants have also been received from other bodies, including A J Burton 1956 Charitable Settlement, Matthews Wrightson Charity Trust, Rowan Charitable Trust, The H D H Wills 1965 Charitable Trust, The Manifold Charitable Trust, and The Victor Mishcon Charitable Trust. We are all very grateful to the Trustees of each of these charities for their support of the work in Freetown.
  • A small group of Sierra Leoneans based in the Nottingham area also gave Richard Cole a very generous gift, money that they had raised by holding a dinner dance.
  • Children, parents and staff at the Mary Swanwick Primary School, ably led by teacher Jane Bentley, organised a project to collect things like clothing, medical supplies, food, books, etc, to be used for children in Freetown. This all went out in one of the November containers.
  • Many people from the Shrewsbury area were involved in donating or collecting goods for the containers. In particular we want to acknowledge the efforts of Mike Pate in organising it all, and especially thank Mr A W Morris of Morris Lubricants Ltd for the engine oils and lubricants, Mr Bill Smith of Church Road Garage for the Land Rover spares, and Alan Dart for the gift of the motorcycle.
  • The leadership and members of the Ilford Elim Church, Essex, who have been and still are working on projects in support of the work, in particular computers for the school as well as relief aid for the containers.

Now the latest news from the man on the ground in Freetown:

• Richard is very excited at the way the work has continued to progress in his absence in the capable charge of George Buanne, Kai Sam and the others leaders.
• The Nehemiah Project is going from strength to strength as the children continue to develop and become increasingly accepted within the surrounding community.
• The Kuntoloh Community School now has over 500 children attending and is thriving.
• Good support for the work is being demonstrated by the Sierra Leone government’s Ministry of Social Welfare which has now resulted in the provision of an extra building, from the Approved School very close to the Nehemiah Project, which can be used for additional sleeping quarters. Interestingly, in 1996 LNI gave a gift to the Approved School for beds to make life a little more comfortable for the children held there - it’s that building which has now been handed over to us!
• In our July update we wrote about two children under Richard’s care, Ibrahim and Adama, whose father was a rebel leader and had sought to kill Richard on more than one occasion. We heard this week that the same man has come to Richard and publicly sought his forgiveness, and even wants to be part of his church. As Richard has said so many times, demonstrating forgiveness even when it is hard is the only way to see change in Sierra Leone. Richard chose to reach out to Ibrahim and Adama despite the threat of danger to himself, and now their father has changed!

Finally, hot off the press.....
At the LNI office we received a call from the publisher Hodder & Stoughton to say that they had seen articles and other information about Richard Cole and the work of the Nehemiah Project, and were keen to look into the possibility of publishing a book about the story behind it all. This is an exciting development because two women from LifeLine Community Church, London, had already expressed a desire to write Richard’s story. Hodder & Stoughton now want to meet them to discuss a joint project!!

LifeLine Network International, LifeLine House, Neville Road, DAGENHAM RM8 3QS
Tel: 0181-597 2900; Fax: 0181 597 1990
email: avril@lifelinenetwork.org; web site: www.thenehemiahproject.org