An Era Passes in Liberia

This week I received the news of the passing of James W. Morgan in Buchanan, Liberia. James was one of the founding members of our mission to Liberia when Greta and I first went there in 1971. He was a co-founder of Liberia Christian High School, The Christian Education Foundation of Liberia and later one of the main leaders of the Christian Churches of Liberia. He came to the States in the late 1970s to study at Milligan College in Tennessee and returned to Liberia to continue his life work. He was one of the founders of the Liberia Evangelistic mission and has led in the start of several new churches as well as continued to work in Christian Education at many levels. During the Liberian civil war he became a target for attack and persecution by a group of rebels. He was held prisoner for some time and made to work as a slave on a rebel controlled farm. By God's grace he was set free and spent several months as a refugee in Ivory Coast.
James was also a member of the board of the Christian Leadership Training Institute, headquartered in Accra, Ghana. The Institute has Christian leadership training classes currently running in Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria. James was one of the Liberia representatives on the board. The picture above was taken in Accra, Ghana during an Institute meeting in 2005. It is the last time I saw him in person. James is standing between two of his daughters who were living in Ghana at the time. Danny Buegar is next to me and Freeman Wesseh on the right.
James was a true pioneer and faithful preacher of the gospel, but his heart was in teaching. He taught English and Math in Liberia Christian High School for almost 40 years. Before coming to Buchanan, he had been the principal of the school in his home village of Zondo, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. He liked to say, "I am a numbers man." But that was not totally true. He was a man of The Book. He loved to preach, and he had preached in the Buchanan Christian Church Sunday morning the day before he died suddenly on Monday, March 3, 2008. James did not know his true birthday or exactly how old he was. He told me that he had taken the day of his baptism into Christ as his birth date. From what I remember of what he told me, I believe he was about 75 years old.
James was also a good friend and a wise adviser for Greta and me as we worked in Liberia as young, green missionaries. We have lost a good friend and the people of Liberia have lost a great Christian leader. The following verse comes to mind, and for Liberia it is certainly true.
"Do you not realize that a prince and a great man has fallen in Israel this day?" 2 Samuel 3:38