On Saturday, April 28, Alleghenies Presbytery voted to partner with EPC’s World Outreach Engage 2025 in Sierra Leone, Africa.

Two unreached people groups, led by village chiefs declared, “We live in darkness, you have the light” are in the villages of Fintonia and Gbenekoro, in the remote northern section of the country. Alleghenies Presbytery will form a working group to organize this initiative.

Dean Weaver, pastor of Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, has been regularly visiting Sierra Leone since 2002. In 2004, Dean and his wife Beth adopted two children from Sierra Leone. In 2006, Dean led a group that formed EduNations, a 501c3 organization formed to establish Christian schools in the country, which is 70% Muslim. Today, there are eight schools with 3,000 students. These schools also provide clean water and latrines. Out of these schools, three congregations of believers were formed in 2011. After deciding that the EPC was the church model they wanted to follow, these congregations created the EPC Mission of Sierra Leone. There are now six congregations in the EPC Mission. With EPC World Outreach and Memorial Park Church, they identified the two unreached people groups that are great candidates for an Engage 2025 project.