Connection is our heartbeat

In the early 19th century, Liberia loomed large in America’s fiercest debates over slavery, race, colonization, and the relocation of free Black people and African recaptives. Though physically small, it carried enormous ideological weight. On the shores of Monrovia, a “miniature America” emerged with schools, churches, and a growing Americo-Liberian elite.

But this story begins beyond the coast. In 1860, radical Lutheran minister Rev. Morris Officer looked past the settler elite and into Liberia’s dense interior, reaching indigenous tribes largely excluded from the American vision of Liberia. By establishing mission stations like Muhlenberg, Officer shifted the focus toward Liberia’s interior and indigenous population, changing the trajectory of missionary history.

Stories have the power to connect generations in ways that facts and dates alone cannot. Many of the people who carry firsthand memories of the relationships between missionaries, churches, families, and communities in Liberia are growing older. There is an urgency to listen to them, preserve their voices, and allow them to tell their stories in their own words.

A documentary allows us not simply to record history, but to encounter the people who lived it—their faces, voices, memories, sacrifices, joys, and faith. We hope the documentary becomes both a historical record and a living testimony that inspires another generation to ask what faithful service might look like in their own time.

The immediate need is to help gather, preserve, and share these stories while we still can. That includes identifying people with stories to tell, locating photographs and historical materials, conducting interviews, supporting documentary production, developing relationships in Liberia and abroad, and building the financial foundation necessary to sustain the work.

But the deeper need is participation. This Village Now is ultimately about people. We need individuals, congregations, families, historians, former missionaries, Liberians at home and throughout the diaspora, and friends of Liberia who believe these stories are worth preserving and these relationships are worth strengthening.

There are many ways to participate. You can share a story, photograph, document, or historical connection. You can help us identify people whose stories should be recorded. You can introduce This Village Now to a congregation, organization, school, or community that may have a connection to Liberia. You can pray for the project, volunteer your skills, help build relationships, or provide financial support.

Most importantly, you can become part of the bridge.

The Christian story has always depended upon people willing to say yes before they could see the entire outcome. Someone else’s yes helped make our family’s story possible. We believe the yes we offer today can create possibilities for people we may never meet and generations we may never see.

Absolutely.

While Lutheran history and relationships are an important part of the story that gave birth to This Village Now, the vision is larger than any single denomination. This is a story about faith, courage, service, history, human relationships, and what becomes possible when people cross boundaries to serve one another.

We welcome people from other Christian traditions, people with connections to Liberia, historians, educators, storytellers, community organizations, and anyone who believes that these stories deserve to be remembered and that meaningful relationships across cultures and generations are worth building.

‍You do not have to be Lutheran to help build a bridge.